the negotiation, the old separation was continued, and Mr. Peel appointed Secretary, and Mr. Vesey Fitz-Gerald Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the Irish Government.

Without for a moment impugning the purity of his motives, or undervaluing the extent of the sacrifice which Mr. Canning judged it incumbent upon him to make at this conjuncture, it is impossible not to regret, that he should have deemed such a sacrifice necessary for his personal honour and consistency. Even at this moment, all the consequences of that fatal decision are not, perhaps, fully disclosed, and cannot be duly appreciated. Yet amid the growling of the storm, which now clouds the political horizon from north to south, from the frozen steppes of Russia to the sunny shores of Naples,-we cannot but lament, that the same generous master-spirit which swayed the councils of Britain in 1826 and 1827, was not destined to preside over those at Vienna in 1814 and 1815. The world is now reaping the bitter fruits of that unprincipled and short-sighted policy, which, with a rashness equally feeble and presumptuous, then parcelled out Europe by weight and measure, regardless of the wishes or wants of the people, and frittered away, without any solid advantage being gained either for this country or for the general interests of humanity, that single opportunity, which a combination of the most unforeseen events could alone have afforded for

making England the arbitress of the continent, and winning for her the lasting esteem and gratitude of regenerated nations.

The failure of this negotiation was attended with consequences of the most discouraging nature to the advancement of Mr. Huskisson; and as the grounds on which it was broken off are understood to have been purely personal to Mr. Canning, and such as in no way involved the abandonment of any political principles, the adherence of his friends to his decision was equally flattering to him, and honourable to their own disinterestedness.

Already, in 1809, Mr. Huskisson by relinquishing his office had made way for rival candidates for political honours; and his rejection of any arrangement in which Mr. Canning was not comprised, now once more enabled others to get the start of him. Owing to these circumstances, the aspiring fortunes of Mr. Peel and Mr. Robinson, both younger and less experienced in business, took an ascendancy which, for many years, threw Mr. Huskisson comparatively into the background.

A fresh cast of characters now became requisite. Lord Liverpool was named first Lord of the Treasury, and was considered the Prime Minister, Mr. Vansittart, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord Sidmouth and Lord Bathurst Secretaries for the Home and Colonial Departments. In June, the new finance minister produced his

Budget, when Mr. Huskisson seized the opportunity of again enforcing the necessity of adopting every practicable method of retrenching the expenditure, and equalizing it with the public income; at the same time admitting, that the plan proposed was as acceptable as any measure of that character could be, in the actual state of the resources of the country.

Upon the dissolution of Parliament, in the autumn of this year, he received an invitation from many of the most respectable inhabitants of Chichester to succeed Mr. Thomas (who had signified his intention of retiring), as representative for that city, on what is there called the Blue, or independent interest. Nothing could be more gratifying than this invitation, nothing more flattering than the reception which he met with, both on his canvas, and at the hustings, where he was returned without opposition. Having resided for several years in the vicinity of his new constituents, he could not but be sensible that the selection of him conveyed the strongest proof of the estimation in which he was held, both in public and private life; and the circumstance of his being at the time out of office, and the little prospect which was visible of his return to it, enhanced the value of the compliment, in a way alike honourable to the electors of Chichester and to himself.

Parliament assembled in November, when Mr. Huskisson once more exposed and controverted

the notorious Resolution of Mr. Vansittart, declaring that a pound note and a shilling were equivalent to a guinea, which the latter pertinaciously maintained, in the face of the flagrant proofs to the contrary which daily occurred.

In the month of March following, he took a luminous and scrutinizing view of the Finances of the country, and of the Resolutions proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and stated the nature of the alterations which he wished to see introduced. For this speech he received the highest compliments from Mr. Baring, Mr. Henry Thornton, Mr. Tierney, and other members of the House most conversant with the subject.* It is full of those peculiar excellencies which mark all what, in order to avoid periphrasis, may be familiarly termed the professional speeches of Mr. Huskisson.

When the question of the existing Corn Laws was brought under the notice of the House in this session, he distinguished himself in the debate which arose on certain resolutions moved by Sir Henry Parnell; and it was on this occasion that he first proposed a scale of graduated prohibitory duties, which, in after years, gave rise to so much discussion, when they had been matured by the wisdom and experience of Lord Liverpool. It is worthy too of remark, that even at this period Mr. Huskisson objected to the

• See vol. i. P. 273.

propositions of Sir Henry Parnell,

"as proceed

ing too much on the principle of giving the monopoly of the English market to the English corn grower."

In the summer of 1814, Mr. Canning accepted the Embassy to Lisbon. It has been lately stated, in a work of great authority, that he did so reluctantly, and that he was only "induced to do so, because the Government had made it the condition of enrolling in its ranks those of his personal friends, who had attached themselves to his political fortunes."* Who the friends were, for whom Mr. Canning sacrificed himself on this occasion, it is not pretended to guess. But as Mr. Huskisson, it is believed, was the only one of those friends who was appointed to the chief direction of a department, an inference might be drawn, that it was for his advancement principally, that Mr. Canning took upon himself the unpopularity which was attached to the Lisbon Embassy. This inference is distinctly repelled on the part of Mr. Huskisson's friends. If any faith is to be placed in the anecdotes of the times, it would be contradicted by what was then currently reported, and often alluded to, even in Parliament; namely, that Mr. Canning had, not long before his appointment, released his adherents from all political allegiance, and, as Mr. Whitbread sarcastically

* Political Life of Mr. Canning, by A. G. Stapleton, Esq., v.i. p. 70.