ty on the part of
the Duke, and, shortly after, a correspondence was made public between
him and Mr. Huskisson, then President of the Board of Trade, in which
it appeared clear that the Duke had moved the amendment in the belief
that the government had agreed to it through Mr. Huskisson, and equally
clear that the Duke had been mistaken. There were not wanting those who
asserted roundly that the Duke had taken advantage of an ambiguity in
Mr. Huskisson's letters, in order to have a pretext for inflicting this
injury on the government. And, unhappily, Mr. Canning himself, carried
out of parliamentary decorum by an irritability of temper, springing
from the difficulties of his position and from his advancing illness,
went so far as publicly to declare that the Duke of Wellington, great
man as he was, had been but in instrument in the hands of others.
History, he said, afforded parallel the actions of other great men.

The Duke maintained a dignified silence with respect to this attack;
but, in the following year, long after Mr. Canning's death, and when he
had himself become prime minister, he took an opportunity of
disclaiming, in strong language, the existance of any personal hostility
on his part to the deceased statesman.

On the formation of the new administration, under Lord Goderich, the
Duke of Wellington resumed the command of the army. This was on August
the 27th.

Early in January, 1828, this administration fell to pieces, and the Duke
of Wellington was called on by the king to form another. He was at first
reluctant to do so, but ultimately gave way. He rallied round him Mr.
Peel, and most of those who had seceded on the accession of Mr. Canning;
so that his administration was nearly identical with that of the Earl of
Liverpool, except that Mr. Huskisson and some two or three of the
coalitionary whigs, were retained.

In the following May, these were got rid of. Mr. Huskisson gave a vote
on the East Retford Bill, adverse to those of his colleagues; and on
leaving the house, sat down (at two in the morning), and wrote a letter
to the Duke, which was construed into a positive resignation of office.
An amusing correspondence took place between the two statesmen, Mr.
Huskisson declaring he never meant to resign, and the Duke as positively
adhering to his original construction of the first letter. Mr.
Huskisson's place was filled up, and he resented that proceeding by
declaring in the House of Commons his belie