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Rh Canning accepted the offer, nor was he to be tempted from it by an invitation which he received in the following year from Lord Ellenborough — on his appointment to succeed Lord Auckland as Governor-General of India — to accompany him as Private Secretary. The two men were destined, in after years, to come into violent collision on an Indian topic.

Canning worked hard at his duties, but the presence of his chief in the Upper House relieved him of the necessity — indeed deprived him of the opportunity — of Parliamentary explanation. But his character was felt. 'Lord Aberdeen,' says Earl Granville, 'had the most implicit confidence in him, and allowed him to do much of the Secretary of State's work. He was greatly looked up to in the office.'

Early in 1 846 Sir Robert Peel, now in the troubled waters of the Corn Law Repeal, took the field again with a reconstituted Ministry, Mr. Gladstone at the Colonial Office, Lord Lincoln in Ireland, Lord Canning at the Woods and Forests. Sir Robert Peel's resignation in June of that year brought Lord John Russell to the Treasury and placed Lord Canning in opposition. He frequently, however, found himself in sympathy with the liberal measures of Lord John Russell's Cabinet, and in May, 1848, was the first to support Lord Lansdowne's motion in support of the removal of Jewish Disabilities, separating himself from almost the entire body of his former associates, and replying to Lord Ellenborough, who had moved an amendment on the second reading of the Bill.