From motives of friendship and personal attachment Mr. Huskisson refused to accept any official appointment during Mr. Canniog'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 appoioted Chief Commissioner 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, be became one of its members. After the death of Mr. Canning, in 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 remainiog in office after his friends in the former cabinet were excluded from power ; and be did so on the ground that the measures to which he was more particularly pledged would be followed up by the then administration. On the 19th of May 1829, the debate on the East Retford Disfranchisement took an unexpected turn, and Mr. Huskisson was called upon to redeem a pledge which he had given in a former discussion on the question ; and he accordingly voted iu favour of the bill and in oppo. anima to his colleagues. This led to his placiog his resignation in the hands of the Duke of Wellington, and after some correspondeuce it was accepted. The resignation of Mr. Huskisson was followed by that of Lord Palmerston, Mr. Grant, and several others who had belonged to what was called 'Mr. Canniog'e 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, aud 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. Huskisson seldom spoke except upon financial or commercial subjects. He was an active member of the Bullion Committee, and defeuded the principles in the Report of that com mittee in a pamphlet entitled The Question concerning the Depre. elation of our Currency stated and examined,' which was published in 1810. In the debates ou the corn-laws, in 1814, he supported the 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 postpoued to the following year, and he supported the corn-bill of 1815, aud thought that less than 80e. as a protecting price would not remunerate the farmer. In the session of 1822 he moved a series of resolutions on the state of agriculture, one of which proposed that when wheat should again reach 70s. the quarter, a fixed duty of 15s. should be permanently charged on the importatiou of foreign wheat. In 1827 however he acknowledged that the policy of the coru-laws must be viewed in relation to the changes iu the growth and price of corn abroad as well as at home; and he abandoned the corn-hill which had been brought in by the government, after the Duke of Wellington had carried an amendmeut, the effect of which would have been to prohibit the release of bonded wheat so loug as the price should be leas than 63s. 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 a relaxation of the corn laws, for which he was never forgiven by the 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. Huekissou. Iu 1823 he carried through parliament an 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 in the ports of auch 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 been imposed for the protection of the home produce. The shipowners, and the silk manufacturers, and a host of ether 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 Ida measures are his beet : and his expositions of the oommercbd condition of the country always excited great interest Ile was far from adopting in anything like their fuloeas the principles of free trade which have since been adopted, but he was the great pioneer of the crusade; and it must be borne in mind that even the reforms which he did effect excited great clamour and opposition, in many instances from the very parties who afterwards saw cause to advocate a far more extensive change ; while the advantages of the changes he did effect were not recognised until some time afterwards. Mr. Huskisson was likewise active in procuring the repeal of the combination laws; and he relaxed the restrictions on the exportation of machinery.
At the close of the session of 1830 Mr. Ifuelcisson left London to be present at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, on the 15th of September. When the train reached Parkeide, near Newton, he got out of the carriage with many others, and had just been speaking to the Duke of Wellington, when an alarm was raised on the approach of an engine on the other line. Mr. Huskisson attempted to regain his scat, but fell to the ground at tho moment the engine passed, and was dreadfully injured. He was conveyed to the house of the Rev. Mr. Blackburne, of Eccles, but the shock to the system was so great, that after enduring great agony with much fortitude and resignation, he died at nine o'clock the same evening. At the request of a largo and Influential portion of the mercantile classes of Liverpool his remains were interred in the new cemetery, where a handsome monument with a statue by Gibson was erected to his memory by his constituents. A second statue has since been erected in the Exchange of Liverpool, and another, also by Gibson, in Lloyds' Rooms, Loudon.
Mr. Hnskiseon was married in 1799 to the youngest daughter of Admiral Milbanke, but had no family. On retiring from office in 1828 he entered upon the receipt of one of six pensions of 3000/. a a year, which the Crown was empowered to grant for long public services. Ile was nominated for this pension by Lord Liverpool shortly before his political demise. He was for many years Agent for Ceylon, the salary of which was increased from 800/. to 1200/. a-year : he resigned this post when appointed to the Board of Trade in 1823.
(Speeches of the Bight Hon. W. .Haakisron, teals a Biographical lifernoir, 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1831.)