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William Huskisson | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byRichard Rothwell | |
| Secretary of State for War and the Colonies | |
| In office 3 September 1827 – 30 May 1828 | |
| Prime Minister | The Viscount Goderich The Duke of Wellington |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Goderich |
| Succeeded by | Sir George Murray |
| Leader of the House of Commons | |
| In office 3 September 1827 – 26 January 1828 | |
| Prime Minister | The Viscount Goderich |
| Preceded by | George Canning |
| Succeeded by | Robert Peel |
| President of the Board of Trade | |
| In office 21 February 1823 – 3 September 1827 | |
| Prime Minister | The Earl of Liverpool George Canning |
| Preceded by | Frederick John Robinson |
| Succeeded by | Charles Grant |
| Member of Parliament forLiverpool | |
| In office 15 February 1823 – 15 September 1830 | |
| Preceded by | George Canning |
| Succeeded by | William Ewart |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 March 1770 (1770-03-11) |
| Died | 15 September 1830(1830-09-15) (aged 60) |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse | Emily Milbanke (d. 1856) |
William HuskissonPC (11 March 1770 – 15 September 1830) was a British statesman, financier, andMember of Parliament for several constituencies, includingLiverpool.[1]
He is commonly known as the world's first widely reported railway passenger casualty, since he was run over and fatally injured byRobert Stephenson's pioneering locomotiveRocket at theopening of theLiverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830. However,a number of fatal railway accidents had already occurred before this.
Huskisson was born atBirtsmorton Court,Malvern,Worcestershire, the son of William and Elizabeth Huskisson, both members ofStaffordshire families. He was one of four brothers. After their mother Elizabeth died, their father William eventually remarried and had further children by his second wife.
Huskisson was a student atAppleby Grammar School, a boarding school designed by SirChristopher Wren inLeicestershire. In 1783, he was sent to Paris to live with his maternal great-uncle Dr. Richard Gem, who was physician to the British embassy there. He remained in Paris until 1792, and his experience as an eyewitness to the prelude and beginning of theFrench Revolution gave him a lifelong interest in politics. Huskisson first came to public notice while still in Paris. As a supporter of the moderate party, he became a member of the "Club of 1789", which favoured making France into aconstitutional monarchy. On 29 August 1790, he delivered a speech entitled "Sur les Assignats", about the issue ofassignats by the French government. This speech gave him a reputation as an expert in finance. From 1790 to 1792, theMarquess of Stafford was the British ambassador to Paris. Huskisson became a protégé of the Marquess, and returned to London with him.[2]
Once in London, Huskisson quickly gained an additional two powerful political patrons:Henry Dundas, theHome Secretary, andWilliam Pitt the Younger, thePrime Minister. Because of Huskisson's fluency in French, Dundas appointed him in January 1793 to oversee the execution of theAliens Act, which mostly dealt with French refugees. In the discharge of his delicate duties, he manifested such ability that in 1795 he was appointedUnder-Secretary at War (theSecretary at War's deputy).[3]
In the following year he entered Parliament as member forMorpeth, but for a considerable period he took scarcely any part in the debates. In 1800 he inherited a fortune from Dr Gem.[4] On the retirement of Pitt in 1801 he resigned office, and after contestingDover unsuccessfully he withdrew for a time into private life. Having in 1804 been chosen to representLiskeard, he was appointedsecretary of the treasury on the restoration of thePitt ministry, holding office till the dissolution of the ministry after the death of Pitt in January 1806.[3]
After being elected forHarwich in 1807, he accepted the same office under theDuke of Portland, but he withdrew from the ministry along withCanning in 1809. In the following year he published a pamphlet on the currency system, which confirmed his reputation as the ablest financier of his time; but his free-trade principles did not accord with those of his party. In 1812 he was returned forChichester.[3]
When in 1814 he re-entered government, it was only asFirst Commissioner of Woods and Forests, but his influence was from this time very great in the commercial and financial legislation of the country. He took a prominent part in the debates over theCorn Laws in 1814 and 1815; and in 1819 he presented a memorandum toLord Liverpool advocating a large reduction in the unfunded debt, and explaining a method for the resumption of cash payments, which was embodied in the act passed the same year. In 1821 he was a member of the committee appointed to inquire into the causes of the agricultural distress then prevailing, and the proposed relaxation of the Corn Laws embodied in the report was understood to have been chiefly due to his strenuous advocacy.[3]
In 1823 he was appointedPresident of the Board of Trade andTreasurer of the Navy, and shortly afterwards he received a seat in the cabinet. In the same year he was returned forLiverpool as successor to Canning, and as the only man who could reconcile theTory merchants to a free trade policy. Among the more important legislative changes with which he was principally connected were a reform of theNavigation Acts, admitting other nations to a full equality and reciprocity of shipping duties; the repeal of the labour laws; the introduction of a new sinking fund; the reduction of the duties on manufactures and on the importation of foreign goods, and the repeal of thequarantine duties.[3]
In 1826 after thePower-loom riots, a number of manufacturers subsequently agreed to pay a standard rate to the weavers, but on their own admission it was a "starvation" wage. Those who stuck to the agreement found it difficult to compete with those manufacturers who did not, and could therefore undercut them, prompting an appeal to William Huskisson, thePresident of the Board of Trade, to introduce a legally bindingminimum wage. Huskisson's response was dismissive, expressing his view that to introduce such a measure would be "a vain and hazardous attempt to impose the authority of the law between the labourer and his employer in regulating the demand for labour and the price to be paid for it".[5]
In accordance with his suggestion Canning in 1827 introduced a measure on the corn laws proposing the adoption of a sliding scale to regulate the amount of duty. A misapprehension between Huskisson and theDuke of Wellington led to the duke proposing an amendment, the success of which caused the abandonment of the measure by the government.[3]
After the death of Canning in the same year Huskisson accepted thesecretaryship of the colonies underLord Goderich, an office which he continued to hold in the new cabinet formed by the Duke of Wellington in the following year. After succeeding with great difficulty in inducing the cabinet to agree to a compromise on the corn laws, Huskisson finally resigned office in May 1828 on account of a difference with his colleagues in regard to the disfranchisement ofEast Retford.[3] He was followed out of the government by other Tories who are usually described asCanningites includingLord Palmerston,Charles Grant andLord Dudley.
In 1827, asSecretary of State for the Colonies, Huskisson confirmed theConsolidated Slave Law, which had been proposed by the anti-abolitionist leaders inBarbados in 1824 and which had been enacted in 1826 by the Barbadian colonial legislature.[6]
Huskisson had been diagnosed withstrangury, a tender inflammation of the kidneys. He had undergone surgery, and had been advised by Royal doctorWilliam George Maton to cancel all forthcoming appointments, which included the opening of theLiverpool and Manchester Railway. Huskisson chose to ignore this advice, believing the opening event too important to avoid. He rode down the line in a special train constructed for theDuke of Wellington and his guests and dignitaries, pulled by the locomotiveNorthumbrian which was driven byGeorge Stephenson himself. This train was the only train on the south track; the other seven were in procession on the northern track.[7][8][page needed] AtParkside railway station, near the midpoint of the line, the locomotives made a scheduled stop to take on fuel and water. Although the company had implicitly warned passengers to remain on the trains while this took place, around 50 of the dignitaries on board alighted when the Duke of Wellington's special train stopped. One of those who got off was Huskisson, who approached the Duke to take this opportunity to repair their relationship after a great falling out, which resulted in Huskisson leaving the government, and shook his hand.
At this time the train being pulled byRocket approached on the other line.Rocket was being driven byJoseph Locke, George Stephenson's assistant and future eminent engineer in his own right. A shout went up, "An engine is approaching. Take care, gentlemen!" The other disembarked passengers either climbed back into their seats, or stepped over the northern line and completely out of the way. A third option was available, to stand with one's back to the stationary coaches, as there was a four-foot gap between the lines, and even though the Duke's private carriage was wider than a then-standard carriage, it would have still been possible to stand between the stationary train and the travelling train and remain safe. However, what unfolded was a calamitous series of events. Huskisson was known to be clumsy, and had endured a long list of problems from his regular trips and falls; he had twice broken his arm and never fully recovered the use of it. Added to this, he was only a few weeks post surgery and was present against his doctor's advice.[8][page needed]
On realising his danger, he panicked and made two attempts to cross the other line, but changed his mind and returned to the Duke's carriage. At this point Joseph Locke became aware and threwRocket into reverse, but it would have taken 10 seconds to have any effect. Huskisson then panicked that the gap between the two trains was not big enough and so tried to clamber into the Duke's carriage. However, the carriage door had not been latched, and so it slowly swung open, leaving him hanging directly in the path of the oncomingRocket, which hit the door, throwing Huskisson onto the tracks in front of the train.[9][10] His leg was horrifically mangled by the locomotive.
A door was ripped from a railway building and Huskisson was placed on it, and George Stephenson uncoupledNorthumbrian from the Duke's train and coupled it to a small carriage that had been occupied by a band; the mortally injured MP was placed inside with a small group of friends. They set off toEccles and walked from the station to thevicarage, where a doctor was called. Atourniquet had been applied, but it was not deemed possible to do a field amputation, so he was made comfortable with the assistance of the vicar's wife Emma Blackburne, whose "activity, sense & conduct" were mentioned inThe Manchester Courier andThe Times and remembered with gratitude by Huskisson's widow Emily who arrived at the vicarage from Liverpool.[11] Huskisson was able to make his will and at 9 pm he died from his injury.[8][page needed]
The death and funeral of Huskisson led to wide reporting on the opening of the railway, for the first time making people around the world aware that cheap and rapid long-distance transport was now possible, if dangerous.[according to whom?][citation needed]
On 6 April 1799, Huskisson married Emily Milbanke, the younger daughter ofMark Milbanke, the commander-in-chief atPortsmouth. Emily Huskisson survived her husband and did not remarry, dying in April 1856. They had no children. In 1800 Huskisson boughtEartham House in West Sussex from his friendWilliam Hayley, and is commemorated in the parish church by a long carved eulogy from Emily on the south wall.
The monument where his remains are buried is the centrepiece ofSt James Cemetery,Liverpool.[12] A marble statue of him was housed in a mausoleum there until 1968, when it was transferred to theWalker Art Gallery in Liverpool.[13]
In 1836, Emily also commissioned a second marble statue for theCustom House in Liverpool, but this statue was instead placed in Pimlico Gardens inPimlico, London, between Grosvenor Road and the river Thames. A bronze casting of this statue was unveiled outside the Custom House in 1847. Following the destruction of the Custom House in an air raid in 1940, the statue was moved tothe boulevard of Princes Road and Princes Avenue inToxteth in 1954, but was pulled down by protestors in 1982 on account of Huskisson's opposition to the abolition of the slave trade; a plaque explaining this was erected on the empty plinth in 2020. After being pulled down, the statue was relocated to theOratory, but following conservation in 2004 it was moved toDukes Terrace in the city centre.[13][14]
In the early 1840s, the town ofHuskisson, New South Wales was named after Huskisson by theGovernor of New South Wales,Sir George Gipps.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Huskisson, William".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 4.
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forMorpeth 1796–1800 withViscount Morpeth | Succeeded by Parliament of the United Kingdom |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by Parliament of Great Britain | Member of Parliament forMorpeth 1801–1802 withViscount Morpeth | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLiskeard 1804–1807 withHon. William Eliot | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forHarwich 1807–1812 withJohn Hiley Addington | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forChichester 1812–1823 withThe Earl of March 1812–1819 Lord John Lennox 1819–1823 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLiverpool 1823–1830 withIsaac Gascoyne | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Under-Secretary of State for War 1795–1801 | Succeeded byas Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies |
| Preceded by | Secretary to the Treasury (senior) 1804–1806 | Succeeded by |
| Secretary to the Treasury (senior) 1807–1809 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | First Commissioner of Woods and Forests 1814–1823 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Board of Trade 1823–1827 | Succeeded by |
| Treasurer of the Navy 1823–1827 | ||
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1827–1828 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the House of Commons 1827–1828 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
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