MY PARTNER.

"There is, perhaps, no subject of more universal interest in the whole range of natural knowledge, than that of the unceasing fluctuations which take place in the atmosphere in which we are immersed."-British Almanack,

AT Cheltenham, where one drinks one's fill

Of folly and cold water,

I danced, last year, my first quadrille,
With old Sir Geoffrey's daughter.
Her cheek with Summer's rose might vie,
When Summer's rose is newest;
Her eyes were blue as Autumn's sky,
When Autumn's sky is bluest:
And well my heart might deem her one
Of Life's most precious flowers,
For half her thoughts were of its Sun,
And half were of its Showers.

I spoke of Novels :-" Vivian Grey"
Was positively charming,
And "Almack's" infinitely gay,
And "Frankenstein" alarming;
I said "De Vere" was chastely told,
Thought well of "Herbert Lacy,'
Called Mr. Banim's sketches "bold,"
And Lady Morgan's "racy:"

"

I vow'd that last new thing of Hook's
Was vastly entertaining;

And Laura said-" I doat on books,
Because it's always raining!"

I talk'd of Music's gorgeous fane;
I raved about Rossini,

Hoped Ronzi would come back again,
And criticised Pacini ;

I wish'd the chorus-singers dumb,
The trumpets more pacific,
And eulogized Brocard's à plomb,
And voted Paul "terrific."
What cared she for Medea's pride,
Or Desdemona's sorrow?
"Alas!" my beauteous listener sigh'd,
"We must have storms to-morrow!"

I told her tales of other lands;
Of ever-boiling fountains,

Of poisonous lakes, and barren sands,
Vast forests, trackless mountains:
I painted bright Italian skies,
I lauded Persian roses,

Coin'd similes for Spanish eyes,
And jests for Indian noses:
I laugh'd at Lisbon's love of Mass,
And Vienna's dread of treason;
And Laura ask'd me where the glass
Stood at Madrid last season.

I broach'd whate'er had gone its rounds,
The week before, of scandal:

What made Sir Luke lay down his hounds,
And Jane take up her Handel;
Why Julia walk'd upon the heath,
With the pale Moon above her;
Where Flora lost her false front teeth,
And Anne her falser lover;
How Lord de B. and Mrs. L.
Had crossed the sea together;

My shuddering partner cried-" Oh Ciel!
How could they, in such weather?"

Was she a Blue?-I put my trust
In strata, petals, gases;

A Boudoir-pedant? I discuss'd
The Toga and the Fasces;

A Cockney-Muse?-I mouth'd a deal
Of folly from Endymion ;

A Saint-I praised the pious zeal
Of Messrs. Way and Simeon;
A Politician?-it was vain,

To quote the Morning Paper;
The horrid phantoms came again,
Rain, Hail, and Snow, and Vapour.

Flat Flattery was my only chance :
I acted deep devotion,
Found magic in her every glance,
Grace in her every motion;
I wasted all a Stripling's lore,
Prayer, passion, folly, feeling;
And wildly look'd upon the floor,
And wildly on the ceiling;
I envied gloves upon her arm,
And shawls upon her shoulder;
And when my worship was most warm,
She "
never found it colder."

I don't object to wealth or land:
And she will have the giving
Of an extremely pretty hand,
Some thousands, and a living.

She makes silk purses, broiders stools,
Sings sweetly, dances finely,

Paints screens, subscribes to Sunday schools,

And sits a horse divinely.

But to be linked for life to her!-

The desperate man who tried it,

Might marry a Barometer,

And hang himself beside it!

ቀ.

CANNING'S SPEECHES AND MEMOIRS.*

THE speeches of a distinguished statesman and orator must always be valuable accession to the literature of a country: those of Mr. Canning were looked for with peculiar interest from his talents and celebrity as an orator his share in all the great political transactions of the government and parlia ment for thirty-four years--the crisis of his death-and the historic glory, if we may so express it, which surrounded his name, as he descended to the tomb.

Amongst the various sources of the power and wealth of nations, there is perhaps none that ought to be considered so sacred as the talents of great men. It is by them that salutary maxims are disseminated, take root, and fructify in the public mind; it is by them that the great virtues, which animate the moral world, are brought to practical bearing, and men of inferior minds taught to act with superior wisdom. They compute, they combine, they consolidate, they direct the isolated energies of nations; and conceiving strongly the common good, they impart to these energies a majestic and irresistible impulse to reach that final term.

Mr. Canning unquestionably belonged to that order of men who vindicate an ascendancy in society by the most legitimate of all means-the honourable and useful exercise of their own talents. "Unaccredited by patrician patronage"-unallied to great families-utterly unaided by any of those aristocratic auxiliaries which influence and command both station and emolument in this country, and sustained alone by his own high hopes, he won his way to the highest grade of political and social distinction. From a mediocrity of station, in the middle class of society, he became Prime Minister of England. And when we regard the power of the British Empire, pervading as it does both hemispheres, operating strongly on every subaltern power, both in the new and the old world, and by its absolute dominion of the seas holding the key of every maritime state, we are naturally disposed to regard it as the greatest union of social and moral strength under Heaven. The Premier of England, who wields that strength with benignity and wisdom, surely enjoys a most enviable fame; and is possessed, perhaps, of the highest virtue of which humanity is susceptible. It is not exaggeration to say that George Canning was that man. His situation, it is true, at the time of his death, was trying and animating, "his prospects perilous and magnificent," and not only his own but foreign nations had formed a favourable estimate both of his disposition and of his powers to assert and maintain his station. He was cut off in the meridian splendour of his fame; not, however, before he had fully realized the sentiment of Cicero, who deemed that there is nothing by which human virtue so closely approximates to the Divinity, as by either founding new states, or preserving those already founded.†

The era of Mr. Canning's life, by which his name will be most recommended to the respect and admiration of posterity, takes its date at the death of Lord Castlereagh, in 1822. Mr. Canning and Lord Castlereagh were both pupils of Mr. Pitt. Lord Castlereagh servilely followed the errors in the track of his master, for he could only follow; Mr. Canning redressed the errors of Pitt. Pitt subsidized Europe against France-his heart was broken by the victory of Austerlitz-and England was saved from invasion by the bravery of Nelson at Trafalgar. Pitt allied himself with the great northern monarchies of Europe, and saw the balance of Europe extinguished. Canning placed Great Britain in her natural position as leader of the free nations of the earth. Pitt was invited throughout all his life by Miranda, and others, and many golden opportunities, to promote the severance of Spanish America from Spain; but neither the obvious necessity

"The Speeches of the Right Honourable George Canning, with a Memoir of his Life. By R. Therry, Esq." 8vo. In six Volumes.

Neque enim est ulla res, in qua propius ad Deorum numen virtus accedat humana, quam civitates aut condere novas aut conservare jam conditas."

of creating a counterpoise in the New World to the rising greatness of North America, nor of balancing the military preponderance and despotism of France by increasing the free governments and naval powers of the rest of the world, could persuade him to check Napoleon by such means. Lord Castlereagh pursued still the Pitt plan of opposing despotism by despotism. He personally involved himself in intimacies and friendships with the Kings of the Holy Alliance, the Empresses and Queens, their Viziers and diplomatic agents; he was on terms of personal acquaintance with them all, for their feelings were congenial. This intimacy unguardedly involved him in that web of selfish policy, which must ever mark the conduct of such characters and communities, the dominant principle of which is an uniform resistance to every measure that would multiply the representative governments of the world. Any of these imperial, royal, or noble personages, would have considered a correspondence between Lord Castlereagh and Bolivar as an act of personal hostility to themselves, and a rebellious suggestion to the millions who live under their absolute dominion. Mr. Canning did not suffer himself, in the foreign relations of Great Britain, to be embarrassed by any such perplexing intimacies ;-he had no knowledge of the sovereigns of the Continent, or their ministers, except as a public man, and on public grounds; he felt himself standing in equal relation to Prince Metternich or Rufus King; he saw that the policy of a great commercial state and island power, was to lead the van of the free nations of the earth-his was "the policy of the great Elizabeth, of Walsingham, Cecil, Raleigh, and the numerous heroes of the maiden reign." Elizabeth broke the iron tyranny of Spain in the Netherlands, and added Holland to the free nations of the earth: she created a free and commercial state with herself, to balance the dispositions of the Continent. Mr. Canning "called a new world into existence, to redress the balance of the old ;" and made that existence of a new world a seasonable, effective, and decisive means for defeating an outrage perpetrated by France upon the liberties of Spain, and upon the equipoise of the South of Europe.

The Editor of Mr. Canning's Speeches undertook the publication with Mr. Canning's sanction, and the advantages of his revision and direction; and he had executed the material part of his work when Mr. Canning died. He has performed his duty with the ardour of an admirer; but without any intemperate or injudicious zeal. He has supplied a biographical memoir, forming about half the first volume, valuable for the authenticity, as well as novelty of the particulars which it contains. He has also introduced connecting or explanatory links, historical and parliamentary; and interesting specimens of Mr. Canning's autograph corrections of his speeches, one of which is the celebrated passage, in which he said "That the next war in Europe would be a war not so much of armies as of opinions." This passage Mr. Canning was charged with having altered for the press; but it appears by this fac simile to have been left by him essentially the same as in the best and most accredited newspaper reports, and as it was spoken by him in the House of Commons.

The summary of Mr. Canning's character, as a statesman, by Mr. Therry, the Editor, we subjoin. In his exaggerated praise of Mr. Canning's oratorical powers, great as they undoubtedly were, we do not agree. He pushes his encomiums too far. Perhaps he never heard those great men deliver themselves in Parliament, above whom, in oratory, he too decidedly elevates the recently lamented Premier.

“Nature, and the happiest discipline, had formed Mr. Canning for the Minister of a powerful free people. He had in him that which could sustain its greatness and glory in the scale of nations, and wield its energies in an emergency of novelty or danger. It has been observed of him, and he avowed, that British interests were the Polar star of his policy; but the interests of his country swayed him in a sense characteristic of our administrative genius at the best periods of our history-in a sense remarked by judging foreigners, as one of our happiest national traits, and the main-spring of our national power. A patriot Minister-his views were gene

rous and comprehensive as the station of his mind was exalted. He would secure or raise the power and glory of his country by that maxim, which, if not always acted on, was always professed, by the most powerful free people of antiquity. He would maintain the rank and authority of England among nations, by cultivating sympathy abroad with elements and principles of the most generous order."

"It was his opinion frequently expressed, that England's greatness depends upon good faith and character; and that to be safe and happy, she must be great. This maxim of the soundest and grandest policy, was urged by him with all the energy of his genius, through every stage and vicissitude of that war so memorably waged against an enemy the most powerful in resources,—the ablest in faculty,—above all, the most relentless in hatred, this country had ever known-one who, combating in the shadows of the Pyramids, on the distant plains of Egypt, led his legions to victory with the cry, that they were there striking at the heart of England, and preparing for her the mortal blow.' Despotism and the spirit of conquest are not buried for ever beyond the water with Bonaparte. Semi-barbarous pride, with the sentiment of giant force, in one quarter-hereditary ambition, religious bigotry, and the dread of freedom, with the vain glory of a martial people, in another, may again disturb the peace, and threaten the independence of Europe. It is then that England and Europe would miss the courage and the counsels of one who had, above all men living, the faculty to rally the spirits of the assailed or the oppressed; of him who, in America, called a new world into existence, to redress the balance of power in the old; and, it may be added, to redress the balance of freedom."

Whilst we bear testimony to the general accuracy of the Memoirs, yet there are some circumstances particularly relative to his family and to the early part of Mr. Canning's life, which might have been more accurately narrated than the Editor has detailed them; for instance, he describes Mr. Canning's mother (whose maiden name was Costelloe), at the time of her marriage, as "a lady of great beauty and accomplishments." Now we have seen a letter written by a surviving member of Mr. Canning's family, which gives the following more accurate and authentic account of this lady. "Mrs. G. Canning (the mother of the statesman), when I saw her in 1772, was a lively, agreeable, pretty-looking woman, with fine animated eyes like her son's, but had no pretensions to beauty or accomplishments beyond writing and reading her own language uncommonly well; and had many good qualities." In the same letter there is also the following sentence, which satisfactorily refutes the calumnious imputation industriously propagated by Mr. Canning's enemies, that he was the son of Sheridan. "There was no intercourse whatever between Mrs. Canning and Sheridan; and if she was acquainted with him, it was certainly long after the birth of Mr. Canning, and after the intercourse of Mrs. Canning with the family of her brother-in-law (Mr. S. Canning) had ceased." The early education of Mr. Canning, his habits of diligence, and the successful perseverance with which he prosecuted his studies, are introduced into the Memoirs in a style of agreeable narrative. From a passage in a letter addressed by Mr. Canning whilst at Oxford to a college friend, it is evident that from his boyhood he had marked out "in his mind's eye" a political life as the most suitable sphere for the successful exercise of his talents. He was not insensible, however, of the imprudence of abandoning the legal profession, which he then intended to pursue as a provision for life, for the bright uncertainty" of arriving at competence and independence through the precarious process of political advancement. The passage to which we allude runs thus:-"I am already, God knows, too much inclined both by my own sanguine wishes, and the connexions with whom I am most intimate, and whom, above all others, I revere, to aim at the House of Commons as the only path to the only desirable thing in the world—the gratification of ambition; while at the same time every tie of common-sense, of fortune, and of duty, draws me to the study of a profession. The former propensity, I hope, reflection, necessity, and the friendly advice and very marked attention of the Dean, will enable me to overcome; and to the law I look as the profession which, in this country, holds out every enticement that can nerve the exertions and give vigour to the powers of a young man. The way, indeed,