629 



HUSKISSON, WILLIAM. 



HUSKISSON, WILLIAM. 



630 



the annual exhibition, and consequently cut himself off from all 

 chimce of the coveted academic distinctions. Soon after his secession 

 from the academy Mr. Hurlstone joined the Society of British Artists, 

 and for a long series of years his pictures have formed one of the 

 leading features of the annual exhibition iu Suffolk-street. In the 

 movement which resulted in obtaining a charter of incorporation for 

 that society, Mr. Hurlstone took an active part ; and he has borne in 

 the society most of the posts of responsibility and honour which it 

 can confer. As a portrait painter Mr. Hurlstone is a disciple of the 

 school of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and his heads possess often much of 

 the vigour, breadth of effect, and fine colour of that great master. 

 But Mr. Hurlstone has acquired also considerable reputation as a 

 painter of historical and fancy subjects, hia inclination leading him to 

 select scenes of southern life, chiefly either Spanish, Moorish, and 

 Italian peasants, or episodes from the history or poetry of those 

 people ; and they are treated with a breadth of handling and style of 

 composition and colour which appear intended to remind the observer 

 sometimes of Murillo and the Spanish, sometimes of one or other of 

 the great Italian colourists. His works are not however merely 

 imitative exercises. Mr. Hurlstone has been a frequent visitant to 

 Spain and Italy, and if he has acquired much from the study of the 

 works of the great masters in those countries, he has been a still more 

 diligent student of the people, and it may fairly be presumed that 

 much of the resemblance which bis works sometimes bear to those of 

 the old masters is due to his having followed in their steps, and studied 

 and painted the same people under the same climate and subject to 

 similar influences. 



HUSKIbSON, WILLIAM, was born March 11, 1770, at Birch 

 Moreton Court, Worcestershire, where his father occupied an extensive 

 farm. The family had long been settled in Staffordshire, and for 

 several generations had been in the possession of a moderate landed 

 estate on which they r sided. On the death of his mother in 1774, 

 his father removed into Staffordshire, married a second wife, and 

 resided upon his patrimony until his death in 1790. He had alienated 

 a considerable portion of his property in order to make provision for 

 his younger children. The entailed property descended to the subject 

 of the present notice, who cut off the entail and disposed of the 

 lauded property altogether. 



In 1783, when in his fourteenth year, William Huskisson was sent 

 to Paris, at the request of his maternal uncle, Dr. Gem, physician to 

 the English Embassy. Dr. Gem was on terms of intimacy with 

 Franklin and Jefferson, and the party known as the ' Encyclopaedists.' 

 William Huskisson, as wag natural to a young man, became an 

 enthusiast in the cause of the French Revolution. He was present 

 at the taking of the Bastile in 1789, and became a member of the 

 ' Socie'te' de 1789,' established in 1790. The object of this club was 

 to sustain the new constitutional principles. His connection with it 

 led to the charge which was often brought against him of having 

 been a member of the Jacobin Club. In August 1790, he pronounced 

 a 'Diacours' at the 'Socictude 1789' against the proposed creation 

 of paper-money to a large extent, which obtained for him at the time 

 considerable celebrity in the French capital He withdrew from the 

 ' Socie'tc ' after the legislature had determined upon the issue of 

 assignats. In the same year (1790) he became private secretary to 

 Lord Gower (afterwards the Marquis of Stafford), who was then the 

 EuglUh ambassador. A letter dated a few days after the attack on 

 the Tuileries on the 20th of June 1792, shows that Mr. Huskisson's 

 views respecting the Revolution had undergone a change. After the 

 events of the 10th of August 1792, the English ambassador was 

 recalled, and Mr. Huskissou returned with him to England. He con- 

 tinued to pass the greater part of his time with Lord Gower at 

 Wimbledon, where he often met Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas. In January 

 1793, by desire of Mr. Dundas, he undertook the duties of a small 

 office which had just been created for investigating the claims of 

 French emigrants who were then thronging in crowds to England. 

 Early in 1795 he was appointed un'ler-secretary of state in the 

 department of War and Colonies under Mr. Duudas. In this situation 

 he soon became distinguished by his talents for business. In the 

 ' Biographical Memoirs,' attached to the edition of his ' Speeches,' it is 

 stated that he was often called to the private councils of Mr. Pitt. 

 He conducted the equipment of Sir Charles (afterwards Earl) Grey's 

 expedition to the West Indies. Towards the end of 1796 he was 

 brought into parliament as member for Morpeth, by the Earl of 

 Carlisle; but he does not appear as a speaker before February 1798. 

 On the retirement of Mr. Pitt he resigned his official situation. He 

 was unsuccessful iu procuring a seat at the general election in 1802, 

 and did not appear again iu parliament until 1804, when he eat for 

 Liskeard. Under the administration formed by Mr. Pitt in 1804, he 

 was Secretary of the Treasury ; and after the death of that minister, 

 and during the Whig administration of 1806-7, he was an active 

 member of the opposition. At the general election in 1806 he was 

 re-elected for Liskeard ; and after the dissolution of parliament in 

 1807 he sat for Harwich, and continued to do so until 1812. From 

 this period until 1823 he represented Chichester, in which neighbour- 

 hood he had, in 1801, purchased a small estate. From 1823 uutil his 

 death he represented Liverpool. On the retirement of the Whigs 

 from office, in 1807, Mr. Huskisson resumed his former post as Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury. In 1807 he was strongly invited by the Duke 



BIOU. DIV. VOL. III. 



of Richmond, then viceroy of Ireland, to become chief secretary ; but 

 his services could not at the time be dispensed with in the office he 

 already filled. He resigned office in 1809, along with Mr. Canning, 

 when the latter left the ministry on account of differences with Lord 

 Castlereagb. 



From motives of friendship and personal attachment Mr. Huskisson 

 refused to accept any official appointment during Mr. Canning's exclu- 

 sion from power; and it was not until Mr. Canning accepted the post 

 of ambassador at Lisbon, that he again entered the public service. 

 In August 1814 he was appointed Chief Comniis-iouer of Woods and 

 Forests. In 1823 he became President of the Board of Trade, and 

 Treasurer of the Navy. His predecessor had been a cabinet minister, 

 and Mr. Huskisson considered that his position entitled him to the 

 same distinction, and after some delay, occasioned by the cabinet 

 already consisting of a larger number than usual, he became one of 

 its members. After the death of Mr. Canning, iu 1827, Mr. Huskisson 

 held the office of Secretary for the Colonies iu Lord Goderich's 

 cabinet; and he retained his post when this cabinet was broken up 

 and the Duke of Wellington became the head of a new ministry. He 

 had to defend himself for remaining in office after his friends in the 

 former cabinet were excluded from power; and he did so on the 

 ground that the measures to which he was more particularly pledged 

 would be followed up by the then existing administration. On the 

 19th of May 1829, the debate on the East Retford Disfranchisemeut 

 took an unexpected turn, and Mr. Huskissou was called upon to 

 redeem a pledge which he had given in a former discussion on tho 

 question ; and he accordingly voted in favour of the bill and in oppo- 

 sition to his colleagues. This led to his placing his resignation in tho 

 hands of the Duke of Wellington, and after some correspondence it 

 was accepted. The resignation of Mr. Huskissou was followed by that 

 of Lord Palmerston, Mr. Grant, and several others who had belonged 

 to what was called 'Mr. Canning's party.' In the session of 1830 

 he appeared on several occasions as a formidable opponent of some of 

 the measures of the government, and, but for his death so soon after- 

 wards, there is every probability that he would have become a member 

 of the Whig cabinet. His commercial principles were held by him 

 in common with them, and in his general views he was approximating 

 towards the Whig party. He had always been in favour of the 

 Roman Catholic claims, and in opposing the repeal of the Corporation 

 and Test Acts, he did so on the ground of its being a partial measure, 

 and likely to retard Roman Catholic emancipation. He supported in 

 May 1829, Mr. Grant's bill for relieving the Jews of their disabilities. 

 He had left the ministry for having supported a measure of reform, 

 and in the same session he had voted in favour of giving representa- 

 tives to Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham. 



In parliament Mr. Huskissou seldom spoke except upon financial 

 or commercial subjects. He was au active member of tho Bullion 

 Committee, and defended the principles in the Report of that com- 

 mittee iu a pamphlet entitled ' The Question concerning the Depre- 

 ciation of our Currency stated and examined,' which was published 

 in 1810. In the debates on the corn-laws, iu 1814, he supported tho 

 system of protecting agriculture by high duties, on the ground that 

 commerce and manufactures were similarly protected, and that our 

 whole system was one of artificial restraints. He was at that time 

 merely for free-trade in the abstract. The question was postponed to 

 the following jear, and he supported the corn-bill of 1815, and thought 

 that less than 80j. as a protecting price would not remunerate the 

 farmer. In the i-ession of 1822 he moved a series of resolutions on 

 the state of agriculture, one of which proposed that when wheat 

 should again reach 70*. the quarter, a fixed duty of 15s. should be 

 permanently charged on the importation of foreign wheat. In 1827 

 however he acknowledged that the policy of tho corn-laws must be 

 viewed in relation to the changes in the growth and price of corn, 

 abroad aa well as at home ; and he abandoned the corn-bill which 

 had been brought in by the government, after the Duke of Wellington 

 had carried an amendment, the effect of which would have been to 

 prohibit the release of bonded wheat so long as the prica should bo 

 less than 63*. the quarter. In 1819 he was appointed a member of 

 the Committee of Finance. It is understood that he was principally 

 concerned in drawing up the long Report of the Committee of Agri- 

 culture which sat in 1821. It advocated a relaxation of the corn- 

 laws, for which he was never forgiven by tho landed interest. 



In 1822 Mr. Wallace and Mr. Robinson (now Earl of Ripon) had 

 taken some preliminary steps for relaxing restrictions on commerce; 

 and these efforts were carried on more actively and on, a larger scale 

 by Mr. Huskissou. Iu 1823 he carried through parliament au act for 

 enabling the king in council to place the shipping of foreign states 

 on the same footing with British shipping, provided that similar privi- 

 leges were given to British ships iu the ports of such states. He 

 abandoned the old restrictive system of colonial trade, and, under 

 certain regulations, threw open the commerce of the colonies to other 

 countries. He reduced a great number of duties which had b^ea 

 imposed for the protection of the home produce. The shipowners, 

 and the silk manufacturers, and a host of other interests were now 

 in arms against him. They represented him as a cold and heartless 

 theorist, and he was attacked very generally, both in and out of 

 parliament, for his departure from the ancient commercial policy of 

 the country. His speeches iu parliament in defence of his measures 



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