tested the system of repression consecrated by the
holy alliance, but he defended the necessity of such measures as the six
acts and arbitrary imprisonment for a limited period. He never swerved
in his advocacy of Roman catholic relief, but he was unmoved by
arguments in favour of repealing the test and corporation acts.
Probably, at the head of a coalition, embracing the ablest of the
moderate tories and reformers, and loyally supported by his colleagues,
he might have proved the foremost British statesman of the nineteenth
century. But it is more than doubtful whether his proud and sensitive
nature would have enabled him so to cancel past memories as to
consolidate such a coalition, or to inspire such loyalty in its members.

The death of Canning involved for the moment far less political change
than might have been expected. The king at once sent for Sturges Bourne
and Goderich, as the most intimate adherents of Canning. He then
commanded Goderich to form, or rather to continue, a ministry of
compromise, and this was done with little shifting of places. Wellington
resumed the command of the army, thereby revealing his motive in giving
it up so abruptly. But a very unwise choice was made in the appointment
of John Charles Herries, rather than Palmerston, as chancellor of the
exchequer, and it carried with it the seeds of an early disruption.
Palmerston had originally been proposed for the office, but the king
strongly favoured Herries, though he showed good sense in deferring to
public opinion, and desiring Huskisson to take the post himself.
Unfortunately, Huskisson preferred the colonial office, and, as neither
Sturges Bourne nor Tierney would accept the position, royal influence
prevailed, and Herries found himself at the exchequer. Meanwhile
Portland succeeded Harrowby as lord president, Charles Grant succeeded
Huskisson at the board of trade, and Lord Uxbridge, who had been created
Marquis of Anglesey after the battle of Waterloo, and who was now
master-general of the ordnance, was given a seat in the cabinet.

In the course of November it was decided by Goderich, in concert with
Huskisson and Tierney, that a finance committee should be appointed
early in the next session to consider the state of the revenue. Lord
Althorp, the son of Earl Spencer, was designated as chairman, and
provisionally undertook to act, but the chancellor of the exchequer,
who, contrary to all precedent, had not been taken into counsel,
s