Speeches: With a Memoir of his Life Volume 4

by George Canning, Roger Therry

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454 pages, Hardcover

Published November 18, 2015

About the author

George Canning was a British politician in the early 19th century.

His father died when he was very young, and Canning's mother took work as an actress, not at all a respectable career in those days. Financial support from his uncle, however, meant that the young George was not doomed to poverty. He was sent to Eton and then to Oxford University, where he proved himself an exceptionally able student. After graduating, he worked as a lawyer for a while, before being elected a Tory MP in 1793, under the patronage of William Pitt the Younger himself.

He was one of the fastest rising stars in the Tory Party and made a sucessful career of politics, holding such powerful positions as Foreign Secretary. In 1809 he reportedly threatened to resign unless his fellow cabinet member Lord Castlereagh was replaced. Castlereagh found out, and challenged him to a duel. Canning was shot in the leg.

When Lord Liverpool died unexpectedly in 1827, Canning became Prime Minister, but the stress of the position aggravated his already delicate health and he died after just 119 days in office. To this day, he remains the shortest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.