George Canning

The Right Honourable George Canning (11 April 1770-8 August 1827) was a British politician who served as Foreign Secretary and, briefly, Prime Minister.

Legacy

Canning has come to be regarded by some as a "lost leader", with much speculation about what would have happened had he lived. His government of moderate Tories and Whigs continued for a few months under Lord Goderich but fell apart at the start of 1828. It was succeeded by a government headed by the Duke of Wellington, initially including some Canningites but which rapidly became a "High Tory" rump, with many of the Canningites drifting over to the Whigs, and which soon went down to massive defeat. Some historians have seen the revival of the Tories from the 1830s onwards, in the form of the Conservative Party as the overcoming of the divisions of 1827. What would have been the course of events had Canning lived is highly speculative.

Related Topics:
Lord Goderich - 1828 - Duke of Wellington - Canningites - 1830s - Conservative Party - 1827

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To some later Conservatives, most prominently Benjamin Disraeli, Canning came to be regarded as the forerunner of liberal One Nation Conservatism, providing a contrast to Sir Robert Peel, who Disraeli attacked bitterly.

Related Topics:
Benjamin Disraeli - One Nation Conservatism - Robert Peel

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