William Huskisson (1770-1830) spent some of his adolescence in Paris before, and during, the French Revolution. Appointed private Secretary to the British ambassador, Earl Gower, he returned to England as Britain and France fell to war in 1792. Through Gower, he obtained in 1795 a seat in Parliament, and he became one of Pitt's able lieutenants. After Pitt's death, he linked his own career closely to Canning's; he established himself as an expert in financial and fiscal policy, and on Canning's return to Government in 1814, Huskisson came with him. Despite his great contribution to the creation of a liberal Tory economic policy, it was not until 1823 that he found his way into the cabinet, following his appointment as President of the Board of Trade. His promotion of a free trade in corn made him unpopular among landed Tories, and although, after Canning's sudden death in 1827, he became Leader of the House of Commons, he was levered out of office by the Duke of Wellington in 1828. Two years later he was killed at the opening of the Liverpool to Manchester railway when he fell onto the track as the Rocket steam-engine was approaching, the first victim of a railway accident.

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