Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/262

 jobbery was universal. Herries appears to have worked hard and to have done his best, although the commissariat had still many shortcomings. At the end of 1813, in conjunction with Nathan Meyer Rothschild, Herries successfully formed and carried out a plan for the collection of French specie for the use of Wellington's army, and in 1814 he went to Paris, in order to negotiate financial treaties with the allies. In consequence of the continued dearth of specie a large number of twenty-franc pieces were at his suggestion coined at the mint in the following year for the use of the army. The office of commissary-in-chief was abolished on 24 Oct. 1816 by a treasury minute, dated 16 Aug., which paid a high compliment to Herries. A retiring pension of 1,350l. (reduced while holding office to 1,200l.) was granted him, and on 29 Oct. in the same year he was appointed auditor of the civil list, an office created by an act of parliament in the previous session (56 Geo. III, c. 46). This appointment gave rise to a debate in the House of Commons on 8 May 1817, but the motion condemning it was negatived by ninety-three to forty-two (Parliamentary Debates, xxxvi. 273–94). In July 1821 Herries was appointed by 1 and 2 Geo. IV, c. 90, one of the commissioners for inquiring into the collection and management of the revenue in Ireland. By an act of the following year (3 Geo. IV, c. 37) the powers of the commission were still further extended. The second report, dated 28 June 1822, on ‘the incorporation of the British and Irish establishments for the collection of the public income in such a manner as to place each description of the revenue throughout the United Kingdom under one practical management,’ was entirely drawn up by Herries (Parliamentary Papers, 1822, xii. 3*–24*). In 1822 Herries resigned the office of registrar and secretary to the order of the Bath. He was appointed financial secretary to the treasury by Lord Liverpool on 7 Feb. 1823, and at a by-election in the same month was returned for Harwich as a colleague of Canning. His first reported speech in the House of Commons was delivered on 18 March 1823, when he opposed the repeal of the window tax (Parliamentary Debates, new ser. viii. 608). As secretary to the treasury his wide knowledge of financial details was frequently of much service to the government, and under his auspices the consolidation of the customs laws was effected. He continued to hold office during Canning's administration, and in the summer of 1827 was made one of the commissioners for supervising the restoration of Windsor Castle. Upon Canning's death Herries, after some protracted negotiations, was at the king's desire appointed chancellor of the exchequer in Goderich's ministry. He was sworn a member of the privy council on 17 Aug., and received the seals at Windsor on 3 Sept. 1827. A quarrel soon afterwards broke out about the appointment of a chairman of the finance committee, which was to be nominated at the opening of the session. Without any previous consultation with Herries, Goderich and Huskisson agreed, at Tierney's instigation, to the nomination of Lord Althorp as chairman. Herries resented this slight, and insisted upon resigning if Lord Althorp was placed in the chair, while Huskisson refused to remain in office if Lord Althorp was not appointed; the ultimate result of these dissensions, coupled with the proposed introduction of Lord Holland into the cabinet, being the resignation of Goderich and the appointment of the Duke of Wellington as prime minister. As Huskisson had agreed to join the Wellington ministry on condition that Herries should not continue to hold the office of chancellor of the exchequer, Goulburn was appointed to that post, and Herries, who had not met the House of Commons in his capacity of chancellor of the exchequer, became on 12 Feb. 1828 master of the mint. On 18 Feb. he made an elaborate statement in the house, and explicitly denied that his conduct had been the cause of the dissolution of the ministry, or that he had conspired, either with the king or the leaders of the tory party, to upset the government (ib. new ser. xviii. 487–505). He also wrote out for the information of his friends a statement of ‘the events which led to the dissolution of the administration of Lord Goderich’ (Memoir, ii. 71–7). He took an active part in the proceedings of the finance committee, which was appointed early in the session of 1828, and presided over by Sir Henry Parnell. He drew up the fourth report (Parliamentary Papers, 1828, vol. v.), and his statement before the committee, according to Sir James Graham, ‘made the public accounts intelligible, which they never were before’ (Parliamentary Debates, new ser. xxiii. 247). On 2 Feb. 1830 Herries succeeded Vesey Fitzgerald [see and ] as president of the board of trade, retaining the post of master of the mint, but resigned both offices upon the accession of Lord Grey to power in November of that year. On 26 Jan. 1832 Herries moved a series of resolutions condemning the Russian-Dutch loan (ib. 3rd ser. ix. 903–14), and though the government secured a majority on the occasion its position was severely damaged by the debate. On the formation of Sir Robert Peel's