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32 created a Viscountess, with reversion to George Canning's sons. The eldest son, George Charles, had died in 1820. In September, 1828, the death of the second son, William Pitt, rendered Charles Canning heir to a Peerage, and placed him in a position sufficiently independent to justify his resolution to adopt a political career. In 1833 he took his degree, obtaining the honours of a first class in classics and a second in mathematics.

In September, 1833, he married the Hon. Charlotte Stuart, eldest daughter of Lord Stuart De Rothesay, a lady whose many graces and endowments of person and character bound all hearts to her alike in England and India, and whose death invested the closing hours of her husband's career with a pathetic interest.

The pleasures of married life did not still the promptings of ambition. Charles Canning's thoughts were bent on Parliament. In August, 1836, he was returned as member for Warwick. His experience of the House of Commons, however, was brief: for Parliament was prorogued within the month, and on the 15th March, 1837, Viscountess Canning died. In the following month Lord Canning took his seat in the House of Lords.

On Lord Melbourne's resignation in August, 1841, and the formation of Sir Robert Peel's Ministry, Lord Aberdeen received the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, and was glad to nominate Lord Canning to the Under-Secretaryship in a department in which his father had acquired so much distinction. Lord