drawing of our garrisons from the forts on the Gold Coast.*

His Correspondence with the Governors of the West-India Colonies sufficiently proves how earnestly he endeavoured to impress on the Colonial Legislatures the necessity as well as wisdom of giving effect, without delay, to the Resolutions of the British Parliament; and how carefully and steadily he applied himself to devise means materially to improve the civil and moral condition of the Slave Population. The speeches which he delivered on moving the appointment of a Committee to inquire into the state of the Canadas, and on the discussions of the Bill for the regulation of the Government of New South Wales, are not only full of the most liberal sentiments respecting the treatment by the mother country of those important Colonies, but exhibit such an

• In the month of May 1830, a conversation arose in the House of Commons on the abuses of the Colonial System, when Mr. Marryatt paid the following honourable compliment to the exertions made by Mr. Huskisson, and to the hopes derived from them, during the short period in which he held the seals of that department:

"The task is truly Herculean; but I trust, as there exists the desire, so the means of reformation will not be wanting. I should state, that during the short period in which the right honourable member for Liverpool held the seals of the Colonial Office, a ray of light beamed upon this unfortunate colony (the Cape of Good Hope). The energetic measures of reformation which he had time only to commence, and which gave a promise of brighter days, ceased however with his removal from office. That event was much regretted by the Colonists; who had begun to congratulate themselves on being under the control of a Minister, who was both willing and able to carry his beneficial plans into effect."

intimate knowledge of their present state and comprehensive views for their future prosperity, as could only have been acquired by the most patient research and impartial communication with every source of information which was open to him.

Mr. Huskisson, with the other members of Government in the House of Commons, opposed Lord John Russell's Bill for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts; but his opposition on this occasion did not impugn the sincerity of his principles in favour of religious toleration, and he thus explained and defended the grounds of it :"I am not, abstractedly, unfriendly to the proposition, but I cannot assent to it, because I am sure that, with reference to the Catholic Claims, it will make a bad impression. I am convinced that the present measure, so far from being a step in favour of the Catholic Claims, would, if successful, be the means of arraying an additional power against them."

On these impressions he founded his opposition to the Bill, and though, fortunately, those impressions proved afterwards, to a certain extent, erroneous, yet were they not wholly visionary.

The months of March and April were principally consumed in debates upon the Corn Bill; and from the tone of the discussions, the public thought they could gather a confirmation of the reports which had very generally prevailed, of considerable dissensions among the Ministers

respecting the provisions of the Bill. Neither Mr. Grant nor Mr. Huskisson professed to consider the scale of duties as without objection, and contented themselves with recommending the arrangement as the best which, under all circumstances, could be at present realized. But, while Mr. Huskisson was taunted in the House of Commons with having consented to compromise his former opinions on the Corn Laws, it was strongly suspected, that the Duke of Wellington had met with a firmer resistance among his liberal colleagues than he had anticipated, and that he, on his part, found the task of introducing the new Bill rather an unpalatable comment upon his opposition to that of the former year. In fact, the omission in the present Bill, of that clause which had proved fatal to the one of the preceding year, without the substitution of any provision, which might operate to produce the effect, for which his Grace had then interfered, must have been a mortification, which the slight advantage gained in the scale of duties can not be supposed to have compensated. Whatever may be thought as to the relative merits of the two Bills, it must be borne in mind, that Mr. Canning had expressed his wish, that the measure "should be reconsidered," and that it was evident he had contemplated the necessity of some mezzo termine, which might soften the opposition he had experienced. What the exact nature of those modifications was, it is impossible to say; but it is probable, that they would have given a greater

protection to agriculture. That such would have been their effect, it is reasonable to infer; because Mr. Canning, as a practical statesman, would have been obliged to look for a practical result, in an arbitration between conflicting opinions, and he would therefore, probably, have introduced such a measure as might have been agreed to by all parties. It has been well observed, that parties, as well as individuals, frequently break down through the ambition of accomplishing too much, and,through the same process-by rouzing into opposition those who would have yielded to, or favoured, more temperate pretensions. In striving to attain objects which they have not strength to grasp, or to preserve, they lose those benefits which they might readily accomplish.

However strong the suspicions of disunion in the Cabinet, no open proof appeared to confirm them, and with the passing of the Corn Bill, whatever differences of opinion might have occurred, were supposed to have subsided with the cause which had provoked them. Without entering upon the wide field of our Corn Laws, we have Mr. Huskisson's own authority, on a later occasion, for stating, that "however expedient to prevent other evils in the present state of the country, they are in themselves a burthen and a restraint upon its manufacturing and commercial industry" and it is well known, that some of the best practical authorities of the present day are decidedly in favour of repealing the existing

system, and substituting a free trade under a moderate protection.

Mr. Huskisson knew that he was regarded with a suspicious and jealous eye by what is termed the Agricultural interest, and in the course of the debates on the propriety of disfranchising East Retford, and transferring the right of election to one of the great manufacturing towns, he thus plainly alluded to the circumstance:-" It has sometimes been said, I know not on what grounds, that I am not a friend to the Agricultural interest; but I feel the less uneasy under an imputation of that nature, as I am persuaded that an enlarged view of the policy which I have always recommended, cannot fail to lead to the conclusion, that I have uniformly supported those principles which are best calculated to promote the general interests of each class, and, as a consequence, the good of the whole community."

Nothing could have been contrived more conducive to the revival of whatever jealousies and conflicting opinions lay smothered under the outward appearance of harmonious accordance worn by the Government, than the different events which had successively arisen since the meeting of Parliament. The misunderstanding respecting the expression "guarantee" was no sooner smoothed away, than the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts was carried against all the efforts of the leading minister in the Lower House; the Corn Laws next ensued, and presented a fertile