MOTION FOR A GRANT TO THE FAMILY OF MR. CANNING.
When Mr. Canning died he was a poor man. He had begun the world without fortune; he had spent his life in the public service; and the emoluments of the offices which he had held had scarcely sufficed to cover the expenses of his station. As, therefore, he held no sinecures, his sudden death had left his family without a due provision. On these grounds the chancellor of the exchequer proposed to grant a pension of £3,000 a year to his second son, as a mode of 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 reward his family, they had merely to consider the fact, whether he had devoted his talents to the public service to the detriment of his private interests. On a division the grant was confirmed by a large majority. Both in the house indeed, and throughout the country, it was felt that this grant was only an act of justice, as Mr. Canning had spent not only his life, but his fortune, in the public service. On this subject it has been well remarked:—“It should be known, in justice to those who held the higher offices under the crown, that their salaries fall short of the expenses to which they are subjected, by the manners of the country and a mischievous convention. This gorgeous scale of living has the double effect of giving an example and impulse to extravagance through every department of the public service; and of securing, perhaps by design, to private wealth, a monopoly of administration. A man vigilantly prudent might perhaps have lived within his income in Mr. Canning’s situation, and it is known that he had no prodigal or expensive tastes; but it is also known that he had that utter carelessness of money through which fortune is not less effectually dissipated.”