accordingly met about the middle of November, and an Indemnity Bill was passed without opposition; Ministers, at the same time, giving a pledge that, after the Christmas recess, they would be prepared to bring forward a plan for a general revision of the Corn Laws. This plan had been matured and digested during the autumn by Lord Liverpool and Mr. Huskisson; who had spared no labour to procure authentic information on this difficult subject, or pains to frame such a Bill as might conciliate at once the conflicting interests both of the grower and consumer; and it had been decided in the Cabinet that, in order to stamp the measure with greater authority, it should be brought forward, in the one House by Lord Liverpool, and in the other by Mr. Canning, as the two leading Ministers.

The close attention with which Mr. Huskisson had applied himself to public business, during the last two years, and the deep anxiety which he naturally felt for the accomplishment and success of his new measures, had visibly shaken a constitution, already impaired by the excitement he had undergone in the winter of 1822. His spirits, too, had certainly suffered; for however philosophically he outwardly bore himself, against the calumnies with which he was assailed, those who saw, and watched him in his hours of retirement, could perceive, that the shaft had not been shot altogether in vain, and that his generous nature sometimes

sank* under the reiterated attacks of his malignant persecutors, who pursued him, as Mr. Canning expressed it, in one of the most feeling, as well as most beautiful, pieces of eloquence that ever fell from the lips of even that great master of the passions, "in the same doctrine and spirit, which embittered the life of Turgot, and consigned Galileo to the dungeons of the Inquisition."

The year 1827-so fruitful in melancholy occurrences-was ushered in by the death of the Duke of York. Mr. Huskisson, who had before been slightly indisposed, suffered much from the severity of the cold during his attendance at the funeral, and he there laid the foundation of that complaint in the throat, from the effects of which he never wholly recovered. He returned to Eartham on the 21st of January, and on the 24th, Mr. Canning arrived there from Bath, where he had been to visit Lord Liverpool, and to make arrangements for the approaching Session. His appearance bore evident signs of lurking malady, and the day after his arrival he had a sharp access of cold and fever; but finding himself better on the following morn

• The following extract is taken from a MS. Book, found after his death, in a private box.

"Whatever pains I have taken for the improvement and simplifieation of the Laws which regulate our Commerce and Industry, I have taken it all for the sake of the public interest. So far from serving any interest of my own, I have gained the ill-will and enmity of many, partly secret, partly declared,-painful to myself, but not useless, perhaps, to the Country."

ing, he proceeded to join his family at Brighton, and a few days afterwards Mr. Huskisson removed to London. On the day when Lord Liverpool was struck with apoplexy, Mr. Huskisson had been ordered not to leave the house, and the intelligence did not therefore reach him till about four o'clock in the afternoon. His anxiety to ascertain the particulars induced him to go immediately to Fife House, and this imprudence, and the excitement which ensued from the interruption of public business, produced, in a few days, a decided attack of inflammation on the trachea.

It has been supposed by many that, had the political life of Lord Liverpool not been thus suddenly terminated, it was the intention of that nobleman to have retired from his high office at the close of the present Session. His Lordship, it has been said, felt that the time was fast approaching, when the claims of the Catholics could no longer be resisted with prudence; and although he deemed it necessary for his own consistency, that the concession should not be made while he remained Chief Minister of the Crown, he had resolved, if not to give it his active support, at least to exert his powerful influence in mitigating the opposition which it had hitherto experienced in the House of Lords. With these feelings, his Lordship contemplated Mr. Canning as his natural successor, and would not only have given him his cordial assistance, but would, probably, when the Catholic Question had once been disposed of, have

resumed his seat in the Cabinet, in some office of a less laborious nature than his present one. Whether these conjectures were well-founded must now remain for ever uncertain; but they are perfectly in consonance with the known patriotism of that virtuous minister. Could they have been realized, how vast might have been the difference in the events which have subsequently occurred!

Whatever may have been the authority for these surmises, or the probability of these speculations, certain it is, that never was there a more unfortunate or more perplexing state of things than now commenced. The nature of Lord Liverpool's illness was such as to preclude all hope of recovery. Mr. Canning, to whom, as the leading Minister in the House of Commons, the charge of introducing the Corn Bill had been delegated by his colleagues, had had a relapse, and was confined to his bed at Brighton; and Mr. Huskisson was not permitted to quit his room in London. It was, nevertheless, extremely desirable, nay almost absolutely necessary, that he should communicate personally with Mr. Canning, before the Corn Bill was brought forward; as, although the latter had undertaken to open the discussion, in order to stamp the measure more authoritatively with the sanction of Government, the subject was one as foreign to the natural bent of his genius, and to the usual duties of his department, as it was familiar to the pursuits and habits of the President of the Board of Trade. Mr. Huskisson's medical

advisers, however, peremptorily refused to allow him to leave London, and he was consequently necessitated to convey to Mr. Canning, through the medium of a confidential friend, those explanations of detail and calculation, which were so indispensable towards unfolding the scheme clearly and intelligibly in the House of Commons.

To increase the complicated embarrassments of the moment, the Catholic Question was again to be discussed, and Mr. Canning's anxiety to be present, and eagerness for the result, were known to be overwhelming. It came on in March, and the hopes of the Catholics were once more defeated. It was with considerable difficulty that Mr. Huskisson could be detained from this debate; but a sure anti-Catholic voter having been procured to pair off with him, he reluctantly submitted to the commands of the physician.

Whatever intrigues or paltry jealousies may have marked the interval which elapsed between Lord Liverpool's attack and the final permission given to Mr. Canning to reconstruct the Government, they are foreign to the subject of this memoir ; and when the majority of his former colleagues abandoned the new Premier, it may be confidently asserted, that he found in the friendship, the abilities and the public character of the President of the Board of Trade, one of his most powerful supports, against the various difficulties which threatened to surround him.