ETRATFORD-DE-REDCLIFFE, STRATFORD CANNING, Viscount, English diplomatist, is son of a London merchant, and cousin of the celebrated George lle was bora 1788, educated at Eton, and entered himself of King's college, Cambridge, in 1806, but left in 1807, on receiving an appointment as précis writer in the foreign office. He was appointed secretary of embassy at Constantinople in 1809. He returned to Cam bridge in 1812 for the purpose of resuming his studies, and took the degree of M.A. Be was sent as envoy to Switzerland in 1814. About this time lie published an ode lull of spirit and power, entitled Buonaparte. It is called by lord Byron a "noble poem." In 1820 he went as plenipotentiary to the United States, and remained at Washington three years: In 1824 he was sent on special missions to St. Petersburg. and Vienna. ln 1825 his introduction to eastern diplomacy commenced with his appointment by Mr. Canning, then foreign secretary, as ambassador-extraordinary to the sublime porte. Here his good offices were warmly exerted on behalf of the Greeks. In 1831 he was accredited with a special mission to Turkey, to fix the boundaries of the new Id ngdom of Greece, and to settle the treaty iu virtue of which Otho ascended the Greek throne. He went to Madrid and Lisbon on a special mission in 1832. Ile had previously sat in the house of commons for Old Sarum and Stockbridge during a brief interval iu his diplomatic career. In 1834 he was elected for King's Lynn, which he represented until 1841, when, having twice refused the governo•-generalship of Canada, he was al-pointed by the government of sir Robert Peel ambassador at Constantinople. Here his influ ence was strenuously exerted in the cause of civilization and progress. In 1852 the Derby administration recommended hue crown to confer upon him the title and dignity of viscount. When the long-standing quarrel between tl.e Greek and Latin monks in
Palestine involved the powers of Europe in the struggle, Stratford remembered flow the emperor Nicholas of Russia had, from 1829 to 1E53, sought to establish a predomi nant influence, excluding all others, over the porte, with the view of settling the future destinies of Turkey to the profit of Russia when the propitious juncture arrived. At the time when prince Menchikoff was sent to Constantinople upon a mission from the czar, Stratford was absent in England on leave. He returned to Constantinople in April, 1853, and prepared to resist ...NIenehikoff's demands. The keenly contested diplo matic struggle between Stratford and the Russian ambassador-extram (Hilary is narrated with dramatic power by Mr. Kinglake in his Invasion of the Crimea, who calls Stratford the "Great Eltehi." Stratford's influence with the porte prevailed. for, to adopt the words of Mr. Kinglake, "as though yielding to fate itself, the Turkish mind used to bend and fail down before him;" and he placed on England the responsibility of a defensive alliance with the sultan against the czar. As Russia would not withdraw her troops from the principalities, the sultan declared war against Russia, and France and England came to the aid of the porte. Stratford retired front the Turkish emeassy in 1858 upon a pension. He has since taken a frequent part in the debates m the upper house on questions of foreign policy. He was created a knight of the garter in 1809. In 1873 he published May am, I a Christian? a work on the evidences of Christianity, and in 1870 a play, Alfred the Great in Athelney.