the House of Commons. It was rumoured, however (probably without any reason), that the king was exceedingly unwilling to admit Mr. Canning into the cabinet, and that the lord chancellor was determined not to act with him as a colleague. For some time, the matter remained in suspense. Mr. Canning continued his preparations for his departure for India; and at a public dinner given to him at Liverpool, on the 30th of August, he declared that he knew no more of the future political arrangements of the country, than any of those who heard him, and that no proposition with respect to the vacant office had been made to him.* However, in September, he was nominated secretary of state for foreign affairs.

A new governor-general_was now to be found for India. Lord Amherst and lord William Bentinck, were the two candidates for the appointment. The former prevailed; though the latter by sound

The following was the language used by Mr. Canning on this occasion: -I know nothing; I have heard nothing more than all of you, gentlemen, of any political arrangements likely to arise from the present state of things. It is not for me to presume that I should be in any degree concerned in such arrangements: nor to do any thing which should appear to imply such a presumption. I have, therefore, neither proposed to defer this meeting with my constituents, fixed, as you know, many months ago; nor have I suspended my preparations for departure; nor have I any ground beyond those which lie open in common to me and to all the world, for apprehending that that departure is likely to be intercepted. It will not be expected of me that I should say any thing of what might, in a contrary supposition, be the decision which it would become me to form. I can only declare with the most perfect sincerity,

ness of judgment, by great political and military experience, and by intimate acquaintance with Indian affairs, was perhaps better fitted than any other individual, for that most responsible situation. There is no office, the nomination to which should be more carefully defended from the influence of court favour, than that of Governor General. How vast are the interests which may be put in hazard by a single injudicious appointment to that situation! Should a critical moment arrive, an empire may be lost, before a person can be sent out equal to the exigencies that may have occurred. Years indeed, may pass away, without calling forth any peculiar talent in the supreme ruler; but no man can tell but that at any moment circumstances may spring up, in which the safety of our Eastern empire will depend on the energy and capacity of him who is at its head: and if such circumstances should arise, and there

that such a decision would be formed by me upon an honest and impartial review of public considerations alone; and would be determined, not by a calculation of my interests, but upon a balance of my duties.

"Gentlemen, enough of this topic, upon which I might still perhaps have hesitated to utter a word, if I had not been informed that my silence respecting it upon a former occasion has been misinterpreted. I trust I shall not now be misinterpreted the other way; and that having been understood as ostentatiously abjuring office at home, from my not adverting to the possibility of its being proposed to me, I may not now be considered as on the other hand expressing an anxiety for office, by the, I hope sufficiently measured, allusion which I have found myself at last compelled to make to surmises, of which I am not the author, but the object."

securities without first becoming buyers, and their purchases were of a magnitude perfectly new to the persons before engaged in similar transactions. An advance without limit was the visionary prospect that filled the mind of every speculator, and many, who probably could not have raised fifty pounds on their personal security, entered into time bargains for as many thousands, and felt no doubt that the result would raise them into sudden wealth. Real purchases by men of property and consideration were also made to a very great extent, particularly in the scrip of the new loans, which was held on small deposits, but gave the benefit of the advance on the whole sum. On this, too, it was not difficult to raise money from some of the bankers and capitalists, with which further transactions could be undertaken. At this period it was known that a congress was about to assemble at Verona, and that as the affairs of Europe were to be discussed, it was reasonable, at least, to expect, that warlike rumours would be circulated, whatever confidence might exist that the congress would leave the world as they found it. Accordingly, these rumours produced for some time no sensible effect. Before the end of Nov., however, the money market exhibited a very different aspect. The first alarm given to it, was the

doubt thrown on the validity of M. Zea's contract for the Colombian loan; and the fall, which followed in that stock, gave a foretaste to the speculators, of the reverses to which the traffic in foreign securities was exposed. This was succeeded by the news of the change of policy in the French ministry, and of their threat of invading Spain. A series of panics ensued, which convulsed every money market in Europe, and their effect was everywhere increased by the mutual operation of one market on the others. The price of all foreign stocks fell rapidly; and thousands were ruined or impoverished by the change. The extreme points of the fluctuations in the principal securities, from the middle of Ôctober to the beginning of December, may be stated to have been as follows:-Spanish stock of 1820, 87 to 65; of 1821, 73 to 53; Colombian stock, 97 to 69; Chilian bonds, 90 to 75; Russian scrip, 91 to 82; Prussian nearly the same; Neapolitan scrip, 84 to 75, &c. Of the European securities, those of Spain sustained the greatest depression. The reason is obvious: not only had very large sums been lately borrowed by that country; but it was Spain which was threatened with the more immediate danger; and her securities, having been the principal medium of speculation here, had been forced more than the rest above their real value.

full liberty to exert the whole of their force against his cabinet. They were confident that the ministry could not stand without their aid; and they hoped, that they themselves would soon obtain possession of that power, which their late colleagues could not long hold. The result showed, that they had calculated well.

The king opened the session of the chambers on the 5th of November 1821, with a speech (see p. 525) in which he expressed his satisfaction with the state of the country, and the general aspect of European politics. The most important of the measures which first Occupied the attention of the deputies, was the budget, which was laid before them by the minister of finance on the 27th of November. The estimates for 1822, exceeded upon the whole, those of the former year. The charge for the consolidated debt was in the present year 228,864,566f. being a diminution of 188,204f. on that head of charge for 1821. The charge for the civil list and royal family, was 34,000,000f. The floating annuities were 10,400,000f. being 400,000f. less than the last year. In the pension-list, a diminution had taken place of 1,242,925f. The charge for the Legion of honour was 3,400,000f.; 10,000,000f. were wanted to defray interest due on certain securities. The expenditure under the head of " Presidency of the Council of Ministers," was fixed at 180,000f. On the disbursements for the ministry of justice, which, in 1821, amounted to 17,879,500f., an augmentation had become necessary, in consequence of the addition of a seventh chamber to the tribunal of the first instance in Paris. The estimate for the ministry of foreign

affairs

was

was 7,870,000f., being 15,000f. beyond the expenditure of 1821; and that for the home department 112,085,000f. being an increase of 3,145,814f. The charge in the war department 176,472,000f., being an increase of 1,735,400f. The estimate for the marine departmentwas52,980,000f. being an excess of 7,020,000f. to be incurred for the purpose of putting the navy in a complete state of repair. The charge for the finance department was 138,846,880f. being an excess of 1,975,595f. compared with the budget for the last year. The sum total of the estimates for 1822 was 889,541,340f. presenting an augmentation of 7,306,066f.

The minister, after stating these various charges, proceeded to detail his ways and means. He stated that great advantages had resulted to the treasury from the sale of rentes in August, which would render it unnecessary any longer to have recourse to the issue of extraordinary securities, and had determined the government to pay the reconnoissances of liquidation in money. The total of the ways and means was stated at 890,000,033f. exceeding the presumed demands by a sum of 458,693f.

It must, however, be observed, that there were two heads of expense in the budget for 1821Public Instruction, and the General Directorship of Gunpowder and Saltpetre (see Annual Register, vol. LXIII, p. 133) amounting together to more than five millions of francs--which were not taken into account by the minister in his estimates for the present year.

In the mean time the ministers were attacked daily; and animosity to them produced a seeming