“Sweet kerchief, checked with heavenly blue, Which once my love sat knotting in! Alas! Matilda then was true, At least I thought so at the U— —niversity of Gottingen, —niversity of Gottingen.
“Barbs! Barbs! alas! how swift you flew, Her neat post-wagon trotting in; Ye bore Matilda from my view; Forlorn I languished at the U— —niversity of Gottingen— —niversity of Gottingen.
“This faded form! this pallid hue! This blood my veins is clotting in My years are many—they were few When first I entered at the U— —niversity of Gottingen— —niversity of Gottingen.
“There first for thee my passion grew, Sweet! sweet Matilda Pottingen! Thou wast the daughter of my tu— —tor, law professor at the U— —niversity of Gottingen— —niversity of Gottingen.
“Sun, moon, and thou, vain world, adieu, That kings and priests are plotting in: Here doomed to starve on water-gru— el, never shall I see the U— —niversity of Gottingen— —niversity of Gottingen.”
Unfortunately for his influence, Canning could not limit his wit or his pasquinades to the Germans and French. The _Anti-Jacobin_ contained many ludicrous satires on the personal peculiarities of men like Erskine, Mackintosh, and Coleridge. Some of these made bitter complaints that the Government should lend its influence to and should reward the authors of these atrocious calumnies. There is evidence that the publication was discontinued at the suggestion of the Prime-Minister in consequence of these complaints, and it is very probable that Canning’s advancement was retarded by his utter lack of self-restraint.
On the accession of the Duke of Portland, in 1807, Canning became Secretary of Foreign Affairs, an office which he held for two years, till he had a quarrel with Lord Castlereagh, which resulted in a duel, and not only drove them both out of office, but overthrew the Portland Ministry. During the next seven years he was out of power, though he was regular in his parliamentary duties, and it was to him especially that Lord Wellington was indebted for the firm and even enthusiastic support of England during his military career.
Canning always regarded himself as the political disciple of Pitt. To his constituents at Liverpool he said: “In the grave of Mr. Pitt my political allegiance lies buried.” He owned no other master, and all his energies were devoted to carrying out Pitt’s policy of foreign affairs. The part of England in the protection of the smaller nationalities against the larger ones,—that policy which has preserved Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Portugal, and Turkey,—was but a continuance of the policy of Pitt, though it took definite form under the influence of Canning, and is quite as often associated with his name. The doctrine was strongly put forward on three important occasions. The first was in his speech urging England to join her fortunes with those of Spain in driving Bonaparte from the Peninsula. This, as Mr. Seeley, in his “Life of Stein” has shown, was the turning point in Napoleon’s career, and it is the peculiar glory of Canning that England was brought into the alliance by his influence. With pardonable exultation he once said: “If there is any part of my political conduct in which I _glory_, it is that in the face of every difficulty, discouragement, and prophecy of failure, _mine_ was the hand that committed England to an alliance with Spain.” The second occasion was when, in 1822, he was a second time Minister of Foreign Affairs, and when France was collecting troops to overthrow constitutional government in Spain, and urging the other foreign powers, assembled at Verona, to unite in the same purpose, he despatched Wellington to Verona with so energetic a protest that even France was dissuaded from the course she had intended to pursue. Again, in 1826, Canning took a similar course in giving aid to Portugal when invaded by Spain. His continental policy might be said to consist of two parts: England should insist that the small governments should not be disturbed by the larger, and that each nation should be allowed to regulate its own internal affairs.