OF

JAMES DEACON HUME,

SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF TRADE.

BY

CHARLES BADHAM, M.A.

66 He embraced at a very early period the soundest principles of commercial
policy. The history of the Board of Trade from the time of Mr. Huskisson to the
close of Mr. Deacon Hume's services at that Board may be considered as the history of
Mr. Deacon Hume himself, for he was the life and soul of that department: and every
good measure which was adopted in rapid succession at that period, either received
his earnest support, or may be traced to his wise suggestion."

SIR JAMES GRAHAM.

LONDON:

SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.

1859.

210. c. 5.

"With a masculine understanding, and a stout and resolute heart, he had application undissipated and unwearied. He took public business, not as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he was to enjoy; and he seemed to have little delight except in what in some way related to the public service.”—BURKE ON GEORGE GRENVILLE.

"It is my deliberate opinion that Mr. Deacon Hume's Consolidation of the Laws of the Customs, in its original form, was a masterpiece of legislative skill. Writing on a subject with which he was profoundly conversant, he succeeded in the invention of a legal style, so clear, and so popular, that every one readily seized his meaning; nor can I remember a single appeal to the Courts of Westminster to ascertain it, so long as he continued in office."-THE RIGHT HON. SIR JAMES STEPHEN.

"The publication of his Life will vindicatè. his better claim to a great share in the introduction of an improved system of finance, and to commercial intercourse upon true principles, than that of many others who are too generally thought to be exclusively entitled to public gratitude for the reformation. He was the patient and efficient investigator in the preliminary inquiries to the enactment of our free trade code, and cleared the way for the success of those who followed him, in completing the great work by legislation."— THE RIGHT HON. EDWARD ELLICE.

L