The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

VISCOUNT CANNING.

THERE is not at the present moment 'a single
public character so much discussed as Lord
CANNING. Tlks crisis in which the Governor-
General has to act, the immense responsibility
of his situation, the novelty of his position to
a statesman bred up in European politics,
the fears and hopes of his personal friends,
and the general anxiety to see whether he will
enhance or impair the lustre of his hereditary
name, all combine to invest Lord CANNING
with great personal interest. When his Lord-
ship was elevated to his present lofty post,
the appointment was received without opposi-
tion. Some asked in society whether he had
given proofs of the energy and knowledge
necessary for filling his situation. His friends
pointed to his careful training, and to the
good opinion entertained of him by eminent
statesmen. Some shook their heads , others
gave him faint praise, and the crowd were
content to judge by the event.
No positive reason, certainly, was named for
the appointment of Lord CANNING. We treat
as a joke the current anecdote, that when the
Premier was asked why Lord CANNING had
been chosen Governor-General of India, Lord
PALMERSTON answered,—" Aw—aw—well—let
" me see—aw—you know his father—aw—was
" the first who ever gave me—aw—a place in
" the Cabinet—aw—and I could not do less by
" his father's son." If ever said at all, such a
reason must have been given jocosely. Yet it
is within the bounds of possibility that in
choosing the Governor-General Lord PAL..
MERSTON may have thought of his own personal
position; and isolated as he has always kept
himself from " party," the Premier might
have liked to take refuge in the associations
evoked by the name of Canning. We know
why the present Speaker of the House of
Commons was selected. Absit omen.
Whatever were the reasons on which
Viscount CANNING was selected for India,
there can be no doubt that his Lordship has
been carefully nurtured for public life. His
accomplished mother took the most devoted
interest in his early education ; and Sir
ROBERT PEEL, in his short Administration in
1835, offerred to Lady CANNING a Lordship of
the Treasury for her son, who was then only
twenty-three years of age.* "I do not make
" (wrote Sir ROBERT) this offer with a view to

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" political support, but on the impulse of
" those feelings of regard, respect, and admi-
" ration for his father," &c. It was not, how-
ever, until August, 1836, that Lord (then Mr.)
CANNING entered the House of Commons as
Member for Warwick, defeating the brother of
Lord BROUGHTON. In the politics of those
days Lord CANNING did not particularly dis•
tinguish himself. He gave no signs of
original power ; and his speeches, short,
sensible, and quiet in tone, reminded no ono
of his paternal blood. It was understood that
his ambition was to shine in diplomacy. He
was connected by marriage with a diplomatic
family ; he tasked here and there for a long
time in a yacht voyage in the waters of the
Levant, studying the Eastern question in its
political aspects, under the guise of merely
pleasuring in classic waters. He correspond(
with the diplomatists of the Conservative
party, and his kinsman, Lord STRATFORD DE
REDCLIFFE, was of no small use to him.

It is, we cannot avoid remarking, a singular
proof how open the aristocracy of England is
by its constitution, when we consider that
there are now three ennobled families of the
name of Canning. At Eton, nearly eighty
years ago, young JENICINSON (afterwards the
second Earl of Liverpool) had to deliver an
oration in presence of Mr. PITT, then Prime
Minister, and, with great good nature, JENHIN-
soN gave his place to his friend young
CANNING, who first attracted Mr. Pyres notice
on that day. His school expenses were de-
frayed by a relative engaged in commercial
life, and Mr. HOOICHANI FRERE'S affecting epi-
taph truly records that CANNING was
_Horn with an ancient name of little worth,
And disinherited before his birth.

The son of an unfortunate Irish gentleman,
GEOROE CANNING rose to be Prime Minister.
His widow was made a Viscountess ; he raised
one of his Irish cousins to the Peerage (Lord
GARVAGH); another kinsman he advanced in
diplomatic service (Lord STRATFORD DE RED
CLIFFE); and the son of " the landless orphan "
kas described by Mr. HOOKHABI FRERE) is now
Governor-General of India! _ _

That Lord CANNING should prove himself
worthy of his name must be the wish of every
right-thinking man. We observed his early
career with some attention, but we confess to
having for a time lost interest in him, as he
(lid not much distinguish himself. It seemed
an odd thing that one with his renowned
name should become such a mere " Peelite,"
copying the manners and, adopting the tone of
a limited clique. He did not strike out a line
for himself ; ho never showed any marked
individualism ; decorous, regular, conventional,
he seemed bent on uniting the formalism of
Lord ST GERMANS with a slight admixture of
the austere finesse of Lord ABERDEEN.
It is, of course, obvious why the followers of
Sir ROBERT PEEL fondled and even fawned
upon Lord CANNING. None but a novice needs
explanation of the " reason why." When the
Marquis of DALHOUSIE'S time was out. it was
supposed that he would continue the Dal-
housie traditions, and be a supporter of the
system. The East India Directors looked on
Lord CANNING as " a safe man," who would not
set the Ganges on fire, and whom they could
easily manage.
We hope, for ourselves, that Lord CANNING
will remember that he is by law " Governor-
General." At, his farewell dinner, the Noble
Viscount uttered a generous and truly filial
aspiration that he might show that he was
worthy of wearing his hereditary coronet. We
cordially echo that prayer. Some of his ad-
visers have broken down ; but, in such circum-
stances, a man of inherent vigour would rise
with the emergencies, and we sincerely trust
that Lord CANNING will prove a brilliant ex-
ception to the general rule that the sons of
famous men are failures. He is of A nglo-Irish
extraction, and Anglo-Irish names like those
of Sir EYRE COOTE, Lord MACARTNEY, the two
WELLESLEYS, the Marquis of HASTINGS, and
others, shine brilliantly in the eventful annals
of our Indian Empire.

• According to the current number of •' Dud," toe tiovernot.
General was born in 13ol—an absurd error. his worthy of re-
mark that when the House of Commons was voting the pension
for two lives to the holder of the peerage of "Canning," it RIB
proposed, with remarkable foresight, that the life of the second
son (the present Governor• General) should be taken in place of
his elder brother, the Hon. Captain Canning, who was exposed
to risk in the navy. A few years afterwards Captain Canning
wax drowned by accident a Brazil.

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