after the
fashion of the day, in which Canning received a wound.

[Sidenote: 1822--Canning and the governorship of India]

The policy of Castlereagh made as strong a contrast with the policy of
Canning as even the contrast which was brought under the notice of every
listener by the Parliamentary speeches of the two men. Canning was
master of a polished eloquence which, at the time, had no rival in either
House of Parliament. Castlereagh was one of the most singular and
striking illustrations of the fact that a man may sometimes become a
power in the House of Commons without the slightest gift of eloquence.
Canning was a master of phrase, tone, and gesture. Castlereagh's
language was commonplace, uncouth, and sometimes even ridiculous, and it
happened only too often that in his anxiety to get his words out he
became positively inarticulate. His policy represented the ideas of the
Holy Alliance in their narrowest and most reactionary meaning; while
Canning, although entirely opposed to the principles of mere revolution,
had an utter contempt for the notion that a conclave of European
sovereigns could lay down limits and laws for the growth and the
government of all the European nationalities. The policy of Castlereagh
has long since ceased to have any believers even among the advisers of
autocratic sovereigns, while the policy of Canning is the recognized
creed of statesmanship all over the civilized world.

Canning resigned his office as Foreign Secretary in 1809, and was for a
short time sent on a special embassy to the Court of Lisbon. Then he
became President of the Board of Control, which may be said to have
divided at that time the management of our Indian possessions with the
East {35} India Company, and he held this important office for about four
years. Meanwhile he had resigned his seat for Newport, in the Isle of
Wight, and had been elected as representative of the great and growing
port of Liverpool in the House of Commons. The visitor to Liverpool at
the present day can hardly go far through the great city without meeting
some memorial of the veneration in which the illustrious name of Canning
is held by the dwellers on the Mersey. A vacancy arose in the office of
Governor-General of India, and the directors of the East India Company
invited Canning to accept the splendid and commanding position. Canning
at once made up his mind to close with the offer. The position would in
many ways have suite