Supported liberal movements in Britain and abroad in the post-Napoleonic years.
Background
The son of a poverty-stricken lawyer, also named George, whose father, an Irish country gentleman, had disinherited him for marrying beneath his social level. Canning's mother was left a widow when he was an infant and, in effect, cut herself off from respectable society by going on the stage and becoming the mistress of the actor Samuel Reddish.
Education
Canning was brought up by a wealthy uncle who was a London merchant, and he was sent to Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He enrolled at Lincoln's Inn to study law but soon decided on a political career.
Career
Canning was introduced to William Pitt the Younger, to whom he became devoted, and who procured for him a seat in Parliament (Newtown, Isle of Wight) in 1793. Canning quickly made his mark as a brilliant speaker, and was appointed under-secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1796. Promotions followed--he became a commissioner for the India Board of Control (1799) and Joint Paymaster of the Forces (1800). In 1800 he greatly improved both his financial and social position by marrying an heiress, Joan Scott, whose sister was the wife of the Duke of Portland's heir.
In 1801 Canning resigned with Pitt over the issue of lifting civil disabilities from Roman Catholics (Catholic Emancipation). He returned with Pitt to office in 1804 as Treasurer of the Navy. On Pitt's death (January 1806) Canning and his friends resigned, and were in opposition for the duration of the Grenville Ministry, which lasted until March 1807. The "friends of Mr. Pitt" were again in office under the Duke of Portland, with Canning as foreign secretary. In 1809 he quarrelled with Viscount Castlereagh, the war minister, over the conduct of the war with Napoleonic France; they fought a duel and both resigned. A few weeks later Portland retired on account of ill health, and Canning, disappointed in his expectation that George III would name him prime minister, refused to serve under Spencer Perceval. In the summer of 1812 he likewise rejected an offer of the foreign secretaryship made by Perceval's successor, the Earl of Liverpool.
Canning did, however, accept the post of ambassador to Portugal in 1814 and, two years later, re-entered the cabinet as president of the Board of Control. Disapproving of the government's proceedings against Queen Caroline in 1820, when George IV tried to divorce her, he resigned in December of that year. Canning had been on friendly terms with her when she was Princess of Wales, and George IV seems seriously (but erroneously) to have believed that Canning had committed adultery with her. Her death in August 1821 removed the cause of his separation from the ministry, but the King's hostility to him prevented his return to office until September 1822, when Canning succeeded his old rival Castlereagh (who had committed suicide in that year) as foreign secretary and Leader of the House of Commons.
Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister. Canning disapproved of Continental despots and their ministers and believed that foreign alliances and other entanglements should be avoided. He stood for the principle of nonintervention in the affairs of other countries, which, when worked out in practice, meant refusing to support reactionary powers in suppressing revolutions and meant giving assistance to revolutionaries. Hence, but for the opposition of the King and part of the cabinet, Canning would have helped the constitutional party in Spain when a French army intervened to restore Ferdinand VII to absolute power (1823). But Canning was supported by his more conservative colleagues in not permitting France to use her navy to help Spain suppress the revolts of her South American colonies and restore Ferdinand's power across the Atlantic as well. In pursuit of this policy Canning made a suggestion to Richard Rush, U.S. Minister to Great Britain, which indirectly resulted in the enunciation by the U.S. Government of the Monroe Doctrine on Dec. 2, 1823. This statement made clear U.S. opposition to any future intervention by European powers in the New World.
It was the success of this policy regarding the new South American states which led Canning to utter his famous boast, in 1826, that he had "called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old." In the previous year Canning had indeed won over the cabinet to the policy of recognizing the political independence of the new South American republics. The popularity of Canning's foreign policy caused George IV to change his attitude completely, and after 1825 Canning encountered no more secret opposition from the Court. The result was that, in April 1827, following Liverpool's resignation, the King appointed Canning rather than Sir Robert Peel or the Duke of Wellington as prime minister.
Since Canning was the Tory Party's leading advocate of Catholic Emancipation, almost all the anti-Catholic ministers refused to serve under him and went into opposition, and he was necessarily compelled to seek help from the Whigs. With their votes, and those of many of the independent members, he had an unchallengeable majority in the House of Commons. But it was in the House of Lords that his important Corn Bill was defeated by the Tory protectionists. It was designed to liberate the grain trade permanently from the prohibitory tariff system in operation since 1815, to put an end to the extraordinary fluctuations in the price, and, by means of a sliding scale of import duties, to give reasonable protection to the producer when prices were low and to the consumer when prices were high.
Canning's foreign policy while prime minister was chiefly directed toward a solution of the Greek question, which had agitated Europe ever since the outbreak of the Greek revolt against the Turks in 1821. He sought to prevent the isolated intervention of Russia against the Ottoman Empire in assistance to the Greeks, because this would have meant Russian annexations and aggrandizement in the Near East. His alternative was a policy of cooperation with Russia (and France) in order to secure for the Greeks, by force if need be, reasonable peace terms from the Sultan. The result was the Treaty of London (July 6, 1827) by which the Greeks were to form an independent state, subject merely to the Sultan's suzerainty. The final outcome was delayed until 1829, but the liberation of Greece from oriental tutelage was nevertheless the fruit of Canning's policy, though he did not live to see it. He died at Chiswick on Aug. 8, 1827. George IV later gave Mrs. Canning a peerage, in tribute to the memory of a great statesman.