P R E F A C Е. JUSTICE to the Public, and fairness to myself, demand from me a brief explanation of the circumstances under which I engaged in the publication of these volumes. To undertake alone and unsanctioned the task of editing the Speeches of the most accomplished orator of his country and age, would subject me to a presumptuous responsibility which I have not incurred, and to which, therefore, I do not wish to be considered liable. It was not without an assurance that my labours should be revised by MR. CANNING, that I was induced to devote myself to the occupation of editing his Speeches. Between that assurance and its complete fulfilment, it pleased Providence to interpose, and to withdraw from the glorious orbit in which it moved, the brilliant luminary that for a time shone upon my path, and "directed me in the way that I should go." It only remained for me to select from the best sources which my industry and diligence could command, the most approved and authentic records of his eloquence; and to incorporate them with the far larger portion of the work which MR. CANNING had personally revised. As to the Memoir which is prefixed to the first volume, my object has simply been, as it is elsewhere stated in this work, "to connect in a brief narrative the leading events of the political career of MR. CANNING-to mark the periods of his progressive advancement in public life-and to collect such facts and circumstances as may render this publication a faithful record of the principles of that illustrious Statesman, and of the eloquence with which those principles were enforced." To the kindness of some of the surviving friends of MR. CANNING I am indebted for being enabled to state many circumstances more accurately than they have hitherto appeared :-but no passage of this Memoir has been written by any of those friends, and none of them, therefore, are responsible for any sentiment or opinion it contains. As to the materials of which the Memoir is principally composed, they are collected from all such available sources of general information as related to the various and important political transactions in which MR. CANNING was prominently engaged. Admiration of this great orator first induced me to undertake the task of editing his Speeches ;that admiration increased at every step of my progress throughout the performance of it; and in now giving these Speeches to the world in their present completed form, the only difficulty that I feel is, to determine, whether more to admire the comprehensive genius and commanding eloquence of him by whom they were spoken, or to applaud the principles of his policy, the adop tion of which," to use the language of Burke, "lies deep in the interest, the greatness, and the glory of England." R. T. PREFACE ΤΟ SECOND EDITION. THE very favourable reception of the first impression of this Work has created an early demand for a second edition of it. In acceding to this demand, the diligent assiduity bestowed upon the preparation of the Work in the first instance, has left to the Editor and Publisher little to amend or alter, either in the revision of the text, or in the style and manner of the publication. The principal recommendation of these volumes is, that most of the speeches which they contain had the advantage of the personal correction and superintendence of Mr. Canning;-and the series of events which compose the narrative of the public life of Mr. Canning, has been detailed from the most approved and authentic sources of private and public information. These are the circumstances of peculiar advantage under |
