which for nearly a year held up to merciless ridicule that
section of the British public which still countenanced the ruling
ideas of the French Revolution. When the King's refusal to yield
on the question of Catholic emancipation (1801) compelled Pitt to
resign, Canning went out of office with him. Addington, the
stupid mediocrity who succeeded Pitt, provoked Canning's pen to
fresh lampoons, some of them long remembered for their savage
personalities.

When Pitt resumed the premiership, in 1804, to direct the new
struggle with Napoleon, he again bestowed office upon Canning,
and when he died, in 1806, Canning became the leader of the group
of Pittites who endeavored to perpetuate his ideas. In 1807 he
entered the cabinet in the important capacity of Foreign
Secretary.

As Foreign Secretary under the spiritless premiership of the Duke
of Portland, Canning was allowed free hand. The two years and a
half during which he directed the foreign office were marked by a
succession of moves which gave a new aspect to the contest with
Napoleon.

Canning entered upon his duties just as the Fourth Coalition was
being hammered to pieces, on the same anvil which had destroyed
the others. By the Treaty of Tilsit (July, 1807), Napoleon
prepared to unite the northern nations in his war on British
commerce. Hearing or divining his purpose to further this project
by seizing the fleet of Denmark, Canning dispatched an armed
force to Copenhagen with a demand for the surrender of the Danish
ships. The order was executed, and the Danish vessels were