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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 903: ADMINISTRATION OF LORD GODERICH.
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

ADMINISTRATION OF LORD GODERICH.

It might have been expected that, on the death of Mr. Canning, his cabinet, which was composed of heterogeneous materials, and kept together by his influence, would have been broken up. Few changes, however, took place; and their effect was to bring back some of Mr. Canning’s former friends into office. Lord Goderich became first lord of the treasury, and Mr. Huskisson succeeded to him in the colonial department. The Duke of Wellington re-accepted the command of the army, but without a seat in the cabinet. There was a difficulty in finding a chancellor of the exchequer; it was declined by Messrs. Tierney, Huskisson, and Sturges Bourne; but finally accepted by Mr. Hemes, who had been secretary of the treasury under Lord Liverpool’s administration. The nomination of Mr. Herries, who was brought up in the Vansittart school, was well nigh the cause of breaking up the cabinet. The Whigs objected to him on political grounds; and the Marquis of Lansdowne waited upon the king to tender his resignation. His chief objection, however, was, that he was said to have been a nominee of the king; and when it was explained that the recommendation came from Lord Goderich, and was accepted by his majesty, who was anxious to avoid the fatigue of new arrangements, his lordship consented to retain office. This new ministry, the third which the country had seen in the space of seven months, had within it, however, the seeds of its own dissolution; and, as will be seen, the year was scarcely out when it was dissolved.