The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-04-07 00:00:00

EXTRACTS FROM THE LIFE OF GEORGE
CANNING.*

MA. CANNING'S MARRIAGE-MAGNANIMOUS LOVE

On the Bth of July, 1800, Mr. Canning was married to
Miss Joan Scott, daughter and co-heiress to Gen. Scott,
and sister to the Marchioness of Titchfie'd, afterwards
Duchess of Portland. General Scott is said to have been
a man of peculiar hsbits and eccentric character, who
possessed considerable wealth, which he left tied up by
some very singular and stringent conditions. Miss Scott's
fortune was large, and placed Mr. Canning at once in a
position of independence. The union was in every point
of view a source of mutual happiness. The unsullied pu-
rity of Mr. Canning's life, and his love for domestic plea-
sures (for, after his marriage, he seldom ex tended his inter-
course with general society beyond those occasions which
his station rendered unavoidable), were rewarded by as
much virtue and devotion as ever graced the home of an
English statesman. In an antechamber in Mr. Canning's
house there used to hang over the mantel-piece a painting
of two female figures—the Duchess of Portland and her
sister. The duchess, who was many years the elder, is
represented leaning over her sister, and caressing her with
an expression of _affectionate emotion. From the history
attached to the picture, we learn that this attitude was
chosen by the Duchess herself, as a memorial of a some-
what romantic circumstance in the lives of the sisters. It
seems that General Scott made the principal part of his
fortune by play, to which he was passionately addicted,
and which in his time ran high in the fashionable world.
He was remarkable for many personal singularities, odd
tastes and antipathies ; and, amongst the rest, he conceived
an extraordinary aversion to the aristocracy. He carried
this feeling to such an extreme, as to resolve that neither
his family nor his money, if he could prevent them, should
ever be found shining under a coronet ; and in order to
secure this object he inserted a strict condition in his will,
that if either of his daughters should marry a nobleman
her moiety of a sum of £200,000, which he divided be-
tween them, should devolve upon her sister. The Duchess
of Portland was the first to disobey this testamentary in-
junction ; but her sister, refusing to take advantage of the
will, insisted upon an equal division of the legacy. She
saw no reason why, having married a lord for love, the
duchess should not at least be as rich as if she had mar-
ried a commoner upon compulsion. The picture illus-
trates with toughing simplicity this little episode of mag-
nanimous love.

WILBERFORCE AND PITT

Wilberforce was the parliamentary apostle of Abolition.
He worked at it day and night, and prayed for it with his
daily bread. Honour to him for that, in spite of all his
crotchetty little ways and eccentricities I But he was a sad
bore to Pitt, always popping in his fears and misgivings at
the most inopportune moments ; a sort of philanthropic
Paul Pry, perpetually forgetting his umbrella, and hoping
he didn't intrude. Nobody ever had such an inobtrusive
way of obtruding his advice upon every body. No matter
what the question was, or who the person, or how slight
the acquaintance, Wilberforce was sure to find some ex-
cuse for a hint or a warning, with such excellent inten-
tions, that it was impossible to give vent to the vexation
he occasioned. He had no suspicion of the possibility of
doing mischief; but went blundering on with the most
amiable sincerity of purpose, good-naturedly setting all
his friends right, and knocking his head against every
body's business with a simplicity of character upon which
experience was wasted in vain. The dull integrity of
Wilberforce was always for going forward, in and out
of season ; all he looked to was the truth and justice of the
matter, and that, he thought would carry it against all
obstacles ; he had no idea of the low struggle of passions
and interests which renders the cunning use of means even
more essential to success than the purity of the end ; he
never could be brought to understand the value of timing
and economising his efforts ; and, like an unpractised
rower, he expended a hundredfold more strength upon the
oar than, skilfully employed, was necessary to propel the
boat. To Pitt, when he was in office, all this was quite
fearful; for Wilberforce had not the remotest notion of
ministerial machinery, of parliamentary tact, or the ne-
cessity of management, and he used to be struck with
amazement at Pitt's sagacity and cleverness in that way,
which seemed to him like an inspiration. Whenever he
saw any thing wrong, or what he supposed to be wrong,
he could no more help hi xiself from just pointing it out,
than faithful watch-dogs can help their instinct in barking
at footsteps in the night. He would make the most awk-
ward motions out of sheer benevolence and good-hearted-
ness, to the indescribable embarrassment of government
or the total discomfiture of his own friends ; and once was
on the point of making a motion which would have broken
up the administration—a result as far from his intention
as the destruction of the monarchy itself—and was only
prevented by a private entreaty from Pitt. But what was
to be done with this charitable, unwise man—this gentle,
impracticable being ? To opiose him openly was out of
the question, for there was really no gainsaying him on
principle : he was propriety itself carried to a fault; it
would be like opposing one of the decencies of life, al-
though every body must feel how inconvenient it is to have
even the decencies themselves thrust under one's eyes,
and rung in one's ears every hour in the day.