On Monday, Mr. Milner Gibson.—one of the leaders of the
Anti-Corn Law Leagne,—died on board his yacht' Resolute,' at Algiers. He was born in 1807, so that he was in his seventy- seventh year at the time of his death. Mr. Milner Gibson entered public life as a Conservative, having sat as Conservative Member for Ipswich from 1837 to 1839. He then resigned his seat, because he could not resist the arguments for Free-trade, nor indeed for the popular cause in general. He was defeated when he contested Ipswich as a Liberal, and remained out of Parliament till 1841. when he became Member for Manchester. Lord John Russell made him Vice-President of the Board of Trade in 1846, but he resigned his office in 1848, and became as strong an advocate of the policy of peace as Mr. Bright him- self. He was defeated at Manchester in 1857, after the dissolu- tion caused by the defeat of the Government on the China war, bat was soon afterwards returned for Ashton-under-Lyne, which he represented till 1868. Lord Palmerston gave him a seat in his last Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade, and Mr. Milner Gibson retained that office till the defeat of Lord Russell's Govern- ment by Mr. Disraeli in June, 1866. Mr. Milner Gibson was a smooth and fluent, but hardly an impressive speaker. In the House he was chiefly known forthe adroitness with which he drew critical amendments, such as those which united the Peelites and the Russellites against Lord Palmerston on more than one occasion. He was dexterous in combining, for special purposes, parties of very dissimilar bent and genius. His Liberalism was Liberalism af the old type. He would almost have satisfied even Mr. Herbert Spencer with his absoluteness for laisser-faire.
Previous page
