providing for the family less onerous
than voting a large sum for the payment of debts. This proposition was
vehemently opposed by Lord Althorp, Sir M. Ridley, Messrs. Hume, Bankes,
D. W. Harvey, P. Thompson, and others, partly on the score of economy,
and partly on the ground of its not having been deserved. On the
contrary, ministers placed the question on the broad ground, that Mr.
Canning had devoted a long life, and talents of the first order, to the
service of his country; and in following that service, had not merely
lost the means of improving, but had deteriorated his private fortune.
What had he not surrendered, it was asked, when he gave up the
government of India to fill the unprofitable office of foreign
secretary? Mr. Huskisson remarked:--"I regret to be obliged to make
reference on such an occasion to information derived from the privacy of
confidential intercourse; but I can state, upon my own personal credit,
that whatever were the feeling of others, who were justly near and dear
to Mr. Canning, it had for years been his warm and anxious wish to
be placed in some public situation, however it might sacrifice or
compromise the fair and legitimate scope of his ambition, which, while
it enabled him to perform adequate public services, would enable him
also to place upon a better footing his wife's private fortune, which
he had lessened, and the inheritance of his children, which he had
impaired. I will not go so far as to say, that this was a prospect fixed
upon Mr. Canning's mind, or an object that he was bent upon pursuing,
for it is difficult to trace the springs of so susceptible a
temperament; but under the circumstances it was quite natural,
considering his means and his family, that while he honourably sought a
situation to render service to his country, he should not be unmindful
of the means of repairing the family fortune, which he had diminished
while in the service of his country." A further objection was raised to
the grant, founded on disapprobation of Mr. Canning's policy, or of that
policy with which he had been officially connected; but to this it was
answered, that the proposition touched no political principle, and did
not imply the abandonment of any political dogma. If the motion, it was
argued, went to vote a monument to commemorate his services, members who
thought that he had not performed any services to be commemorated,
would do right to appose it; but when the motion went only to re