virtues. As a man, he was all that was excellent and engaging an affectionate husband-a polite and finished gentleman-a kind landlord a mild and indulgent master, beneficent to the poor, and so affable, that every individual, however inferior his rank, felt himself at his ease the moment he addressed him. These virtues found their earthly reward in the strong attachment felt to him by his numerous private friends.

There were, however, two respects, in which, as a minister for foreign affairs he was deficient. First, he did not possess a sufficiency of acquired knowledge on those subjects which came within his department; and, secondly, the events of his life had drawn him into so close a connexion with foreign ministers and sovereigns, that there was some reason to apprehend, that he might, under peculiar circumstances, concur too far in their plans, or not declare his dissent from them so soon and with so much firmness as he ought. Having had much intercourse with the great monarchs of the continent, at a time when their interests and views were completely identified with our own; having witnessed their zeal for the overthrow of the common enemy; and having received from them numerous testimonies of esteem and friendship; he must naturally have reposed much confidence in the purity of their intentions, and have entertained towards them sentiments of kindness and gratitude, which could not but make him slow to manifest, on the part of England, any aversion to their views or any disposition to throw obstacles in their way. The situation of the world, however, was now so different from what

it had been seven years before, that the policy of Austria and Russia might assort very ill with that which the honor and interests of England prescribed. He who is best qualified to be a negotiator at a general congress, may not be the man into whose hands the foreign relations of a free country will be best intrusted. At the very moment of lord Londonderry's death, the sovereigns of the continent were adopting a policy towards Spain, which England could not approve; and though he would never out of complaisance have forgotten the duties of an English minister, yet his private feelings and habits might have rendered him too slow in suspecting, too qualified and hesitating in declaring his and our disapprobation.

Another general congress was to be held at Verona in October; at which lord Londonderry had been destined to represent England. The duke of Wellington was now appointed to this important function. His grace set out for Verona on the 17th of September.

To find a successor to lord Londonderry's situation in the ministry was a more arduous task. Mr. Canning was universally admitted to be the individual best qualified for the vacant post-to be indeed the only person, who was in any degree equal to it. If he was in some respects inferior to him who had last filled it, yet in rhetorical talent, at least, he was decidedly superior; and oratory, which everywhere, but especially in free governments, covers a multitude of sins, though not very useful to a secretary of state for foreign affairs, is the most important requisite in a leader of

the House of Commons. It was rumoured, however (probably without any reason), that the king was exceedingly unwilling to admit Mr. Canning into the cabinet, and that the lord chancellor was determined not to act with him as a colleague. For some time, the matter remained in suspense. Mr. Canning continued his preparations for his departure for India; and at a public dinner given to him at Liverpool, on the 30th of August, he declared that he knew no more of the future political arrangements of the country, than any of those who heard him, and that no proposition with respect to the vacant office had been made to him.* However, in September, he was nominated secretary of state for foreign affairs.

A new governor-general was now to be found for India. Lord Amherst and lord William Bentinck, were the two candidates for the appointment. The former prevailed; though the latter by sound

The following was the language used by Mr. Canning on this occasion: -I know nothing; I have heard nothing more than all of you, gentlemen, of any political arrangements likely to arise from the present state of things. It is not for me to presume that I should be in any degree concerned in such arrangements: nor to do any thing which should appear to imply such a presumption. I have, therefore, either proposed to defer this meeting with my constituents, fixed, as you know, many months ago; nor have I suspended my preparations for departure; nor have I any ground beyond those which lie open in common to me and to all the world, for apprehending that that departure is likely to be intercepted. It will not be expected of me that I should say any thing of what might, in a contrary supposition, be the decision which it would become me to form. I can only declare with the most perfect sincerity,

ness of judgment, by great political and military experience, and by intimate acquaintance with Indian affairs, was perhaps better fitted than any other individual, for that most responsible situation. There is no office, the nomination to which should be more carefully defended from the influence of court favour, than that of Governor General. How vast are the interests which may be put in hazard by a single injudicious appointment to that situation! Should a critical moment arrive, an empire may be lost, before a person can be sent out equal to the exigencies that may have occurred. Years indeed, may pass away, without calling forth any peculiar talent in the supreme ruler; but no man can tell but that at any moment circumstances may spring up, in which the safety of our Eastern empire will depend on the energy and capacity of him who is at its head: and if such circumstances should arise, and there

that such a decision would be formed by me upon an honest and impartial review of public considerations alone; and would be determined, not by a calculation of my interests, but upon a balance of my duties.

"Gentlemen, enough of this topic, upon which I might still perhaps have hesitated to utter a word, if I had not been informed that my silence respecting it upon a former occasion has been misinterpreted. I trust I shall not now be misinterpreted the other way; and that having been understood as ostentatiously abjuring office at home, from my not adverting to the possibility of its being proposed to me, I may not now be considered as on the other hand expressing an anxiety for office, by the, I hope sufficiently measured, allusion which I have found myself at last compelled to make to surmises, of which I am not the author, but the object."

securities without first becoming buyers, and their purchases were of a magnitude perfectly new to the persons before engaged in similar transactions. An advance without limit was the visionary prospect that filled the mind of every speculator, and many, who probably could not have raised fifty pounds on their personal security, entered into time bargains for as many thousands, and felt no doubt that the result would raise them into sudden wealth. Real purchases by men of property and consideration were also made to a very great extent, particularly in the scrip of the new loans, which was held on small deposits, but gave the benefit of the advance on the whole sum. On this, too, it was not difficult to raise money from some of the bankers and capitalists, with which further transactions could be undertaken. At this period it was known that a congress was about to assemble at Verona, and that as the affairs of Europe were to be discussed, it was reasonable, at least, to expect, that warlike rumours would be circulated, whatever confidence might exist that the congress would leave the world as they found it. Accordingly, these rumours produced for some time no sensible effect. Before the end of Nov., however, the money market exhibited a very different aspect. The first alarm given to it, was the

doubt thrown on the validity of M. Zea's contract for the Colombian loan; and the fall, which followed in that stock, gave a foretaste to the speculators, of the reverses to which the traffic in foreign securities was exposed. This was succeeded by the news of the change of policy in the French ministry, and of their threat of invading Spain. A series of panics ensued, which convulsed every money market in Europe, and their effect was everywhere increased by the mutual operation of one market on the others. The price of all foreign stocks fell rapidly; and thousands were ruined or impoverished by the change. The extreme points of the fluctuations in the principal securities, from the middle of October to the beginning of December, may be stated to have been as follows:-Spanish stock of 1820, 87 to 65; of 1821, 73 to 53; Colombian stock, 97 to 69; Chilian bonds, 90 to 75; Russian scrip, 91 to 82; Prussian nearly the same; Neapo litan scrip, 84 to 75, &c. Of the European securities, those of Spain sustained the greatest depression. The reason is obvious: not only had very large sums been lately borrowed by that country; but it was Spain which was threatened with the more immediate danger; and her securities, having been the principal medium of speculation here, had been forced more than the rest above their real value.