ch his case became hopeless,
and Mr. Canning was summoned at that time by the king to Windsor. It
was well known that dissensions existed in the cabinet, and that serious
difficulties were created by a large portion of it, hostile in the
highest degree to Mr. Canning. At the same time a majority of the
commons, as well as of the people at large, called upon him to take up
the mantle of the premier, and to direct the councils of Great Britain.
Mr. Canning was called to this interview with the king merely in his
capacity of privy-counsellor, to assist the king in the re-construction
of the cabinet. He recommended that a ministry should be formed
unanimous in the rejection of Catholic emancipation; to forward which
arrangement he professed his own willingness to retire from office. This
advice had the appearance of great disinterestedness and self-denial;
but Mr. Canning must have known that it was utterly impracticable: those,
indeed, on whom it would have thrown the responsibility of government
saw the embarrassment such an arrangement would produce, and instantly
rejected it. His majesty now proposed that the plan of administration
should be unchanged; and that some anti-Catholic peer should be
appointed premier, to prevent such increase of adherents to the Catholic
cause as a minister of that rank, being its known advocate, would
necessarily promote. To this arrangement, however, Mr. Canning objected,
declaring that he would never degrade himself by forming part of an
administration which considered a person entertaining those views which
he entertained concerning the Catholic question as disqualified to fill
the highest office in the state. By this declaration, in effect, Mr.
Canning made known to the king that his services could only be secured
by the highest office; and it seems quite clear from other circumstances
that such was his aim. But this resolution was the cause of breaking up
the Liverpool cabinet. At the same time Mr. Canning obtained the object
of his ambition: aided by the general voice, he was made premier. His
exaltation, however, was the signal of retreat to other members of the
cabinet. Mr. Peel had previously declared that if such an event took
place he should decline office; and Lord Eldon resigned, ostensibly on
account of his advanced age, but in reality on Mr. Peel's principles,
namely, that he could not co-operate with a friend to Catholic
emancipation as premier. On the 12th of April the king h