Canning's Appointment

'May 15 [1827].—Parliament House a queer sight. Looked as if people were singing to each other the noble song of "The sky's falling—chickie diddle." Thinks I to myself, I'll keep a calm sough.

"Betwixt both sides I unconcerned stand by; Hurt, can I laugh, and honest, need I cry?"

I wish the old Government had kept together, but their personal dislike to Canning seems to have rendered that impossible...'

Sir Walter Scott's journal entry of May 15, 1827, laments the fallout from King George IV's appointment of George Canning as Prime Minister, in place of the ailing Earl of Liverpool, Robert Jenkinson.  Sir Robert Peel and Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, soon resigned.  Wellington became Prime Minister himself, less than half a year after Canning died , and Peel succeeded him.  Canning became PM on April 10, 1827, and passed just 119 days later, on August 8, 1827, rendering his term as Prime Minister the shortest on record.