It was not until 1798 that he obtained his great reputation as a statesman and orator. Every one agrees that his literary eloquence, wit, beauty of imagery, taste, and clearness of reasoning, were extraordinary. Byron calls him "a genius--almost a universal one; an orator, a wit, a poet, and a statesman." As a public speaker, we may picture him from Lord Dalling's description:-- "Every day, indeed, leaves us fewer of those who remember the clearly chiseled countenance, which the slouched hat only slightly concealed; the lip satirically curled; the penetrating eye, peering along the Opposition benches, of the old Parliamentary leader in the House of Commons. It is but here and there that we find a survivor of the old days to speak to us of the singularly mellifluous and sonorous voice, the classical language,--now pointed with epigram, now elevated into poetry, now burning with passion, now rich with humor,--which curbed into still attention a willing and long-broken audience." As a statesman his place is more dubious. Like every English politician not born to a title, however,--Burke is an instance,--he was ferociously abused as a mere mercenary adventurer because his livelihood came from serving the public. The following lampoon is a specimen; the chief sting lies not in Canning's insolent mockery,--"Every time he made a speech he made a new and permanent enemy," it was said of him,--but in his not being a rich nobleman. THE UNBELOVED Not a woman, child, or man in All this isle that loves thee, Canning. Fools, whom gentle manners sway, May incline to Castlereagh; Princes who old ladies love Of the Doctor[A] may approve; Chancery lords do not abhor Their chatty, childish Chancellor; In Liverpool, some virtues strike, And little Van's beneath dislike. But thou, unamiable object, Dear to neither prince nor subject, Veriest, meanest scab for pelf Fastening on the skin of Guelph, Thou, thou must surely _loathe thyself_. [A] Addington. But his dominant taste was literary. His literature helped him to the field of statesmanship; as a compensation, his statesmanship is obscured by his literature. Bell says of him:-- "Canning's passion for literature entered into all his pursuits. It colored his whole life. Every moment of leisure was given up to books. He and Pitt were passionately fond of the classics, and we find them together of an evening after a dinner at Pitt's, poring over some old Grecian in a corner of the drawing-room while the rest of the company are dispersed in conversation.... In English writings his judgment was pure and strict; and no man was a more perfect master of all the varieties of composition. He was the first English Minister who banished the French language from our diplomatic correspondence and indicated before Europe the copiousness and dignity of our native tongue."