CAUTION TO THE CLERGY AND OTHERS. MR. EDITOR, To the Editor of the Catholic Miscellany. I consider it a duty I owe to religion and to the public, to caution the latter against being imposed on by an individual of the name of Thomas Doyle, who calls himself a suspended priest from Ireland. The history of this gentleman in Ireland I neither know nor wish to know, as it concerns me not; but what does concern me and the public is, that this gentleman, to the discredit of that religion which he professes, and once professed to teach, has lately been, and in all probability is now going about different parts of this country, obtaining money on false pretences. For example, I was lately on a visit to an aged and infirm parent and other relations in the town of Macclesfield, county of Cheshire, where I found that the said Rev. T. Doyle had actually received money in consequence of representing himself as an acquaintance of mine, and as having officiated in my chapel; (a likely thing that I should employ a priest under suspension! but this the simple and good-meaning poor Catholics of Macclesfield did not consider), whereas I solemnly declare, not only that I do not personally know, but that I have never, to my knowledge, seen that gentleman, although I have heard a great deal about his proceedings in the neighbourhood of London, and particularly in congregations contiguous to my own. You may easily suppose that the Catholics of that town, as well as others, from whom Mr. D. received money, especially the Rev. J. C., a most amiable and liberal clergyman of the church of England, felt indignant when they found out the truth; but the Rev. Gentleman deemed it more prudent to decamp as soon as he heard of my arrival, than to wait the consequences of his conduct. I forbear relating what I have heard from the best authority about his other proceedings in Macclesfield, Congleton, Stockport, Manchester, and other places, as I consider what I have already stated as sufficient to guard your readers against similar impositions. August 14th, I remain, Mr. Editor, Yours sincerely, ALEXIUS BENJamin Barber, 1827. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE CANNING. THE feelings which the death of this distinguished statesman produced in the public, and the active part which he took on many occasions in the great cause of Catholic Emancipation, lead us to think that the following biographical notice of him will be acceptable to all our readers. He was born in 1770, of an ancient family: it had long been divided into two respectable branches; the Cannings of Foxcote, in Warwickshire, and the Cannings of Garvagh, in the county of Londonderry. He considered the former to be the parent stem. Among his ancestors in the English line, he reckoned a gentleman not unknown to antiquaries, Mr. Canning, the founder of the church of St. Mary, Bristol, and six times mayor of that city; and Colonel George Canning, a Protestant gentleman attainted by James II. : We have Mr. Stratford Canning, his grandfather, had two sons, George and Paul. George was the eldest of them; he displeased his father by marrying against his wishes; was disinherited by him, quitted Ireland, first embraced the profession of the law, then engaged in commerce, and was unsuccessful in both. He maintained through life the character of an upright man, and a polite scholar he lived in habits of intimacy with the principal wits of his time. seen a collection of his poems in a thin quarto volume: one of his poetical effusions is an epistle, supposed to be written by Lord William Russell, in his cell in Newgate, on the night before his execution, to Mr. Cavendish, his celebrated friend: we believe it is inserted in Dodsley's Collection at the time of its appearance it was greatly admired. He died soon after the birth of his son, the subject of the present article, leaving him and his mother slenderly provided for. Some time after his decease his widow married a Mr. Hunn, and had children by him. Mr. Canning's dutiful attention to his mother was edifying: while his circumstances were slender, he shared his slender income with her and, being in a future part of his life considered to be entitled to a pension for his public services, he procured it to be granted to his mother, and her children. Afterwards in the plentitude of his power-he obtained an Irish peerage for Mr. George Canning, the present head of the Garvagh family. After the decease of his father, Mr. Canning was principally supported by the bounty of an uncle. He placed Mr. Canning at Eton. His proficiency in his studies was great: he certainly acquired, in this seminary of the British muses, that classical taste, which Mr. Gibbon says he would not exchange for millions. While Mr. Canning was an Eton lad, he, and half a dozen other ingenuous youths, composed the Microcosm, a publication consisting of forty periodical papers; they discover far greater reading, observation, and tact, than might have been expected from youths of their age. From Eton, Mr. Canning proceeded to Oxford, and entered at Christ-church; Mr. Jenkinson, afterwards Lord Liverpool, was among his fellow collegians: an intimacy soon took place between them, which lasted through their lives. Some Journalists have pretended to draw a comparison between them: one of these writers has informed us, that "Mr. Canning's heart was warm, his temper frank, his disposition ingenuous, his mind lively, and his studies elegant as well as solid; that Mr. Jenkinson was cold and reserved in his manner, that his study was laborious and dull; and servilely followed at the dictation of his father." We believe what this writer tells us of Mr. Canning; we know his representation of Mr. Jenkinson is not exact. In classical taste and learning Mr. Jenkinson was not inferior to Mr. Canning, his manners were urbane, and, if he were less brilliant, he was not less elegant or less pleasing than his friend. At Oxford, Mr. Canning took a bachelor's degree. His application to study was unremitted, his conduct regular; he was liked and respected by every class in the university, and many prognostics were formed of his eminence in public life. The time which he spent at the university was always one of his most pleasing recollections. To represent the university in parliament was, by his own confession, one of the earliest objects of his ambition. That he did not attain it, was owing to his patronage of the Catholic cause: his loss of it cost him many a pang: to sacrifice so dear an object to principle, assuredly did him honour. When he quitted Oxford, he entered himself a student in the Middle Temple. May it not be lamented, that he did not attach himself seriously and with perseverance to the study of the law? There can be no doubt that he would have attained in that profession the highest degree of eminence. Would not this have conferred upon him much greater independence than he ever enjoyed? Would it not have conferred on him greater wealth and greater honours? Would he not have escaped by it a multitude of unpleasantnesses, to use a very soft word, which through life assailed him and embittered many of his hours? It was generally supposed that, on public matters he thought, till he quitted Oxford, with the opposition. Mr. Moore has prettily described the Whigs and Tories on For a time the Whigs thought they had secured him. Mr. Jenkinson's maiden speech having attracted universal admiration, and having been mentioned by a distinguished member of the Commons' house in terms of high praise, Mr. Sheridan announced, that 66 his side of the house, a companion and friend of the orator, who was so much the theme of praise, would soon appear, and be heard with equal applause." But the event did not correspond with Mr. Sheridan's prediction: Mr. Canning entered parliament in 1794: he immediately attached himself to Mr. Pitt, embraced his principles, and pertinaciously adhered to them. It is beside our object to enter into any detail of his political career;-(this perhaps we may make the subject of a book). We shall now content ourselves with a bare mention of the public offices which he filled. He was successively, 1. An under secretary of state; 2. Paymaster of the forces; 3. Secretary of state for foreign affairs; 4. President of the board of control for India affairs; 5. Ambassador to Lisbon; 6. A second time secretary of state for foreign affairs; and, finally, 7. First lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer. All acknowledge, that in public life he discovered great talents; that he had enlarged views of public affairs; that he was affable, punctual, easy of access, and accommodating; that he possessed the strictest integrity; and that, in private life, he was the delight of every society into which he came ;--that he had a soul for friendship, a high sense of honour, and all those charities which endear man to man. He married one of the three daughters and co-heiress of General Scott: in female excellence she has not been exceeded. *Where Kent and nature vie for Pelham's love.-POPE. As a speaker, he was excelled by few. He had not the magnificent, dignified, authoritative copiousness of Mr. Pitt-the overpowering argumentation of Mr. Fox-the philosophic or splendid displays of Mr. Burke: to this triumvirate he was inferior. But in perspicuity, method, reasoning, brilliant eloquence, playful wit, and bitter sarcasm, he was never surpassed. He chained to him the attention of the House: the listening senate always hung on all he spoke. Wit and sarcasm are, however, dangerous weapons. It was said of Mr. Percival, his rival, that he never spoke without making a friend; of Mr. Canning, that he never spoke without giving offence to some one. But while we acknowledge that he too often gave offence, the gross, the wanton, the digusting, the atrocious provocations he met with, should not be forgotten. If he had not felt them -if he had always repressed the feelings which they excited-he must have been more or less than man. We may add, that in foreign courts he was singularly respected. In these, he acquired his knowledge of the treaty of Denmark with France; and his lofty silence upon this subject, notwithstanding the bitter taunts of opposition, were often mentioned with respect and admiration. We shall not enter further into the general merit of Mr. Canning's public character. We shall only offer a few lines on his exertions in the cause-so dear to us-of CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION :— Mr. Canning accompanied Mr. Pitt in his retirement from office; he accompanied him, too, in his return to it: and, while Mr. Pitt lived, Mr. Canning, like him, deprecated the agitation of the Catholic question; "Not," says Mr. Elliot, in his celebrated speech in the Catholic debate on the 24th of March, 1808, "that there was an objection to the measure, but that there was an objection to the time." Not long after Mr. Pitt's decease, Mr. Canning became sensible that the measure imperatively demanded the attention of Parliament. On the 22nd June, 1812, he moved, "that the house would, early in the then next session of Parliament, take into its serious consideration the state of the laws affecting his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects in Great Britain and Ireland with a view to such a final adjustment as might be conducive to the peace and strength of the United Empire, to the stability of the Protestant establishment, and to the general satisfaction and concord of all classes of his Majesty's subjects. His motion was lost by a considerable majority. ad |