VOLUME V SLICE II Camorra to Cape Colony (continued 6)
Reading edition
The long-established conclusions concerning the incidence of the disease in regard to age and sex have been confirmed and rendered more precise by modern statistics. Cancer is a disease of old age; the incidence at the ages of sixty-five to seventy-five is ten times greater than at the ages thirty-five to forty-five. This fact is the source of frequent fallacies when different countries or districts and different periods are compared with each other, unless account is taken of the differences in age and constitution. With regard to sex females are far more liable than males; the respective death-rates per million living for England and Wales in 1904 were—males 740; females 1006. But the two rates show a tendency to approximate; the increase shown over a series of years has been considerably more rapid among males than among females. One result of more careful examination of statistics has been to discredit, though perhaps somewhat hastily, certain observations regarding the prevalence of cancer in special districts and special houses. On the other hand the fuller statistics now available concerning the relative frequency of cancer in the several organs and parts of the body, of which some account is given above, go to confirm the old observation that cancer commonly begins at the seat of some local irritation. By far the most frequent seats of disease are the uterus and breast in women and the digestive tract in both sexes, and these are all particularly subject to such irritation. With regard to the influence of heredity the trend of modern research is to minimize or deny its importance in cancer, as in phthisis, and to explain family histories by other considerations. At most heredity is only thought to confer a predisposition.
The only “cure” for cancer remains removal by operation; but improved methods of diagnosis enable this to be done in many cases at an earlier stage of the disease than formerly; and modern methods of surgery permit not Treatment. only of operation in parts of the body formerly inaccessible, but also more complete removal of the affected tissues. Numerous forms of treatment by modern therapeutic means, both internal and external, have been advocated and tried; but they are all of an experimental nature and have failed to meet with general acceptance. One of the most recent is treatment by trypsin, a pancreatic ferment. This has been suggested by Dr John Beard of Edinburgh in conformity with the theory, mentioned above, that failure of the pancreatic secretions is the cause of cancer. It has been claimed that the drug exercises a favourable influence in conjunction with operation and even without it. The experience of different observers with regard to results is contradictory; but clinical investigations conducted at Middlesex hospital in a number of cases of undoubted cancer in strict accordance with Dr Beard’s directions, and summarized by Dr Walter Ball and Dr Fairfield Thomas in the Sixth Report from the Cancer Research Laboratories (Archives of Middlesex Hospital, vol. ix.) in May 1907, resulted in the conclusion “that the course of cancer, considered both as a disease and as a morbid process, is unaltered by the administration of trypsin and amylopsin.” The same conclusion has been reached after similar trials at the cancer hospital. Another experimental method of treatment which has attracted much attention is application of the X-rays. The results vary in a capricious and inexplicable manner; in some cases marked benefit has followed, in others the disease has been as markedly aggravated. Until more is known both of cancer and of X-rays, their use must be considered not only experimental but risky.
(A. Sl.)
CANCRIN, FRANZ LUDWIG VON (1738-1812), German mineralogist and metallurgist, was born on the 21st of February 1738, at Breitenbach, Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1764 he entered the service of the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt at Hanau, becoming professor of mathematics at the military academy, head of the civil engineering department of the state, director of the theatre and (1774) of the mint. A work on the copper mines of Hesse (1767) earned him a European reputation, and in 1783 he accepted from Catherine II. of Russia the directorship of the famous Staraya salt-works, living thenceforth in Russia. In 1798 he became a councillor of state at St Petersburg. He published many works on mineralogy and metallurgy, of which the most important, the Grundzüge der Berg- und Salzwerkskunde (13 vols., Frankfort, 1773-1791), has been translated into several languages. His son, Count Georg von Cancrin, or Kankrin (1774-1845), was the eminent Russian minister of finance.
CANDELABRUM (from Lat. candela, a taper or candle), the stand on which ancient lamps were placed. The most ancient example is the bronze candelabrum made by Callimachus for the Erechtheum at Athens, to carry the lamp sacred to Minerva. In this case it is probable the lamp was suspended, as in the example from Pompeii, now in the Naples museum; this consisted of a stalk or reed, the upper part moulded with projecting feature to carry the lamps, and a base resting on three lions’ or griffins’ feet; sometimes there was a disk at the top to carry a lamp, and sometimes there was a hollow cup, in which resinous woods were burnt. The origin of the term suggests that on the top of the disk was a spike to carry a wax or tallow candle (candela or funalia). Besides these bronze candelabra, of which there are many varieties in museums, the Romans used more ponderous supports in stone or marble, of which many examples were found in the Thermae. These consisted of a base, often triangular, and of similar design to the small sacrificial altars, and a shaft either richly moulded or carved with the acanthus plant and crowned with a large cup or basin. There is a fine example of the latter in the Vatican. The Roman examples seem to have served as models for many of the candelabra in the churches in Italy. The word “candelabrum” is also now used to describe many different forms of lighting with multiple points, and is often applied to hanging lights as well as to those which rise from a stand.
CANDIA, formerly the capital and still the most populous city of Crete (q.v.), to which it has given its name. It is situated on the northern shore somewhat nearer the eastern than the western end of the island, in 35° 20′ N. lat. and 25° 9′ E. long. It is still surrounded by its extensive Venetian fortifications; but they have fallen into disrepair, and a good part of the town is in a dilapidated condition, mainly from the effects of earthquakes. The principal buildings are the Venetian loggia (barbarously mutilated by the new régime), the Konak (now Prefecture), the mosques, which are fourteen in number, the new cathedral, the two Greek churches, the Armenian church, the Capuchine monastery, the bazaars and the baths. There are also some beautiful Venetian fountains. The town is the seat of a Greek archbishop. A highly interesting museum has been formed here containing the antiquities found during the recent excavations. The chief trade is in oil and soap, both of which are of excellent quality. The coasting trade, which is of considerable importance, is mainly carried on in Turkish vessels. The manufacture of leather for home consumption is an extensive industry and wine of good quality is produced in the neighbourhood. The harbour, which had grown almost inaccessible, was deepened by Mustapha Pasha between 1820 and 1840. It is formed for the most part by the ancient moles, and was never deep enough to admit the larger vessels even of the Venetians, which were accustomed to anchor in the port of the neighbouring island of Standia. A short distance from St George’s Gate there was a small village exclusively inhabited by lepers, who numbered about seventy families, but they have now been transported to Spinalonga. The population of the town is estimated at from 15,000 to 18,000, about half being Mahommedan Greeks. The site of Candia, or, as it was till lately locally known, Megalo castro (the Great Fortress), has been supposed to correspond with that of the ancient Heracleion, the seaport of Cnossus, and this appellation has now been officially revived by its Greek inhabitants. The ruins of Cnossus are situated at the distance of about 3 m. to the south-east at the village of Makryteichos or Long Wall. Founded by the Saracens in the 9th century, Candia was fortified by the Genoese in the 12th, and was greatly extended and strengthened by the Venetians in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. It was besieged by the Turks under the vizier Achmet in 1667; and, in spite of a most heroic defence, in which the Venetians lost 30,000 in killed and wounded, it was forced to surrender in 1669. (See also Crete.)
CANDIDATE, one who offers himself or is selected by others for an office or place, particularly one who puts up for election to parliament or to any public body. The word is derived from the Latin candidatus, clad in white (candidus). In Rome, candidates for election to the higher magistracies appeared in the Campus Martius, the Forum and other public places, during their canvass, in togas with the white of the natural wool brightened by chalk.
CANDLE (Lat. candela, from candere, to glow), a cylindrical rod of solid fatty or waxy matter, enclosing a central fibrous wick, and designed to be burnt for giving light. The oldest materials employed for making candles are beeswax and tallow, while among those of more recent introduction are spermaceti, stearine and paraffin wax. Waxlights (cereus, sc. funis) were known to the Romans. In the midlde ages wax candles were little used, owing to their expense, except for the ceremonies of the church and other religious purposes (see Lights, Ceremonial Use of), but in the 15th century, with the cheapening of wax, they began to find wider employment. The tallow candle, mentioned by Apuleius as sebaceus, was long an article of domestic manufacture. The tallow was melted and strained, and then lengths of cotton or flax fibre, or rushes from which most of the external skin had been stripped, only sufficient being left to support the pith (“rushlights”), were dipped into it, the operation being repeated until the desired thickness had been attained. In Paris, in the 13th century, there was a gild of candlemakers who went from house to house to make tallow candles, the manufacture of wax candles being in the hands of another gild. This separation of the two branches of the trade is also exemplified by the existence of two distinct livery companies in the city of London—the Waxchandlers and the Tallowchandlers; the French chandelle properly means tallow candle, candles made of materials less fusible than tallow being called bougies, a term said to be derived from the town of Bougie in Algeria, either because wax was produced there or because the Venetians imported wax candles thence into Europe. The old tallow “dips” gave a poor light, and tallow itself is now used only to a limited extent, except as a source of “stearine.” This is the trade name for a mixture of solid fatty acids—mainly stearic and palmitic—manufactured not only from tallow and other animal fats, but also from such vegetable fats as palm-oil. Paraffin wax, a mixture of solid hydrocarbons obtained from crude North American and Rangoon petroleum, and also yielded in large quantities by the Scotch shale oil industry, is, at least in Great Britain, a still more important material of candle-manufacture, which came into use about 1854. Spermaceti, a crystalline fatty substance obtained from the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), was introduced as a material for candles about a century earlier. In practice the candlemaker mostly uses mixtures of these materials. For instance, 5-10% of stearine, which is used alone for candles that have to be burnt in hot climates, is mixed with paraffin wax, to counteract the tendency to bend with heat exhibited by the latter substance. Again, the brittleness of spermaceti is corrected by the addition of beeswax, stearine, paraffin wax or ceresin (obtained from the mineral wax ozocerite). In some “composite” candles stearine is mixed with the hard fat (“cocoa-nut stearine”) expressed from cocoa-nut oil by hydraulic pressure; and this cocoa-nut stearine is also used for night-lights, which are short thick candles with a thin wick, calculated to burn from six to ten hours.
The stearine or stearic acid industry originated in the discovery made by M.E. Chevreul about 1815, that fats are glycerides or compounds of glycerin with fatty acids, mostly palmitic, stearic and oleic. The object of the candlemaker is to remove this glycerin, not only because it is a valuable product in itself, but also because it is an objectionable constituent of a candle; the vapours of acrolein formed by its decomposition in the flame are the cause of the unpleasant odours produced by tallow “dips.” He also removes the oleic acid, which is liquid at ordinary temperatures, from the palmitic and stearic acids, mixtures of which solidify at temperatures varying from about 130° to 155° F., according to the percentage of each present. Several methods are in use for the decomposition of the fats. In the autoclave process the fat, whether tallow, palm-oil or a mixture of the two, mixed with 25 or 30% of water and about 3% of lime, is subjected in an autoclave to steam at a pressure of about 120 ℔ per square inch for eight or ten hours, when nearly all of it is saponified. On standing the product separates into two layers—“sweet water” containing glycerin below, and the fatty acids with a certain amount of lime soap above. The upper layer is then boiled and treated with enough sulphuric acid to decompose the lime soap, the calcium sulphate formed is allowed to subside, and the fatty acids are run off into shallow boxes to be crystallized or “seeded” prior to the separation of the oleic acid, which is effected by pressing the solid blocks from the boxes, first cold and then hot, by hydraulic machinery. In another process saponification is effected by means of concentrated sulphuric acid. The fat is mixed with 4-6% of the acid and treated with steam in boiling water till the hydrolysis is complete, when on standing the glycerin and sulphuric acid sink to the bottom and the fatty acids rise to the top. Owing to the darkness of their colour, when this process is employed, the latter usually have to be distilled before being crystallized. The autoclave process yields about 45% of stearine, one-third of which is recovered from the expressed oleic acid, but with sulphuric acid saponification the amount of stearine is higher— over 60%—and that of oleic acid less, part of it being converted into solid material by the action of the acid. The yield of glycerin is also less. In a combination of the two processes the fat may first be treated by the autoclave process, so as to obtain a full yield (about 10%) of glycerin, and the resulting fatty acids then subjected to acid saponification, so as to get the higher amount of stearine. At the best, however, some 30% of oleic acid remains, and though often sought, no satisfactory method of converting this residue into solid has been discovered. It constitutes “red oil,” and is used in soap-making and in woollen manufacture. In the process patented by Ernst Twitchell in 1898, decomposition is effected by boiling the fat with half its bulk of water in presence of a reagent obtained by the action of sulphuric acid on oleic acid and an aromatic hydrocarbon such as benzene.
The wick is a most important part of a candle, and unless it is of proper size and texture either too much or too little fuel will be supplied to the flame, and the candle will gutter or be otherwise unsatisfactory. The material generally employed is cotton yarn, plaited or “braided” by machinery, and treated or “pickled” with a solution of boracic acid, ammonium or potassium nitrate, or other salt. The tightness of the plaiting varies with the material used for the candle, wicks for stearine being looser than for paraffin, but tighter than for wax or spermaceti. The plaited wick is flat and curls over as the candle burns, and thus the end is kept projecting into the outer part of the flame where it is consumed, complete combustion being aided by the pickling process it has undergone. In the old tallow dips the strands of cotton were merely twisted together, instead of being plaited; wicks made in this way had no determinate bias towards the outside of the flame, and thus were not wholly consumed, the result being that there was apt to be an accumulation of charred matter, which choked the flame unless removed by periodical “snuffing.”
Four ways of making candles may be distinguished—dipping, pouring, drawing and moulding, the last being that most commonly employed. Dipping is essentially the same as the domestic process already described, but the rate of production is increased by mounting a number of wicks in a series of frames, each of which in turn is brought over the tallow bath so that its wicks can be dipped. Pouring, used in the case of wax, which cannot well be moulded because it contracts in cooling and also has a tendency to stick to the moulds, consists in ladling molten wax upon the wicks suspended from an iron ring. When of the desired thickness the candles are rolled under a plate on a marble slab. In drawing, used for small tapers, the wick, rolled on a drum, is passed through the molten wax or paraffin, drawn through a circular hole and slowly wound on a second drum; it is then passed again through the molten material and through a somewhat larger hole, and reeled back on the first drum, this process being repeated with larger and larger holes until the coating is of the required thickness. In moulding, a number of slightly conical moulds are fixed by the larger extremity to a kind of trough, with their tapered ends projecting downwards and with wicks arranged down their centres. The molten material is poured into the trough and fills the moulds, from which the candles are withdrawn when solidified. Modern candle-moulding machines are continuous in their operation; long lengths of wick are coiled on bobbins, one for each mould, and the act of removing one set of candles from their moulds draws in a fresh set of wicks. “Self-fitting ends,” which were invented by J.L. Field in 1864, and being shaped like a truncated cone enable the candles to be fixed in candlesticks of any diameter, are formed by means of an attachment to the tops of the moulds; spirally twisted candles are, as it were, unscrewed from their moulds. It is necessary to be able to regulate the temperature of the moulds accurately, else the candles will not come out freely and will not be of good appearance. For stearine candles the moulds are immersed in tepid water and the cooling must be slow, else the material will crystallize, though if it be too slow cracking will occur. For paraffin, on the other hand, the moulds must be rather hotter than the molten material (about 200° F.), and must be quickly cooled to prevent the candles from sticking.
A candle-power, as a unit of light in photometry, was defined by the (London) Metropolis Gas Act of 1860 as the light given by a sperm candle, of which six weighed 1 ℔ and each burned 120 grains an hour.
See W. Lant Carpenter, Soaps and Candles (London, 1895); C.E. Groves and W. Thorp, Chemical Technology, vol. ii. “Lighting” (London, 1895); L.L. Lamborn, Soaps, Candles and Glycerine (New York, 1906); J. Lewkowitsch, Oils, Fats, and Waxes (London, 1909).
CANDLEMAS (Lat. festum candelarum sive luminum), the name for the ancient church festival, celebrated annually on the 2nd of February, in commemoration of the presentation of Christ in the Temple. In the Greek Church it is known as Ύπαπάντη τοῦ Κυρίου (“the meeting of the Lord,” i.e. with Simeon and Anna), in the West as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. It is the most ancient of all the festivals in honour of the Virgin Mary. A description is given of its celebration at Jerusalem in the Peregrinatio of Etheria (Silvia), in the second half of the 4th century. It was then kept on the 14th of February, forty days after Epiphany, the celebration of the Nativity (Christmas) not having been as yet introduced; the Armenians still keep it on this day, as “the Coming of the Son of God into the Temple.” The celebration gradually spread to other parts of the church, being moved to the 2nd of February, forty days after the newly established feast of Christmas. In 542 it was established throughout the entire East Roman empire by Justinian. Its introduction in the West is somewhat obscure. The 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary, which embodies a much older tradition, mentions it under the title of Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which has led some to suppose that it was ordained by Pope Gelasius I. in 4921 as a counter-attraction to the heathen Lupercalia; but for this there is no warrant. The procession on this day was introduced by Pope Sergius I. (687-701). The custom of blessing the candles for the whole year on this day, whence the name Candlemas is derived, did not come into common use until the 11th century.
In the Quadragesimae de Epiphania as described by Etheria there is, as Monsignor Duchesne points out (Christian Worship, p. 272), no indication of a special association with the Blessed Virgin; and the distinction between the festival as celebrated in the East and West is that in the former it is a festival of Christ, in the latter a festival pre-eminently of the Virgin Mother.
See L. Duchesne, Christian Worship (Eng. trans., London, 1904); art. s.v. by F.G. Holweck in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.
1 So Baronius, Ann. ad ann. 544.
CANDLESTICK, the receptacle for holding a candle, nowadays made in various art-forms. The word was formerly used for any form of support on which lights, whether candles or lamps, were fixed; thus a candelabrum (q.v.) is sometimes spoken of from tradition as a candlestick, e.g. as when Moses was commanded to make a candlestick for the tabernacle, of hammered gold, a talent in weight, and consisting of a base with a shaft rising out of it and six arms, and with seven lamps supported on the summits of the six arms and central shaft. When Solomon built the temple, he placed in it ten golden candlesticks, five on the north and five on the south side of the Holy Place; but after the Babylonish captivity the golden candlestick was again placed in the temple, as it had been before in the tabernacle by Moses. On the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, it was carried with other spoils to Rome. Representations of the seven-branched candlestick, as it is called, occur on the arch of Titus at Rome, and on antiquities found in the Catacombs at Rome. The primitive form of candlestick was a torch made of slips of bark, vine tendrils or wood dipped in wax or tallow, tied together and held in the hand by the lower end, such as are frequently figured on ancient painted vases. The next step was to attach to them a cup (discus) to catch the dripping wax or tallow.
A candlestick may be either “flat” or “tall.” The former has a short stem, rising from a dish, and is usually furnished with an extinguisher fitting into a socket; the latter has a pillar which may be only a few inches in height or may rise to several feet, and rarely has an extinguisher. The flat variety is sometimes called a “bedroom candlestick.” The beginnings of this interesting and often beautiful appliance are not exactly known, but it dates certainly as far back as the 14th century and is probably older. It is most usually of metal, earthenware or china, but originally it was made of some hard wood and had no socketed pillar, the candle fitting upon a metal spike, in the fashion still familiar in the case of many church candlesticks. It has been constantly influenced by mobiliary and architectural fashions, and has varied, as it still varies, from the severest simplicity of form and material to the most elaborate artistic treatment and the costliest materials—gold and silver, crystal, marble and enamel. Previous to the 17th century, iron, latten, bronze and copper were chiefly used, but thenceforward the most elegant examples were chiefly of silver, though in more modern periods Sheffield plate, silver plate and china became exceedingly popular. Sometimes the base and sconce are of one material and the pillar of another, as when the former are of silver and the pillar of marble or china. The choice and combination of materials are, indeed, infinite. The golden age of the candlestick lasted, roughly speaking, from the third quarter of the 17th century to the end of the 18th. The later Jacobean, Queen Anne and early Georgian forms were often extremely elegant, with broad bases, round, oval or square and swelling stems. Fine examples of these periods, especially when of silver, are much sought after and command constantly augmenting prices. As with most domestic appliances the history of the candlestick is an unceasing tendency towards simplicity, the most elaborate and fantastic forms, animals and reptiles, the monstrous creatures of mythology, lions and men-at-arms, angels and cupids, having gradually given place to architectural motives such as the baluster stem and to the classic grace of the Adam style. The candlestick in its modern form is, indeed, artistically among the least unsatisfactory of household plenishings.
CANDLISH, ROBERT SMITH (1806-1873), Scottish divine, was born at Edinburgh on the 23rd of March 1806, and spent his early years in Glasgow, where he graduated in 1823. During the years 1823-1826 he went through the prescribed course at the divinity hall, then presided over by Dr Stevenson MacGill, and on leaving, accompanied a pupil as private tutor to Eton, where he stayed two years. In 1829 he entered upon his life’s work, having been licensed to preach during the summer vacation of the previous year. After short assistant pastorates at St Andrew’s, Glasgow, and Bonhill, Dumbartonshire, he obtained a settled charge as minister of the important parish of St George’s, Edinburgh. Here he at once took the place he so long held as one of the ablest preachers in Scotland. Destitute of natural oratorical gifts and somewhat ungainly in his manner, he attracted and even riveted the attention of his audience by a rare combination of intellectual keenness, emotional fervour, spiritual insight and power of dramatic representation of character and life. His theology was that of the Scottish Calvinistic school, but his sympathetic character combined with strong conviction gathered round him one of the largest and most intelligent congregations in the city.
From the very commencement of his ministry in Edinburgh, Candlish took the deepest interest in ecclesiastical questions, and he soon became involved as one of the chief actors in the struggle which was then agitating the Scottish church. His first Assembly speech, delivered in 1839, placed him at once among the leaders of the party that afterwards formed the Free Church, and his influence in bringing about the Disruption of 1843 was inferior only to that of Thomas Chalmers. Great as was his popularity as a preacher, it was in the arena of ecclesiastical debate that his ability chiefly showed itself, and probably no other single man had from first to last so large a share in shaping the constitution and guiding the policy of the Free Church. He took his stand on two principles: the right of the people to choose their ministers, and the independence of the church in things spiritual. On his advice Hugh Miller was appointed editor of the Witness, the powerful Free Church organ. He was actively engaged at one time or other in nearly all the various schemes of the church, but special mention should be made of his services on the education committee, of which he was convener from 1846 to 1863, and in the unsuccessful negotiations for union among the non-established Presbyterian denominations of Scotland, which were carried on during the years 1863-1873. In the Assembly of 1861 he filled the moderator’s chair.
As a theologian the position of Candlish was perhaps inferior to that which he held as a preacher and ecclesiastic, but it was not inconsiderable. So early as 1841 his reputation in this department was sufficient to secure for him the government nomination to the newly founded chair of Biblical criticism in the university of Edinburgh. Owing to the opposition of Lord Aberdeen, however, the presentation was cancelled. In 1847 Candlish, who had received the degree of D.D. from Princeton, New Jersey, in 1841, was chosen by the Assembly of the Free Church to succeed Chalmers in the chair of divinity in the New College, Edinburgh. After partially fulfilling the duties of the office for one session, he was led to resume the charge of St George’s, the clergyman who had been chosen by the congregation as his successor having died before entering on his work. In 1862 he succeeded William Cunningham as principal of New College with the understanding that he should still retain his position as minister of St George’s. He died on the 19th of October 1873.
Though his greatest power was not displayed through the press, Candlish made a number of contributions to theological literature. In 1842 he published the first volume of his Contributions towards the Exposition of the Book of Genesis, a work which was completed in three volumes several years later. In 1854 he delivered, in Exeter Hall, London, a lecture on the Theological Essays of the Rev. F.D. Maurice, which he afterwards published, along with a fuller examination of the doctrine of the essays. In this he defended the forensic aspect of the gospel. A treatise entitled The Atonement; its Reality, Completeness and Extent (1861) was based upon a smaller work which first appeared in 1845. In 1864 he delivered the first series of Cunningham lectures, taking for his subject The Fatherhood of God. Published immediately afterwards, the lectures excited considerable discussion on account of the peculiar views they represented. Further illustrations of these views were given in two works published about the same time as the lectures, one a treatise On the Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers, and the other an exposition of the first epistle of St John.
See William Wilson, Memorials of R.S. Candlish, D.D., with a chapter on his position as a theologian by Robert Rainy.
CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PYRAME DE (1778-1841), Swiss botanist, was born at Geneva on the 4th of February 1778. He was descended from one of the ancient families of Provence, whence his ancestors had been expatriated for their religion in the middle of the 16th century. Though a weakly boy he showed great aptitude for study, and distinguished himself at school by his rapid attainments in classical and general literature, and specially by a faculty for writing elegant verse. He began his scientific studies at the college of Geneva, where the teaching of J.P.E. Vaucher first inspired him with the determination to make botanical science the chief pursuit of his life. In 1796 he removed to Paris. His first productions, Historia Plantarum Succulentarum (4 vols., 1799) and Astragalogia (1802), introduced him to the notice of Cuvier, for whom he acted as deputy at the Collège de France in 1802, and to J.B. Lamarck, who afterwards confided to him the publication of the third edition of the Flore française (1803-1815). The Principes élémentaires de botanique, printed as the introduction to this work, contained the first exposition of his principle of classification according to the natural as opposed to the Linnean or artificial method. In 1804 he was granted the degree of doctor of medicine by the medical faculty of Paris, and published his Essai sur les propriétés médicales des plantes comparées avec leurs formes extérieures et leur classification naturelle, and soon after, in 1806, his Synopsis plantarum in flora Gallica descriptarum. At the desire of the French government he spent the summers of the following six years in making a botanical and agricultural survey of the whole kingdom, the results of which were published in 1813. In 1807 he was appointed professor of botany in the medical faculty of the university of Montpellier, and in 1810 he was transferred to the newly founded chair of botany of the faculty of sciences in the same university. From Montpellier, where he published his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique (1813), he removed to Geneva in 1816, and in the following year was invited by the now independent republic to fill the newly created chair of natural history. The rest of his life was spent in an attempt to elaborate and complete his “natural” system of botanical classification. The results of his labours in this department are to be found in his Regni vegetabilis systema naturale, of which two volumes only were completed (1821) when he found that it would be impossible for him to execute the whole work on so extensive a scale. Accordingly in 1824 he began a less extensive work of the same kind—his Prodromus systematis regni vegetabilis—but even of this he was able to finish only seven volumes, or two-thirds of the whole. He had been for several years in delicate health when he died on the 9th of September 1841 at Geneva.
His son, Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle, born at Paris on the 28th of October 1806, at first devoted himself to the study of law, but gradually drifted to botany and finally succeeded to his father’s chair. He published a number of botanical works, including continuations of the Prodromus in collaboration with his son, Anne Casimir Pyrame de Candolle. He died at Geneva on the 4th of April 1893.
CANDON, a town of South Ilocos province, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the W. coast, about 200 m. N. by W. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 18,828. Its climate is hot, though healthy. Candon is surrounded by an extensive and fertile plain, and is defended by a small fort. Its inhabitants are noted for their honesty and industry, as well as for their regard for law and order. They carry on an extensive traffic with the wild tribes of the neighbouring mountains. Indigo is grown in considerable quantity, as are rice and tobacco. The weaving of blankets, handkerchiefs, and cotton and silk cloths constitutes quite an important industry. The language is Ilocanc.
CANDYTUFT (Iberis amara, so called from Iberia, i.e. Spain, where many species of the genus are native, and amara, bitter, i.e. in taste), a small annual herb (natural order Cruciferae) with white or purplish flowers, the outer petals of which are longer than the rest. It is a native of western Europe and found wild on dry soil in cultivated ground in the centre and east of England. This and several other species of the genus are known as garden plants, and are of easy culture in ordinary garden soil if well exposed to sun and air. The common candytuft of gardens is I. umbellata, a hardy annual, native of southern Europe, and known in a number of varieties differing in colour of flowers. I. coronaria (rocket candytuft) has long dense heads of white flowers and is also an annual. Some species have a shrubby growth and are evergreen perennials; the best-known is I. sempervirens, a native of southern Europe, a much-branched plant about a foot high with long racemes of white flowers. I. gibraltarica is a showy, handsome half hardy evergreen.
CANE, a name applied to many plants which have long, slender, reed-like stalks or stems, as, for example, the sugar-cane, the bamboo-cane or the reed-cane. From the use as walking-sticks to which many of these plants have been applied, the name “cane” is improperly given to sticks, irrespective of the source from which they are derived. Properly it should be restricted to a peculiar class of palms, known as rattans, included under the two closely allied genera Calamus and Daemonorops, of which there are a large number of species. The plants are found widely extended throughout the islands of the Indian Archipelago, the Malay Peninsula, China, India and Ceylon; and also in Australia and Africa. They were described by Georg Eberhard Rumpf or Rumphius (1627-1702), governor of Amboyna, and author of the Herbarium Amboynense (6 vols. folio, Amsterdam, 1741-1755), under the name of Palmijunci, as inhabitants of dense forests into which the rays of the sun scarce can penetrate, where they form spiny bushes, obstructing the passage through the jungle. The slender stems rarely exceed an inch in diameter and are generally much smaller. They creep or trail to an enormous length, often reaching 500 or 600 ft., and support themselves on trees or bushes by recurved spines borne on the stalk or back of the midrib of the leaf, or by stiff hooks replacing the upper leaflets. In some cases the midrib is elongated beyond the leaflets to form a long whip-like structure, bearing recurved hooks at intervals. The natives, in preparing the canes for the market, strip off the leaves by pulling the cut plant through a notch made in a tree. The canes always present distinct rings at the junction of the sheathing leaves with the stem. They assume a yellow colour as they dry; and those imported from Calcutta have a glossy surface, while the produce of the Eastern Archipelago presents a dull exterior.
Canes, on account of their lightness, length, strength and flexibility, are used for a great variety of purposes by the inhabitants of the countries in which they grow. Split into thin strips they are twisted to form ropes and ships’ cables, an application mentioned by Captain Dampier in his Voyages. A more important application, however, is for basket-work, and for making chairs, couches, pillows, &c., as the great strength and durability of thin and easily prepared strips admit of such articles being made at once airy, strong and flexible. Much of the beautiful and elaborate basket-work of the Chinese and Japanese is made from thin strips of cane, which are also used by the Chinese for larger works, such as door-mats, houses and sheds.
A very large trade with Western countries and the United States is carried on in canes and rattans, the principal centres of the trade being Batavia, Sarawak, Singapore, Penang and Calcutta. In addition to the varieties used for walking-sticks, whip and umbrella handles, &c., the common rattans are in extensive demand for basket-making, the seats and backs of chairs, the ribs of cheap umbrellas, saddles and other harness-work; and generally for purposes where their strength and flexibility make them efficient substitutes for whalebone. The walking-stick “canes” of commerce include a great many varieties, some of which, however, are not the produce of trailing palms. The well-known Malacca canes are obtained from Calamus Scipionum, the stems of which are much stouter than is the case with the average species of Calamus.
CANEA, or Khania, the principal seaport and since 1841 the capital of Crete, finely situated on the northern coast of the island, about 25 m. from its western extremity, on the isthmus of the Akrotiri peninsula, which lies between the Bay of Canea and the Bay of Suda (latitude 35° 31′ N., longitude 24° 1′ E.). Surrounded by a massive Venetian wall, it forms a closely built, irregular and overcrowded town, though of late years a few of its streets have been widened. The ordinary houses are of wood; but the more important buildings are of more solid materials. The Turks have a number of mosques; there are Greek churches and a Jewish synagogue; an old Venetian structure serves as a military hospital; and the prison is of substantial construction. The town is now the principal seat of government; the seat of a Greek bishop, who is suffragan to the metropolitan at Candia, and the official residence of the European consuls. The harbour, formed by an ancient transverse mole nearly 1200 ft. long, and protected by a lighthouse and a fort, would admit vessels of considerable tonnage; but it has been allowed to silt up until it shoals off from 24 ft. to 10 or even 8, so that large vessels have to anchor about 4 or 5 m. out. The principal articles of trade are oil and soap, and there is a pretty extensive manufacture of leather. The fosse is laid out in vegetable gardens; public gardens have been constructed outside the walls; and artesian wells have been bored by the government. To the east of the town a large Arab village had grown up, inhabited for the most part by natives of Egypt and Cyrenaica, who acted as boatmen, porters and servants, but since the fall of the Turkish government most of these have quitted the island; while about a mile off on the rising ground is the village of Khalepa, where the consuls and merchants reside. The population of the town is estimated at 20,000. Canea probably occupies the site of the ancient Cydonia, a city of very early foundation and no small importance. During the Venetian rule it was one of the strongest cities in the island, but it fell into the hands of the Turks in 1646, several years before the capture of Candia. In 1856 it suffered from an earthquake. The neighbouring plain is famous for its fruitfulness, and the quince is said to derive its name Cydonia from the town. (See also Crete.)
CANE-FENCING (the Fr. canne), the art of defending oneself with a walking-stick. It may be considered to be single-stick fencing without a guard for the hand, with the important difference that in cane-fencing the thrust is as important as the cut, and thus canne approaches nearer to sabre-play. The cuts are practically identical with those of the single-stick (q.v.), but they are generally given after one or more rapid preliminary flourishes (moulinets, circles) which the lightness of the stick facilitates, and which serve to perplex and disconcert an assailant. The thrusts are similar to those in foil-play, but are often carried out with both hands grasping the stick, giving greater force and enabling it to be used at very close quarters. The canes used in French fencing schools are made of several kinds of tough wood and are about 3 ft. long, tapering towards the point. As very severe blows are exchanged, masks, gloves, padded vests and shin-guards, similar to those used in football, are worn.
See Georges d’Amoric, French Method of the Noble Art of Self-Defence (London, 1898); J. Charlemont, L’Art de la Boxe française et de la Canne (Paris, 1899).
CANEPHORAE (Gr. κάνεον, a basket, and φέρειν, to carry), “basket-bearers,” the title given of old to Athenian maidens of noble family, annually chosen to carry on their heads baskets with sacrificial implements and apparatus at the Panathenaic and other festivals. The term (also in the form Canephori) is applied in architecture to figures of either sex carrying on their heads baskets, containing edibles or material for sacrifices. The term might well be applied to the Caryatide figures of the Erechtheum. Those represented in the Panathenaic frieze of the Parthenon carry vases on their shoulders.
CANES VENATICI (“The Hounds,” or “the Greyhounds”), in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere named by Hevelius in 1690, who compiled it from the stars between the older asterisms Ursa Major, Boötes and Coma Berenices. Interesting objects in this portion of the heavens are: the famous spiral nebula first described by Lord Rosse; a-Canum Venaticorum, a double star, of magnitudes 3 and 6; this star was named Cor Caroli, or The Heart of Charles II., by Edmund Halley, on the suggestion of Sir Charles Scarborough (1616-1694), the court physician; a cluster of stars of the 11th magnitude and fainter, extremely rich in variables, of the 900 stars examined no less than 132 being regularly variable.
CANGA-ARGUELLES, JOSÉ (1770-1843), Spanish statesman, was born in 1770. He took an active part in the Spanish resistance to Napoleon in a civil capacity and was an energetic member of the cortes of 1812. On the return of the Bourbon line in 1814, Canga-Arguelles was sent into exile in the province of Valencia. On the restoration in 1820 of the constitution of 1812, he was appointed minister of finance. He continued at this post till the spring of 1821, distinguishing himself by the zeal and ability with which he sought to reform the finances of Spain. It was high time; for the annual deficit was greater than the entire revenue itself, and landed and other property was, to an unheard-of extent, monopolized by the priests. The measures he proposed had been only partially enforced, when the action of the king with regard to the ministry, of which he was a member, obliged him to resign. Thereafter, as a member of the Moderate Liberal party, Canga-Arguelles advocated constitutional government and financial reform, till the overthrow of the constitution in 1823, when he fled to England. He did not return to Spain till 1829, and did not again appear in public life, being appointed keeper of the archives at Simancas. He died in 1843. Canga-Arguelles is the author of three works: Elementos de la Ciencia de Hacienda (Elements of the Science of Finance), London, 1825; Diccionario de Hacienda (Dictionary of Finance), London, 1827; and Observaciones sobre la guerra de la Peninsula (Observations on the Peninsular War), in which he endeavoured to show that his countrymen had taken a far more effective part in the national struggle against the French than English historians were willing to admit.
CANGAS DE ONÍS, or Cangas, a town of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo; situated on the right bank of the river Sella, in a fertile, well-watered, partly wooded, undulating region. Pop. (1900) 8537. The trade of Cangas de Onís is chiefly in live-stock and coal from the neighbouring mines. A Latin inscription on the town-hall records the fact that this place was the residence of the first Spanish kings after the spread of the Moors over the Peninsula. Here early in the 8th century lived King Pelayo, who started the Christian reconquest of Spain. His historic cave of Covadonga is only 8 m. distant (see Asturias). The church of the Assumption, rebuilt in the 19th century, is on the model and site of an older church of the middle ages. Near Cangas are ruins and bridges of the Roman period.
CANGAS DE TINÉO, a town of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo, and on the river Narcea. Pop. (1900) 22,742. There is no railway and the river is not navigable, but a good road runs through Tinéo, Grado and the adjacent coal-fields, to the ports of Cudillero and Avilés. The inhabitants have thus an easily accessible market for the farm produce of the fertile hills round Cangas de Tinéo, and for the cloth, leather, pottery, &c., manufactured in the town.
CANGUE, or Cang, the European name for the Chinese Kia or Kea, a portable pillory, carried by offenders convicted of petty offences. It consists of a square wooden collar weighing from 20 to 60 ℔., through a hole in which the victim’s head is thrust. It fits tight to the neck and must be worn day and night for the period ordered. The offender is left exposed in the street. Over the parts by which it fastens slips of paper bearing the mandarin’s seal are pasted so that no one can liberate the condemned. The length of the punishment is usually from a fortnight to a month. As the cangue is 3 to 4 ft. across the convict is unable to feed himself or to lie down, and thus, unless fed by friends or passersby, often starves to death. As in the English pillory, the name of the man and the nature of his offence are inscribed on the cangue.
CANINA, LUIGI (1795-1856), Italian archaeologist and architect, was born at Casale in Piedmont. He became professor of architecture at Turin, and his most important works were the excavation of Tusculum in 1829 and of the Appian Way in 1848, the results of which he embodied in a number of works published in a costly form by his patroness, the queen of Sardinia.
CANINI, GIOVANNI AGNOLO (1617-1666), Italian designer and engraver, was born at Rome. He was a pupil of Domenichino and afterwards of Antonio Barbalonga. He painted some altar-pieces at Rome, including two admired pictures for the church of San Martino a’ Monti, representing the martyrdom of St Stephen and of St Bartholomew. Having accompanied Cardinal Chigi to France, he was encouraged by the minister Colbert to carry into execution his project of designing from medals, antique gems and similar sources a series of portraits of the most illustrious characters of antiquity, accompanied with memoirs; but shortly after the commencement of the undertaking Canini died at Rome. The work, however, was prosecuted by his brother Marcantonio, who, with the assistance of Picard and Valet, completed and published it in 1699, under the title of Iconografia di Gio. Ag. Canini. It contains 150 engravings. A reprint in Italian and French appeared at Amsterdam in 1731.
CANIS MAJOR (“Great Dog”), in astronomy, a constellation placed south of the Zodiac, just below and behind the heels of Orion. Canis minor, the “little dog,” is another constellation, also following Orion and separated from Canis major by the Milky Way. Both these constellations, or at least their principal stars, Sirius in the Great Dog and Procyon in the Little Dog, were named in very remote times, being referred to as the “dogs of Orion” or in equivalent terms. Sirius is the brightest star in the heavens; and the name is connected with the adjectives σειρός and σείριος, scorching. It may possibly be related to the Arabic Sirāj, thus meaning the “glittering one.” Hommel has shown that Sirius and Procyon were “the two Si’ray” or glitterers. It is doubtful whether Sirius is referred to in the Old Testament. By some it has been identified with the Hebrew mazzaroth, the Lucifer of the Vulgate; by others with mazzaloth, the duodecim signa of the Vulgate; while Professor M.A. Stern identifies it with the Hebrew kimah, which is rendered variously in the Vulgate as Arcturus, Hyades and Pleiades.1 The inhabitants of the Euphrates valley included both constellations in their stellar system; but considerable difficulty is encountered in the allocation of the Babylonian names to the dominant stars. The name kak-ban, which occurs on many tablets, has been determined by Epping and Strassmaier, and also by Jensen and Hommel, as equivalent to Sirius; etymologically this word means “dog-star” (or, according to R. Brown, Primitive Constellations, “bow-star”). On the other hand, Kaksidi or Kak-si-sa, meaning the “leader,” has been identified by Sayce and others with Sirius, while Hommel regards it as Procyon. The question is mainly philological, and the arguments seem inconclusive. We may notice, however, that connexions were made between Kaksidi and the weather, which have strong affinities with the ideas expressed at a later date by the Greeks. For example, its appearance in the morning with the sun heralded the “north winds,” the βορέαι ἐτησίαι or aquilones etesiae, the strong and dangerous north-westerly winds of Greece which blow for forty days from the rising of the star; again, when Sirius appeared misty the “locusts devour.” Sirius also appears in the cosmogony of Zoroaster, for Plutarch records that Ormuzd appointed this star to be a guard and overseer in the heavens, and in the Avesta we find that Tistrya (Sirius) is “the bright and happy star, that gives happy dwelling.” With the Egyptians Sirius assumed great importance. Appearing with the sun when the Nile was rising, Sirius was regarded as a herald of the waters which would overspread the land, renewing its fertility and promising good harvests for the coming season. Hephaestion records that from its aspect the rise of the water was foretold, and the Roman historian Florus adds that the weather was predicted also. Its rising marked the commencement of their new year, the annus canarius and annus cynicus of the Romans. It was the star of Sept or Sothis, and, according to one myth, was identified with the goddess Hathor—the Aphrodite of the Greeks. It was the “second sun” of the heavens, and according to Maspero (Dawn of Civilization, 1894) “Sahu and Sopdit, Orion and Sirius, were the rulers of this mysterious world of night and stars.”
The Greeks, borrowing most of their astronomical knowledge from the Babylonians, held similar myths and ideas as to the constellations and stars. Sirius was named Σείριος, Κύων (the dog) and τὸ ἄστρον, the star; and its heliacal rising was associated with the coming of the dry, hot and sultry season. Hesiod tells us that “Sirius parches head and knees”; Homer speaks similarly, calling it κακὸν σῆμα, the evil star, and the star of late summer (ὀπώρα), the rainy and stormy season. Procyon (Προκύων) was so named because it rose before Κύων. The Euphratean myth of the dogs has its parallel in Greece, Sirius being the hound of the hunter Orion, and as recorded by Aratus always chasing the Hare; Pindar refers to the chase of Pleione, the mother of the Pleiads, by Orion and his dogs. Similarly Procyon became Maera, the dog of Icarius, when Boötes became Icarius, and Virgo his daughter Erigone.
The Romans adopted the Greek ideas. They named the constellation Canis, and Sirius was known as Canis also, and as Canicula. Procyon became Antecanem and Antecanis, but these names did not come into general use. They named the hottest part of the year associated with the heliacal rising of Sirius the Dies caniculares, a phrase which has survived in the modern expression “dog-days”; and the pestilences which then prevailed occasioned the offering of sacrifices to placate this inimical star. Festus narrates, in this connexion, the sacrificing of red dogs at the feast of Floralia, and Ovid of a dog on the Robigalia. The experience of the ancient Greeks that Sirius rose with the sun as the latter entered Leo, i.e. the hottest part of the year, was accepted by the Romans with an entire disregard of the intervening time and a different latitude. To quote Sir Edward Sherburne (Sphere of Manilius, 1675), “The greater part of the Antients assign the Dog Star rising to the time of the Sun’s first entering into Leo, or, as Pliny writes, 23 days after the summer solstice, as Varro 29, as Columella 30.2 ...At this day with us, according to Vulgar computation, the rising and setting of the said Star is in a manner coincident with the Feasts of St Margaret (which is about the 13th of our July) and St Lawrence (which falls on the 10th of our August).”
Sirius is the most conspicuous star in the sky; it sends to the earth eleven times as much light as Aldebaran, the unit standard adopted in the revised Harvard Photometry; numerically its magnitude is -1.6. At the present time its colour is white with a tinge of blue, but historical records show that this colour has not always prevailed. Aratus designated it ποικίλος, many coloured; the Alexandrian Ptolemy classified it with Aldebaran, Antares and Betelgeuse as ὑπόκιρρος, fiery red; Seneca describes it as “redder than Mars”; while, in the 10th century, the Arabian Biruni termed it “shining red.” On the other hand Sufi, who also flourished in the 10th century, pointedly omits it from his list of coloured stars. The question has been thoroughly discussed by T.J.J. See, who shows that Sirius has shone white for the last 1000 to 1200 years.3 The parallax has been determined by Sir David Gill and W.L. Elkin to be 0.37″; it is therefore distant from the earth over 5 × 10^13 miles, and its light takes 8.6 years to traverse the intervening space. If the sun were at the same distance Sirius would outshine it 30 times, the sun appearing as a star of the second magnitude. It has a large proper motion, which shows recurrent undulations having a 50-year period. From this Bessel surmised the existence of a satellite or companion, for which C.A.F. Peters and A. Auwers computed the elements. T.H. Safford determined its position for September 1861; and on the 31st of January 1862, Alvan G. Clark, of Cambridgeport, Mass., telescopically observed it as a barely visible, dull yellow star of the 9th to 10th magnitude. The mean distance apart is about 20 astronomical units; the total mass of the pair is 3.7 times the mass of the sun, Sirius itself being twice as massive as its companion, and, marvellously enough, forty thousand times as bright. The spectrum of Sirius is characterized by prominent absorption lines due to hydrogen, the metallic lines being weak; other stars having the same spectra are said to be of the “Sirian type.” Such stars are the most highly heated (see Star).
Procyon, or a Canis minoris, is a star of the 2nd magnitude, one-fifth as bright as Sirius, or numerically 0.47 when compared with Aldebaran. It is more distant than Sirius, its parallax being 0.33″; and its light is about six times that of the sun. Its proper motion is large, 1.25″, and its velocity at right angles to the line of sight is about 11 m. per second. Its proper motion shows large irregularities, pointing to a relatively massive companion; this satellite was discovered on the 13th of November 1896 by J.M. Schaeberle, with the great Lick telescope, as a star of the 13th magnitude. Its mass is equal to about that of the sun, but its light is only one twenty-thousandth.
1 See G. Schiaparelli, Astronomy in the Old Testament (1905).
2 For other values of the interval between the summer solstice and the rising of Sirius, see Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
3 See Thomas Barker, Phil. Trans., 1760, 51, p. 498, for quotations from classical authors; also T.J.J. See, Astronomy and Astrophysics. vol. xi. p. 269.
CANITZ, FRIEDRICH RUDOLF LUDWIG, Freiherr Von (1654-1699), German poet and diplomatist, was born at Berlin on the 27th of November 1654. He attended the universities of Leiden and Leipzig, travelled in England, France, Italy and Holland, and on his return was appointed groom of the bedchamber (Kammerjunker) to the elector Frederick William of Brandenburg, whom he accompanied on his campaigns in Pomerania and Sweden. In 1680 he became councillor of legation, and he was employed on various embassies. In 1697 the elector Frederick III. made him a privy councillor, and the emperor Leopold I. created him a baron of the Empire. Having fallen ill on an embassy to the Hague, he obtained his discharge and died at Berlin in 1699. Canitz’s poems (Nebenstunden unterschiedener Gedichte), which did not appear until after his death (1700), are for the most part dry and stilted imitations of French and Latin models, but they formed a healthy contrast to the coarseness and bombast of the later Silesian poets.
A complete edition of Canitz’s poems was published by U. König in 1727; see also L. Fulda, Die Gegner der zweiten schlesischen Schule, ii. (1883).
CAÑIZARES, JOSÉ DE (1676-1750), Spanish dramatist, was born at Madrid on the 4th of July 1676, entered the army, and retired with the rank of captain in 1702 to act as censor of the Madrid theatres and steward to the duke of Osuna. In his fourteenth year Cañizares recast a play by Lope de Vega under the title of Las Cuentas del Gran Capitán, and he speedily became a fashionable playwright. His originality, however, is slight, and El Dómine Lucas, the only one of his pieces that is still read, is an adaptation from Lope de Vega. Cañizares produced a version of Racine’s Iphigénie shortly before 1716, and is to some extent responsible for the destruction of the old Spanish drama. He died on the 4th of September 1750, at Madrid.
CANNAE (mod. Canne), an ancient village of Apulia, near the river Aufidus, situated on a hill on the right bank, 6 m. S.W. from its mouth. It is celebrated for the disastrous defeat which the Romans received there from Hannibal in 216 b.c. (see Punic Wars). There is a considerable controversy as to whether the battle took place on the right or the left bank of the river. In later times the place became a municipium, and unimportant Roman remains still exist upon the hill known as Monte di Canne. In the middle ages it became a bishopric, but was destroyed in 1276.
See O. Schwab, Das Schlachtfeld von Canna (Munich, 1898), and authorities under Punic Wars.
CANNANORE, or Kananore, a town of British India, in the Malabar district of Madras, on the coast, 58 m. N. from Calicut and 470 m. by rail from Madras. Pop. (1901) 27,811. Cannanore belonged to the Kalahasti or Cherakal rajas till the invasion of Malabar by Hyder Ali. In 1498 it was visited by Vasco da Gama; in 1501 a Portuguese factory was planted here by Cabral; in 1502 da Gama made a treaty with the raja, and in 1505 a fort was built. In 1656 the Dutch effected a settlement and built the present fort, which they sold to Ali Raja in 1771. In 1783 Cannanore was captured by the British, and the reigning princess became tributary to the East India Company. Here is the residence of the Moplah chief, known as the Ali Raja, who owns most of the Laccadive Islands. Cannanore was the military headquarters of the British on the west coast until 1887.
CANNES, a seaport of France, in the department of the Alpes Maritimes, on the Mediterranean, 19 m. S.W. of Nice and 120 m. E. of Marseilles by rail. Pop.(1906) 24,531. It enjoys a southern exposure on a seaward slope, and is defended from the northern winds by ranges of hills. Previous to 1831, when it first attracted the attention of Lord Brougham, it mainly consisted of the old quarter (named Sucquet), and had little to show except an ancient castle, and a church on the top of Mont Chevalier, dedicated in 1603 to Notre Dame du Mont Espérance; but since that period it has become a large and important town, and is now one of the most fashionable winter resorts in the south of France, much frequented by English visitors, the Americans preferring Nice. The neighbourhood is thickly studded with magnificent villas, which are solidly built of a stone so soft that it is sawn and not hewn. There is an excellent quay, and a beautiful promenade runs along the beach; and numerous sheltered roads stretch up the valleys amidst groves of olive trees. On the north the modern town climbs up to Le Cannet (2 m.), while on the east it practically extends along the coast to Golfe Jouan (3½ m.), where Napoleon landed on the 1st of March 1815, on his return from Elba. From Cannes a railway runs north in 12½ m. to Grasse. On the top of the hill behind the town are a Roman Catholic and a Protestant cemetery. In the most prominent part of the latter is the grave of Lord Brougham, distinguished by a massive stone cross standing on a double basement, with the simple inscription—“Henricus Brougham, Natus MDCCLXXVIII., Decessit MDCCCLXVIII.”; and in the immediate vicinity lies James, fourth duke of Montrose, who died December 1874. The country around is very beautiful and highly fertile; orange and lemon trees are cultivated like peach trees in England, while olives, almonds, figs, peaches, grapes and other fruits are grown in abundance, and, along with the produce of the fisheries, form the chief exports of the town. Essences of various kinds are manufactured, and flowers are extensively cultivated for the perfumers. The climate of Cannes has been the subject of a considerable variety of opinion,—the preponderance being, however, in its favour. According to Dr de Valcourt, it is remarkable by reason of the elevation and regularity of the temperature during the height of the day, the clearness of the atmosphere and abundance of light, the rarity of rain and the absence of fogs.
Cannes is a place of great antiquity, but its earlier history is very obscure. It was twice destroyed by the Saracens in the 8th and the 10th centuries; but it was afterwards repeopled by a colony from Genoa. Opposite the town is the island of Ste Marguerite (one of the Lérins), in the citadel of which the Man with the Iron Mask was confined from 1686 to 1698, and which acquired notoriety as the prison whence Marshal Bazaine escaped in August 1874. On the other chief island (St Honorat) of the Lérins is the famous monastery (5th century to 1788), in connexion with which grew up the school of Lérins, which had a wide influence upon piety and literature in the 5th and 6th centuries.
See L. Alliez, Histoire du monastère de Lérins (2 vols., Paris, 1862); and Les Îles de Lérins, Cannes, et les rivages environnants (Paris, 1860); Cartulaire du monastère de Lérins (2 vols., Paris, 1883 and 1905); de Valcourt, Cannes and its Climate (London, 1873); Joanne, special Guide to Cannes; J.R. Green, essay on Cannes and St Honorat, in the first series of his Stray Studies (1st ed., 1876); A. Cooper-Marsdin, The School of Lérins (Rochester, 1905).
(W. A. B. C.)
CANNIBALISM, the eating of human flesh by men (from a Latinized form of Carib, the name of a tribe of South America, formerly found also in the West Indies), also called “anthropophagy” (Gr. ἄνθρωπος, man, and φαγεῖν, to eat). Evidence has been adduced from some of the palaeolithic cave-dwellings in France to show that the inhabitants practised cannibalism, at least occasionally. From Herodotus, Strabo and others we hear of peoples like the Scythian Massagetae, a nomad race north-east of the Caspian Sea, who killed old people and ate them. In the middle ages reports, some of them probably untrustworthy, by Marco Polo and others, attributed cannibalism to the wild tribes of China, the Tibetans, &c. In our own days cannibalism prevails, or prevailed until recently, over a great part of West and Central Africa, New Guinea, Melanesia (especially Fiji) and Australia. New Zealand and the Polynesian Islands were great centres of the practice. It is extensively practised by the Battas of Sumatra and in other East Indian islands and in South America; in earlier days it was a common feature of Indian wars in North America. Sporadic cannibalism occurs among more civilized peoples as a result of necessity or as a manifestation of disease (see Lycanthropy).
Classification.—Cannibalistic practices may be classified from two points of view: (1) the motives of the act; (2) the ceremonial regulations. A third division of subordinate importance is also possible, if we consider whether the victims are actually killed for food or whether only such are eaten as have met their death in battle or other ways.
1. From a psychological point of view the term cannibalism groups together a number of customs, whose only bond of union is that they all involve eating of human flesh. (a) Food cannibalism, where the object is the satisfaction of hunger, may occur sporadically as a result of real necessity or may be kept up for the simple gratification of a taste for human flesh in the absence of any lack of food in general or even of animal food, (i.) Cannibalism from necessity is found not only among the lower races, such as the Fuegians or Red Indian tribes, but also among civilized races, as the records of sieges and shipwrecks show. (ii.) Simple food cannibalism is common in Africa; the Niam-Niam and Monbuttu carry on wars for the sake of obtaining human flesh; in West Africa human flesh could formerly be seen exposed for sale in the market like any other article of commerce; and among some tribes it is the practice to sell the corpses of dead relatives for consumption as food. (b) In curious contrast to this latter custom is the practice of devouring dead kinsfolk as the most respectful method of disposing of their remains. In a small number of cases this practice is combined with the custom of killing the old and sick, but in the great majority of peoples it is simply a form of burial; it seems to prevail in most parts of Australia, many parts of Melanesia, Africa and South America, and less frequently in other parts of the world. To this group belong the customs described by Herodotus; we may perhaps regard as a variant form the custom of using the skull of a dead man as a drinking-cup. This practice is widely found, and the statement of Herodotus that the skull was set in gold and preserved by the Issedones may point in this direction; from the account given of the Tibetans some seven hundred years ago by William of Ruysbruck (Rubruquis) it appears that they had given up cannibalism but still preserved the use of the skull as a drinking vessel. Another modification of an original ritual cannibalism is the custom of drinking the ashes of the dead, which is practised by some African and South American tribes. The custom of holding burial feasts has also been traced to the same origin. More incomprehensible to the European than any other form of cannibalism is the custom of partaking of the products of putrefaction as they run down from the body. The Australians smoke-dry the bodies of tribesmen; here, too, it is the custom to consume the portions of the body which are rendered liquid by the heat. (c) The ritual cannibalism just mentioned shades over into and may have been originally derived from magical cannibalism, of which three sub-species may be distinguished. (i.) Savages are accustomed, on the one hand, to abstain from certain foods in order that they may not acquire certain qualities; on the other hand other foods are eagerly desired in order that they may by partaking of the flesh also come to partake of the mental or bodily peculiarities of the man or animal from which the meat is derived; thus, after the birth of a child, especially the first-born, the parents are frequently forbidden the flesh of slow-moving animals, because that would prevent the child from learning to walk; conversely, eating the heart of a lion is recommended for a warrior to make him brave; from this point of view therefore we readily understand the motives which lead to the eating of those slain in battle, both friends and foes. (ii.) We may term protective an entirely different kind of magical cannibalism, which consists in the consumption of a small portion of the body of a murdered man, in order that his ghost may not trouble the murderer; according to Hans Egède, the Eskimo, when they kill a witch, eat a portion of her heart, that she may not haunt them. (iii.) The practice is also said to have the effect of causing the relatives of the murdered man to lose heart or to prevent them from exercising the right of revenge; in this case it may be brought into relation with the ceremony of the blood covenant in one of the forms of which the parties drink each other’s blood; or, it may point to a reminiscence of a ritual eating of the dead kinsman. The late survival of this idea in Europe is attested by its mention by Dante in the Purgatorio. (d) The custom of eating food offered to the gods is widespread, and we may trace to this origin Mexican cannibalism, perhaps, too, that of Fiji. The Aztec worship of the god of war, Huitzilopochtli, led to the sacrifice of prisoners, and the custom of sacrifice to their frequent wars. The priest took out the heart, offered it to the sun, and then went through the ceremonies of feeding the idol with the heart and blood; finally the bodies of the victims were consumed by the worshippers. (e) We reach an entirely different set of motives in penal and revenge cannibalism. For the origin of these ideas we may perhaps look to that of protective magic, dealt with above; but it seems possible that there is also some idea of influencing the lot of the criminal in a future life; it may be noted that the whole of the body is seldom eaten in protective cannibalism; among the Battas, however, the criminal, and in parts of Africa the debtor, are entirely consumed. Other cases, especially where the victim is an enemy, may be due to mere fury and bravado. (f) In the west of North America a peculiar kind of cannibalism is found, which is confined to a certain body of magicians termed “Hametzen” and a necessary condition of admission to their order. Another kind of initiatory cannibalism prevailed in the south of Australia, where a magician had to eat a portion of a child’s body before he was admitted. The meaning of these ceremonials is not clear.
2. Most kinds of cannibalism are hedged round with ceremonial regulations. Certain tribes, as we have seen above, go to war to provide human flesh; in other cases it is only the nearest relatives who may not partake of a body; in other cases again it is precisely the nearest relatives on whom the duty falls. A curious regulation in south-east New Guinea prescribes that the killer of the victim shall not partake in the feast; in some cases the whole of the clan to which belonged the man for whom revenge is taken abstains also; in other cases this clan, together with any others of the same intermarrying group, takes part in the feast to the exclusion of (a) the clan or group with which they intermarry and (b) all outside clans. Some peoples forbid women to eat human flesh; in others certain classes, as the Muri of the Bambala, a tribe in the Kassai, may be forbidden to eat it. In Mindanao the only person who might eat of a slain enemy was the priest who led the warriors, and he was not permitted to escape this duty. In Grand Bassam all who had taken part in a festival at the foundation of a new village were compelled to eat of the human victim. But the variations are too numerous for any general account to be given of ceremonial limitations. S.R. Steinmetz has proposed a division into endo- and exo-cannibalism; but these divisions are frequently of minor importance, and he has failed to define satisfactorily the limits of the groups on which his classification is based.
Origin.—It will probably never be possible to say how cannibalism originated; in fact the multiplicity of forms and the diversity of ceremonial rules—some prescribing that tribesmen shall on no account be eaten, others that the bodies of none but tribesmen shall provide the meal of human flesh—point to a multiple origin. It has been maintained that the various forms of endo-cannibalism (eating of tribesmen) spring from an original practice of food cannibalism which the human race has in common with many animals; but this leaves unexplained inter alia the limitation of the right of participation in the funeral meal to the relatives of the dead man; at the same time it is possible to argue that the magical ideas now associated with cannibalism are of later growth. Against the view put forward by Steinmetz it may be urged that we have other instances of magical foods, such as the eating of a lion’s heart, which do not point to an original custom of eating the animal as food. We shall probably be justified in referring all forms of endo-cannibalism to a ritual origin; otherwise the limitation is inexplicable; on the other hand exo-cannibalism, in some of its forms, and much of the extension of endo-cannibalism must be referred to a desire for human flesh, grown into a passion.
Bibliography.—Steinmetz, in Mitt. Anthrop. Ges. Wien, N.F. xvi.; Andree, Die Anthropophagie; Bergmann, Die Verbreitung der Anthropophagie; Schneider, Die Naturvölker, i. 121-200; Schaffhausen, Anthropologische Studien, Internat. Archiv iii. 69-73; xii. 78; E.S. Hartland, Legend of Perseus, vol. ii.; Dictionnaire des sci. méd., s.v. “Anthropophagie”; Dr Seligmann in Reports of the Cook-Daniels Expedition to New Guinea.
(N. W. T.)
CANNING, CHARLES JOHN, Earl (1812-1862), English statesman, governor-general of India during the Mutiny of 1857, was the youngest child of George Canning, and was born at Brompton, near London, on the 14th of December 1812. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1833, as first class in classics and second class in mathematics. In 1836 he entered parliament, being returned as member for the town of Warwick in the Conservative interest. He did not, however, sit long in the House of Commons; for, on the death of his mother in 1837, he succeeded to the peerage which had been conferred on her with remainder to her only surviving son, and as Viscount Canning took his seat in the House of Lords. His first official appointment was that of under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, in the administration formed by Sir Robert Peel in 1841—his chief being the earl of Aberdeen. This post he held till January 1846; and from January to July of that year, when the Peel administration was broken up, Lord Canning filled the post of commissioner of woods and forests. He declined to accept office under the earl of Derby; but on the formation of the coalition ministry under the earl of Aberdeen in January 1853, he received the appointment of postmaster-general. In this office he showed not only a large capacity for hard work, but also general administrative ability and much zeal for the improvement of the service. He retained his post under Lord Palmerston’s ministry until July 1855, when, in consequence of the death of Lord Dalhousie and a vacancy in the governor-generalship of India, he was selected by Lord Palmerston to succeed to that great position. This appointment appears to have been made rather on the ground of his father’s great services than from any proof as yet given of special personal fitness on the part of Lord Canning. The new governor sailed from England in December 1855, and entered upon the duties of his office in India at the close of February 1856. His strong common sense and sound practical judgment led him to adopt a policy of conciliation towards the native princes, and to promote measures tending to the betterment of the condition of the people.
In the year following his accession to office the deep-seated discontent of the people broke out in the Indian Mutiny (q.v.). Fears were entertained, and even the friends of the viceroy to some extent shared them, that he was not equal to the crisis. But the fears proved groundless. He had a clear eye for the gravity of the situation, a calm judgment, and a prompt, swift hand to do what was really necessary. By the union of great moral qualities with high, though not the highest, intellectual faculties, he carried the Indian empire safely through the stress of the storm, and, what was perhaps a harder task still, he dealt wisely with the enormous difficulties arising at the close of such a war, established a more liberal policy and a sounder financial system, and left the people more contented than they were before. The name of “Clemency Canning,” which was applied to him during the heated animosities of the moment, has since become a title of honour.
While rebellion was raging in Oudh he issued a proclamation declaring the lands of the province forfeited; and this step gave rise to much angry controversy. A “secret despatch,” couched in arrogant and offensive terms, was addressed to the viceroy by Lord Ellenborough, then a member of the Derby administration, which would have justified the viceroy in immediately resigning. But from a strong sense of duty he continued at his post; and ere long the general condemnation of the despatch was so strong that the writer felt it necessary to retire from office. Lord Canning replied to the despatch, calmly and in a statesman-like manner explaining and vindicating his censured policy. In April 1859 he received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament for his great services during the mutiny. He was also made an extra civil grand cross of the order of the Bath, and in May of the same year he was raised to the dignity of an earl. By the strain of anxiety and hard work his health and strength were seriously impaired, while the death of his wife was also a great shock to him; in the hope that rest in his native land might restore him, he left India, reaching England in April 1862. But it was too late. He died in London on the 17th of June following. About a month before his death he was created K.G. As he died without issue the title became extinct.
See Sir H.S. Cunningham, Earl Canning (“Rulers of India” series), 1891; and A.J.C. Hare, The Story of Two Noble Lilies (1893).
CANNING, GEORGE (1770-1827), British statesman, was born in London on the 11th of April 1770. The family was of English origin and had been settled at Bishop’s Canynge in Wiltshire. In 1618 a George Canning, son of Richard Canning of Foxcote in Warwickshire, received a grant of the manor of Garvagh in Londonderry, Ireland, from King James I. The father of the statesman, also named George, was the eldest son of Mr Stratford Canning, of Garvagh. He quarrelled with and was disowned by his family. He came to London and led a struggling life, partly in trade and partly in literature. In May 1768 he married Mary Annie Costello, and he died on the 11th of April 1771, exactly one year after the birth of his son. Mrs Canning, who was left destitute, received no help from her husband’s family, and went on the stage, where she was not successful. She married a dissolute and brutal actor of the name of Reddish. Her son owed his escape from the miseries of her household to another member of the company, Moody, who wrote to Mr Stratford Canning, a merchant in London and younger brother of the elder George Canning. Moody represented to Mr Stratford Canning that the boy, although full of promise, was on the high road to the gallows under the evil influence of Reddish. Mr Stratford Canning exerted himself on behalf of his nephew. An estate of the value of £200 a year was settled on the boy, and he was sent in succession to a private school at Hyde Abbey near Winchester, to Eton in 1781, and to Christchurch, Oxford, in 1787. After leaving Eton and before going to Oxford, he was entered as a student at Lincoln’s Inn. At Eton he edited the school magazine, The Microcosm, and at Oxford he took the leading part in the formation of a debating society. He made many friends, and his reputation was already so high that Sheridan referred to him in the House of Commons as a rising hope of the Whigs. According to Lord Holland, he had been noted at Oxford as a furious Jacobin and hater of the aristocracy. In 1792 he came to London to read for the bar. He had taken his B.A. in 1791 and proceeded M.A. on the 6th of July 1794.
Soon after coming to London he became acquainted with Pitt in some uncertain way. The hatred of the aristocracy, for which Lord Holland says he was noted at Oxford, would naturally deter an ambitious young man with his way to make in the world, and with no fixed principles, from attaching his fortune to the Whigs. Canning had the glaring examples of Burke and Sheridan himself to show him that the great “revolution families”—Cavendishes, Russells, Bentincks—who controlled the Whig party, would never allow any man, however able, who did not belong to their connexion, to rise to the first rank. He therefore took his place among the followers of Pitt. It is, however, only fair to note that he always regarded Pitt with strong personal affection, and that he may very naturally have been influenced, as multitudes of other Englishmen were, by the rapid development of the French Revolution from a reforming to an aggressive and conquering force. In a letter to his friend Lord Boringdon (John Parker, afterwards earl of Morley), dated the 13th of December 1792, he explicitly states that this was the case. Enlightened self-interest was doubtless combined with honest conviction in ranking him among the followers of Pitt. By the help of the prime minister he entered parliament for the borough of Newtown in the Isle of Wight in July 1793. His maiden speech, on the subvention to the king of Sardinia, was made on the 31st of January 1794. It is by some said to have been a failure, but he satisfied himself, and he soon established his place as the most brilliant speaker on the ministerial side. It may be most conveniently noted here, that his political patrons exerted themselves to provide for his private as well as his official prosperity. Their favour helped him to make a lucrative marriage with Miss Joan Scott, who had a fortune of £100,000, on the 8th of July 1800. The marriage was a very happy one, though the bulk of the fortune was worn away in the expenses of public and social life. Mrs Canning, who survived her husband for ten years, was created a viscountess in 1828. Four children were born of the marriage—a son who died in his father’s lifetime, and was lamented by him in very touching verse; another a captain in the navy, drowned at Madeira in 1827; a third son, Charles (q.v.), afterwards created Earl Canning; and a daughter Harriet, who married the marquess of Clanricarde in 1825.
The public life of Canning may be divided into four stages. From 1793 to 1801 he was the devoted follower of Pitt, was in minor though important office, and was the wittiest of the defenders of the ministry in parliament and in the press. From 1801 to 1809 he was partly in opposition, partly in office, fighting for the foremost place. Between 1809 and 1822 there was a period of comparative eclipse, during which he was indeed at times in office, but in lesser places than he would have been prepared to accept between 1804 and 1809, and was regarded with general distrust. From 1822 till his death in 1827 he was the most powerful influence in English, and one of the most powerful in European, politics.
In the spring of 1796 he was appointed under-secretary for the foreign office, and in the election of that year he was returned for Wendover. He was also appointed receiver-general of the alienation office, a sinecure post which brought him £700 a year. His position as under-secretary brought him into close relations with Pitt and the foreign secretary, Lord Grenville (q.v.). During the negotiations for peace at Lille (1797), Canning was actively concerned in the devices which were employed by Pitt and Grenville to keep the real character of the discussion secret from other members of the cabinet. Canning had a taste for mystery and disguises, which he had shown at Oxford, and which did much to gain him his unfortunate reputation for trickery. From the 20th of November 1797, till the 9th of July 1798, he was one of the most active, and was certainly the most witty of the contributors to the Anti-Jacobin, a weekly paper started to ridicule the frothy philanthropic and eleutheromaniac rant of the French republicans, and to denounce their brutal rapacity and cruelty. But Canning’s position as under-secretary was not wholly pleasant to him. He disliked his immediate chief Grenville, one of the Whigs who joined Pitt, and a man of thoroughly Whiggish aristocratic insolence. In 1799 he left the foreign office and was named one of the twelve commissioners for India, and in 1800 joint paymaster of the forces, a post which he held till the retirement of Pitt in 1801.
During these years of subordinate activity Canning had established his position as an orator and a wit. His oratory cannot be estimated with absolute confidence. Speeches were then badly reported. The text of his own, published by Therry (6 volumes, London, 1828), were revised by himself, and not for the better. Though his favourite author was Dryden, whose prose is uniformly manly and simple, and though he had a keen eye for faults of taste in the style of others, Canning had himself a leaning to preciosity and tinsel. His wit was, and remains, above all question. In public life it did him some harm in the opinion of serious people, who could not believe that so jocose a politician had solid capacity. It exasperated opponents, some of whom, notably Peter Pindar (see Wolcot, John), retaliated by brutal personalities. Canning was constantly reminded that his mother was a strolling actress, and was accused of foisting his pauper family on the public funds. The accusation was perfectly untrue, but this style of political controversy was common, and was adopted by Canning. He put himself on a level with Peter Pindar when he assailed Pitt’s successor Addington (see Sidmouth, Viscount) on the ground that he was the son of a doctor.
While out of office with Pitt, Canning proved a somewhat insubordinate follower. The snobbery and malignity of his attacks on Addington roused considerable feeling against him, and his attempts to act as a political go-between in ministerial arrangements were unfortunate. On the formation of Pitt’s second ministry he took the post of treasurer of the navy on the 12th of May 1804. In office he continued to be insubordinate, and committed mistakes which got him into bad odour as untrustworthy. He endeavoured to persuade Lord Hawkesbury (see Liverpool, Earls of) to join in a scheme for turning an old friend out of the India Office. Though his relations with Pitt began to be somewhat strained towards the end, he left office on the minister’s death on the 21st of January 1806.
Canning, who delivered the eulogy of Pitt in the House of Commons on the 3rd of February, refused to take office in Fox’s ministry of “all the talents.” Attempts were made to secure him, and he was offered the leadership of the House of Commons, under the supervision of Fox, an absurd proposal which he had the good sense to decline. After the death of Fox, and the dismissal by the king of Lord Grenville’s ministry, he joined the administration of the duke of Portland as secretary of state for foreign affairs. He held the office from the 25th of March 1807 till the 9th of September 1809. During these two years he had a large share in the vigorous policy which defeated the secret articles of the treaty of Tilsit by the seizure of the Danish fleet. As foreign secretary it fell to him to defend the ministry when it was attacked in parliament. He refused to tell how he became aware of the secret articles, and the mystery has never been fully solved. He threw himself eagerly into the prosecution of the war in Spain, yet his tenure of office ended in resignation in circumstances which left him under deep discredit. He became entangled in what can only be called two intrigues. In view of the failing health of the duke of Portland he told his colleague, Spencer Perceval, chancellor of the exchequer, that a new prime minister must be found, that he must be in the House of Commons, that the choice lay between them, adding that he might not be prepared to serve as subordinate. In April of 1809 he had told the duke of Portland that Lord Castlereagh, secretary for the colonies and war, was in his opinion unfit for his post, and must be removed to another office. The duke, a sickly and vacillating man, said nothing to Castlereagh, and took no steps, and Canning did not enlighten his colleague. When he found that no measures were being taken to make a change of office, Canning resigned on the 7th of September. Castlereagh then learnt the truth, and after resigning sent Canning a challenge on the 19th of September. In the duel on Putney Heath which followed Canning was wounded in the thigh. His apologists have endeavoured to defend him against the charge of double dealing, but there can be no question that Castlereagh had just ground to be angry. Public opinion was strong against Canning, and in the House of Commons he was looked upon with distrust. For twelve years he remained out of office or in inferior places. His ability made it impossible that he should be obscure. In 1810 he was a member of the Bullion Committee, and his speeches on the report showed his mastery of the subject. It was no doubt his reputation for economic knowledge which chiefly recommended him to the electors of Liverpool in 1812. He had been elected for Tralee in 1803, for Newtown (Hants) in 1806 and for Harwich in 1807. But in parliament he had lost all influence, and is described as wandering about neglected and avoided. In 1812 he committed the serious mistake of accepting a well-paid ornamental mission to Lisbon, which he was about to visit for the health of his eldest son. He remained abroad for eighteen months. In 1816 he submitted to enter office as president of the Board of Control in Lord Liverpool’s cabinet, in which Castlereagh, to whom he had now become reconciled, was secretary of state for foreign affairs. In 1820 he resigned his post in order to avoid taking any part in the proceedings against Queen Caroline, the wife of George IV.
Canning’s return to great office and influence dates from the suicide of Castlereagh in 1822. He had accepted the governor-generalship of India, which would have implied his retirement from public life at home, and refused to remain unless he was promised “the whole inheritance” of Castlereagh,—the foreign office and the leadership of the House of Commons. His terms were accepted, and he took office in September 1822. He held the office from that date till April 1827, when he became prime minister in succession to Lord Liverpool, whose health had broken down. Even before this he was the real director of the policy of the cabinet—as Castlereagh had been from 1812 to 1822. It may be noted that he resigned his seat for Liverpool in 1823, and was elected for Harwich, which he left for Newport in 1826. Few English public men have represented so many constituencies.
His fame as a statesman is based mainly on the foreign policy which he pursued in those years—the policy of non-intervention, and of the patronage, if not the actual support, of national and liberal movements in Europe (see the historical articles under Europe, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece). To this policy he may be said to have given his name, and he has enjoyed the reputation of having introduced a generous spirit into British politics, and of having undone the work of his predecessor at the foreign office, who was constantly abused as the friend of despotism and of despots. It may well be believed that Canning followed his natural inclinations, and it can be asserted without the possibility of contradiction, if also without possibility of proof, that he had influenced the mind of Castlereagh. Yet the fact remains that when Canning came into office in September 1822, he found the instructions to be given to the representative of the British government at the congress of Verona already drawn up by his predecessor, who had meant to attend the congress himself (see Londonderry, Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of). These instructions were handed on without change by Canning to the duke of Wellington, who went as representative, and they contain all the principles which have been said to have been peculiarly Canning’s. Indeed this policy was dictated by the character and position of the British government, and had been followed in the main since the conference of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. Canning was its orator and minister rather than its originator. Yet his eloquence has associated with his name the responsibility for British policy at the time. No speech of his is perhaps more famous than that in which he claimed the initiative in recognizing the independence of the revolted Spanish colonies in South America in 1823—“I resolved that, if France had Spain, it should not be Spain with the Indies. I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old” (December 12, 1826).