bias to party principles, or personal attachment in respect to an individual. We have been content with a simple narrative, without presuming to, inflict censure on the enemies of Sir Home on the one hand, or become his panegyrist on the other. That he appears to possess zeal, activity, and talents, we most willingly acknowledge in common with his warmest admirers; while we at the same time readily agree with his bitterest enemies, that in case of a perversion of any of these qualities, he ought to be subjected to the severest animadversion and punishment. THE RIGHT HƠN. GEORGE CANNING. IT is equally the pride and the consolation of all the natives of the British empire, that they enoy many distinguished and pre-eminent advantages, and these too, in a manner peculiar to themselves. One of these, and surely not the most contemptible, is the eligibility to the greatest offices in the state. While in most other nations a favoured few only, whose chief pretext to distinction is too often founded on the adventitious circumstance of birth alone, monopolize all the honours and all the emoluments of office, the cottage as well as the castle hore furnishes candidates for the first employments which the sovereign of a free people can bestow. The most wretched peasant among us, while dandling her infant son, is enabled to survey the boy boy with an honest pride; fully conscious, that in case he possesses talents, he is capable of aspiring to that station, which will enable him to rank next to the princes of the blood-royal. This idea consoles the fond parent for the hardships incident to her humble situation; it adds to the natural in-' terest which she takes in a babe that has reposed in, and fed upon the product of her bosom, and inclines her to make every sacrifice in order to obtain a suitable education for a child who may one day become either a metropolitan or lord-chancellor, and be fated like Wolsey, "To sit beneath the canopy of kings.” Our schools and colleges too, notwithstanding the many evils arising out of modern example, added to modern innovation, must be allowed in some points of view to claim a high share of praise. In one of them, all titular distinctions are suspended; and although in others a gold tuft is worn by way of characteristic, yet on the whole, the manners of our public seminaries must be confessed to be at least manly, and the characters of the pupils, in general independent. But what is chiefly meant to be pointed out on this occasion is, the facility with which early friendships are there formed, and the exemplary fidelity with which they are frequently kept up. To these the sons not only of the more opulent are usually sent, but there are a multitude of muniticent institutions which also present an opening to the children of those in less affluent circumstances. Thus out of a daily communication, and similarity of habits, arise many of those connections which at once prove gratifying and advantageous. From the companions of his early studies, the ingenuous youth selects his future friends. Among these the the young nobleman discovers the favoured clients of a future day in the associates of the present. The clergyman too, not unfrequently finds a patron in a school fellow; while it is well ascertained that out of the familiarities of a college life, an habitual intercourse has originated, and those powerful interests been formed, which lead to the first honours of the bar, the pulpit, and the state. Mr. Canning, who is supposed to have profited by some of the circumstances just alluded to, is descended from a respectable family in Ireland. His father, the late George Canning, Esq. having left his native country, settled in this, and is said to have displeased one of his parents by an early marriage with a lady destitute indeed of the gifts of fortune, but neither devoid of beauty nor accomplishments. The old gentleman, however, proved inexorable; and is said to have confined his bounty, both present and future, within the narrow limits of an allowance of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum. In this situation the son became a member of the honourable Society of the Middle Temple, was called to the bar, and published several excellent tracts in favour of public liberty. But he is better known as a poct than either a lawyer or a politician; having ranked with the Whiteheads, the Keates, and the Cawthornes of his day. day. It was he who composed the verses supposed to have been written by Lord William Russel, addressed to Lord William Cavendish, on the night preceding his execution.* He was also the author *This epistle, which is dated from Newgate, on the night of Friday, July 20, 1683, begins thus: "Lost to the world, to-morrow doom'd to die, Disdaining down the golden stream to glide, The following parting lines are addressed to his lady : Source of my joy, and soother of my care! of a number of fugitive productions, such as "A Birth-day Offering to a Young Lady from her Lover," beginning with, "Ere this short winter's day be gone, My Mary-Anne is twenty one," &c. Mr. Canning having died April 11, 1771, soon after the birth of his son who. had been named George after him, the care, and we believe the expence, of his education, devolved on an uncle, a respectable merchant of the city of London, by whom he was sent to Eton. We are unable to particularize the precise period when he was entered a member of that celebrated seminary; but certain it is, that the year 1786 may be considered as the era when he attained a distinguished rank among his contemporaries. He was then one of the senior scholars, and this epoch has been considered by some as the Augustan age of that institution; bat others better acquainted with the history of the times, will perhaps be inclined to think that the days of the Storers, the Carlisles, and the Foxes, have a previous as well as a superior claim to this distinction. It was on Monday the 6th of November 1786, that the first paper of the " Microcosm" appeared which continued to be published in weekly num Parting with thee into my cup was thrown, bers |