On the death of Lord Liverpool, in 1827, Canning became Prime-Minister. The great question then before the country was the political emancipation of the Roman Catholics. The Test Act, adopted in the reign of Charles II., had excluded Catholics from political rights—from seats in Parliament and from the privilege of voting—and the act was still in force. With the agitation that was now endeavoring to secure the emancipation of the Catholics from political disabilities, Canning was in hearty sympathy. When he was called into supreme power, therefore, the inference was natural that Catholic emancipation was to be carried through. Wellington, Peel, and nearly all the Tories in the ministry threw up their places. Their purpose was to compel Canning to resign; for knowing his views on the question of emancipation, they were unwilling to hold office under him. Unfortunately, while the struggle involved in their resignation was going on, Canning’s health suddenly gave way, and sinking rapidly, he expired on the 8th of August, 1827, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. It is a singular and an interesting fact that the very men who, in 1827, refused to follow Canning in the work of emancipation, were driven two years later by public opinion to put themselves at the head of the movement. By many excellent judges Canning is regarded as one of the foremost of English orators. Brougham speaks of him in terms of almost the highest praise, and so judicious a critic as Sir James Mackintosh says that “Mr. Canning seems to have been the best model among our orators of the adorned style. In some qualities,” he continues, “Mr. Canning surpassed Mr. Pitt. His diction was more various—sometimes more simple—more idiomatical, even in its more elevated parts. It sparkled with imagery, and was brightened by illustration, in both of which Mr. Pitt, for so great an orator, was defective. Had he been a dry and meagre speaker, Mr. Canning would have been universally allowed to have been one of the greatest masters of argument; but his hearers were so dazzled by the splendor of his diction that they did not perceive the acuteness and the occasional excessive refinement of his reasoning; a consequence which, as it shows the injurious effects of a seductive fault, can with the less justness be overlooked in the estimate of his understanding.” GEORGE CANNING. ON THE POLICY OF GRANTING AID TO PORTUGAL WHEN INVADED BY SPAIN; HOUSE OF COMMONS, DECEMBER 12, 1826.