come to have a strong faith,
not only in Canning's capacity, but also in Canning's good fortune.
Whatever may have been his chief inspiration, he certainly had an
opportune season of enlightenment, and he refused to allow Canning to
withdraw from the task assigned to him. Accordingly Canning became
Prime Minister, and united in his own person the offices of First Lord
of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[Sidenote: 1827--Canning and Lord Grey]

Sir John Copley, raised to the peerage under the title of Lord
Lyndhurst, became Lord Chancellor in succession to Lord Eldon, and the
House of Lords thus obtained a member who was destined to be one of its
foremost orators, to maintain a rivalry in Parliamentary debate with
Brougham and the great Tory orator and leader, Lord Derby, and to be
listened to with admiration by men still living, who are proud to
remember that they heard some of his great speeches. It may be
observed that Lord Eldon, whose retirement made way for Lord Lyndhurst,
had been Lord Chancellor for twenty-six years, with the exception of
one year when he was out of office. Huskisson became Treasurer of the
Navy and President of the Board of Trade in the new Administration.
Lord Palmerston was Secretary at War, and Frederick Robinson, now made
Lord Goderich, who was in thorough sympathy with Canning and Huskisson
on questions of financial policy, was Colonial and War Secretary, the
latter office according to the arrangements of that time a position
having quite different functions from those of the Secretary of War.
The arrangements for the new Ministry were completed in April, 1827.
Canning had now reached the highest point of his career. His policy
had already been marked out for him, for England, and for Europe. The
treaty between England, France, and Russia for the protection of
Greece, which became a formal instrument after his accession to the
office of Prime Minister, was the result of the efforts which he had
made before Lord Liverpool's sudden illness {59} led to the break-up of
the Liverpool Administration. Canning had little time left him to turn
his new and great position to account. Fame, as Mr. Hill well says,
was a sucked orange to George Canning when he accepted the office of
Prime Minister.

The difficulties against which the new Ministry had to contend were
many and great. Canning had the support of such Whigs as Brougham in
the House of Commons, but in the House of Lor