Canning, had formed the opposition; but that difference already existed in the ministry in point of principle: even the premier himself, if any confidence could be placed in the former tenor of his political life, was far removed from perfect political sympathy with the new colleagues whom he received from his predecessor. Mr. Herries at the head of the exchequer, was an additional point on which the contending interests of the cabinet might come into contact; but these discordant interests themselves were all there, already prepared to support each its own pretensions by open clamour, or to undermine its adversary by secret intrigue. Two sets of men, so much opposed to each other as those had long been, who now formed the ministry, could not be expected to carry on the government with cordiality and harmony. Mr. Canning, in whom all of them acknowledged a superior, might have been able to retain them for a while in their appropriate spheres; but lord Goderich soon felt, that, though his dying friend had bequeathed to him rivalry and dissension in the cabinet, neither the power of intellect, nor the decision and energy of character, nor even the tact of management, which would have been necessary to avoid ruin, had formed any part of the bequest. The departing prophet had bestowed his blessing, but had not left his mantle.

The discords, which were unavoidable among these ill-assorted companions, became more deadly, and rendered the ministry more helpless, the nearer the meeting of parliament approached-an occasion which required for their official self-preservation the oblivion of all enmities, and the exhibition of all the

united strength which they could muster. It was scarcely possible, that, in great matters of domestic arrangement, such as finance, Ireland, or the Corn-laws, lord Lansdowne, and Mr. Tierney, with sir Francis Burdett, sir Robert Wilson, and the rest of the cohort. which they had brought over from the opposition benches, could cordially coincide with the less bold and decided views of the premier himself: and it was utterly impracticable that any true harmony could exist between them, and the interest of which Mr. Herries was now considered an official representative. He and lord Goderich had long been members of the same government; and there was nothing to prevent them from still acting together, unless the latter was determined to throw himself into the arms of his whig allies: but these allies and Mr. Herries had always been widely separated from each other; and, though now brought together in office, they were as distant as ever from mutual confidence. The whig part of the ministry had vehemently opposed his admission into the cabinet; lord Lansdowne had tendered his resignation on the occasion, under the idea, it was said, of the appointment being pressed by the king personally; and he submitted to it only on being assured, that it was, as it ought to have been, the act of the premier. But still Mr. Herries was only tolerated by them. They were determined not to trust him: they naturally aspired to the strengthening of their power by filling, with one of themselves, an office in the government so prominent and influential. While Mr. Herries continued there, they must be content to remain satisfied

with divided power. To them it was most desirable either to remove him, and those who thought with him, from office, or to diminish the influence of the office which he retained, by assuming to themselves the arrangement of matters, in which no chancellor of the exchequer could submit to fill any place but the first. In attempting the latter, they wrecked the government. The occasion, indeed, seemed to be a trifling one: but the occasion was only the means: the importance and the mischief lay in what was either the true, though the concealed, object, or at least the unavoidable consequence of what was done and persevered in.

The

When Mr. Canning, as chan cellor of the exchequer, opened the budget in 1827, he had avowed strongly the necessity of subjecting the financical condition and resources of the country to a thorough investigation, and had stated that the proper course to be adopted for that purpose would be the appointment of a finance committee. necessities of his newly-acquired, and still very unstable power, had justified him in postponing this measure from the short session during which alone he had been in office; but he had pledged himself to the House of Commons, that, in the ensuing session of 1828, such a committee would be named. His successor, who assumed office professedly to govern on the same principles, held himself to be bound by this engagement; and therefore, towards the close of the year, as the meeting of the parliament approached, some members of the ministry began to turn their attention to the formation of this committee. In such a measure, which, in its conse

quences might interfere, to an indefinite extent, with financial arrangements, it seems to be perfectly clear that the chancellor of the exchequer, the finance minister of the country, was the very first person to be consulted. It was not merely due to him as a matter of courtesy, though his opponents were never willing to allow that what followed was more than a want of courtesy: it was due to the influence of his office; it was due to the regular procedure of the ministry. To proceed in such a measure without having ascertained what were his wishes and views, or even without being prepared to accede to these wishes and views, in so far as they did not contradict the general policy of the government, was to degrade him from that official weight and control which belong to every head of a department. It so happened, however, that, before any thing had been said on the subject in the cabinet, Mr. Tierney, the most active member of the whig section of the cabinet, had resolved to take the lead in the formation of this committee,-to take it at once in its most important part, viz. the nomination of the chairman, and to take it, moreover, without so much as informing, much less consulting, the chancellor of the exchequer. In the middle of November, he proposed to lord Goderich, that lord Althorpe should be appointed chairman of the committee. Lord Goderich expressed no objection; but merely said, that, as it was a matter which more nearly concerned those members of the cabinet who had seats in the House of Commons, he would leave it to them; and whatever they might determine on would be agreeable to him. He

requested Mr. Tierney, in particular, to talk it over with Mr. Hus kisson. The latter, when the proposal was first made to him, objected to it on the ground, that, whatever might be the talents of lord Althorpe, they had not been directed in any particular manner to those inquiries which would occupy the attention of such a committee. After some days' consideration, however, he got the better of his objections, and informed Mr. Tierney, that he had come to be of opinion that the public service would be benefitted by having lord Althorpe in the chair. Upon this, Mr. Tierney immediately wrote to earl Spencer, lord Althorpe's father, to ascertain whether his lordship would accept the office, if it were offered to him; and lord Althorpe stated in reply, that he would consent to undertake that duty, provided certain arrangements, which he did not then specify, were acceded to by his majesty's government. This negotiation was communicated to lord Goderich, who seemed cordially to acquiesce. It may be very true that it did not go the length of positively committing the government to place lord Althorpe ultimately in the chair; but it shewed decidedly, what were the views of those who engaged in it; and lord Althorpe would justly have thought himself trifled with, if they had afterwards determined on appointing another chairman without some very good reason.

All this took place between the middle and the 27th of November; and, amid all these proposals and arrangements, not one syllable of what was going on had ever been whispered to the chancellor of the exchequer he was kept in profound ignorance of what vitally

concerned his own office, and ought to have been submitted as matter of deliberation to him, the instant it had been entertained by the head of the government. It was only on the 27th of November, that lord Goderich, when mentioning to Mr. Huskisson the communication which had been made to lord Althorpe, happened to ask, whether the chancellor of the exchequer knew any thing of what had been going on, and learned to his no small surprise, that no communication had been made to Mr. Herries. Mr. Huskisson's answer shewed an anxiety to exculpate himself, which betrayed a scious feeling that wrong had been done, if very serious wrong was not intended: "I was neither desired nor authorized," said Mr. Huskisson, "to make any communication to him on the subject; but I take it for granted that he has been made acquainted with it.” Certainly every man would have taken that for granted; but the fact was, that it had never been mentioned to him. Lord Goderich characterized the omission as an oversight, and requested Mr. Huskisson to inform Mr. Herries of what had been done. Next day, the 28th November, when even the names of the intended members of the committee were talkedof in town, Mr. Herries happened to call at the Colonial office on other business, and learned, for the first time, that it was proposed to place lord Althorpe in the chair of the finance committee, that the intention had been already communicated to his lordship, and that all this had been arranged by the master of the mint and the colonial secretary, without taking the trouble even to inquire what might be the views or wishes of the

finance minister of the country, within whose department the matter fell, who was entitled to have had the initiative in every thing connected with it, and whose every arrangement might depend on the views with which the choice was made. While these two gentlemen were together, Mr. Tierney came in, and drew from his pocket a prepared list of the members whom he meant to propose should form the committee. Mr. Huskisson afterwards stated, that Mr. Herries, at this meeting seemed to acquiesce in the nomination; and Mr. Tierney said, that he thought he had the chancellor of the exchequer with him. But Mr. Herries, in the course of the parliamentary explanations which followed, made the following uncontradicted statement in the House of Commons, on the 18th of February: "I now call on my right hon. friend (Mr. Huskisson) to do me the justice to state, that, when mention was first made to me of the intention to place lord Althorpe in the chair, I said, that, with all the respect which I bore for the high private character of that noble lord, and with all the satisfaction which I should experience in acting with him on any committee, I must object to his being appointed chairman of this committee. Such was the answer which I gave to a communication which I by no means considered at the time to be so distinct as I afterwards discovered that it was intended to be."

to him for doing so. Lord Althorpe belonged to a party in the House of Commons, with whose financial views Mr. Herries could not coincide, and with which lord Goderich, when himself chancellor of the exchequer would as little have coincided. The selection of a chairman by the government, was a declaration by the government of the principles by which it intended that the inquiry should be conducted, and the general nature of the results which it was meant to bring out. Now, if Mr. Herries thought that the principles and doctrines, of which he considered lord Althorpe a representative, were not those to which the government ought to lend its countenance, and would lead to a state of things under which he could not consent to conduct his own department of public affairs, he was both bound and entitled to resist. Whether his opinion was at bottom right or wrong, was, in this view, matter of indifference. These objections in his mind, if they really existed, were perfectly fair and legitimate grounds of dissent and opposition, and, if the measure was persisted in, of resignation. Scarcely less valid were the objections arising from the history of the transaction. A mere unintentional omission it could not be: at least it would have been asking too much, to have required Mr. Herries, in all the circumstances of the case, to have considered it as not betokening something much more serious. He had come into the government in defiance of the violent resistance of the whig part of the cabinet; and it was the most active member of that party who had taken into his hands what properly belonged to the chancellor of the exchequer himself.

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