recalled just in time from his impending banishment, installed in the
first post in the Lower House, and intrusted with the seals of the Foreign
Office. The Duke of Wellington had coveted them, nor could Lord Liverpool
have been insensible to his Grace's peculiar fitness for such duties; but
strength was required in the House of Commons, where they had only one
Secretary of State, a young man already distinguished, yet untried as a
leader, and surrounded by colleagues notoriously incapable to assist him
in debate.

The accession of Mr. Canning to the cabinet, in a position, too, of
surpassing influence, soon led to a further weeding of the Mediocrities,
and, among other introductions, to the memorable entrance of Mr.
Huskisson. In this wise did that cabinet, once notable only for the
absence of all those qualities which authorise the possession of power,
come to be generally esteemed as a body of men, who, for parliamentary
eloquence, official practice, political information, sagacity in council,
and a due understanding of their epoch, were inferior to none that had
directed the policy of the empire since the Revolution.

If we survey the tenor of the policy of the Liverpool Cabinet during the
latter moiety of its continuance, we shall find its characteristic to be a
partial recurrence to those frank principles of government which Mr. Pitt
had revived during the latter part of the last century from precedents
that had been set us, either in practice or in dogma, during its earlier
period, by statesmen who then not only bore the title, but professed the
opinions, of Tories. Exclusive principles in the constitution, and
restrictive principles in commerce, have grown up together; and have
really nothing in common with the ancient character of our political
settlement, or the manners and customs of the English people. Confidence
in the loyalty of the nation, testified by munificent grants of rights and