not coun

and declined by them, because, it was said, they desired the appointment of lord Althorp. The nomination of Mr. Herries came by surprise upon the whig members of the cabinet. Lord Lansdowne, understanding that this appointment was dictated by the king to lord Goderich, selled by lord Goderich to the king, — obtained an audience, tendered the seals of his office, but retained them on the assurance that Mr. Herries was duly made chancellor of the exchequer upon the advice of lord Goderich, and upon being graciously desired by the king to prevent the dissolution of the ministry by not resigning. The king, it may be presumed, sincerely wished the continuance of the ministry. New arrangements would subject him to exertion and fatigue.

The objections to Mr. Herries as chancellor of the exchequer, on the part of the whigs, were understood to be still more serious than the supposed irregularity of his appointment. He was brought up in the financial school of Mr. Vansittart, and had acquaintance and authority with Jews and jobbers. His intimacy with the loan-jobber Rothschild was notorious and avowed, but accounted for by his friends as originating in official relations with that person when he was at the head of the commissariat department. Again, the nomination of Mr. Herries was supposed to have proceeded primarily from an irresponsible quarter. A confidential medical attendant has the same opportunities of influence through the infirmities of a protestant, which a confessor has through the conscience of a catholic king. Mr. Herries, moreover, was an intolerant

tory; and it was said that, by a master-stroke of intrigue, he was introduced by those who had seceded from Mr. Canning, as a firebrand in the ministry for its destruction. This was borne out by the event but the event has been called the guide of fools.

Lord Lansdowne, having submitted to the appointment of Mr. Herries, proposed to strengthen the whig party by bringing in lord Holland. This would not only have strengthened the whigs in council, but given weight and popularity to the administration at home and abroad. The suggestion was understood to have been readily adopted by lord Goderich; but the king over-ruled it.

Mr. Canning had pledged himself in the preceding session to an investigation and reform of the finances; lord Goderich proposed to redeem this pledge by the appointment of a committee of finance. It became necessary to select its chairman. Lord Althorp, a man of business, conversant with the subject, of independent conduct, perfect integrity, and the reputed head of an independent liberal party of country gentlemen, was proposed to lord Goderich by Mr. Tierney. Lord Goderich said it chiefly concerned the house of commons, and referred Mr. Tierney to Mr. Huskisson, the leader in that house. Mr. Huskisson approved the choice; and lord Althorp, having been applied to, expressed his willingness to undertake the duty. The subject was not yet mentioned to Mr. Herries, the chancellor of the exchequer, through what lord Goderich called an oversight. Mr. Herries acquiesced upon its being mentioned to him, but, as he sub

sequently declared in the house of commons, his acquiescence was "not cordial." After twentyfour hours' reflection, his not cordial acquiescence changed to absolute dissent; and he finally informed lord Goderich that, with lord Althorp's adverse politics, and decided opinions on finance, in the chair of the committee, he should be thwarted in his operations as chancellor of the exchequer ; that the communication to lord Althorp without his knowledge was a personal slight; and that he should resign if the appointment were persevered in. Mr. Huskisson, on the other hand, declared that he should resign if the choice did not fall upon lord Althorp. About the same time the victory of Navarino oppressed this distracted and feeble ministry with its éclat and embarrassments. Lord Goderich, in fine, unable to reconcile or decide between Messrs. Huskisson and Herries, wearied with his situation, deadened, it was said, to ambition by the loss of an only child, and disheartened by the near approach of the opening of parliament, resigned his office, and the ministry expired. Tory management, through its engine Mr. Herries, was the proximate cause of the dissolution of this ministry; but intrigue for once performed a charitable office, in precipitating hopeless infirmity to its inevitable doom. Lord Goderich resigned on the 8th of January. The duke of Wellington was sent for by the king; and commissioned, next day, to form an administration of which he should be himself the head.

The duke of Wellington recruited with the utmost facility. It is true the whigs went out; but the

leading friends of Mr. Canning remained in, and the seceding tories returned (with the exception of lord Eldon invalided) after a short exile which made return more sweet to places cherished and familiar as their firesides. The Wellington cabinet `rendered justly memorable—it may be said immortalised by a single measure, and the energy of its chief, stood as follows: the duke of Wellington, first lord of the treasury; the right honourable Henry Goulburn, chancellor of the exchequer; lord Lyndhurst, lord chancellor; lord Bathurst, president of the council; lord Ellenborough, lord privy seal; the right honourable Robert Peel, secretary of state for the home department; earl Dudley, secretary of state for foreign affairs; the right honourable William Huskisson, secretary of state for the colonies; the right honourable John Charles Herries, master of the mint; viscount Melville, president of the board of control; the earl of Aberdeen, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster; the right honourable Charles Grant, treasurer of the navy and president of the board of trade; viscount Palmerston, secretary, at war; the duke of Clarence, lord high admiral.

The promotion of Mr. Goulburn's fatiguing mediocrity and humble usefulness created surprise, and the removal of Mr. Herries to the mint showed that he had taken the office of chancellor of the exchequer from other motives than qualification or choice. The friends of Mr. Canning, and especially Mr. Huskisson, lost character with the public. It scemed as if the opposition of Mr. Huskisson to Mr. Herries, respecting lord Althorp, had been not

adverse, but collusive, and he was but an accomplice in intrigue. Lord Dudley vindicated himself by saying that public not private feelings should govern in politics, and that it would be uncharitable "to immortalise hatred: but there are cases in which this paramount public conscience and excessive placability are suspicious or disgraceful.

The duke of Wellington cut his way through his own sentence of incapacity upon himself with the nonchalance of a soldier's logic. There was, he said, difficulty in obtaining a prime minister; his colleagues told him he was capable, and he therefore accepted the post. The duke disappointed expectation greatly to his advantage.

66

The session of parliament was opened by commission on the 29th of January. A single epithet in the commissioners' speech was the chief subject of debate. The battle of Navarino was characterised as an untoward event." It is necessary to state briefly the circumstances which preceded and produced it. Christian Europe was shocked and scandalised by the barbarian atrocities of the Turks in Greece. Philhellenic associations, for the purpose of succouring the Greeks, were formed in every European capital. There were in them, doubtless, many persons of disinterested zeal; but they were also disgraced, and especially that of London, by quackery, rapacity, and peculation. It was clear that the only effectual interference would be that of the European governments. Mr. Canning accordingly directed his attention to the subject. The remonstrances of ambassadors at Constantinople were found unavailing. Community of