signs.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

{GEORGE IV. 1828--1829}

Duke of Wellington's Administration..... Meeting of
Parliament..... Discussions and Explanations concerning the
Dissolution of the Goderich Ministry, &c...... Questions of
Finance..... Motion for a Grant to the Family of Mr.
Canning..... Financial Statement..... Repeal of the Test and
Corporation Acts..... The Catholic Question...... Motion on
the State of the Law, &c...... Bills connected with the
Election of Members of the House..... Corn-Law Question.....
Divisions in the Cabinet..... Prorogation of Parliament.....
Disturbances in Ireland..... Death of the Earl of
Liverpool..... Foreign Policy.

DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.

{A.D. 1828}

It soon became manifest that the cabinet with the loss of it great
leader had lost all its preservative qualities. Lord Goderich was a man
of unquestionable integrity; but he exhibited a lamentable deficiency
in that energy, judgment, and firm resolution, which were absolutely
necessary for the keeping together of the discordant materials of which
his administration was composed. His incapacity was plainly manifested
when he proposed to redeem a pledge given by Mr. Canning, to appoint
a committee for the investigation and reform of the finances, in the
ensuing parliament. Mr. Tierney, one of the most active members of the
Whig cabinet, proposed Lord Althorp as chairman, to which Lord
Goderich expressed no objection; merely observing that the appointment
principally concerned the house of commons, and referring Mr. Tierney to
Mr. Huskisson, its ministerial leader. Lord Althorp was by the consent
of Mr. Huskisson appointed; but by some oversight or intention, the
matter was not mentioned to Mr. Hemes, who, as chancellor of the
exchequer was more immediately concerned in the investigation. It
was only on the 28th of November that Mr. Hemes, calling at the
colonial-office, accidentally saw a list of the committee and its
chairman, drawn out by Mr. Tierney. On the subject being discussed,
the chancellor of the exchequer was thought to have acquiesced in
the appointment; but Mr. Hemes, in the course of the parliamentary
explanations which followed, and which will be related in a subsequent
article, denied this to have been the case: declaring at the same time
that though he had unfeigned respect for the private character of Lord
Althorp, he distinctly obje