By an unhappy perversion of mind it seemed as if he would always rather
have obtained his end by a crooked path than by a straight one; but his
speeches had nothing of this tortuosity; there was nothing covert in
them, nothing insidious--no double-dealing, no disguise. His argument
went always directly to the point, and with so well-judged an aim that
he was never (like Burke) above his mark--rarely, if ever, below it, or
beside it. When, in the exultant consciousness of personal superiority,
as well as the strength of his cause, he trampled upon his opponents,
there was nothing coarse, nothing virulent, nothing contumelious,
nothing ungenerous in his triumph. Whether he addressed the Liverpool
electors, or the House of Commons, it was with the same ease, the same
adaptation to his auditory, the same unrivalled dexterity, the same
command of his subject and his hearers, and the same success. His only
faults as a speaker were committed when, under the inebriating influence
of popular applause, he was led away by the heat and passion of the
moment. A warm friend, a placable adversary, a scholar, a man of
letters, kind in his nature, affable in his manners, easy of access,
playful in conversation, delightful in society--rarely have the
brilliant promises of boyhood been so richly fulfilled as in Mr.
Canning.


_Political Economists_

Are the most daring of all legislators, just (it has been well said)
as "cockney equestrians are the most fearless of all riders." But the
confidence with which they propose their theories is less surprising
than the facility with which their propositions have been entertained,
and their extravagant pretensions admitted. We need not marvel at the
success of quackery in medicine and theology, when we look at the career