Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/893

Rh transport, while the living prisoners are driven off like cattle (Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, and in Zcitschrift fur Ethnologic, vol. v. p. 9). Where cannibalism for its own sake becomes popular among a warlike people, its effect in thinning population, and even in exterminating weak tribes, becomes perceptible. This subject has been investigated by Gerland (Aussterben der Naturvolker, p. 61). As to the history of anthropophagy, the most interesting question is whether at any early period it was ever a general habit of the human [race. This has been debated on the evidence of prehistoric human remains (see Schaaf- hausen, iibi supra, p. 264; Proceedings of Congresses of Pre historic Archaeology, Paris and Copenhagen. It has been well argued that had the men of the quaternary period been cannibals, we should find the bones generally cracked for the marrow like those of beasts, which is not the case (Le lion, L Homme Fossile, p. 68) ; also that, as regards the ancient people of the shell-mounds, had they eaten their own species they would have thrown the human bones into the rubbish heaps with those of beasts and fishes (Lubbock, Prehistoric Tiines, p. 232). The discovery of some few ancient human remains, the state of which seems to indicate that the flesh had been eaten, may perhaps be taken to show that prehistoric savages were in this respect like those of modern times, neither free from cannibalism nor universally practising it. During later ages, it may have even increased rather than diminished with the growth of population, its greatest excesses being found among high savage tribes or nations above the savage level. But with the rise of civilization to its middle and upper levels, it is more and more kept down by the growing sense of the dignity of man, and eventually disappears, as we may hope, irrevocably.  CANNING, (1770-1827), one of the greatest of English statesmen and orators, was born in London on the llth April 1770. He was descended from an ancient family ; but his father, having incurred the displeasure of his parents, war, cut off with a scanty allowance, and obliged to try his fortune in the metropolis. Here he studied for the bar, but literature proved too attractive for him, without yielding him even a tolerable livelihood. His affairs were not improved by a marriage with an Irish lady, of good connections and some beauty, but as poor as him self. He died of a broken heart, a year after the birth of his son. The widowed mother took to the stage without achieving any great success, and in this new way of life married twice, neither time wisely. It was thus, in the society of the stage, that the future premier of England passed his earliest years. It was well for him, therefore, when one of his paternal uncles, a wealthy banker in London, took upon himself the care of his education. Young Canning was then in his eighth year, and from that time had all the advantages of the best education and the most cultured society, for Burke, Fox, Sheridan, and other leading Whigs were guests at his uncle s house After spending a few years at a London school he went in due time to Eton and Oxford. At both places he highly distinguished himself. He was a brilliant scholar, gave promise of the future orator in the debating societies, became known as a wit in a wide circle of admiring friends, and even at Eton, at the age of sixteen, gave decided evidence of literary talent, in a periodical got up amongst his schoolmates. From Oxford he returned to London with the reputation of a man able to perform great things. And now he had to choose between two careers, not easily to be combined by one who had his own way to make in the world. The generous enthusiasm of youth tempted him into a political career ; worldly prudence pointed him to the bar as the safer profession for a man without means. Circumstances decided in favour of the former. Pitt was new being drawn into the te? rible crusade against the French Revolution, and greatly needed able associates to make head against the fiery elc- quence of Fox and Sheridan. To Canning, who soon became known in the clubs and other political circles of the metropolis as a young man of the most brilliant promise, he made the offer of the nomination borough of Newport. This was accepted, and Canning entered Parliament as an adherent of Pitt in 1793, being twenty-three years of age. Canning is charged with having taken this step from interested motives. In the debating societies of Oxford and the metropolis he had been an enthusiastic Liberal, and had long been the friend of the Liberal leaders. Now, when the prospects of the Whig party were becoming gloomier every day, this crossing over to the ranks of Pitt had a suspicious appearance of convenience. But there is no real ground for such suspicion. With regard to the French Revolution, which was now the all-absorbing political question, Canning simply underwent the same change of opinion as the immense majority of educated Englishmen, Pitt included, hailing it at first as the dawn of a new day for France and Europe, but turning away from it in dismay and indignation, and determined to oppose it, when he saw it was more likely to subvert than to reform society. From his entrance into Parliament till the death of Pitt in 1806, Canning was an ardent and devoted supporter of all the measures of that statesman. In the House of Com mons he soon took his place as one of the most brilliant and successful debaters of the time, though unhappily his efforts needed to be directed against his own friends, Fox and Sheridan ; and he gave proof of his business capacity in some of the less prominent departments of the adminis tration. Out of Parliament he fought the Revolution almost as effectively by starting (in 1797) the Anti-Jacobin, a weekly paper, in which the principles of innovation in morals, in literature, and above all, in politics, were merci lessly attacked, and their advocates covered with ridicule and abuse. Canning contributed many of the humorous articles, and in this way extended the reputation for caustic wit he had already acquired in Parliament. In 1800 Canning married Miss Joan Scott. The marriage was in every way a happy and a fortunate one, based on mutual love and esteem, which continued unbroken to the end ; while Miss Scott had a large fortune, and was con nected with some of the highest of the aristocracy. On the death of Pitt in 1806, and the formation of a Whig ministry by Fox and the Grenvilles, Canning went into opposition, and showed that, even on a question of humanitarian interest, he was not above the pettiest feelings of party. He supported, but very coldly, the bill for the abolition of the slave-trade. On the return of the Tories to power in 1807, Canning entered on his first great Government office, the secretary ship for Foreign Affairs. It was one of the darkest periods in the history of England. The great European coalition had been overthrown at Austerlitz, Austria compelled to an ignominious peace, Prussia nearly annihilated, and Russia obliged, at the peace of Tilsit, to connive at the supremacy of Napoleon, or induced to share in the division of the Con tinent. Canning performed the arduous duties of his office with extraordinary tact and energy. It was he that planned the expedition to Copenhagen, for the seizure of the Danish fleet, with such secrecy and despatch as completely to antici pate Napoleon, and excite in him the liveliest astonishment and wrath. The negotiations for peace opened with the English Government by Napoleon and Alexander, and the invasion of Spain, still further complicated the difficulties of his position, only to throw new lustre on his genius. He soon saw that the Peninsula was the battlefield on which England could bring her strength advantageously to bear 