ABSTRACT
It was remarked, at the moment of his greatest unpopularity, that no man had so many affectionate friends, and their influence was only less than that of his home circle. Frerethe wit of the Anti-Jacobin-Sturges Bourne, Charles Ellis, Lord Boringdon were his devoted admirers and, not seldom, the willing butts of his good-humoured wit. Bagot seems to have felt his loss as that of his dearest friend j Granville threw up his Embassy rather than serve under Wellington. Opponents like Lord Holland, Sir Robert Wilson, and Mackintosh, irresponsibles like Sir Sidney Smith, or Lord Byron, surrendered to his charm. Even the hedgehog souls of Brougham and Rogers were touched by it. And though Canning's circle was, in one sense, a small one, it was in no way confined to the great. William Jerdan, a humble journalistic neighbour at Gloucester Lodge, tells a very touching story of how the great man was his neighbour and became his friend, and of how this intimacy became ' the pride of my life.' It is plain that Canning possessed, in a peculiar degree, the genius of friendship.
