of all the
varieties of composition. He was the first English Minister
who banished the French language from our diplomatic
correspondence and indicated before Europe the copiousness
and dignity of our native tongue."

Part of the time that he was Foreign Secretary, Chateaubriand held the
like post for France, and Canning devoted much attention to giving his
diplomatic correspondence a literary polish which has made these
national documents famous. He also formed an intimate friendship with
Sir Walter Scott, founding with him and Ellis the Quarterly Review, to
which he contributed with the latter a humorous article on the bullion
question.

In literature Canning takes his place from his association with the
Anti-Jacobin, a newspaper established in 1797 under the secret
auspices of Pitt as a literary organ to express the policy of the
administration,--similar to the Rolliad, the Whig paper published a
few years before this date; but more especially to oppose
revolutionary sentiment and ridicule the persons who sympathized with
it. The house of Wright, its publisher in Piccadilly, soon became the
resort of the friends of the Ministry and the staff, which included
William Gifford, the editor,--author of the 'Baviad' and
'Maeviad,'--John Hookham Frere, George Ellis, Canning, Mr. Jenkinson
(afterward Earl of Liverpool), Lord Clare, Lord Mornington (afterward
Lord Wellesley), Lord Morpeth (afterward Earl of Carlisle), and
William Pitt, who contributed papers on finance.

The Anti-Jacobin lived through thirty-six weekly numbers, ending July
16th, 1796. Its essays and poetry have little significance to-day
except for those who can imagine the stormy political atmosphere of
the Reign of Terror, which threatened to extend its rule over the
whole of Europe. Hence the torrents of abuse and the violent attacks
upon any one tainted with the slightest Sans-culottic tone may be
understood.

The greater number of poems in the Anti-Jacobin are parodies, but not
exclusively political ones. The 'Loves of the Triangles' is a parody
on Dr. Erasmus Darwin's 'Loves of the Plants,' and contains an amusing
contest between Parabola, Hyperbola, and Ellipsis for the love of the
Phoenician Cone; the 'Progress of Man' is a parody of Payne Knight's
'Progress of Civil Society'; the 'Inscription for the Cell of Mrs.
Brownrigg' a parody of Southey; and 'The Rovers,' of which one scene
is given below, is a burlesque on the Germa