The lamentable and sudden death of the Right Hon. George Canning has produced a general sensation throughout this country. At the opening of the present year our nation deplored the loss of a prince endeared to the people by his honest worth--but a short interval has elapsed and again the country is plunged in sorrow for the loss of one of its most zealous supporters--one of its chiefest ornaments--one of its staunchest friends--and one of its most eloquent and talented statesmen! The life of the late George Canning furnishes much matter for meditation and thought. From it much may be learnt. He was a genius, in the most unlimited sense of the word; and his intellectual endowments were commanding and imperative. Of humble origin he had to contend with innumerable difficulties, consequent to his station in life,--and although his talents, which were of the first order, befitted him for the first rank in society, that rank he did not attain until the scene of this world was about to be closed for ever from him. It may be said of this eminent man, that he owed nothing to patronage--his _talents_ directed him to his elevated station, and to his intellectual superiority homage was made,--not to the man. But, in other respects, the loss of Mr. Canning is a national bereavement. He was one of the master-spirits of the age. His very name was distinguished--for he has added to the literature of his country--by his writings and his eloquence he has stimulated the march of mind; he has seconded the exertions of liberal friends to the improvements of the uneducated, and he has patronized the useful as well as the fine arts, philosophy and science, of his country. To expatiate at greater length would be superfluous, as we have in another place recorded our humble tribute to his general character.[2] We have now, therefore, merely to put together the melancholy facts connected with his death, and which will convey to another generation a just sense of the value, in our time, attached to a noble and exalted genius. The just and elegant laconism of Byron, by substituting the _past_ for the _present_ tense, may now be adopted as a faithful and brief summary of what _was_ George Canning. [2] Biographical Memoir of Mr. Canning, with a Portrait, MIRROR, Vol. iv. "Canning _was_ a genius, almost an universal one:--an orator, a wit, a poet, and a statesman." * * * * *