The Sun.
London, England, 1830-09-18 00:00:00

Grace. As a Parliamentary speaker, Mr. ITuskis-
son was clear and vigorous. His manner was not
ornate, and he was indebted to his matter chiefly for
the attention which he commanded in the House.
He could be severely sarcastic when he chose, and
he was not a man whom any one would have wished
unnecessarily to provoke, as he was always prepared
both with facts and arguments. We have often
thought that he did not advocate the principles of
free trade very skilfully. He used to endeavour to
show, that in the advanced state of our industry free
trade could not be injurious to us; ,but these argu-
ments had a tendency to impress other nations, that
as they were less advanced in industry than our-
selves, the restrictive system would be more bene-
ficiallor them. He did not advocate the system on
the true principle, that it can never be advantageous
to a nation, whatever the character of its industry,
to impose restrictions on trade. But we must cut
short our remarks for the present.—Morning
Chronicle.

The peculiarly tragic circumstances attending the
untimely death of the late Mr. fluokisson, the official
announcement of whose deceaqe will be found in

another pait of our columns, will not fail to excite
universal syMpithr for his fate, though advanced in
years to a period usually considered the decline of
life, and with health seriously impaired by a long
and liberiaus career of public exertion, we cannot
advert to the sudden and awful stroke of calamity
by which he has been in a-moment torn away.from
his friends, and country, without beintdeeply
'pressed with those reflections which waken the
Mind to a sense of the perishable tenura:.of 'l4ffnen
existence, Ardently devoted to the improvement
and universal application of machinery, Mr. Hus-
kisson has perished by the power of which he was
the greatest admirer--and perished, too, in the hour
of the triumphal celebration of a fuvourita project of
practical science. One moment the joyous , spec-
tator of the supposed accomplishment of a gigantic
novelty in mechanical enterprise, the next its bleed.
ing victim 1 Nor can we fail to be struck by the
curious coincidence of this dreadful fate having
overtaken him while attempting to enter the carriage
occupied by the Duke of Wellington, with whom,
after the death of his distinguished and persecuted
friend, Mr. Canning, he formed a coalition that had
a fatal influence on his political character and fors
tunes, and whiCh was suddenly dissolved by his
abrupt dismissal from .a Cabinet, of which, with all
his imperfections, he was the greatest ornament.
Differing, as we did, in policy from Mr. Huskisson,
we must yet do him justice in his grave. " He was a
man of no ordinary talents—without those advan-
tages of birth or connection which confer great ad-
vantages upon men, at least in the earlier part of his
career of political ambition, he rose to eminence by
the force of intellectual powers, which, however
erroneously directed, gave him a distinguished place
in the British Senate, and considerable influence
in the country. He was indeed more of a theorist,
or what the French call a doctrinaire, than a prac-
tical Statesman. his principles of free trade, how-
ever good in the abstract, he applied to a country
whose artificial condition could not admit of their
being reduced into practice without being produc-
tive of pernicious consequences. An exact calcula-
tor upon paper, he had not a judgment sufficiently
sound to take into consideration the actual effect of
his principles upon the existing circumstances of the
country. He did not distinguish between what was
brilliant and what was practicable. He was capti-
vated himself, and seduced others by the charm of
a name. Because " free-trade" was calculated to
stimulate the energies, and draw forth the resources
of u young and vigorous nation, unincumbered with
debt, he thought the removal of established com-
mercial restrictions must confer immense advan-
tages on a people whose productive industry was
bent to the earth by the feebleness and decrepi-
tude which financial burdens, unexampled in the
history of the world, produced. He called
upon a people thus shackled and constrained,
to enter into free competition with nations that
laboured under no such difficulties. He might
as well have insisted upon a man whose legs were
bound, entering into a competition in swiftness with
one who had the elastic use of his free limbs. Had

le first been able to knock off the fetters which the

taxation required by the debt and a prodigal expen-
diture placed upon the industry of the people, he
might then have started England in the free rivalry
of commerce against the world, and her energies
would have triumphed over all opposition. To Mr.
Iluskisson we owe the breaking down of those Na-
vigation Laws, under the protection of which the
commerce of this country attained to a degree of
prosperity, of which the annals of nations afford no
example. And if it be necessary to add to the
testimony of experience the voice of enlightened
authority, we should not forget that Adam Smith,
who was an enemy to all unnecessary restrictions,
admitted that those laws were framed in a spirit of
the most deliberate wisdom. Such was Mr. Hits-
kisson as a Statesman ;—as a speaker in Parlia-
ment, he had powers that made him a most able
auxiliary to any party; but he had neither the mo-
ral courage, or the oratorical energy that would
qualify him to act as the successful leader of a po-
pular assembly. His style was that of calm delibe-
ration and dispassionate elocution. Ile could always
give a fluent and luminous exposition of his own
views. lie could 'go through the most complicated
details of a financial question with familiar ease, and
with that consecutive power which constitutes the
beauty of an able statement of mere detail. His dic-
tion was pure, select, and such as gave evidence of a
cultivated mind. Ile was occasionally verbose, and
sometimes displayed too much of the laboured so-
lemnity of the modern diplomatic school of compo-
sition. In his best efforts he sought only to con-
vince either by fallacious or just argument. Ile
made abundant use of the terms and illustrations of
that political science to which he was devoted ; but
he had no rich and varied eloquence. Ile did not
relieve political argument by glowing imagery or
irradiations of wit like Canning, nor did he enliven
financial statements by caustic pleasantry, and spark-
ling allusions like Tierney. Ilis mind was bold arid
luminous, but it gave gave out none of that splendid
light which, in gifted orators, reason borrows of
the: imagioation. If he could impress the under-
standing of his hearers with his own views, be left
to others undisputed possession of those powers of
eloquence which exercise a seductive influence over
the feelings, or wield the passions at their will ! In
the relations of private life he sustained a character
of blameless purity. Amiable, upright, and sincere,
he cultivated the virtues which form the happiness
and ornament 'of the domestic circle, while he en-
deared his friends to him by the ties of no common
attachment. The errors which clouded his public
fume were not those which impair the felicity of the
Statesman's fireside. We may find nbler politi-
cians and more brilliant debaters, but the deep al-
fiction of those who knew him best, proves that,
apart from public life, it would not be easy to find
a man more deserving of regret.—Morn. Herald.

Mr. lfuskissou was a native of Staffordshire, and
was at first destined to the medical profession, Be-
ing at Paris with a view to education in that line iti
the first years of the French Itevolution, he became
known to our Ambassador, Lord Gower, and at-
tracting his attention by his early promise of ability,
*was subsequently recommended by hint to Mr.
Pitt and the late Lord Melville. After being some
time Private Secretary to the latter, and found
to be a valuable- man for office business, he wits
brought into Parliament, first for Morpeth, after-
wards for a Cornish borough, and subsequently for
Chichester, He was in this the early part of his
career, successively Under Secretary of State and
Secretary of the Treasury ; the latter he resigned
'on the retirement from office, in 1800, of Mr. Can-
ning, with whom, even at that time, he considered
himself united in political life. In 1816 he returned
tojig with. Mr. Canning to office, and after being
for some time First Commisiioner of the Woods and
President of the
B:P6oarerBtitso'f bTeeratitlinee,b:aenadrlYbefionrel:t2e3'end of that yeur a
Member of the Cabinet. It was in this situation
that, in concurrence with the late Lord Liverpool