George Canning

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tagsperson, british-official
aliasesCanning, British plenipotentiary Canning

7 min read

George Canning (1770–1827) was a British statesman who, with Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, served as British plenipotentiary at the negotiations which produced the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London of 17 March 1824. In the Achehnese record he is also significant as the «captain Canning» who, in 1814, conducted an earlier mission to Acheh on behalf of the Calcutta government.

The Acheh Mission of 1814

In 1814, while still serving in a military capacity, Canning was dispatched by the government of Bengal to Acheh to arrange regulations for the security of trade. As Van der Kemp notes, the envoy «from Jauhar Alum and his court» received on that occasion «a highly insulting reception» — a circumstance that, in the historian’s account, explains why the Penang government had «no special reason to intervene» on Said Hussein’s behalf when, in 1815, he set out to seize the Achehnese throne (Said Hussein’s expedition to Acheh). The same Captain Canning is also mentioned in the Sultan of Acheh’s letter to Warren Hastings of 7 November 1786 as one of those who, with Mr. Phillips, had come to the Sultan «and I consulted them respecting the effects of captain Hobbs, and they unanimously desired me to deliver them to Mr. John Bird».

Plenipotentiary at the London Negotiations of 1824

A decade later, Canning — now a senior statesman, who would shortly serve as Foreign Secretary and, briefly, as Prime Minister — was appointed, with Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, as British plenipotentiary to negotiate a comprehensive settlement with the Netherlands. The Dutch plenipotentiaries were Hendrik Fagel and Anton Reinhard Falck. The negotiations, conducted against the background of the unfinished financial questions referred by the Convention of 24 January 1817 to the decision of the European governments, turned in the first instance on compensation for the Dutch possessions in Hindostan, but expanded to embrace the broader partition of spheres of influence in the Malay world.

The Acheh Question at the Eleventh Hour

The most striking episode of the Acheh negotiations, as related by Van der Kemp, is the eleventh-hour raising of the Acheh treaty of 1819 by the British plenipotentiaries (Raising of the Acheh treaty in London negotiations). Down to that moment neither side had mentioned Acheh. «The truth», writes Van der Kemp, «will rather be that neither Canning nor Wynn were aware of it, and that the London administration unexpectedly drew their attention to that treaty». When Captain Elout, son of the Dutch minister, was on the point of departing for The Hague with the draft treaty, the British plenipotentiaries suddenly informed him that there existed «a British treaty with Acheh» and that they would wish to see it maintained. They described it, however, as «nothing in particular — nothing else than a promise of Acheh to grant hospitality and assistance in shipwreck to British ships». On this representation the Dutch plenipotentiaries raised no objection.

When the draft was read in full at the conference of 23 February 1824, however, it appeared that the engagement was not nearly so innocent as had been represented: by its sixth article, indeed, Raffles had provided for the exclusion of other European powers, and the British plenipotentiaries had to acknowledge that the treaty established British «sovereignty». The Dutch plenipotentiaries, in their dispatch of 21 February 1824, observed that the treaty «is read and recognised on both sides as in the new state of things no longer capable even of partial maintenance». The final Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824) accordingly made no mention of the Acheh engagement, but, as Van der Kemp shows, the Dutch government’s later recognition of British interests at Acheh was the fruit of Canning and Wynn’s eleventh-hour manoeuvre.

See Also

Source

Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.

George Canning (1770–1827) was a British statesman who, with Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, served as British plenipotentiary at the negotiations which produced the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London of 17 March 1824. In the Achehnese record he is also significant as the «captain Canning» who, in 1814, conducted an earlier mission to Acheh on behalf of the Calcutta government.

The Acheh Mission of 1814

In 1814, while still serving in a military capacity, Canning was dispatched by the government of Bengal to Acheh to arrange regulations for the security of trade. As Van der Kemp notes, the envoy «from Jauhar Alum and his court» received on that occasion «a highly insulting reception» — a circumstance that, in the historian’s account, explains why the Penang government had «no special reason to intervene» on Said Hussein’s behalf when, in 1815, he set out to seize the Achehnese throne (Said Hussein’s expedition to Acheh). The same Captain Canning is also mentioned in the Sultan of Acheh’s letter to Warren Hastings of 7 November 1786 as one of those who, with Mr. Phillips, had come to the Sultan «and I consulted them respecting the effects of captain Hobbs, and they unanimously desired me to deliver them to Mr. John Bird».

Plenipotentiary at the London Negotiations of 1824

A decade later, Canning — now a senior statesman, who would shortly serve as Foreign Secretary and, briefly, as Prime Minister — was appointed, with Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, as British plenipotentiary to negotiate a comprehensive settlement with the Netherlands. The Dutch plenipotentiaries were Hendrik Fagel and Anton Reinhard Falck. The negotiations, conducted against the background of the unfinished financial questions referred by the Convention of 24 January 1817 to the decision of the European governments, turned in the first instance on compensation for the Dutch possessions in Hindostan, but expanded to embrace the broader partition of spheres of influence in the Malay world.

The Acheh Question at the Eleventh Hour

The most striking episode of the Acheh negotiations, as related by Van der Kemp, is the eleventh-hour raising of the Acheh treaty of 1819 by the British plenipotentiaries (Raising of the Acheh treaty in London negotiations). Down to that moment neither side had mentioned Acheh. «The truth», writes Van der Kemp, «will rather be that neither Canning nor Wynn were aware of it, and that the London administration unexpectedly drew their attention to that treaty». When Captain Elout, son of the Dutch minister, was on the point of departing for The Hague with the draft treaty, the British plenipotentiaries suddenly informed him that there existed «a British treaty with Acheh» and that they would wish to see it maintained. They described it, however, as «nothing in particular — nothing else than a promise of Acheh to grant hospitality and assistance in shipwreck to British ships». On this representation the Dutch plenipotentiaries raised no objection.

When the draft was read in full at the conference of 23 February 1824, however, it appeared that the engagement was not nearly so innocent as had been represented: by its sixth article, indeed, Raffles had provided for the exclusion of other European powers, and the British plenipotentiaries had to acknowledge that the treaty established British «sovereignty». The Dutch plenipotentiaries, in their dispatch of 21 February 1824, observed that the treaty «is read and recognised on both sides as in the new state of things no longer capable even of partial maintenance». The final Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824) accordingly made no mention of the Acheh engagement, but, as Van der Kemp shows, the Dutch government’s later recognition of British interests at Acheh was the fruit of Canning and Wynn’s eleventh-hour manoeuvre.

See Also

Source

Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.

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