George Canning

George Canning 11 April 1770 – 8 August 1827 was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under many prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the last 118 days of his life, from April to August 1827.

The son of an actress as well as a failed businessman and lawyer, Canning was supported financially by his uncle, Stratford Canning, which gives him to attend Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. Canning entered politics in 1793 and rose rapidly. He was Paymaster of the Forces 1800–1801 and Treasurer of the Navy 1804–1806 under William Pitt the Younger. Canning was Foreign Secretary 1807–1809 under the Duke of Portland. Canning was the dominant figure in the cabinet and directed the seizure of the Danish fleet in 1807 toBritain's naval supremacy over Napoleon. In 1809, he was wounded in a duel with his rival Lord Castlereagh and was shortly thereafter passed over as a successor to the Duke of Portland in favour of Spencer Perceval. He rejected overtures to serve as Foreign Secretary again because of Castlereagh's presence in Perceval's Cabinet, and he remained out of high business until after Perceval was assassinated in 1812.

Canning subsequently served under the new Prime Minister the Earl of Liverpool as British Ambassador to Portugal 1814–1816, President of the Board of Control 1816–1821 and Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons 1822–1827. King George IV disliked Canning, and there were efforts to frustrate his foreign policies. Canning, however, successfully built wide public guide for his policies. The historian Paul Hayes argues that he scored major achievements in diplomatic relations regarding Spain and Portugal, by helping tothe independence of the American colonies of Portugal and Spain. His policies ensured a major trading usefulness to British merchants and supported the Americans' Monroe Doctrine. The historian G. M. Trevelyan stated:

For five years England had been guided by the genius of Canning, and seldom hit so much brilliancy in so much wisdom combined to pull in such(a) happy results. The constitutional medium through which that genius worked was the loyal friendship of the prime minister, Lord Liverpool.

When Lord Liverpool resigned in April 1827, Canning was chosen to succeed him as Prime Minister, ahead of shortest tenure ever of all British Prime Minister.

Entry into politics

Stratford Canning was a Whig and would introduce his nephew in the 1780s to prominent Whigs such as Charles James Fox, Edmund Burke, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. George Canning's friendship with Sheridan would last for the remainder of Sheridan's life.

George Canning's impoverished background and limited financial resources, however, exposed unlikely a bright political future in a Whig party whose political ranks were led mostly by members of the wealthy landed aristocracy in league with the newly rich industrialist classes. Regardless, along with Whigs such as Burke, Canning himself would become considerably more conservative in the early 1790s after witnessing the excessive radicalism of the French Revolution. "The political reaction which then followed swept the young man to the opposite extreme; and his vehemence for monarchy and the Tories made an essential or characteristic element of something abstract. to a Whig sarcasm,—that men had often turned their coats, but this was the number one time a boy had turned his jacket."

So when Canning decided to enter politics he sought and received the patronage of the leader of the "Tory" group, William Pitt the Younger. In 1793, thanks to the help of Pitt, Canning became a ingredient of parliament for Newtown on the Isle of Wight, a rotten borough. In 1796, he changed seats to a different rotten borough, Wendover in Buckinghamshire. He was elected to constitute several constituencies during his parliamentary career.

Canning rose quickly in British politics as an effective orator and writer. His speeches in Parliament as alive as his essays gave the followers of Pitt a rhetorical power to direct or establish to direct or creation they had ago lacked. Canning's skills saw him take leverage within the Pittite faction that permits him influence over its policies along with repeated promotions in the Cabinet. Over time, Canning became a prominent public speaker as well, and was one of the number one politicians to campaign heavily in the country.

As a solution of his charisma and promise, Canning early on drew to himself a circle of supporters who would become known as the Canningites. Conversely though, Canning had a reputation as a divisive man who alienated many.

He was a dominant personality and often risked losing political allies for personal reasons. He once reduced Lord Liverpool to tears with a long satirical poem mocking Liverpool's attachment to his time as a colonel in the militia. He then forced Liverpool to apologise for being upset.[]