the defects of their opinions in the light of a playful, but at the same time unmalevolent wit, was that most likely to lead to power and distinction. The wisdom of his choice has been verified by experience. He is now the leading Minister of Great Britain, while Mr. Burke, with superior endowments, and at least equal acquaintance with the machinery of Government, never rose in office above his early post of private secretary to a Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. We have said, that Mr. Canning early adopted almost all Burke's views and opinions of great public questions. With him, he has been from his first entrance into public life the invariable opponent of Parliamentary Reform, the strenuous supporter of a gradual and safe abolition of Negro Slavery, and the uncompromising advocate of Catholic Emancipation. For the first, he risked his hopes of extensive popularity; for his temperate discretion with regard to the second, he has been honored with the odium of a fanatic party; and for the third, he has sacrificed the perhaps highest object of his early and mature ambition, that of being the Representative of the University of Oxford (his alma mater) in Parliament. The grounds of his opinions on these questions are few and definite. That of his opposition to Reform, is founded on the knowledge which history furnishes us of the evils of a pure democracy-of the consequent benefits of a repre sentative form of Government-of the comparative inutility of this form of Government, unless the authority of the people is entirely vested in the hands of their representatives, whose existence depends upon them, and whose interests should be identical with their own; and upon its incompatibility with the genius, the monarchy, and the hereditary council of the British Constitution. With him, Reform, when not a synonym of dangerous innovation, is but a plausible closet theory of some Utopian commonwealth, and the voice of the people, when not the railings of licentious demagogues, but the clamour of excited ignorance and prejudice. He thinks, with Mr. Burke, that the people should rather receive the "tone" from their Representative, than the Parliament from the people; and that in the weather-glass of the State, the House of Commons should be the thermometer, while the moral and physical weight of the people should be indicated by the state of the barometer. The question of Parliamentary Reform thus becomes a choice between a Republic and a Monarchy; it is introduceable into Great Britain, therefore, only by force the force of the people. They have a physical force to abolish the laws, and trample on the institutions of their forefathers, which we are morally and religiously bound (as well as by our laws) to transmit to our posterity-these institutions being the inheritance of the unborn, and incapable of being destroyed either by the people or their representatives. By the former, for the moment they did so, they would cease to be a nation: by the latter, inasmuch as the people would not suffer any other power to do that in their name, which they could not, and should not, do for themselves. On these grounds he strenuously and successively opposes all plans of Reform; considering the present scheme of the Constitution, with all its defects, the best that human ingenuity has devised; and that all proposals of extending the powers of the people, but, in the forcible language of Sir P. Francis, so many vain attempts to build Greek temples with brick-bats and rubbish. With regard to his advocacy of Slavery Abolition, the fact that slavery per se is a great evil, that it is repugnant to the best feelings of the heart, and to the purity of the British Constitution, is sufficient ground. The only question is, considering that the negro is at best but a full grown child-that the usage of centuries has sanctioned his vassalage to the white-that the property of individuals has been embarked on the faith of legislative enactments, and that the condition of the negro slave would be worse in his native home. Whether sound policy, humanity, and justice, do not force upon us the conviction of the expediency of effecting that abolition cautiously and gradually? Not to invest the negro with power which he can only use to his destruction-not to rob the planter of his property on account of sectarian whims, or commercial jealousies-and not to deprive the mother country of the aid and services of a valuable colony. This is the view of the question that Mr. Canning has long advocated, and we trust will long continue to advocate-all others are unjust and impolitic. The condition of the Roman Catholics is equally an evil in itself, and hostile to the free spirit of the Constitution, while their amelioration could not possibly be attended with any but beneficial consequences. To exclude the Catholics from the pale of the Constitution on account of their religion, is to act in the teeth of the principles of Protestantism and of the revolution of 1688—to exclude them on account of the crimes of their forefathers, is too unjust to be more than noticed-and to exclude them now, that the special political occasions for the same laws against them no longer exist, is unjust and impolitic. These considerations acquire tenfold force when applied to the condition of Ireland. We shall enter into the history of the question, when Mr. Peel's particular opinions will be under discussion. At present we shall merely observe, that Mr. Canning's advocacy and bona fide toleration, is by no means confined to its political expediency; with Locke and Paley, he views the question in its moral influence upon all classes of society. The gist of his arguments is contained in the following passage of Paley:-" The "justice and expediency of toleration, we found primarily in its con"duciveness to truth, and in the superior value of truth to that of any other quality which a religion can possess; this is the principal argument; but there are some auxiliary considerations too impor"tant to be omitted. The confining of the subject to the religion of "the State, is a needless violation of natural liberty, and is an instance in which restraint is always grievous. Persecution produces no "sincere conviction, nor any real change of opinion; on the con 66 * This view of the subject has not been sufficiently attended to. Much important light has been and will be thrown upon it by the perilous travels of our enterprising countrymen in the interior of Africa. "trary, it vitiates the public morals, by driving men to prevarication, "under the name of revealed religion, systems of doctrines which "men cannot believe, and dare not examine; finally, it disgraces the "character, and wounds the reputation of Christianity itself, by "making it the author of oppression, cruelty, and bloodshed.” It would be foreign from our design and limits to enter into a minute history of Mr. Canning's career from his entry into public life, in 1792, to the present hour. It is contained in the public annals and Parliamentary Records of the time, which it will be the duty of his biographer to examine and refer to. His noble conduct on the Queen's trial; and his, if possible, nobler conduct since the death of Lord Londonderry left him unshackled in office, are familiar to our readers. His liberal policy in relation to South America, and more recently with regard to Portugal (and we sanguinely hope soon to add with regard to Greece), has embalmed his name, and that of the country, for the admiration of posterity, who will not fail to view him as the Chatham and the Burke of the nineteenth century. As an orator, Mr. Canning ranks longe intervallo the first in either House of Parliament. No man living has the same power to for no man living has the same classical beauty of head and countenance-the same insinuating earnestness of voice-the same carelessly diffused grace of manner-the same simple dignity of style and happiness of expression---the same musical callocation---the same flowing eloquence, and, when necessary, the same overwhelming vehemence of delivery. With these advantages, therefore, it is but little praise to say, that to hear him deliver an animated speech, his recent reply on the invasion of Portugal, for example, is, take it all in all, the most intellectual treat of modern times. He was on that occasion completely "thrown upon his mettle;" every word he uttered was pregnant with the most awful consequences. His countenance expressed the deepest sense of his important situation; the eyes of millions were fixed upon him with the solemn silence that precedes an earthquake; war and peace, the "war of conflicting opinions and conflicting interests," hung upon his breath---he warmed; the opposition animated him---his countenance brightened---his eyes glistened---the pride of glory sat upon his lip---his chest heaved and dilated---the Elysian spring of youth diffused itself over his frame---his stature rose above its ordinary height---his attitude became majestic---and he delivered himself with a firm and vehement earnestness of tone and manner, that to be at all appre 66 We have forborne to quote from Mr. Canning's speeches for two reasons. ---Our friend, the Editor, announced to us his benevolent intention of treating, gratis, the readers of the "Inspector" to an accurate report of the late important debate on the King's message, including, of course, some of Mr. Canning's happiest efforts; and we wait the publication (in the press,) of all Mr. Canning's speeches on great occasions, corrected by himself, for an opportunity of presenting our readers with a nosegay of his eloquence. ciated, must have been heard; once heard, never can be forgotten. All this time, the awful responsibility of his situation invested his brow with the most unalterable serenity, and crowned the whole man with a sublime elevation of respect, that pointed to the fame of acts shedding glory on himself, honor and reputation on his country. The characteristics of his style, are its rapid harmony, its lucid arrangement, and its freedom from affected phraseology. It is pure, classical, transparent, and musical, almost to faultiness. There are no foreign idioms to be met with in it or any meretricious ornaments; all is chaste and English: Genus eloquendi secutus est "elegans et temperatum, vitatis sententiarum ineptiis, atque inconcin"nitato et neconditorum verborum, ut ipse dicit toribus. Præci puam que curam ducis sensum animi quam apertissime exprimere." His language is unrivalled for its happy adaptation to the occasion; and is, when necessary, figurative, pointed, and expressive to perfec tion. Having a fine ear for the collocation of words, and a most felicitous taste in their selection, his sentences are framed in accordance with the highest rules of art, and yet so plain and evident, that even Sir Thomas Lethbridge can comprehend them. The great beauty is, that all this harmonious flowing of his periods is unostentatious, and apparently without design or effort; so that he captivates no less by his unpedantic simplicity and artless earnestness of manner;-the " modicum vehemens in flectendo in quo una vis ommis oratoris est;" -than by his modest insinuating confidence, by the turn of his sentences and the happiness of his language. His hearers are by this means unawares persuaded, because they are agreeably amused and agitated, and convinced, because they are thus persuaded; so that their assent is with difficulty withheld, and is often granted they scarcely perhaps know why---or even to what purpose. There is a charm or peculiarity of captivation, not very capable of being described, in Mr. Canning's eloquence, that we have not observed in any other orator. His audience is held in a kind of enchanted suspense between evanescent pleasure and thrilling expectation; so that while the memory is fondly dwelling on the charm that is fled, the fancy and the ear are fascinated with the expectation of what is to follow. The effect of this is similar in kind to that of witnessing the wreathings and convolutions of a column of smoke ;---or the momentary beauties and splendours of fireworks, amid the darkness of night;---or rather to the enchanting power of graceful motion in the human figure--heightened as it is by the living expression which it exhibits---an expression ever renewed and ever varied,---of taste and mental elegance. In argument, Mr. Canning in general lightens rather than reasons on his subject; 64 as if he feared" (as was said of another great genius,) "that the slow method of induction and argument would interrupt him "in his progress, and throw obstacles in the way of his career." This greatly depends upon the nature of the subject: if it demand it, he is remarkable for the logical arrangement of his facts and arguments; if it be one that affords occasion for the display of his wit, brilliant, burning flashes illuminate it, no less by their irresistible splendour than their happiness and their adaptation. These flashes electrify where they do not convince---batter, where they do not effect a breach; and by always leaving a sense of admiration, acuteness, and splendour, render his vehement reasonings irresistible. No man unites more happily, or with less appearance of art, the solemnity of the appeal with the vividness of the flash---rapid harmony, exactly addressed to the sense---and freedom of remark with the unity of a continued strain of argument, and the bold playfulness of familiar discourse, with the Chatham majesty of sound---the "monarch voice" of a great statesman. His style, as was said of another great orator, is so perfectly musical, and moves to such a sprightly, animated, and interesting measure, that, as has been observed of Greek, there would be delight in hearing it read, even to one who did not understand it. Like the stone of Sisyphus, his sentences roll down of themselves, rebound and mount again on the other side :-- Αὖτις ἔπειτα πεδονδε κυλίνδετο γᾶας ἀναιδής. We will conclude our account of this great orator and statesman by observing, that as he is now but in his 56th or 57th year,---in the autumn fulness of his powers, much more is to be confidently expected from him. 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