Administration in November, 1830, the office of Vice-President of the Board
of Trade, together with the Treasurership of the Navy, was offered to and
accepted by Mr. Thomson. He was at the same time sworn in as a member
of the Privy Council. The acceptance of the former office rendered it
necessary for him to sever his connection with the commercial firm of
which he had up to this time been a member, and he never again engaged in
mercantile business of any kind. By this time, indeed, he had established
for himself a reputation of no common order. The part he had taken in
the debates of the House, and in the proceedings of its Committees, on
questions connected with commerce and finance, had proved him to possess
not only a clear practical acquaintance with the details of these subjects,
but also principles of an enlarged and liberal character, and powers of
generalization and a comprehensiveness of view rarely found combined in so
young a man. The next three or four years were busy ones with him. It will
be remembered that this was the era of the Reform Bill. Mr. Thomson did not
take a prominent part in the discussions on that measure, his time being
fully occupied with the financial and fiscal policy, but he put forth the
weight of his influence in favour of the Bill. His principal efforts,
during his tenure of office, were directed to the simplification and
amendment of the Customs Act, and to an ineffectual attempt to negotiate
a commercial treaty with France. After the dissolution in 1831 he was
re-elected for Dover. He was, however, also elected--without any canvass or
solicitation on his part--for Manchester, the most important manufacturing
constituency in the kingdom; and he chose to sit for the latter. In 1834
he succeeded to the Presidency of the Board of Trade, as successor to
Lord Auckland. Then followed Earl Grey's resignation and Lord Melbourne's
accession. On the dismissal of the Ministry in November, Mr. Thomson was,
of course, left without office, but on Lord Melbourne's re-accession in
the following spring he was reinstated in the Presidency of the Board
of Trade--an office which he continued to hold until his appointment as