Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/202

 Wellesley which had been given to him on 19 Feb. 1820.

A stroke of paralysis disabled Liverpool on 17 Feb., and his long administration came to an end. Peel suggested to Canning that Wellington should be his successor, but Canning was resolved to hold no other place himself (, i. 452-9). He had made friends at court, and in April he was charged with the reconstruction of the ministry. Six members of the cabinet resigned their offices, including Wellington. He considered that Canning, being distrusted by Liverpool's followers, would have to look elsewhere for support, and 'to obtain that support he must alter the course of action of the government;' while his hot and despotic temper, and 'his avowed hostility to the great landed aristocracy of the country,' were additional objections to him as a chief (Desp. 23 June 1827;, i. 107, ii. 170). Affronted by the tone of one of Canning's letters, which had been approved by the king, Wellington resigned, not only the ordnance, but the commandership-in-chief, on 12 April. The king complained bitterly of his desertion, and he was charged by Canning's supporters with dictating to the king and seeking to be first minister himself. He scouted this charge in the House of Lords, saying: 'His majesty knew as well as I did that I was, and must be totally, out of the question.' He added that he would have been worse than man to think of giving up the command of the army for 'a station to the duties of which I was unaccustomed, in which I was not wished, and for which I was not qualified' (Speeches, 2 May 1827).

Canning died on 8 Aug., and Lord Goderich was made head of the government, which remained a coalition of Canningites and whigs. Wellington was invited to resume the command of the army, and accepted, without blinking his political differences (Desp. 17 Aug.) He was reappointed on the 22nd. Lord Anglesey, who was the bearer of the invitation to him and brought back his answer, said to the cabinet: 'Mark my words, as sure as you are alive, he will trip up all your heels before six months are over your heads' (, i. 120). But it was the king, not the duke, and its own dissensions that brought the Goderich administration to an end. On 9 Jan. 1828 Wellington was commissioned to form a ministry. He agreed with Peel, who was to lead in the commons as home secretary, that they could not fight a party and a half with half a party (, i. 404), and the cabinet included four Canningites—Huskisson, Dudley, Grant, and Palmerston. Wellington became first lord of the treasury on 26 Jan. Peel convinced him, much against his will, that he must give up the command of the army, and Hill was appointed to it, as senior general officer on the staff, on 14 Feb. Wellington accepted a situation which was disagreeable to him, and for which he still declared he was not qualified, at the cost of 'the greatest personal and professional sacrifices' (Desp. 1 Feb., 5 and 30 April); but he was never deaf to a call on him for help, especially from the crown.

There was soon friction in the cabinet. Russia declared war against Turkey in February, and called on England to act on the treaty of July 1827. Wellington was prepared to do so, though he disapproved the treaty, but he would not give it a construction so favourable to the Greeks as the Canningites desired (, i. 127, &c.) In 1827 he had defeated Canning's corn bill by an amendment that foreign corn should not be taken out of bond till the price reached 66s.; and it was only after long discussions that a fresh corn bill was agreed upon, with a sliding scale, substituting protection for prohibition. In fact, the members of the cabinet differed on almost every question, 'meeting to debate and dispute, and separating without deciding' (, i. 147). The king and others began to say that the duke 'was no doubt a man of energy and decision in the field, but that in the cabinet he was as weak and undecided as Goderich' (ib. p. 154); while his colleagues complained that he was too domineering (ib. p. 18");, ii. 262).

On 20 May William Huskisson [q. v.] and Palmerston voted against the government on the East Retford question, and the former thought it right to tender his resignation. He was not invited to withdraw it, as he expected to be; and Wellington's answer, when Dudley came to him to explain matters, was, 'There is no mistake, there can be no mistake, and there shall be no mistake' (, iii. 268;, i. 149). The other Canningites followed Huskisson, and the government became purely tory. Vesey Fitzgerald, appointed to the board of trade, had to seek re-election for Clare; and this enabled the Catholic Association to give a signal proof of its strength and discipline. Fitzgerald was very popular, and had always been a staunch advocate of the catholic claims; but Daniel O'Connell [q. v.], though disqualified as a catholic, stood against him, and was returned by the votes of the forty-shilling freeholders. This brought the catholic question at once to the front.

Wellington had long realised that it must