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The Spectatress George Canning urged Britain not to bring Continental Europe’s topsy-turvy politics home by getting too closely involved.
1820
King George IV 1820-1830
Music: Muzio Clementi

© Mageslayer99, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0. Source

About this picture …

The statue of Britannia in the harbour at Plymouth Hoe. As they rebuilt following the devastating and divisive Napoleonic Wars of 1804 to 1815, many of our European neighbours struggled to strike the same balance between effective government and democratic accountability that we struck in the Glorious Revolution of 1689. Out of that struggle grew Fascism, Marxism and Dirigisme, and their legacy haunts Europe to this day. Canning’s advice to Britain is as valid as ever: don’t let Continental politics spread here.

The Spectatress
George Canning MP was grateful for the British Constitution’s balance between monarchy and democracy. He saw no such balance on the European Continent, still reeling from Napoleon’s grab for power, and during a speech in Liverpool in 1820 warned against letting our neighbours’ confusion spread here.

GENTLEMEN, there is (disguise it how we may) a struggle going on, — in some countries an open, and in some a tacit struggle, between the principles of monarchy and democracy. God be praised, that in that struggle we have not any part to take. God be praised, that we have long ago arrived at all the blessings that are to be derived from that which alone can end such a struggle beneficially, — a compromise and intermixture of those conflicting principles.

England has only to maintain herself on the basis of her own solid and settled constitution, firm, unshaken, — a spectatress interested in the contest only by her sympathies — not a partisan on either side; for the sake of both, a model, and ultimately, perhaps, an umpire. Should we be led, by any false impulse of chivalrous benevolence, to participate in the struggle itself, we commit, and thereby impair, our authority; we abandon the position in which we might hereafter do most good, and may bring the danger of a foreign struggle home to our own hearths and to our own institutions.*

George Canning served as Prime Minister for a few months prior to his death in 1827. He had been Chancellor of the Exchequer (1827) and Foreign Secretary twice (1807-1809, 1822-1827); at the time of this speech, he was President of the Board of Control (1816-1821), a trade and industry role, and MP for Liverpool. He strongly opposed the Jacobins, British enthusiasts of the French Revolution, and supported William Wilberforce in his campaign for the Abolition of Slavery.

Précis

In 1820, George Canning MP noted the tide of revolutions sweeping Europe, and urged Britain not to stand in the way of independence for small states breaking away from tired Empires. He warned that if Britain took sides and interfered, she would squander the opportunity to act as a mediator, and the unrest might spread to her streets too. (58 / 60 words)

Source

From a speech at the public dinner in honour of his re-election, in the music-hall, on Saturday March 18th, 1820, as given in ‘Speeches Delivered on Public Occasions in Liverpool’, by George Canning MP (1770-1827).

Suggested Music

Sonata in B flat major, Op. 24 No. 2

1: Allegro con brio

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)

Played by Zenan Kwan.

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How To Use This Passage

You can use this passage to help improve your command of English.

IRead it aloud, twice or more. IISummarise it in one sentence of up to 30 words. IIISummarise it in one paragraph of 40-80 words. IVMake notes on the passage, and reconstruct the original from them later on. VJot down any unfamiliar words, and make your own sentences with them later. VIMake a note of any words that surprise or impress you, and ask yourself what meaning they add to the words you would have expected to see. VIITurn any old-fashioned English into modern English. VIIITurn prose into verse, and verse into prose. IXAsk yourself what the author is trying to get you to feel or think. XHow would an artist or a photographer capture the scene? XIHow would a movie director shoot it, or a composer write incidental music for it?

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