ABSTRACT
STAPLETON always declared that' Mr Canning' had' a system of policy,' and that in this consisted both his originality and his greatness. 'A policy' has been defined as " a blackmail levied by the Fool on the Unforeseen"; and' systems' have always been viewed with suspicion by Englishmen. They are particularly open to criticism in the sphere of foreign affairs, which is so often a shifting kaleidoscope coloured by the passions and interests of a dozen conflicting States. Yet the age in which Canning lived, not only favoured, but actually demanded, the existence of policies, theories, and systems. The French Revolution propounded a new theory of foreign relations, in the form of a levelling gospel and of an invocation of the rights of peoples against kings. Napoleon preached this gospel with his sword, until he broke his weapon against the united strength of Europe. Thereafter, for it was necessary to combat ideas with ideas, diplomats propounded countertheories_ Talleyrand championed Legitimacy, Alexander the Holy Alliance, Metternich acquiesced in the perversion of it into the Neo-Holy Alliance. All these theories, whether of revolution or of reaction, were intended as an appeal to opInIon. Napoleon and the Jacobins failed because they sought to force opinion too far on new courses; Alexander and Metternich because they sought to restore too much that was old. Canning succeeded because he popularised ideas, which were to spread throughout Europe in a generation. And these ideas were comprised in his system.
