HUSKISSON, William, Eng lish statesman and financier: b. Birch-Moreton, Worcestershire, 11 March 1770; d. 15 Sept. 1830. He was sent to Paris in 1783 to study medicine. In 1789 he became an enthusiastic sympathizer with the French Revolution, was present at the taking of the Bastille and joined the Club of 1789, instituted the following year. He made a speech at the club against the proposed crea tion of paper money, and withdrew from it when the assembly decreed the issue of assignats. His views of the Revolution afterward under went a change. In 1790 he was appointed sec retary to the British Ambassador ; and when the Ambassador was recalled in 1792 he returned to England, and in 1795 he became Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies. In 1796 he was elected member of Parliament for Morpeth. He resigned in 1801, and returned in 1804. In Pitt's administration formed in this year he became Secretary of the Treasury, and during the Whig ministry that succeeded Pitt's death was an ac tive member of the opposition. In 1807 he re
sumed his post as Secretary of the Treasury, which he resigned in 1809. In 1823 he was elected Member of Parliament for Liver pool, and appointed president of the Board of Trade and treasurer of the navy. From 1827 to 1828 he was Secretary of State for the Colonies. He was killed at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Rail way, 15 Sept. 1830. He seldom spoke in Par liament except on commercial or financial sub jects, on which he was an authority as also on subjects affecting India. He was a strong sup porter of Catholic emancipation, and he antici pated Peel in his advocacy of a free-trade policy. Lord Melbourne regarded him as the greatest practical statesman he had known. A collective edition of his speeches and a memoir appeared in 1831.