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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Writers on Canning have published from time to time various versions of this so-called ‘rhyming despatch,’ all of them incorrect; and it may therefore be desirable that the Royal Historical Society should record the true version and also the circumstances in which it came to be written.
page 49 note 1 Of Levens Hall, Westmorland, M.P. for the Kendal Division of Westmorland, J.P., D.L. Westmorland, and C.C., and grandson of Sir Charles Bagot. For an account of SirBagot, Charles see Diet. Nat. Biog. (Supplement), vol. i. p. 98Google Scholar.
page 49 note 2 See the Annual Register for 1826, ‘Public Documents’ 82, and State Papers, vol. xiii.
page 50 note 1 F.O. Holland, vol. cxlvii.
page 50 note 2 5 Geo. IV. cap. 1 (1824) relates to vessels and 6 Geo. IV. cap. III (1825) relates to goods. These have since been repealed.
page 50 note 3 See the Orders in Council in the London Gazette of January 31, 1826.
page 50 note 4 This despatch has never been published or directly referred to before by any writer on Canning. For permission to search for and to copy this and the other despatches printed in this Paper from the Archives, the writer is indebted to the courtesy of the authorities of the Foreign Office who kindly gave him special permission for this purpose.
page 53 note 1 I have examined a very large number of Canning's letters to Bagot from 1808 to the time of his death in 1827, and they show that great warmth of friend-ship existed between them.
page 53 note 2 Tierney referred to was George Tierney, the second secretary at the Hague, He was promoted as secretary to Munich in 1828. Douglas was Andrew Snape Douglas, the secretary of the Embassy at the Hague, who resigned December 13, 1828.
page 55 note 1 Life of Canning, by Temperley, H. W. V., 1905, pp. 192, 193, and 264Google Scholar.
page 55 note 2 The Greville Memoirs, a journal of the Reigns of George, King IV and William, IV, p. 326 (1874)Google Scholar.
page 55 note 3 Lord Haddington, ninth Earl, Lord Lieutenant ofireland, First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Privy Seal, &c.
page 57 note 1 The Life of the Rt. Hon. George Canning, by Bell, Robert. Chapman and Hall, 1846, p. 345Google Scholar.
page 57 note 2 English Worthies. Edited by Lang, Andrew. George Canning, by Hill, Frank H.. Longmans, 1887, p. 190Google Scholar.
page 57 note 3 Historical Characters, by SirBulwer, Henry Lytton, 1868Google Scholar; Canning the Brilliant Man, vol. ii. pp. 421, 422.
page 57 note 4 George Canning, by Phillips, W. Alison, 1903. 12 Illustrations. Methuen and Co., 36 Essex Street, W.C., pp. 169, 170Google Scholar.
page 58 note 1 This is referred to by van Kampen, N. G. in his Geschiedenis van den Vijftienjarigen Vrede in Europa (1832), p. 272Google Scholar. I am indebted for this reference to the Third Secretary of the British Legation at the Hague, Mr. G. A. Mounsey, and to Dr. T. van Riemsdyk, the Dutch archivist, who observes that during his recent visit to London Dr. Colenbrander, the learned editor of the despatches relating to the Netherlands in the English archives, searched in vain for this rhyming despatch.
page 59 note 1 Notes mid Queries, 4th Series, pp. 267–303, 427–438.
page 59 note 2 See letter signed ‘An Old Dip’ in Spectator for April 18, 1903, p. 609.
page 59 note 3 This is another version, and it makes the English Custom House officers speak in French.
page 59 note 4 In addition to the more important texts and commentaries cited above, it could be shown that incorrect versions of the ‘rhyming despatch’ occur in several other works, some of which are in frequent use. As instances in point, I may refer to the following: New English Dictionary, article ‘Dutch’, quoting Lyra Ehgantiarum (ed. Locker-Lampson); Stories of the Streets of London by H. Barton Baker.