238 CHAPTER IX. MR. DEACON HUME RETIRES FROM THE BOARD OF TRADE-RESIDES - AT REIGATE-SIR ROBERT PEEL'S REQUEST OFTEN COMPLIED WITH MR. HUME 18 SUCCEEDED BY MR. MACGREGOR - THE FORMER SUGGESTS THE APPOINTMENT OF A SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE IMPORT DUTIES-MR. MACGREGOR HIS EVIDENCE-MR. DEACON HUME'S EVIDENCE-REMARKABLE PASSAGES. "All the world has heard that Mr. Deacon Hume's evidence before the Import Duties Committee in 1840, had great weight with all the leading men of all parties."-LORD JOHN RUSSELL. THERE is a measure in all things, and in nothing is it more necessary than in the exactions which are made upon the time and attention of public men. Few minds can bear a heavy strain for a lengthened period with impunity. And even in the excepted cases, the season of repose ought not to be too long delayed. In the year 1840, though his health was not apparently much impaired, Mr. Deacon Hume retired from the Board of Trade. He also left Putney, where, after a ten years' residence in Russell Square, he had lived for two years, and took up his abode at Reigate, one of the most salubrious and most beautiful localities in England. A pension of 1,500l. a year was granted him by, the Government, in consideration of his long and valuable services. Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister of the day, took occasion to express regret at his retirement, and at the same time a hope that he would not object to repair occasionally to town, if he should be requested to do so, and afford the Government the benefit of his counsel and experience. This was no parting compliment. Sir Robert Peel's official intercourse with Mr. Hume had extended over a period of thirty years; to him that great Minister was almost entirely indebted for the correct knowledge he had acquired of the true principles of commerce and of international trade. He especially lamented Mr. Hume's relinquishment of office at the particular period at which it occurred. We will not say, as some of the Prime Minister's classical opponents might not unnaturally have said, that he knew that the country had been ploughed, and the dragon's teeth sown, and that heads and armed hands were about to rise out of the ground, but the proceedings of the AntiCorn Law League forewarned him that trying times were at hand, and that it would be in Mr. Hume's power to render important service to the Government. The request was repeatedly made, and it was constantly complied with. His journeys from Reigate to Whitehall, or to Downing Street, continued to be neither few nor far between to the time of his death, which to many, since he was not very far advanced in years, appeared to be distant. Mr. Deacon Hume was succeeded at the Board of Trade by a gentleman with whom he was acquainted, and who, he was glad to hear, was appointed to be his successor Mr. John Macgregor, afterwards member for Glasgow. He has been described by one competent to form an impartial estimate of his character, as "an intelligent and amiable man, of no common mind, of extraordinary powers of application, and devoted to the subject of political economy."* During Lord Melbourne's administration, the same authority states, and it was pretty generally known, that he had been engaged on commercial missions to Germany, Austria, Paris, and Naples. And the writer referred to has expressed his belief that his missions were "generally well performed that they advanced sound principles of political economy, and that, upon the whole, the product was worth the cost to the Exchequer." Although Mr. Deacon Hume had much to occupy * He first became known as an author by the publication, in 1832, of two octavo volumes, entitled "British America," published by Blackwood and Cadell. This work reached a second and improved edition in the following year. It was not only, at the period, highly interesting, but it abounded in facts and statistics, and it displayed a large comprehension of our future colonial interests. In 1835 he on published "My Note Book," dedicated to his friend Sismondi. It was chiefly a personal narrative of his tours on the Continent. In 1847 he published two crown octavo volumes, historical and statistical, "The Progress of America, from the discovery by Columbus to the year 1846," comprising three thousand pages. Four similar volumes, entitled "Commercial Statistics." In 1852 he published "The History of the British Empire, from the Accession of James I.," 2 vols. 8vo. Earlier in life, in the Canadas, he had prepared reports on North American emigration, on the Newfoundland fisheries, and on similar Transatlantic subjects; and to his home productions may be added twenty-two Reports on Foreign Tariffs and Trade, presented to Parliament by Royal command; numerous pamphlets on subjects of the day, and an extent of private and statistical correspondence at home and abroad almost incredible. his mind at the time that he quitted office, he had in no degree become indifferent with regard to the success of the great object for the accomplishment of which he had toiled for so many years, through every variety of circumstance, in the hope, sometimes delusive, rarely strong, that he should live to witness the event, which, so far as commercial relations are concerned, he believed would prove the harbinger of bright and happy days for England and the world. As a last, and, as it proved, a crowning effort, he took an opportunity of suggesting to an experienced and influential member of Parliament of the same name, to whom, however, he was not allied, or even intimately known, Mr. Joseph Hume, the expediency of moving for a Select Committee to inquire into the several duties levied on imports into the United Kingdom, intimating at the same time that he would be able to give important evidence if he were examined. This suggestion was energetically seconded by Mr. Macgregor. They thought that it would be for the public interest if those who were, or who had been in office at the Board of Trade, could be transferred for a short time from their homes, or from their private offices in Whitehall, into a committee room of the House of Commons, for then, not only would their evidence be given publicly, but it would be ordered to be printed, and circulated through the country. Mr. Joseph Hume was much too sensible of the great results which might be expected from such a course, not to give it due consideration; for even if it should fall short of what R Mr. Deacon Hume and Mr. Macgregor expected from it-the overthrow of protection-he knew that it would still do considerable service. No one was more sensible than the veteran member for Montrose, whose attention to Parliamentary business had probably never been equalled, of the utility of Committees of Parliament, as well as of Commissions under the Great Seal. He had had more opportunities than any other person of observing the good which they effect upon the whole," not,” as it has been excellently said, "more directly and positively, than indirectly, by giving opportunities for ascertaining and publishing the views of well-informed men; by forcibly attracting public attention to different objects of legislation, and by diffusing correct opinions.” Such inquiries are made before the public, and the results are laid before the public in a permanent form. “The evidence,” in part at least, " is drawn indifferently from the bosom of the public, and not from witnesses schooled by the Government: the witnesses who present themselves are most frequently the best informed part of the community. Their constitution is founded, as it were, on a general appeal to the public, who are called on to come forward and say what they know. The nation thus steps into the Houses of Parliament in a new shape, and with a new voice; it legislates by a new delegation, of which the members and peers are only the mouthpieces-the scribes of reports and bills. The laws springing out of such inquiries have an unspeakable advantage over those concocted by the unaided legislature; they are publicly canvassed and |