32 EFFECT OF THE RECALL [1812. 



do his duty. The result of our deliberations was, that 

 I should refuse to accept anything which I could have 

 any idea of ever purchasing ; and I therefore, in re- 

 turning my thanks for the kindness of the Glasgow men, 

 said that I would only take it in the form of a gold 

 inkstand. I heard no more of it for nearly five years, 

 and supposed that the person in whose hands the 

 money was, had failed. In 1817, when a deputation 

 waited on me with the service of plate which Birming- 

 ham had voted in 1812, one of them (I think Attwood) 

 said he desired it to be understood that this had refer- 

 ence to the Orders in Council of 1812, and to nothing 

 that had passed since. I called back another of the 

 deputation to ask whether anything in my conduct 

 subsequently had displeased my friends, as I conceived 

 that the defeat of the income-tax in 1816 had been of 

 more general importance than even the success of 1812. 

 But the answer was, that the spokesman's firm were 

 bankers to the receiver of the county, and had suffered 

 by the diminution of his balance from the defeat of 

 the tax. Happening the day after to see Dr Shepherd, 

 I recited this as a remarkable anecdote, when he said 

 that perhaps I had never understood why the Glasgow 

 gold inkstand never reached me. He stated that, on 

 the refusal of the offer to return one and one (Canning 

 and me), and the increase of the expenses, the com- 

 mittee on our side had taken the very unwarrantable 

 step of writing to Glasgow, that the best application 

 of the fund subscribed was sending it to Liverpool, in 

 order to meet the expenses of my election. And this 

 was done at the very time when they had refused 

 nearly three times as much on my urging them to take 

 it from me. This conduct was extremely blamable 



