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Robinson the matter by allowing the Bank of England to continue the issue of small notes for some months longer. This concession considerably damaged Robinson's reputation, and Greville remarks: ‘Everybody knows that Huskisson is the real author of the finance measure of government, and there can be no greater anomaly than that of a chancellor of the exchequer who is obliged to propose and defend measures of which another minister is the real, though not the apparent, author’ (Greville Memoirs, 1st ser. i. 81). In bringing in his fourth and last budget, on 13 March 1826, Robinson passed under review the principal alterations in taxation which had been effected since the war. He continued to indulge in sanguine views, and refused to credit the evidence of the distress which was everywhere perceptible (Parl. Debates, 2nd ser. xiv. 1305–34, 1340). On 4 May 1826 he opposed Hume's motion for an address to the crown asking for an inquiry into the causes of the distress throughout the country (ib. xv. 878–89). The motion was defeated by a majority of 101 votes, and ‘a more curious instance can scarcely be found than in the addresses of Prosperity Robinson and Adversity Hume of the opposite conclusions which may be drawn from a view of a statistical subject where the figures were indisputable on both sides, as far as they went’ (, History of the Thirty Years' Peace, 1877, ii. 79).

In December Robinson expressed a wish to be promoted to the House of Lords, and to exchange his post at the exchequer for some easier office. At Liverpool's request, however, he consented to remain in the House of Commons, though he desired that ‘the retention of his present office should be considered as only temporary’ (, Life of Lord Liverpool, 1868, iii. 438–42). When Liverpool fell ill in February 1827, a plan was discussed between Canning and the Duke of Wellington, but subsequently abandoned, of raising Robinson to the peerage, and of placing him at the head of the treasury. On Canning becoming prime minister, Robinson was created Viscount Goderich of Nocton in the county of Lincoln on 28 April. He was appointed secretary of state for war and the colonies on 30 April, and a commissioner for the affairs of India on 17 May. At the same time he undertook the duties of leader of the House of Lords, where he took his seat for the first time on 2 May (Journals of the House of Lords, lix. 256). He was, however, quite unable to withstand the fierce attacks which were made on the new government in the House of Lords by an opposition powerful both in ability and numbers. On 1 June the Duke of Wellington's amendment to the corn bill was carried against the government by a majority of four votes (Parl. Debates, 2nd ser. xvii. 1098). Goderich vainly endeavoured to procure its rejection on the report, but the government were again beaten (ib. xvii. 1221–9, 1238), and the bill had to be abandoned.

On Canning's death, in August 1827, Goderich was chosen by the king to form a cabinet. The changes in the administration were few. Goderich, who became first lord of the treasury, was succeeded at the colonial office by Huskisson; Lansdowne took the home department, and Grant the board of trade. The Duke of Portland succeeded Lord Harrowby as president of the council, Lord Anglesey became master-general of the ordnance, the Duke of Wellington commander-in-chief, while Herries, after protracted negotiations, received the seals of chancellor of the exchequer on 3 Sept. Goderich's unfitness for the post of prime minister was at once apparent, and his weakness in yielding to the king with regard to the appointment of Herries disgusted his whig colleagues. In December Goderich pressed on the king the admission of Lords Holland and Wellesley to the cabinet, and declared that without such an addition of strength he felt unable to carry on the government. He also expressed a wish to retire for private reasons, but afterwards offered to remain, provided a satisfactory arrangement could be made with regard to Lords Holland and Wellesley (, Life and Correspondence of Lord Palmerston, 1879, i. 119; see also Lord Melbourne's Papers, 1890, p. 115). Embarrassed alike by his inability to keep the peace between Herries and Huskisson in their quarrel over the chairmanship of the finance committee, by the disunion between his whig and conservative colleagues, and by the battle of Navarino, Goderich tendered his final resignation on 8 Jan. 1828. Nevertheless, he appears to have expected an offer of office from the Duke of Wellington, who succeeded him as prime minister (, Memoirs of the Court of George IV, 1859, ii. 359). On 17 April 1828 Goderich spoke in favour of the second reading of the Corporation and Test Acts Repeal Bill (Parl. Debates, 2nd ser. xviii. 1505–8), and on 3 April 1829 he supported the second reading of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill (ib. xxi. 226–43;, Political Diary, 1881, ii. 4). At the opening of the session on 4 Feb. 1830 he spoke in favour of the address, and announced that if ever he had any political hostility to the Wellington administration he had ‘buried it in the grave of the catholic question’ (Parl.