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(Excerpt from Select Speeches of the Right Honourable Will...)
Excerpt from Select Speeches of the Right Honourable William Windham, and the Right Honourable William Huskisson: With Preliminary Biograpical Sketches He took his seat for the borough of St. Mawes, which the kindness of the Grenville family had secured for him as a retreat, in the event of a repulse at Norwich. His friends at the latter place, though his political connexion with them no longer existed, were unwilling to extinguish all recollection of it. They celebra ted his birth-day by annual meetings, which were fully attended; and they gave themselves the additional satisfaction of placing in their public hall, by means of a subscription, a well - executed portrait of him. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Huskisson was born on 11 March 1770 at Birtsmorton Court, Malvern, Worcestershire, the son of William and Elizabeth Huskisson, both members of Staffordshire families.
He was one of four brothers.
After their mother Elizabeth died, their father William eventually remarried and had further children by his second wife.
Huskisson was a student at Appleby Grammar School (later renamed Sir John Moore Church of England Primary School), a boarding school designed by Sir Christopher Wren on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire borders.
The Discours gained him considerable reputation, but as it failed in its purpose he withdrew from the society.
In the following year he entered parliament as member for Morpeth, but for a considerable period he took scarcely any part in the debates.
He lived with an uncle at the British embassy in Paris from 1783 to 1792.
On their return to England in 1792, Huskisson was employed to help French refugees and became known to Canning, Pitt, and Dundas.
In 1800 he inherited a fortune from Dr Gem.
On the retirement of Pitt in 1801 he resigned office, and after contesting Dover unsuccessfully he withdrew for a time into private life.
Having in 1804 been chosen to represent Liskeard, he was on the restoration of the Pitt ministry appointed secretary of the treasury, holding office till the dissolution of the ministry after the death of Pitt in January 1806.
After being elected for Harwich in 1807, he accepted the same office under the duke of Portland, but he withdrew from the ministry along with Canning in 1809.
In the following year he published a pamphlet on the currency system, which confirmed his reputation as the ablest financier of his time; but his free-trade principles did not accord with those of his party.
In 1812 he was returned for Chichester.
In 1813 he proposed for the first time a scale of graduated duties on imported grain (called "corn"), and in 1821 he was the chief author of the report of the Committee on the Corn Laws.
Huskisson was now a leader of the liberal Tories, with close links to Melbourne and Palmerston, and an advocate of retrenchment and of modification to the Corn Laws.
Among the more important legislative changes with which he was principally connected were a reform of the Navigation Acts, admitting other nations to a full equality and reciprocity of shipping duties; the repeal of the labour laws; the introduction of a new sinking fund; the reduction of the duties on manufactures and on the importation of foreign goods, and the repeal of the quarantine duties.
In accordance with his suggestion Canning in 1827 introduced a measure on the corn laws proposing the adoption of a sliding scale to regulate the amount of duty.
In August 1827 the death of George Canning deprived Huskisson of a loyal friend and a very valuable supporter.
He found himself in constant disagreement with Wellington, especially over the question of the Corn Laws, and in 1829 he resigned.
He stayed in office under Wellington, but with increasing friction, especially over parliamentary reform, and his offer of resignation in May 1828 was eagerly accepted.
A misapprehension between Huskisson and the duke of Wellington led to the duke proposing an amendment, the success of which caused the abandonment of the measure by the government.
After succeeding with great difficulty in inducing the cabinet to agree to a compromise on the corn laws, Huskisson finally resigned office in May 1829 on account of a difference with his colleagues in regard to the disfranchisement of East Retford.
He was in poor health for his last two years and though he could have expected office under Grey, he was no longer a rising sun.
On the 15th of September of the following year he was accidentally killed by a locomotive engine while present at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway.
(Excerpt from Select Speeches of the Right Honourable Will...)
He also supported Roman Catholic emancipation and moderate parliamentary reform.
He was returned for Liverpool as successor to Canning, and as the only man who could reconcile the Tory merchants to a free trade policy.
He early displayed his mastery of the principles of finance by a Discours delivered in August 1790 before this society, in regard to the issue of assignats by the government.
He spoke frequently in the Commons on questions of trade and on commercial conditions in India and the East.
His views were influential in bringing about the economic reforms later inaugurated by Prime Minister Robert Peel.
He was a member of Parliament for several constituencies, including Liverpool.
As a supporter of the moderate party, he became a member of the "Club of 1789, " which favoured making France into a constitutional monarchy.
In 1821 he was a member of the committee appointed to inquire into the causes of the agricultural distress then prevailing, and the proposed relaxation of the corn laws embodied in the report was understood to have been chiefly due to his strenuous advocacy.
Also he was a member for Morpeth.
On 6 April 1799, Huskisson married Emily Milbanke, the youngest daughter of Admiral Mark Milbanke, the commander-in-chief at Portsmouth.
Emily Huskisson survived her husband and remained a widow until her death in April 1856. They had no children.
