1827.] Death of Castlereagh to Canning s Premiership. 195 the scale of duties, and one by Hume to substitute a fixed duty ; but they were all defeated, and the bill embodying the resolutions of the Government passed the third reading in the House of Commons on the I2th of April, the day when the adjournment for the Easter holidays took place. Whilst these transactions were being conducted public feeling was growing impatient with the continuance of what was really a ministerial interregnum. On the 3<Dth of March Tierney moved to refuse a vote of supply on the ground that there was no responsible administration to whom it could be entrusted. Canning opposed the motion, and it was of course defeated, but it served to prove that some decision must be soon come to as to the persons by whom, and the principles on which, the affairs of the country were to be conducted. There was to be little more delay. On the loth of April Canning received instructions from the King to form a Ministry, and he then found that the distrust and dislike of him extended amongst the old Tory section of the late Government even farther than he had anticipated. When he went to hold an interview with the King on the I2th, he took with him the resignations of Wellington, Peel, and Bexley ; and those of Eldon, Bathurst, and Westmoreland followed him to the royal closet. Presenting these refusals to serve to the King, Canning said, " See here, sire, what disables me from executing your Majesty's will. Nothing is yet done which commits your Majesty to any particular line of conduct ; but I must crave permission to state to you, that if I am to go on in the formation of a new Administration, my new writ must be moved for to-night, for I cannot go on through the recess without endeavouring to finish the business." His Majesty gave him his hand to kiss, and Canning was minister.*
- "Annual Register," 1827, p. 100.
