Wellington.
"The bitter pill" was at last swallowed by the King, and despite of both open and concealed hostility from persons of influence very near the Royal person, Mr. Canning filled the important position in the Cabinet left vacant by the late Marquis of Londonderry. The reader will presently see how soon he won powerful friends at Court; but superior as he may have been in some things, his subsequent career shows—what indeed his previous political life prominently indicates—that there were other qualifications, less brilliant but more useful, possessed in an eminent degree by his predecessor, in which he was singularly deficient.
CHAPTER X.
[1822.]
MR. CANNING AGAIN IN THE CABINET. RUMOURED MINISTERIAL ARRANGEMENTS. MR. CANNING OFFERS MR. WILLIAMS WYNN THE SPEAKERSHIP OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. A POLITICAL RUSE. THE KING AT WINDSOR. THE SPEAKER. FOREIGN AFFAIRS. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS OF VERONA RESPECTING SPAIN. MR. HENRY WILLIAMS WYNN'S PROPOSED DIPLOMATIC CHANGE. MR. CANNING'S UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE. CONDITION OF IRELAND. M. VILLELE.
CHAPTER X.
The addition of Mr. Canning to the Government was regarded with different sentiments when looked at from different points of view. His brilliant talents and great popularity were recognised advantages, but then the necessity by which he might consider himself bound to put forward an original policy, made reflecting politicians regard his appointment with distrust. He appears to have exhibited a wish to serve some members of the Grenville family, though not in the required direction. Mr. Charles Williams Wynn was ambitious of filling the distant but lucrative post to which the new Foreign Secretary had been appointed before Lord Londonderry's death, but Mr. Canning suggested a position scarcely less honourable at home. How these and other negotiations proceeded, may be learnt from the following letters:—
THE RIGHT HON. W. H. FREMANTLE TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
Englefield Green, Sept 19, 1822.