sterling. In consequence of the changes introduced, though of a very minor character compared to what still remains to be effected, the exports were quadrupled. They amounted in 1840 to more than two millions.*

In the ensuing session Mr Thomson had to defend, on several occasions, the alteration in the wine duties, which formed a part of Lord Althorp's financial scheme. He also experienced the most obstinate and continued resistance from the West India interest to the continuance of the act by which foreign sugars were admitted to be refined in this countrya permission by which Britain obtains a very valuable carrying trade, and is made the entrepôt of much international

commerce.

In the same manner he had to contend in the next year against repeated motions for continuing exorbitant duties on foreign gloves and silks; and to defend the policy of Mr Huskisson's alterations in the navigation laws against the inveterate and persevering hostility of Mr Robinson, the member for Worcester, and other supporters of the restrictive system.

He moved for and presided over a committee to inquire into the state of the silk trade; and the report subsequently drawn up by the committee, as the result of their inquiry, at length set at rest for ever that long-disputed question, by proving that the abolition of the protective duties, which were declared so essential to the trade, had been productive of the most remarkable improvement in its condition and prospects. He likewise introduced and carried through parliament, in the session of 1832, a very large alteration and consolidation of the customs duties or tariff.

In the summer of this year Mr Thomson was called upon for an exertion of moral courage which, in many persons in a similar position, would have been found wanting. An action was brought against him in the Court of King's Bench by a person of the name of Bushell, an outvoter of Dover, for the

The principal modifications obtained by the commissioners in the tariff of France were-

The admission of cotton twist of the higher numbers.

The lowering of the duties on British tin.

The removal of the prohibition on the export of French raw silk.

The lowering of the tonnage on British vessels to one-third of its previous

amount.

The diminution of the duty on coals.

The foundation was also laid of the Post Office arrangements since carried into effect between the two countries; and the first severe shock was given to the prohibitory system in France, of which both countries cannot fail before long to reap the full benefit in a free and unrestricted exchange of their surplus productions.

amount of expenses falsely alleged to have been incurred by him, on Mr Thomson's account, in the last Dover election. He determined to resist this imposition at all risks, and they will be believed to have been considerable by those who remember the bitter and malicious spirit in which he and other members of the administration were continually assailed by the opposition press, and the eagerness with which every cir cumstance in their private conduct which could be laid hold of was tortured into a ground for the most odious and blackening charges against them. The result of his firmness on this occasion afforded a proof that it is far wiser to meet attacks of this kind with boldness and determination, than to yield to them in any degree, from the desire to avoid being brought before the public in a manner which may be open to misconstruction. His journal expresses his gratification at the result of the trial.

“14th July.-A. came from the city to say that the cause with Bushell was decided. I have come off with flying colours. His own witnesses put him out of court. Scarlett did not call any for me, and the jury stopped the judge as he was going to sum up, and declared themselves satisfied. The verdict,

of course, carries costs, and is most honourable. I am obliged to Scarlett, who is said to have exerted himself much, and to have spoken of me in flattering terms. This, A. says, Campbell, who led for Bushell, did too. John Williams, whom I met at Tunbridge Wells this evening, was in court, and declares that nothing could be more satisfactory than all the proceedings. I own I am much pleased. The result has made me feel an emotion, a new one, which is now rare. How little are the opinions of even the best counsel to be depended on! Scarlett, two days ago, was very unfavourable to the cause, and recommended a reference in the strongest terms. And yet to-day he wrote to A., in court, that the case of the plaintiff was the weakest possible. He has certainly been very friendly to me, and I must not forget it. The jury were seven special and five talesmen. I left town at three o'clock for Tunbridge Wells."

The excessive application of Mr Thomson to public business during this session materially affected his health. Attendance on some committees in the morning, his office, and the night passed in the house, often till two or three in the morning, was more than any constitution could bear, any energy successfully contend with.

His journal, which from about this period was kept with tolerable regularity, contains occasionally such entries as the following:

VOL. II.

3

66

August 28th, Saturday.-A week of the hardest possible labour. I have not returned from the house any day till three o'clock; on Wednesday not till four. It is impossible to stand this! I find my body quite exhausted, and my mind equally worn out. All this week I have alternated between the bank and silk committees, and then the house. On Wednesday I carried my bill (the customs duties) through the committee; was at it from five till two in the morning, nine mortal hours!......... I passed my bill to-day, thank God!"

At the close of the session Mr Thomson made a tour of a couple of months through the manufacturing districts of Derbyshire, Lancashire, and the west of Scotland, visiting many of the principal factories and establishments, as well as Liverpool and Glasgow, and returning south by Edinburgh and the north road. He had been some time previously requested by a deputation from Manchester to offer himself as the representative of that borough, in the approaching general election under the reform act; but, unwilling to give up the time necessary for canvassing so extensive a constituency, he had declined the proposal. Upon being further urged, he expressed his willingness to sit for Manchester, if elected, but refused to take any steps to obtain the seat, and declared himself a candidate once more for Dover. On his visit to Manchester in August, he met with so friendly and flattering a reception, that he began to regret having put it out of his power to take any steps towards obtaining an honour, the value of which he had never underrated, but which he had overrated the difficulty of securing. In consequence of his former refusal, another gentleman, Mr Loyd, professing nearly the same political principles, had come forward as a candidate; and under these circumstances, it was too late for Mr Thomson to alter the determination he had avowed. He even went the length of authorizing Mr Loyd's committee to publish a denial on his part of any intention to offer himself for Manchester, and a declaration that he had been posted as a candidate without his authority. His enthusiastic admirers, however, would take no denial, and, in spite of everything, persisted in canvassing the borough for him; and the result proved that they had judged correctly of their fellow-citizens, who were too high-principled to require a personal canvass, or even an address, from a statesman sufficiently well-known to them by his public character and former parliamentary conduct.

When, at length, the general election came on, Mr Poulett Thomson attended at Dover, and was returned at the head of the poll. On arriving in London from thence, he was met

by an express forwarded from Manchester, announcing that he had likewise been elected for that place by a large majority, and this in his absence, without having solicited a vote or issued an address, nay, without having even given any sanction to his nomination!

This was, indeed, an honour of which he might justly feel proud. Unconnected by business or residence with the district, unknown to the electors personally, known only to them by his public character and parliamentary conduct, he had been spontaneously selected as one of their representatives in parliament, upon the first occasion of their exercising the franchise conferred by the reform act, by the constituency of the most important seat of manufacturing industry in the empire. Instances of such elections have occasionally occurred in France; but in the history of parliamentary elections in England, such a mode of selecting a representative, so honourable to both parties, the constituency and the object of their choice, was, we believe, wholly unprecedented.

To Mr Poulett Thomson the honour thus conferred was, from many circumstances, peculiarly gratifying. He had earned it by his own exertions, unaided by rank, station, or influence, without a pledge, without even a promise beyond that which his past conduct held out. It confirmed, by the unquestionable seal of public approbation, the high opinion that had been formed of him by his friends now in office. It amply justified their recent selection of him as a colleague. It moreover proved the truth of what they had always maintained through the struggle for reform, as to the worthiness of the constituency which their measure created; while, at the same time, it imparted to them a new element of moral strength, in the unsolicited support and adhesion of a community capable of making so noble a use of its newly acquired franchises.

It was impossible for Mr Poulett Thomson to hesitate in the choice he had now to make of sitting either for Dover or Manchester. Though he had formed many attached friends in the former place, and could not but feel regret at the dissolution of his connection with them, yet the borough had been too deeply imbued with the vices of the old system of election, not to be always a source of very great trouble and expense to its representative. And, under any circumstances, the representation of Manchester, by far the most important manufacturing constituency in the kingdom, was a station not to be refused; a position which would necessarily give him an increase of weight and influence, both in the councils of the government and in the House of Commons, .of the highest

importance to the efficiency of his exertions in the public service. These were motives to which every other consideration must yield. And accordingly, in pursuance of them, Mr. Poulett Thomson issued without delay a farewell address to the electors of Dover, and started for Manchester, where preparations were making on a scale of extraordinary magnificence for a public entertainment to the new members, Mark Phillips, Esq. and himself.

This took place on the 27th December in the theatre, the whole interior of which had been fitted up with great splendour, and was occupied by an assembly of more than eleven hundred persons, comprising a large portion of the wealth, respectability, and talent of the town and immediate neighbourhood, Mr B. Heywood, the late member for the county, being in the chair.

Mr Thomson's speech to this assembly was worthy of the occasion which called it forth, and may be read with deep interest even yet. Already there had appeared signs of something like difference among the members of the party by which the great measure of the reform act had been carried. The word finality had been spoken at Lancaster by Lord Stanley. It had naturally grated harshly in the ears of many ardent and conscientious reformers, who saw plainly that the evils of the nomination system were mitigated, but not eradicated by the reform act. These were naturally alarmed, and anxious to learn whether the principle of the finality of the act was to be the common motto of the entire government. On the other hand there were many who feared that no stopping-place could be found in the course of organic change once entered upon, and that the members of the government themselves would not venture to resist their partisans when urged forward by them to fresh innovations on the established constitution. The line taken by Mr Poulett Thomson in his speech at Manchester shewed the fallacy of both these anticipations. While repudiating the doctrine of finality, and admitting that imperfections must still remain in our representative system which future legislation might be called upon to correct, he boldly denounced the absurdity of frequent and unnecessary change in what is but the instrument of legislation; called on his friends to look to practical measures rather than theoretical grievances; and declared that he was prepared to resist the adoption of principles or measures, however good in themselves, if brought forward inopportunely, or so as to obstruct greater and more pressing objects.

After passing in review the leading questions which were