ensued. Mr. Huskisson had, on a former occasion, expressed his conviction, that great as might be the pressure and the difficulties upon other interests in the country, there was none labouring under more difficulties, or requiring more urgently that relief should be given to it, than the WestIndia Interest. He now dissected and criticised the proposals of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with a force and effect which carried confusion into the ranks of the Treasury; and he denounced the undecided and vacillating conduct which marked all the measures of Government, who "put forward laws, as they would an advanced guard, with instructions to fall back, or to wheel to the right or to the left, as occasion might require,”—a conduct which, by unsettling all commercial transactions, spread alarm and dissatisfaction throughout the country. The unpremeditated readiness with which Mr. Huskisson overthrew the propositions of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the clearness and acuteness with which he exposed their fallacy, the force of his arguments, and the severity of his sarcasm, made an impression upon the House, almost unprecedented in matters of such dry detail. Government had a majority in their favour; but this made but small amends for the mortification they sustained from the caustic denunciations of Mr. Huskisson, and the bitter taunts of Mr. Brougham; and they subsequently abandoned their original proposition.

The

The weakness of the Government was now every day becoming more evident. The forbearance of the Whigs was rapidly vanishing before repeated disappointments, and at the period of which we are now treating, a growing approximation was observable between them, and Mr. Huskisson and his adherents. These symptoms became still stronger, after the decease of his late Majesty; and the storm of war, which had for some time threatened the Ministry, burst forth in all its violence on the motion for an address to the new Sovereign; the debate on which was characterized by a warmth of language almost amounting to acrimony.

Little more remains of the Parliamentary history of Mr. Huskisson. As a small but immediate measure of relief to the crying distresses of the WestIndia proprietors, he proposed a reduction of the duties levied on Rum in Scotland and Ireland; but, on an assurance that the Government would be ready, at another time, to enter upon the question, and in consideration of the advanced state of the session, and the absence of many of the Irish members, he consented not to press his resolution to a division.

On the discussion on the Labourers' Wages Bill, he thus expressed himself on the Truck system" the system of paying in goods and not in money, has arisen from the exercise of power on the one side, over the necessity which existed on the other. The workman is obliged to submit, because he cannot obtain employment

on any other terms. The difficulty of the master is not caused by the want of a sufficient quantity of the circulating medium; but the effect of this practice to the workman, has been to lower his wages twenty, and in some instances twentyfive per cent. This is a system which ought not to be allowed to continue: it must lead to discontent and dissatisfaction throughout the country."

We will confine ourselves to one more extract from the Speeches of this great statesman. It is from his speech on the Regency Question,-the last of any importance,-the last but one he ever made within the walls of that House, of which he was, for so many years, one of the brightest orna'ments; and no person, we think, can read it without being struck with its extraordinary application to the circumstances of his own approaching fate :

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My honourable and learned friend* has well observed that, of all men living, the present Ministers, and the members of the present Parliament, should be the last to overlook the precariousness of human life. In one session of that Parliament, what solemn warnings did we not receive! Look at Lord Liverpool. On the 16th of February, discharging an important duty in the House of Lords, in the full enjoyment of health and spirits, and vigour of life, the mens sana in corpore sano,—on the 17th, stricken to the earth, and lost for ever to his friends, to the administration of which he was

* Mr. Robert Grant, who had moved the Address.

the confidence!

the head, and to the country of which he enjoyed The session closed on the 2d of July. In the beginning of August, Mr. Canning was still transacting public business; -on the 8th of that month he was numbered with the illustrious dead."

Mr. Huskisson never spoke again in Parliament, except a few words, on the 13th of July, in answer to a complaint of Mr. Wilmot Horton's, that he had omitted, in his speech on the State of the Country, to advert to Emigration, as one essential mode of relief; to which observation Mr. Huskisson merely replied, that he had only addressed himself to measures of immediate relief, and that, though no enemy to emigration, it appeared to him to be a subject demanding great and serious consideration.

Such is a brief and hasty outline of Mr. Huskisson's Parliamentary history; and an outline is, unfortunately, all that can be offered of many even of his most important speeches. Indifferent 'to display, speaking frequently without the slightest preparation, rising late in the debate, and addressing himself to subjects the least attractive 'to all but those whose interests were involved, it is not to be wondered at, that many of his speeches should be imperfectly reported. In some few instances, however, manuscript notes have been found, which have been carefully made use of, in order to remedy, as far as was possible, these imperfections.

The Speeches which he was prevailed upon to publish, were subjected to a most careful revision; but it was a task which he undertook with considerable reluctance. In composition, he was difficult in the selection of his words and in the arrangement of his sentences, and without, perhaps, carrying fastidiousness to the extent which Mr. Canning is reported to have done, it may still be fairly said, that he never spared the file. This, however, is only true as applied to Official Papers. In his common correspondence, his style was strongly indicative of his character-simple, easy, and natural.

For some time past, his physical system had evidently been suffering under a degree of languor and debility, which required care and rest, and showed itself by no means equal to the heavy demands made upon it, by the incessant activity of his mental powers. Influenced by the recollection of past favours, and by the feelings of gratitude which he always bore towards his late Majesty, for the kindness and confidence with which he had treated him whilst a servant of the Crown, and unmindful of the inadequacy of his strength to any considerable fatigue or excitement, Mr. Huskisson determined to pay the last mark of respectful duty, by attending the funeral ceremony. For this purpose, he left town on the 14th of July, for Sir George Warrender's, at Cliefden, and on the following evening