93. Though nearly impotent from this cause for good, the new Ministry showed, even in its cradle, it was ade

was to reduce to a third of its former amount the yeomanry cavalry of Great Britain, the numbers being reduced from 35,500 to 13,500. Various additions have since been made to this noble force, which unites the high and the low by the bonds of common loyalty to their country and each other; but it has never attained anything like the numerical amount which it had then reached. This strange step was the more reprehensible that the military force of Great Britain, reduced to the lowest point by the clamour for eco

popular minister, and he was appoint- | those things are different. Weak men ed Premier. Mr Huskisson succeeded of different opinions can hold together, Lord Goderich as Colonial Secretary, because they all yield to the ascendant and Mr Herries was appointed Chan- of superior genius; but strong men cellor of the Exchequer. His appoint- cannot do so for any length of time, ment gave such offence to the Whigs because no one will yield to another. that Lord Lansdowne waited on his Majesty with his resignation of his office as Home Secretary, and was only prevailed on to hold it on the assur-quate to evil. One of its first steps ance that it was not the King who had recommended him to Lord Goderich, but Lord Goderich who had recommended him to the King. Lord Harrowby retired from the office of President of the Council, which was bestowed on the Duke of Portland, and Lord Carlisle succeeded his Grace as Lord Privy Seal. Sir A. Hart was made Chancellor of Ireland, and Mr Shadwell Vice-Chancellor of England. The Duke of Wellington, who had retired chiefly from a sense of personal slight on Mr Canning's appointment, immediately resumed his place as Com-nomy, was dispersed over every quarmander-in-Chief, though without a ter of the globe in defence of our coloseat in the Cabinet. The Government, nies; that the alarming insurrections as remodelled, was, upon the whole, of 1820 and 1821 had been put down of a Whig character, though several mainly by the yeomanry force, which members of it adhered to Conservative had a moral influence much beyond its principles. physical strength; and that the state 92. Lord Goderich's Cabinet has be-of Ireland, as will be immediately come a byword in subsequent times; shown, was so threatening that every and certainly its troubled existence, regular soldier was required from Great and speedy termination without exter- Britain to prevent rebellion openly nal causes, prove that the seeds of dis-breaking out. All these considerasolution were from the first implanted tions, how pressing soever, yielded in its bosom. It was not, however, to the desire to suppress the " Tory from any deficiency in ability that this clubs,' as the yeomanry regiments tendency to decay arose; on the con- were called in private by the Whig trary, the Cabinet presented a splendid leaders.* This reduction excited the array of names, which it would have greatest discontent, and many of the been difficult to have found a parallel regiments offered to serve without pay, to, in point of ability, in any other list but it was refused; a decision which in the kingdom. Its weakness arose demonstrated it was political, not finanfrom that very ability itself, and the cial, considerations which had suggestdifferent sentiments with which its ed the reduction. It was a melancholy highly-gifted members were animated. proof of the length to which party spirit The infirmity of a coalition is in the can carry even estimable and able men, direct ratio of the talent and vigour when the first use of power made by a of its members; its strength, of their great party, when they had obtained it weakness, provided there are one or after a long exclusion, was to weaken two brilliant exceptions. What makes the bulwarks of the throne in order them, in general, after a brief period, fall to pieces, is not that they want talents to do great things, but that

The Author often heard them so designated at that time by persons of the highest eminence in the confidence of Government.

that they might extinguish the cradle of loyalty.

to his position as head of the Admiralty; Mr Goulburn was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Earl Bathurst President of the Council. Sir James Scarlett resigned the office of Attorney-General, and was succeed

whole Canning party-Lord Dudley and Ward, Lord Palmerston, and Mr C. Grant-retained their places; and even Mr Huskisson and Mr Herries, whose hostility had proved fatal to the late Ministry, remained in power, not without some regret on the part of the friends of the former.

94. The divisions in the Cabinet were so well known that it was generally expected it would break up before the end of the year. It dragged a painful existence on, however, to the begin-ed by Sir Charles Wetherall. But the ning of 1828. Matters were brought to a crisis in the first week of January by the necessity of appointing a finance committee, agreeably to a promise made by Mr Canning, when opening the budget of the preceding year. The Cabinet, on the suggestion of Mr Tierney, who took the lead in the House of Commons on the occasion, had re- 96. Mr Huskisson, however, soon solved on LORD ALTHORPE, eldest son found that it is easier to retain office of Earl Spencer, a Whig leader, who in a divided Cabinet than public estisoon after rose to eminence. This re-mation by forming part of it. A quessolution was taken with the concurrence of Lord Goderich, but without the knowledge of Mr Herries, who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, naturally thought he should at least have been consulted on such an appointment. The result was, that Mr Herries_tendered his resignation, which Lord Goderich received with considerable agitation. On his side, Mr Huskisson intimated to Lord Goderich that he would resign if the nomination of Lord Althorpe was not carried through; and as Lord Goderich now deemed it requisite to put a veto on that appointment, Mr Huskisson tendered his resig. nation, and Lord Goderich, seeing it impossible to carry on the Government, escaped the difficulty by resign-without some show of reason, that the ing himself.

95. The King, thus deserted by the Coalition Ministry, as a matter of necessity sent for the Duke of Wellington, who, albeit of military habits, and little skilled in the intrigues of courts, hastened, with his wonted patriotic spirit, to respond to the summons of his Sovereign. Few changes in the Cabinet, in the first instance at least, took place on his appointment. The Liberal Tories remained, but the decided Whigs retired. Lord Lansdowne resigned his situation as Home Secretary, which Mr Peel, with the entire concurrence of the nation, resumed. Mr Tierney gave up the Mastership of the Mint; Lord Melville was restored

tion ere long arose, on which the divergence of opinion between him and the majority of his colleagues became apparent. The great question of parliamentary reform lay as a stumblingblock in their way, and it was brought on early in the next session of Parliament by the pending bills for the disfranchisement of Penryn and East Retford. The bill for the first passed the Commons without opposition, with a clause transferring the franchise to Manchester-the Tories trusting that it would be thrown out in the Peers, and wishing to throw upon the Upper House the odium of an unpopular step. But as a town had got one of the disfranchised seats, they contended, not

country should get the next; and, accordingly, they all voted, with the exception of Mr Huskisson, against transferring the seat to Birmingham. It was carried against giving the seat to Birmingham by a majority of 19; the numbers, 141 to 122. Mr Huskisson, however, voted with the minority; and deeming this deviation from his colleagues, on a vital question, a sufficient reason for not longer retaining office, he sent a letter to the Duke of Wellington, at two in the morning, after returning from the debate, resigning his office.* This resignation

DEAR DUKE,-After the vote which, in regard "DOWNING STREET, 2 A.M., May 2.-My to my own consistency and personal charac

the Duke next day carried to the King, | instead of Lord Palmerston; Mr Vesey by whom it was accepted. Mr Hus- Fitzgerald was put at the head of the kisson does not seem to have reckoned Board of Trade in room of Mr C. Grant. on this being done; for Lord Dudley, The Cabinet was now reconstructed on his part, went to the Duke, to en- entirely out of the Tory party, and the deavour to convince his Grace that he weakness incident to a coalition was laboured under a mistake, and that no at an end. But it soon appeared that resignation was intended. The laconic the days of Tory domination were also answer of the Duke, however, since closed, and that even the decided will become proverbial, cut the matter of the "Iron Duke" must yield to the short: "It is no mistake; it can be no necessities of his new situation, and mistake; and it shall be no mistake." | the opinions of a growing Liberal maThe Duke persisted, after some cor-jority in the House of Commons.* respondence, in regarding it in this light; and Mr Huskisson being thus out of the Cabinet, his retirement was followed by that of the whole Canning party. Lord Dudley, Lord Palmerston, and Mr C. Grant, immediately resigned; and this was soon after followed by that of the Duke of Clarence from the situation of Lord High Admiral. This last resignation, however, was on separate grounds from the general withdrawal of Mr Canning's

friends.

97. These resignations deprived the Ministry of its coalition character, and the Duke of Wellington proceeded with his usual decision in filling up the vacant offices. The persons to whom situations were offered were partly military; but the capacity they evinced in their new duties soon proved that the Duke had not been mistaken in his estimate of their characters. Mr Huskisson was succeeded in the Colonial Office by Sir George Murray, the tried and able Quartermaster-General in all the Peninsular campaigns; Lord Dudley in the Foreign Office by Lord Aberdeen; Sir Henry Hardinge, the hero of Albuera, was made Secretary at War ter, I have found myself compelled to give on the East Retford question, I owe it to you, as the head of the Administration, and to Mr Peel, as the leader of the House of Commons, to lose no time in affording you an opportunity of placing my office in other hands, as the only means in my power of preventing the injury to the King's service which may ensue from the appearance of disunion in his Majesty's Councils, however unfounded in reality, or however unimportant in itself the question which has given rise to that appearance." Ann. Reg. 1828, p. 15. This was couched in almost the express words of the resignation of Mr Herries, not many weeks before.

98. One of the first debates in the next session of Parliament was on the celebrated speech from the throne concerning the battle of Navarino, which was justly looked forward to with great interest by all Europe, as embodying the sentiments of the new Ministry on the Greek revolution. His Majesty then said: "In the course of the measures adopted with the view to carry into effect the treaty of July 6, a collision wholly unexpected by his Majesty took place in the port of Navarin, between the fleets of the contracting powers and that of the Ottoman Porte. Notwithstanding the valour displayed by the combined fleet, his Majesty deeply laments that this conflict should have occurred with the naval force of an ancient ally; but he still entertains a confident hope that this untoward event will not be followed by farther hostilities, and will not prevent that amicable adjustment of the existing differences between the Porte and the Greeks, to which it is so manifestly their common interest to accede." These words, and especially the expression "untoward event," which was certainly unsuitable for so glorious an achievement as that which de

*The Duke of Wellington's Cabinet, as finally constructed, stood as follows:

First Lord of the Treasury, Duke of Wellington; Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Goulburn; Home Secretary, Mr Peel; Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen; Colonial Secretary, Sir George Murray; Lord Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst; Secretary at War, Sir H. Hardinge; First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Melville; President of the Council, Lord Bathurst; Privy Seal, Lord Ellenborough ; Board of Trade, Mr Vesey Fitzgerald; LordLieutenant of Ireland, Lord Anglesea.-Ann. Reg. 1828, pp. 19, 21.

livered an entire Christian people from the Ottoman yoke, excited an immense sensation both in this country and over all Europe, and was justly deemed an undeserved slight on the commander who brought on the engagement. They were obviously dictated by the strong sense which the Duke of Wellington entertained, and has often expressed, of the importance of the independence of Turkey to the general balance of power in Europe, and of the obvious fact that the destruction of the Ottoman fleet exposed Constantinople without defence to an attack from the Russians issuing from Sebastopol. But that has always been the inherent and insurmountable difficulty of the Eastern Question, that justice cannot be done to the Christian population of Turkey without weakening its Mussulman Government, or independence given to its oppressed provinces without endangering that of the European States.

her sons.

99. Ministers, much to their honour, brought forward, early in the session, a proposal for a suitable provision for the family of Mr Canning, which had been raised to the peerage the day after his funeral. Mrs Canning was made a Viscountess, with remainder to Richly as this testimonial to long and valuable public services was deserved, the proposal met with a strenuous opposition from Lord Althorpe, Mr Hume, Mr Bankes, and other leaders of the retrenching party in the House of Commons, who, while they admitted the splendid talents of the deceased, objected on economical grounds to such an appropriation of the public money.

as well as with success, he applied that genius and those views of policy to advance the service and glory of his country. If there were those from whom he had differed-and can it be doubted that every politician will have some opposed to him?-this is not an hour when those differences should be recollected. A friendship of thirty-six years with him has given me, and I am not ashamed to confess it, a deep interest in any measure which is intended to do honour to his memory."

100. The Finance Committee, which had proved so fatal to the Goderich Administration, was appointed without opposition; Mr Peel was chairman, and both Mr Herries and Mr Huskisson were members. The Catholic question was again introduced, in a most eloquent speech by Sir Francis Burdett; and after a prolonged debate of three nights, carried in favour of emancipation by a majority of 6, the numbers being 272 to 266. This majority, in a Parliament which, in the preceding session, had decided the other way by a majority of 11, proved how very nearly balanced the parties were on this momentous question, insomuch that it was a mere accident which way the vote went. It was well known also that there was a division, nearly as equal, even in the Duke of Wellington's Cabinet, on the subject; and this equality, alike in the Government and the Legislature, deserves to be specially noted, as obviously tying up the hands of Ministers, and precluding the adoption of vigorous measures against the Irish malcontents. It was, in truth, the main The grant, how-cause of the sudden conversion of the ever, of £6000 a-year, was carried by a majority of 161 to 54, and the debate was chiefly memorable as containing a tribute from eminent men to the merits of the deceased. "That he was a man,' said Sir James Mackintosh, "of the purest honour, I know; that he was a man of the most rare and splendid talents, I know; that he was a man * Mr Canning's eldest son, to whom the renowned through Europe for his bril- title descended, was in the navy, and perishliant genius and philosophic thinking, ed accidentally soon after his father. Fornot a member of this House can be of the second son, to whom the family hontunately the pension was granted for the life ignorant; or that, with his best zeal,ours descended.—Ann. Reg. 1828, p. 78.

Duke of Wellington's Cabinet on the subject, and the carrying of Catholic emancipation so soon after. It led, however, at the moment, to no practical result; for when the matter was carried to the House of Peers, it was thrown out by a majority of 44, the numbers being 181 to 137.

101. The two great measures of the complained of as a grievance by the session were the Corn-law Settlement, English bankers, who, restrained from and the REPEAL OF THE TEST AND issuing small notes themselves, found CORPORATION ACTS. Both were le- this profitable branch of their business gislative acts of the utmost moment; taken out of their hands by strangers for the first settled for a long period who still enjoyed the privilege of doing the disputed question between town so. It never occurred to the Legislature and country, and the last struck the that the system of excluding such notes first successful blow which had been from circulation was the really erronedelivered during a hundred and fifty ous thing; and that the English public years at the supremacy of the Church would not testify such anxiety to get of England. It was obviously indis- Scotch notes, unless their circulation pensable to come to some arrangement was found to be convenient in business in regard to the Corn Laws-the bill and advantageous to the operations of for which, after having passed the commerce. All these considerations Commons by a large majority, had yielded to the desire felt to contract the been abandoned, as already mentioned, circulation, and rest it entirely upon a in the Peers, in consequence of an metallic basis; and in this desire the amendment deemed fatal to the prin- landed interest, in total blindness as to ciple of the bill, prohibiting the let-the effect of such measures upon their ting out of bonded corn, having been carried by the Duke of Wellington. The new bill, introduced now by Mr V. Fitzgerald, adopted the principle of the sliding-scale, and made no alteration on the duties proposed the preceding year on barley, oats, and rye; but in regard to wheat the turning-point was different, beginning at 52s., when the duty was to be 34s. 8d., and falling 1s. by every shilling the price advanced, till at 73s. it became is. only. The bill met with considerable opposition, the agriculturists contending for a higher, the Liberals for a lower rate; but at length it passed both Houses by large majorities-that in the Commons being 202 to 58; in the Lords, 86 to 19. So firmly fixed was the agricultural interest at this period in both Houses, at no great distance, in point of time, from an organic change which was to deprive them of all protection whatever.

102. So strongly was the cheapening party, notwithstanding this, intrenched in the Legislature, that Government brought forward a bill to prohibit the circulation of Scotch bank-notes in England. These notes, being for £1 each, were found to be extremely convenient in practice, and accordingly they everywhere crept across the Border, and were received at last in all the northern counties of England, as far as York and Preston. This was justly

own fortunes, for the most part concurred. Sir James Graham-whose tenantry at Netherby, on the western border, had largely shared in the benefits of the Scotch notes, and who himself had published an able pamphlet against the existing monetary system -in vain moved for a committee to in

quire into the subject. He was answered by the argument, that to make any inquiry would be tantamount to going back on our whole monetary system. The result was that the bill passed both Houses by great majorities

This

-in the Commons by eighty-two to seventeen-and the circulation of Scotch notes in England was entirely stopped. Very great distress was in consequence brought on the northern counties, especially among the small traders and farmers, who had long been supported by the advances of the Scotch bankers in the same way as they everywhere were to the north of the Tweed. law, which excited little attention at the time, deserves to be noted as one of the many circumstances which concurred at this period to spread distress among the industrious classes, and consequently dissatisfaction at existing institutions, and which were silently but irresistibly preparing a change in the constitution.*

*This bill did not pass without the strongest opposition and clearest prophecy of future evils from the few in the House of Com