Athol's, he missed his distance in attempting to leap the moat, and gave himself a most violent sprain of the ankle, accompanied with a considerable laceration of some of the tendons and ligaments of his foot, and it was many weeks before he recovered sufficiently to leave Scotland. Indeed, the effects of this accident were visible in his gait during the remainder of his life. He afterwards fractured his arm by a fall from his horse at Petworth; and again, in 1817, by his carriage being overturned. On this occasion, none of his surgeons could discover the precise nature of the mischief, but Sir Astley Cooper was of opinion that the bone was split from the fracture up to the joint. The recovery was slow, and his sufferings very severe; as all kinds of experiments were employed to prevent the joint from stiffening. In spite of every exertion, he never recovered the full use of his arm, and a visible alteration in the spirit and elasticity of his carriage resulted from the injury. He was constantly encountering accidents of minor importance, and the frequency of them, joined to a frame enfeebled from the severe illnesses under which he suffered during his latter years, had given rise to a certain hesitation in his movements, wherever any crowd or obstacle impeded him, which may, perhaps, in some degree have led to that last misfortune, which, to his friends, and to the country, may well be termed irreparable.

At the general election in 1802, he offered himself as a candidate for Dover: but, though supported by the good wishes and influence of the Lord Warden, he was defeated by Mr. Spencer Smith, the government candidate, whose brother, Sir Sydney, got possession of the church (in which the election was then held), with his boat's crew, and effectually blockaded all approach to the voters in the opposite interest. After this defeat, he did not come into Parliament till 1804.

In the month of February in that year a vacancy occurred in the representation of Liskeard; Mr. Eliot, the sitting member, having succeeded to the peerage on the death of his brother, Lord Eliot. Mr. Huskisson was induced to offer himself, and was opposed by Mr. Thomas Sheridan. Owing to some mismanagement in forwarding the writ, the contest proved more severe than had been anticipated, and a double return was made. A petition was presented by Mr. Huskisson, which had to pass through three Committees, before a final decision was obtained in his favour. During the interval, Mr. Addington had been driven from the helm by the united attacks of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox; and an attempt was made to give to the country a powerful and efficient Ministry, which should embrace the friends of both those great statesmen. But difficulties arising which were deemed insurmountable, Mr. Pitt undertook to form an

Administration, excluding as well Mr. Fox and the Whigs, as Lord Grenville and his adherents. Under this arrangement, Mr. Huskisson was appointed one of the Secretaries of the Treasury.

The second Administration of Mr. Pitt was clouded abroad by the disastrous overthrow of the third Coalition; whilst at home the impeachment of Lord Melville, and his own declining strength, cast a shade of weakness and discomfiture over his Government, in strong and mortifying contrast with the days of his former power. The glories of Trafalgar, indeed, outshone the disgrace of Ulm, and cast a bright but expiring halo round the last days of the Statesman; but on his death in January 1806, the feeble remains of the Cabinet gave way before the mere anticipation of the formidable phalanx opposed to them, and "All the Talents" assumed the reins of Government.

Mr. Huskisson now became an active member of the Opposition, and shewed himself a shrewd and vigilant observer of the proceedings of Ministers. His attention was particularly directed to their financial measures; and in the month of July he moved a string of resolutions relating to public accounts, which were approved of, and agreed to, by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Henry Petty.

Parliament having been dissolved in the autumn of this year, Mr. Huskisson was again returned

for Liskeard. On the formation of the Duke of Portland's Government in the April following, he resumed his situation as Secretary of the Treasury, and the new Administration having deemed it advisable to appeal to the sense of the country, and to call a fresh Parliament, he became member for Harwich; which place he continued to represent, till the general election in 1812.

Notwithstanding that fourteen years had elapsed since the commencement of his public career-during the far greater portion of which he had been a member of the House of Commons, and held active important official situations-Mr. Huskisson had hitherto almost invariably refrained from entering the lists as a general debater, and had been contented to owe his reputation to his clear and intimate knowledge and skill in the transaction of business. He may be supposed to have been so long restrained from the exhibition of his great and varied attainments, upon questions well calculated for their successful display, by that constitutional diffidence which has been already mentioned as one of the most marked characteristics of his boyhood, and which never abandoned him through life; for it has been remarked, by those well capable of forming an unprejudiced judgment, that even in the most elaborate and powerful Speeches of his later years, when in full possession of the attention of the House, and cheered on by their admiration, he always seemed re

luctant to give the reins to his imagination, and studiously to draw back, as though trenching on forbidden ground, whenever he became aware that he was departing from that close and argumentative style of oratory, which was based upon the most profound calculations, and upon the most extensive, curious, and accurate information and research. Yet in spite of this rigid self-control, it would be easy to point out in his speeches many passages worthy of the greatest orators, and conveyed in the purest spirit of eloquence.

The Committee appointed, in 1807, to enquire into the means of reducing the Public Expenditure, had suggested that a new arrangement should be made between the Public and the Bank of England. Upon the change of Government, the task of carrying this recommendation into effect, devolved, of course, upon Mr. Perceval; who, early in the session of 1808, brought the whole transaction under the consideration of Parliament, and proposed some Resolutions founded upon it, which were agreed to without a division. The letters which passed between the Treasury and the Bank upon this occasion, and which gave evident signs of superior talent, and of a most perfect acquaintance with the subject, necessarily bore the signature of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the reputation of Mr. Huskisson as a financier and statesman received an immense addition, from the important share which he was universally understood