d liberal reformers, like Grey and Brougham and Russell.
Fate soon settled the question so far at least as Huskisson was
concerned. The opening of the line of railway from Liverpool to
Manchester, the first line of any considerable length completed in
England, took place on September 15, 1830. The Duke of Wellington, Sir
Robert Peel, and Huskisson were among the distinguished visitors who
were present at the opening of the railway. The friends alike of the
Prime Minister and of the great expert in finance were anxious that the
two should come together on this occasion, and make a personal if not a
political reconciliation. The train stopped at a station; the Duke and
Huskisson both got out, and were approaching to meet each other, the
Duke holding out his hand, when an alarm was raised about the approach
of a locomotive. A rush was made for the carriages, and in the
confusion Huskisson was struck down by an open door in the moving
train, and suffered such injuries that his death almost immediately
followed. Huskisson was, beyond doubt, one of the most enlightened
statesmen of his time in all that concerned the financial arrangements
of the country. He might have been called a Liberal, just as we might
call Canning a Liberal, when we think of the general direction taken by
the policy of either man.

The dissatisfaction with which the speech from the throne was received
found its expression in no severer form, so far at least as Parliament
was concerned, than a motion by Lord Grey in the one House, and Lord
Althorp in the other, for a short delay to enable both Houses to {104}
consider the address in reply to the royal speech. It was made evident
that the delay sought for had to do with the question of a regency,
concerning which, as has been said, the King had not troubled himself
to make any announcement. Now the constitutional system of England had
taken no account, except through the provision of a regency, of the
fact that a child might become sovereign of the realm. Therefore, if
Parliament did not establish a regency during the lifetime of King
William, and if the King were soon to die through any accident or
malady, the child Princess would come to the throne under no further
constitutional restraints than those which belonged to the position of
a full-grown sovereign. There was another trouble, however, and one of
still graver political importance, awaiting the Ministry of the Duke of
Wellington.

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