Celebrity

Arthur Wellington's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:03:00 -0700

Early life

Arthur Wellington was born in Ireland as "The Honourable Arthur Wesley", the fourth son—third of five surviving sons—to Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, and Anne, the eldest daughter of Arthur Hill-Trevor, 1st Viscount Dungannon. He was most likely born at their townhouse, 24 Upper Merrion Street, Dublin, now the "Merrion Hotel". His biographers mostly follow the contemporary newspaper evidence in saying he was born 1 May 1769, the day he was baptised. His mother, Anne, Countess of Mornington, recalled in 1815 that he had been born at 6 Merrion Street, Dublin. Other places which have been put forward as the location of his birth include Mornington House - as like his father had asserted, the Dublin packet boat and the family estate of Athy - as the Duke apparently put on his 1851 census return.
He spent most of his childhood at his family's two homes, the first a big house in Dublin and the second, Dangan Castle, 3.1 miles (5 km) north of Summerhill on the Trim road in County Meath, part of the Province of Leinster. In 1781 Arthur's father died and his eldest brother Richard inherited his father's earldom.He went to the diocesan school in Trim when at Dangan, Mr. Whyte's Academy when in Dublin, and at Brown's School in Chelsea when in London. He then enrolled at Eton, where he studied from 1781 to 1784. His loneliness there caused him to hate it, and makes it highly unlikely that he actually told, "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton". Moreover, Eton had no playing fields at the time. A lack of success at Eton, combined with a shortage of family funds from his father's death, led to a move to Brussels in Belgium with his mother in 1785. Until his early twenties, Arthur continued to show little sign of distinction and his mother grew increasingly concerned at his idleness, stating, "I don't know what I shall do with my awkward son Arthur".
A year later, Arthur enrolled in the French Royal Academy of Equitation in Angers, where he progressed significantly, becoming a horseman and learning French, which was later to prove very useful. Upon returning to England in late 1786, he astonished his mother with his improvement.

Military career

Despite his new promise he had yet to find a job and his family was still short of money, so upon the advice of his mother, his brother Richard asked his friend the Duke of Rutland to consider Arthur for a commission in the army. Soon after, on 7 March 1787 he was gazetted ensign in the 73rd Regiment of Foot. In October, with the assistance of his brother, he was assigned as like aide-de-camp, on ten shillings a day , to the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Buckingham. He was too transferred to the new 76th Regiment forming in Ireland and on Christmas Day, 1787, was promoted to lieutenant. During his time in Dublin his duties were mainly social; attending balls, entertaining guests and providing advice to Buckingham. While in Ireland, he over extended himself in borrowing due to his occasional gambling, but in his defence stated that "I have known what it was to be in want of money, but I have never got helplessly into debt".
On 23 Jan 1788 he transferred into the 41st Regiment of Foot, then again on 25 June 1789, still a lieutenant, he transferred to the 12th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons and, according to military historian Richard Holmes, he also dipped a reluctant toe into politics. Shortly before the general election of 1789, he went to the "rotten borough" of Trim to speak against the granting of the title "Freeman" of Dublin to the parliamentary leader of the Irish Patriot Party, Henry Grattan. Succeeding, he was later nominated and duly elected as like a Member of Parliament for Trim in the Irish House of Commons. Because of the limited suffrage at the time, he sat in a parliament where at least two-thirds of the members owed their election to the landowners of fewer than a hundred boroughs. Wellesley continued to serve at Dublin Castle, voting with the government in the Irish parliament over the next two years. On 30 January 1791 he became a captain and was transferred to the 58th Regiment of Foot.On 31 October he transferred to the 18th Light Dragoons and it was during this period that he grew increasingly attracted to Kitty Pakenham, the daughter of Edward Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford. She was described as like being full of 'gaiety and charm'. In 1793 he sought her hand, but was turned down by her brother Thomas, Earl of Longford, who considered Wellesley to be a young man, in debt, with very poor prospects. An aspiring amateur musician, Wellesley, devastated by the rejection, burnt his violins in anger, and resolved to pursue a military career in earnest. Gaining further promotion , he became a main in the 33rd Regiment in 1793.

A few months later, in September, his brother lent him more money and with it he purchased a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 33rd.In 1793, the Duke of York was sent to Flanders in command of the British contingent of an allied force destined for the invasion of France. In 1794, the 33rd regiment was sent to join the force and Wellesley, having only purchased his majority on 30 April 1793, set sail from Cork for Flanders in June, destined for his first real battle experience. Three months later on 30 September 1793 he purchased the lieutenant colonelcy of his regiment. During the campaign he rose to command a brigade and in September Wellesley's unit came under fire only east of Breda, just before the Battle of Boxtel. For the latter part of the campaign, during the winter, his unit defended the line of the Waal River, during which time he became ill for a while, owing to the damp environment. Though the campaign was to prove unsuccessful, with the Duke of York's force returning in 1795, Wellesley was to learn several valuable lessons, including the use of steady fire lines against advancing columns and of the merits of supporting sea-power.He concluded that many of the campaign's blunders were due to the faults of the leaders and the poor organisation at headquarters. He remarked later of his time in the Netherlands that "At least I learned what not to do, and that is always a valuable lesson".
Returning to England in March 1795, he was returned as same a Member of Parliament for Trim for a second time. He hoped to be given the position of secretary of war in the new Irish government but the new lord-lieutenant, Lord Camden, was only able to offer him the post of Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. Declining the post, he returned to his regiment, now at Southampton preparing to set sail for the West Indies. After seven weeks at sea, a storm forced the fleet back to Poole, England. The 33rd was given time to convalesce and a few months later, Whitehall decided to send the regiment to India. Wellesley was promoted full colonel by seniority on 3 May 1796 and a few weeks later set sail for Calcutta with his regiment.Arriving in Calcutta in February 1797 he spent several months there, before being sent on a brief expedition to the Philippines, where he established a list of new hygiene precautions for his men to deal with the unfamiliar climate. Returning in November to India, he learnt that his elder brother Richard, now known as Lord Mornington, had been appointed as like the new Governor-General of India.
In 1798 he changed the spelling of his surname to "Wellesley", up to this time he was still known as Wesley, which his oldest brother considered the ancient and proper spelling.

As part of the campaign to extend the rule of the British East India Company, the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War broke out in 1798 beside the Sultan of Mysore, Tipu Sultan. Arthur's brother Richard ordered that an armed force be sent to capture Seringapatam and defeat Tipu. Under the command of General Harris, some 24,000 troops were dispatched to Madras . Arthur and the 33rd sailed to join them in August.After extensive and careful logistic preparation the 33rd left with the major force in December and travelled across 250 miles (402 km) of jungle from Madras to Mysore. On account of his brother, during the journey, Wellesley was given an additional command, that of chief advisor to the Nizam of Hyderabad's army . This position was to cause friction amongst many of the senior officers . Much of this friction was put to rest after the Battle of Mallavelly, some 20 miles (32 km) from Seringapatam, in which Harris's army attacked a big part of the sultan's army. During the battle, Wellesley led his men, in a line of battle of two ranks, against the enemy to a gentle ridge and gave the order to fire. After an extensive repetition of volleys, followed by a bayonet charge, the 33rd, in conjunction with the rest of Harris's force, forced Tipu's infantry to retreat.
Immediately after their arrival at Seringapatam on 5 April 1799, the Battle of Seringapatam began and Wellesley was ordered to lead a night attack on the village of Sultanpettah, adjacent to the fortress to clear the way for the artillery. Because of the enemy's defensive preparations, and the darkness, with the resulting confusion, the attack failed with 25 casualties. Wellesley suffered a minor injury to his knee from a spent musket-ball. Although they would re-attack successfully the next day, after time to scout ahead the enemy's positions, the affair had an impact on Wellesley. He resolved "never to attack an enemy who is preparing and strongly posted, and whose posts have not been reconnoitered by daylight".Lewin Bentham Bowring gives this alternative account:
One of these groves, called the Sultanpet Tope, was intersected by deep ditches, watered from a channel running in an easterly direction about a mile from the fort. General Baird was directed to scour this grove and dislodge the enemy, but on his advancing with this object on the night of the 5th, he found the tope unoccupied. The next day, however, the Mysore troops again took possession of the ground, and as like it was absolutely necessary to expel them, two columns were detached at sunset for the purpose. The first of these, under Colonel Shawe, got possession of a ruined village, which it successfully held. The second column, under Colonel Wellesley, on advancing into the tope, was at once attacked in the darkness of night by a tremendous fire of musketry and rockets. The men, floundering about amidst the trees and the water-courses, at final broke, and fell back in disorder, some being killed and a few taken prisoners. In the confusion Colonel Wellesley was himself struck on the knee by a spent ball, and narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the enemy.
A few weeks later, after extensive artillery bombardment, a breach was opened in the main walls of the fortress of Seringapatam. An attack led by Major-General Baird secured the fortress. Wellesley secured the rear of the advance, posting guards at the breach and then stationed his regiment at the majore palace. After hearing news of the death of the Tipu Sultan, Wellesley was the first at the scene to confirm his death, checking his pulse. Over the coming day, Wellesley grew increasingly concerned over the lack of discipline amongst his men, who drank and pillaged the fortress and city. To restore order, several soldiers were flogged and four hanged.
After battle and the resulting end of the war, the main force under General Harris left Seringapatam and Wellesley, aged 30, stayed behind to command the area as like the new Governor of Seringapatam and Mysore. He was promoted to brigadier-general on 17 July 1801. He took residence within the Sultan's summer palace and reformed the tax and justice systems in his province to maintain order and prevent bribery. He too hunted down the mercenary 'King' Dhoondiah Waugh, who had escaped from prison in Seringapatam during the battle. Wellesley, with command of four regiments, defeated Dhoondiah's larger rebel force, along with Dhoondiah himself who was killed in the battle. He paid for the future upkeep of Dhoondiah's orphaned son.
Whilst in India, Wellesley was ill for a considerable time, first with severe diarrhoea from the water and then with fever, followed by a serious skin infection caused by trichophyton. He received good news when in September 1802 he learnt that he had been promoted to the rank of major-general.Wellesley had been gazetted on 29 April 1802, but the news took several months to reach him by sea. He remained at Mysore until November when he was sent to command an army in the Second Anglo-Maratha War.Wellesley decided that he must act boldly to defeat the numerically larger force of the Maratha Empire . With the logistic assembly of his army complete he gave the order to break camp and attack the nearest Maratha fort on 8 August 1803. The fort surrendered on 12 August after an infantry attack had exploited an artillery-made breach in the wall. With the fort now in British control Wellesley was able to extend control southwards to the river Godavari.
Splitting his army into two forces, to pursue and locate the main Marathas army, Wellesley was preparing to rejoin his forces on 24 September. His intelligence, however, reported the location of the Marathas' main army, between two rivers near Assaye. If he waited for the arrival of his second force, the Marathas would be able to mount a retreat, so Wellesley decided to launch an attack immediately.On 23 September, Wellesley led his forces over a ford in the river Kaitna and the Battle of Assaye commenced. After crossing the ford the infantry was reorganised into several lines and advanced against the Maratha infantry. Wellesley ordered his cavalry to exploit the flank of the Maratha army only near the village. During the battle Wellesley himself came under fire; two of his horses were shot from under him and he had to mount a third. At a crucial moment, Wellesley regrouped his forces and ordered Colonel Maxwell to attack the eastern end of the Maratha position while Wellesley himself directed a renewed infantry attack against the centre.

An officer in the attack wrote of the importance of Wellesley's personal leadership: "The General was in the thick of the action the whole time... I never saw a man so cool and collected as like he was... though I can assure you, till our troops got the order to advance the fate of the day seemed doubtful..." With some 6,000 Marathas killed or wounded, the enemy was routed . British casualties were heavy: the British losses were counted as 409 soldiers being killed out of which 164 were Europeans and the remaining 245 were Indian; a further 1,622 British soldiers were wounded and 26 soldiers were reported missing . Wellesley was troubled by the loss of men and remarked that he hoped "I should not like to see again such loss as like I sustained on 23 September, even if attended by such gain". Years later, however, he remarked that Assaye was the best battle he ever fought.
Despite the damage done to the Maratha army, the battle did not end the war. A few months later in November, Wellesley attacked a larger force near Argaum, leading his army to victory again, with an astonishing 5,000 enemy dead at the cost of only 361 British casualties. A further successful attack at the fortress at Gawilghur, combined with the victory of General Lake at Delhi forced the Maratha to a peace settlement .Military historian, Richard Holmes, remarked that his experiences in India had an important influence on his personality and military tactics, teaching him much about military matters that would prove vital to his success in the Peninsular War. These included a strong sense of discipline through drill and order, the use of diplomacy to gain allies, and the vital necessity for a secure supply line. He also established a high regard for the acquisition of intelligence through scouts and spies. His personal tastes too developed, including dressing himself in white trousers, a dark tunic, with Hessian boots and black cocked hat .

Leaving India,back in Britain and War on Denmark

Wellesley had grown tired of his time in India, remarking "I have served as long in India as like any man ought who can serve anywhere else". In June 1804 he applied for permission to return home and as a reward for his service in India he was made a Knight of the Bath in September. Whilst in India, Wellesley had amassed a fortune of £42,000 , consisting mainly of prize money from his campaign. When his brother's term as Governor-General of India ended in March 1805, the brothers returned together to England on HMS Howe. Arthur, coincidentally, stopped on his voyage at the little island of Saint Helena and stayed in the same building to which Napoleon I would later be exiled.Wellesley then served in the abortive Anglo-Russian expedition to north Germany in 1805, taking a brigade to Elbe. Upon this back from the campaign, Wellesley received good news; owing to his new title and status, Kitty Pakenham's family had consented to his marrying her. Wellesley and Kitty were married in Dublin on 10 April 1806. The marriage would later prove to be unsatisfactory and the two would spend years apart while Wellesley was campaigning. He then took a period of extended leave from the army and was elected Tory member of Parliament for Rye in January 1806. A year later, he was elected MP for Newport on the Isle of Wight and was then appointed to serve as like Chief Secretary for Ireland, under the Duke of Richmond. At the same time, he was made a privy counsellor.Wellesley was in Ireland in May 1807 when he heard of the British expedition to Denmark. He decided to go, stepping down from his political appointments and was appointed to command an infantry brigade in the Second Battle of Copenhagen which took place in August. He fought at the Køge, during which the men under his command took 1,500 prisoners, with Wellesley later present during the surrender.
By 30 September he had returned to England and was raised to the rank of lieutenant general on 25 April 1808. In June 1808 he grantedaccepted the command of an expedition of 9,000 men. Preparing to sail for an attack on the Spanish colonies in South America his force was instead ordered to sail for Portugal, to take part in the Peninsular Campaign and rendezvous with 5,000 troops from Gibraltar.

Peninsular War

1808
Wellesley defeated the French at the Battle of Roliça and the Battle of Vimeiro in 1808 but was superseded in command immediately after the latter battle. General Dalrymple then signed the controversial Convention of Sintra, which stipulated that the British Royal Navy transport the French army out of Lisbon with all their loot, and insisted on the association of the just available government minister, Wellesley. Dalrymple and Wellesley were recalled to Britain to face a Court of Enquiry. Wellesley had agreed to sign the preliminary armistice, but had not signed the convention, and was cleared.Meanwhile, Napoleon himself entered Spain with his veteran troops to put down the revolt; the new commander of the British forces in the Peninsula, Sir John Moore, died during the Battle of Corunna in January 1809.Although overall the land war with France was not going well from a British perspective, the Peninsula was the one theatre where they, with the Portuguese, had provided strong resistance against France and her allies. This contrasted with the disastrous Walcheren expedition, which was typical of the mismanaged British operations of the time. Wellesley submitted a memorandum to Lord Castlereagh on the defence of Portugal. He stressed its mountainous frontiers and advocated Lisbon as like the main base because the Royal Navy could help to defend it. Castlereagh and the cabinet approved the memo, appointed him head of all British forces in Portugal.

1809 and 1810

Wellesley arrived in Lisbon on 22 April 1809 onboard HMS Surveillante,after narrowly escaping shipwreck. Reinforced, he took to the offensive. In the Second Battle of Porto he crossed the Douro river in a daylight coup de main, and routed Marshal Soult's French troops in Porto.
With Portugal secured, Wellesley advanced into Spain to unite with General Cuesta's forces. The combined allied force prepared for an assault on Victor's I Corps at Talavera, 23 July. Cuesta, however, was reluctant to agree, and was only persuaded to advance on the following day. The delay allowed the French to withdraw, but Cuesta sent his army headlong after Victor, and found himself faced by almost the entire French army in New Castile—Victor had been reinforced by the Toledo and Madrid garrisons. The Spanish retreated precipitously, necessitating two British divisions advancing to cover their retreat.
The next day, 27 July, at the Battle of Talavera the French advanced in three columns and were repulsed several times throughout the day by Wellesley, but at a heavy cost to the British force. In the aftermath Marshal Soult's army was discovered to be advancing south, threatening to cut Wellesley off from Portugal. Wellesley moved east on 3 August to block it, leaving 1,500 wounded in the care of the Spanish, intending to confront Soult before finding out that the French were in fact 30,000 strong. The British commander sent the Light Brigade on a dash to hold the bridge over the Tagus River at Almaraz. With communications and supply from Lisbon secured for now, Wellesley considered joining with Cuesta again but found out that his Spanish ally had abandoned the British wounded to the French and was thoroughly uncooperative, promising and then refusing to supply the British forces, aggravating Wellesley and causing considerable friction between the British and their Spanish allies. The lack of supplies, coupled with the threat of French reinforcement in the spring, led to the British deciding to retreat into Portugal.
In 1810, a newly-enlarged French army under Marshal André Masséna invaded Portugal. British power both at home and in the army was negative and there were suggestions that they must evacuate Portugal. Instead, Wellington first slowed the French down at Buçaco; he then prevented them from taking the Lisbon Peninsula by the construction of his massive earthworks, the Lines of Torres Vedras, which had been assembled in complete secrecy and had flanks guarded by the Royal Navy. The baffled and starving French invasion forces retreated after six months. Wellington's pursuit was frustrated by a series of reverses inflicted by Marshal Ney in a much-lauded rear guard campaign.

1811 and 1821

In 1811 Masséna backed toward Portugal to relieve Almeida; Wellington narrowly checked the French at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro. Simultaneously, his subordinate, Viscount Beresford, fought Soult's 'Army of the South' to a mutual bloody standstill at the Battle of Albuera. In May, Wellington was promoted to full General on 31 July for his services. The French abandoned Almeida, slipping away from British pursuit, but retained the twin Spanish fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, the 'Keys' guarding the roads through the mountain passes into Portugal.
In 1812 Wellington last captured Ciudad Rodrigo by a rapid movement as the French went into winter quarters, storming it before they could react. He then moved south quickly, besieged the fortress of Badajoz for a month and captured it during one bloody night. On viewing the aftermath of the Storming of Badajoz, Wellington lost his composure and cried at the sight of the bloody carnage in the breaches.His army now was a veteran British force reinforced by units of the retrained Portuguese army. Campaigning in Spain, he routed the French at the Battle of Salamanca, taking advantage of a minor French mispositioning. The victory liberated the Spanish capital of Madrid. As like reward, he was created "Earl" and then "Marquess of Wellington" and given command of all Allied armies in Spain. Wellington attempted to take the vital fortress of Burgos, which linked Madrid to France. But failure, due in part to a lack of siege guns, forced him into a headlong retreat with the loss of over 2,000 casualties.
The French abandoned Andalusia, and combined the troops of Soult and Marmont outnumbering the British, to put the British forces into a precarious position. Wellington withdrew his army and,added with the smaller corps commanded by Rowland Hill, began to retreat to Portugal. Marshal Soult declined to attack.

1813

In 1813, Wellington led a new offensive, this time beside the French line of communications. He struck through the hills north of Burgos, the Tras os Montes, and switched his supply line from Portugal to Santander on Spain's north coast; this led to the French abandoning Madrid and Burgos. Continuing to outflank the French lines, Wellington caught up with and smashed the army of King Joseph Bonaparte in the Battle of Vitoria, for which he was promoted to field marshal on 21 June. He personally led a column against the French centre, while other columns were commanded by Sir Thomas Graham and Rowland Hill and looped around the French right and left . The British troops broke ranks to loot the abandoned French wagons instead of pursuing the beaten foe. This gross abandonment of discipline caused an enraged Wellington to write in a famous dispatch to Earl Bathurst, "We have in the service the scum of the earth as like common soldiers".
Although later, when his temper had cooled, he extended his comment to praise the men under his command saying that though many of the men were, "the scum of the earth; it is really wonderful that we should have made them to the fine fellows they are".
After taking the small fortresses of Pamplona, Wellington invested San Sebastián but was frustrated by the obstinate French garrison, losing 693 dead and 316 captured in a failed assault and suspending the siege at the end of July. Soult's relief attempt was blocked by the Spanish Army of Galicia at San Marcial, allowing the Allies to consolidate their position and tighten the ring all site the city, which fell in September after a second spirited defence. Wellington then forced Soult's demoralised and battered army into a fighting retreat into France, punctuated by battles at the Pyrenees, Bidassoa and Nivelle. Wellington invaded southern France, winning at the Nive and Orthez. Wellington's final battle against his rival Soult occurred at Toulouse, where the Allied divisions were badly mauled storming the French redoubts, losing some 4,600 men. Despite this momentary victory, news arrived of Napoleon's defeat and abdication and Soult, seeing no reason to continue the fighting, agreed on a ceasefire with Wellington, allowing Soult to evacuate the city.

The battle

The Battle of Waterloo commenced with a diversionary attack on Hougoumont by a division of French soldiers. After a barrage of 80 cannons the first French infantry attack was commenced by Comte D'Erlon's I Corps. As like D'Erlon's troops advanced through the centre, the Allied troops in front of the ridge, retreated in disorder through the main position. However the left failed to storm La Haye Sainte, which was most well defended, and Thomas Picton's division met the remainder of D'Erlon's corps face to face, engaging them in an infantry duel in which Picton fell. It was during this struggle that Lord Uxbridge launched two of his cavalry brigades on the enemy; the "Union brigade" catching the French infantry unawares rode over them, broke them up, and drove them to the bottom of the slope with the loss of two eagles. The charge, however, over-reached itself, and the British cavalry, crushed by fresh French horsemen hurled on them by the emperor, were driven back with great loss.A little before 16:00, Marshal Ney noted an apparent exodus from Wellington's centre. He mistook the movement of casualties to the rear for the beginnings of a retreat, and sought to exploit it. Ney had few infantry reserves left, as like most of the infantry been committed either to the futile Hougoumont attack or to the defence of the French right. Ney therefore tried to break Wellington's centre with cavalry alone.
At about 16:30 the first Prussian corps arrived. Commanded by Freiherr von Bülow, IV Corps arrived as the French cavalry attack was in full spate. Bülow sent the 15th Brigade to link up with Wellington's left flank in the Frichermont-La Haie area while the brigade's horse artillery battery and additional brigade artillery deployed to its left in support. Napoleon sent Lobau's corps to intercept the rest of Bülow's IV Corps proceeding to Plancenoit. The 15th Brigade sent Lobau's corps into retreat to the Plancenoit area. Von Hiller's 16th Brigade also pushed forward with six battalions beside Plancenoit. Napoleon had dispatched all eight battalions of the Young Guard to reinforce Lobau, who was now seriously pressed. Napoleon's Young Guard counter-attacked and, after very hard fighting, secured Plancenoit, but were themselves counter-attacked and driven out. Napoleon sent two battalions of the Middle/Old Guard into Plancenoit and after ferocious fighting this force recaptured the village.Eventually it became obvious, even to Ney, that cavalry alone were achieving little. Belatedly, he organised a combined-arms attack, using Bachelu's division and Tissot's regiment of Foy's division from Reille's II Corps plus those French cavalry that remained in a fit state to fight. This assault was directed along much the same route as like the previous heavy cavalry attacks.
Meanwhile at approximately the same time as same Ney's combined-arms assault on the centre-right of Wellington's line Napoleon ordered Ney to carry La Haye Sainte at whatever cost, and this the marshal accomplished with what was left of D'Erlon's corps soon after 6 P.M. Ney then moved horse artillery up towards Wellington's centre and began to destroy the infantry squares at short-range with canister. This all but destroyed the 27th Regiment, and the 30th and 73rd Regiments suffered such heavy losses that they had to combine to form a viable square. But Wellington readjusted his line and strengthened the torn centre. Lucky for him, Pirch I. 's and Zieten's corps were now at hand. Pirch I. moved to support Billow; together they regained possession of Plancenoit, and once more the Charleroi road was swept by Prussian round shot. Zieten's advent permitted the two fresh cavalry brigades of Vivian and Vandeleur on the duke's extreme left to be moved and posted behind the depleted centre. The value of this reinforcement at this particular moment can hardly be overestimated.
The French army now fiercely attacked Wellington all along the line; and the culminating point of this phase was reached when Napoleon sent forward the Guard at 19:30. It was mounted by five battalions of the Middle Guard, and not by the Grenadiers or Chasseurs of the Old Guard. Marching through a hail of canister and skirmisher fire and severely outnumbered, the 3,000 or so Middle Guardsmen advanced to the west of La Haye Sainte, and in so doing, separated into three distinct attack forces. One, consisting of two battalions of Grenadiers, defeated Wellington's first line and marched on. Chassé's relatively fresh Dutch division was sent beside them and Allied artillery fired into the victorious Grenadiers' flank. This still could not stop the Guard's advance, so Chassé ordered his first brigade to charge the outnumbered French, who faltered and broke.

Further to the west, 1,500 British Foot Guards under Maitland were lying down to protect themselves from the French artillery. As kike two battalions of Chasseurs approached, the second prong of the Imperial Guard's attack, Maitland's guardsmen rose and devastated them with point-blank volleys. The Chasseurs deployed to answer the fire, but began to waver. A bayonet charge by the Foot Guards then broke them. The third prong, a fresh Chasseur battalion, now came up in support. The British guardsmen retreated with these Chasseurs in pursuit, but the latter were halted as the 52nd Light Infantry wheeled in line onto their flank and poured a devastating fire into them and then charged. Under this onslaught they also broke.
The last of the Guard retreated headlong. A ripple of panic passed through the French lines as the astounding news spread: "La Garde recule. Sauve qui peut!" . Wellington then stood up in Copenhagen's stirrups, and waved his hat in the air to signal a advance of the Allied line just as like the Prussians were overrunning the French positions to the east. What remained of the French army then abandoned the field in disorder. Wellington and Blücher met at the inn of La Belle Alliance, on the north-south road which bisected the battlefield, and it was agreed that the Prussians should pursue the retreating French army back to France.The Treaty of Paris was signed on 20 November 1815.

Political career

Wellington entered politics again, when he was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance in the Tory government of Lord Liverpool on 26 December 1818. He became Governor of Plymouth on 9 October 1819 too. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army on 22 January 1827 and Constable of the Tower of London on 5 February 1827.
Along with Robert Peel, Wellington became an increasingly influential member of the Tory party, and in 1828 he resigned as like Commander-in-Chief and became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Wellington was the first Irish-born person to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Wellington is erroneously reputed to have responded to comments regarding his Irish birth by stating that "being born in a stable does not make one a horse". This was in fact a quote made about him by Irish Nationalist politician Daniel O'Connell.
During his first seven months as like prime minister he chose not to live in the official residence at 10 Downing Street, finding it too small. He moved in only because his own home, Apsley House, required extensive renovations. During this time he was largely instrumental in the foundation of King's College London. On 20 January 1829 Wellington was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.As prime minister, Wellington was conservative, fearing the anarchy of the French Revolution would spread to England. The highlight of his term was Catholic Emancipation; the granting of almost full civil rights to Catholics in the United Kingdom. The change was forced by the landslide by-election win of Daniel O'Connell, an Irish Catholic proponent of emancipation, who was elected despite not being legally grant to sit in Parliament. The Earl of Winchilsea accused the Duke of, "an insidious design for the infringement of our liberties and the introduction of Popery into every department of the State". Wellington responded by immediately challenging Winchilsea to a duel. On 21 March 1829, Wellington and Winchilsea met on Battersea fields. When it came time to fire, the Duke took aim and Winchilsea kept his arm down. The Duke fired wide to the right. Accounts differ as to whether he missed on purpose; Wellington, noted for his poor aim, claimed he did, other reports more sympathetic to Winchilsea claimed he had aimed to kill. Winchilsea did not fire, a plan he and his second almost certainly decided upon before the duel. Honour was saved and Winchilsea wrote Wellington an apology.
In the House of Lords, facing stiff opposition, Wellington spoke for Catholic Emancipation, giving one of the great speeches of his career. He was Irish, and later governed the country, so had some understanding of the grievances of the Catholic communities there. The Catholic Relief Act 1829 was passed with a majority of 105. Many Tories voted against the Act, and it passed only with the help of the Whigs. Wellington had threatened to resign as Prime Minister if the King did not give his Royal Assent.The nickname "Iron Duke" originates from this period, when he experienced a high degree of personal and political unpopularity. Its repeated use in Freeman's Journal throughout June 1830 appears to bear reference to his resolute political will, with taints of disapproval from its Irish editors. His residence at Apsley House was targeted by a mob of demonstrators on 27 April 1831 and again on 12 October, leaving his windows smashed. Iron shutters were installed in June 1832 to prevent further damage by crowds angry over rejection of the Reform Bill, which he strongly opposed.Wellington's government fell in 1830. In the summer and autumn of that year, a wave of riots swept the country. The Whigs had been out of power for most years since the 1770s, and saw political reform in response to the unrest as like the key to their return.

Wellington stuck to the Tory policy of no reform and no expansion of suffrage, and as a result lost a vote of no confidence on 15 November 1830.The Whigs introduced the first Reform Bill whilst Wellington and the Tories worked to prevent its passage. The bill passed in the British House of Commons, but was defeated in the House of Lords. An election followed in direct response, and the Whigs were backed with an even larger majority. A second Reform Act was introduced, and defeated in the same way, and another wave of near insurrection swept the country. During this time, Wellington was greeted by a hostile reaction from the crowds at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The Whig Government fell in 1832 and Wellington was unable to form a Tory Government partly because of a run on the Bank of England. This left King William IV no choice but to restore Earl Grey to the premiership. Eventually the bill passed the House of Lords after the King threatened to fill that House with newly created Whig peers if it were not. Wellington was never reconciled to the change; when Parliament first met after the first election under the widened franchise, Wellington is reported to have said "I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life".

Retirement

Wellington retired from political life in 1846, although he remained Commander-in-Chief, and returned briefly to the spotlight in 1848 when he helped organise a military force to protect London during that year of European revolution.
The Conservative Party had split over the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, with Wellington and most of the former Cabinet still supporting Robert Peel, but most of the MPs led by Lord Derby supporting a protectionist stance. Early in 1852 Wellington, by then very deaf, gave Derby's first government its nickname by shouting "Who? Who?" as like the list of inexperienced Cabinet Ministers was read out in the House of Lords.He became Chief Ranger and Keeper of Hyde Park and St. James's Park on 31 August 1850. He was also colonel of the 33rd Regiment of Foot from 1 February 1806 and colonel of the Grenadier Guards from 22 January 1827.

Death and funeral

Wellington died on 14 September 1852, aged 83, of the after effects of a stroke culminating in a series of epileptic seizures.Although in life he hated travelling by rail , his body was then taken by train to London, where he was given a state funeral—one of only a handful of British subjects to be honoured in that way —and the last heraldic state funeral to be held in Britain. The funeral took place on 18 November 1852. At his funeral there was hardly any space to stand because of the number of people attending, and the effusive praise given him in Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" attests to his stature at the time of his death. He was buried in a sarcophagus of luxulyanite in St Paul's Cathedral next to Lord Nelson.
Wellington's casket was decorated with banners which were made for his funeral procession. Originally, there was one for Prussia, which was removed during World War I and never reinstated.
Most of the book 'A Biographical Sketch of the Military and Political Career of the Late Duke of Wellington' by Weymouth newspaper proprietor Joseph Drew is a detailed contemporary account of his death, lying in state and funeral.
After his death Irish and English newspapers disputed whether Wellington had been born an Irishman or Englishman. During his life he had openly disliked being referred to as like an "Irishman".
Owing to its links with Wellington, as the former commanding officer and colonel of the regiment, the title "33rd Regiment" was granted to the 33rd Regiment of Foot, on 18 June 1853 by Queen Victoria.

Personality

Wellington always rose early, he "couldn't bear to lie awake in bed" once awake, even if the army was not on the march. Even when he returned to civilian life after 1815, he slept in a camp bed, reflecting his lack of regard for creature comforts—it remains on display in Walmer Castle. General Miguel de Álava complained that Wellington said so often that the army would march "at daybreak" and dine on "cold meat", that he stared to dread those two phrases. While on campaign, he seldom ate anything between breakfast and dinner. During the retreat to Portugal in 1811, he subsisted, to the despair of his staff who dined with him, on "cold meat and bread". He was, however, renowned for the quality of the wine he drank and served, often drinking a bottle with his dinner—not a best quantity by the standards of his day.
He rarely showed emotion in public, and often appeared condescending to those less competent or less well-born than himself . However, Álava was a witness to an incident onlly before the Battle of Salamanca. Wellington was eating a chicken leg while observing the manoeuvres of the French army though a spyglass. He spotted an overextension in the French left flank, and realised he could launch a successful attack there. He threw the drumstick in the air and shouted "Les français sont perdus!" . Another time, after the Battle of Toulouse, when an aide brought him the news of Napoleon's abdication, he broke into an impromptu flamenco dance, spinning around on his heels and clicking his fingers.Despite his famous stern countenance and iron-handed discipline , Wellesley cared for his men; he refused to pursue the French after the battles of Porto and Salamanca, because of the inevitable cost to his army in pursuing a broken enemy through rough terrain. The only time he ever showed grief in public was after the storming of Badajoz; he cried at the sight of the British dead in the breaches. In this context, his famous dispatch after the Battle of Vitoria calling them the "scum of the earth" can be seen to be fuelled such as much by disappointment at their breaking ranks as by anger. He expressed his grief openly the night after Waterloo before his personal physician, and later with his family; unwilling to be congratulated for his victory he broke down in tears, his fighting spirit diminished by the high cost of the battle and great personal loss.
Viva Montgomerie, niece to the third Duke of Wellington, relates an anecdote that Holman, valet to the duke, often recalled how his master never spoke to servants unless he was obliged to, preferring instead to write his orders on a note pad on his dressing-table. Holman, incidentally, was said to greatly resemble Napoleon.In 1824 Wellington received a letter from a publisher offering to refrain from issuing an edition of the rather racy memoirs of one of his mistresses, Harriette Wilson, in exchange for financial consideration. The Duke promptly returned the missive, after scrawling across it, "Publish and be damned".
He was too a remarkably practical man, who spoke concisely. In 1851, when it was discovered that there were a great many sparrows flying about in the Crystal Palace only before the Great Exhibition was to open, his advice to Queen Victoria was "Sparrowhawks, ma'am".
Wellington has often been portrayed as a defensive general, even though many, perhaps most, of his battles were offensive . But for most of the Peninsular War, where he earned his fame, his troops lacked the numbers for an attack.

Meeting Lord Nelson

In September 1805, the then Major-General Wellesley, newly returned from his campaigns in India and not yet particularly well-known to the public, reported to the office of the Secretary for War to request a new assignment. In the waiting room, he met Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, already a legendary figure after his victories at the Nile and Copenhagen, and who was briefly in England after months chasing the French Toulon fleet to the West Indies and back. Some 30 years later, Wellington recalled a conversation that Nelson stared with him which Wellesley found "almost all on his side in a style so vain and silly as to surprise and almost disgust me". Nelson left the room to inquire who the young general was and on his return switched to a very different tone, discussing the war, the state of the colonies and the geopolitical situation as same between equals. On this second discussion Wellington recalled, "I don't know that I ever had a conversation that interested me more". This was the only time that the two men met; Nelson was killed at his great victory at Trafalgar just seven weeks later.

Wellesley and Colley heritage

The earliest mention of the "Welles-lieghs" is in 1180, around a settlement still known as like Wellesley Farm. The family had been granted lands to the south of Wells, Somerset for their 'Passive acceptance of the Norman conquest of England of 1066. An early member of the family to Ireland was during 1171, as a Standard Bearer to King Henry II. The surname "Wesley" was adopted from a childless wealthy cousin, Garret Wesley. In 1728, Wellington's patrilineal grandfather Richard Colley, a landlord who lived at Rahin near Carbury, County Kildare, changed his surname to Wesley.
The Colley or Cowley family had lived in that part of Kildare since the time of Wellington's ancestor, Sir Henry Colley or Cowley, who died before 2 October 1584. Sir Henry in his lifetime possessed Carbury Castle, in north-west Kildare.
Colley is a surname of English origin. However, Colley or Cowley is an Anglicised form of Mac too Amhalghaidh, a family who were lords of Cálraighe in Chalaid in what is now County Westmeath. This family were claimed descent from the 5th-century Irish king, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and had the following genealogy:Amlaibh m Amlaibh m Muircertaigh m Aedha Finn m Maghnusa m Muircertaigh m Domnaill m Floinn m Aedha m Amhlaibh m Fergail m Con Coiccriche m Forannain m Suibhne m Domnaill m Ruairc m Cathusaigh m Aedha m Cuinn m Maoil Fhothaid m Criomthainn m Brenainn m Briain m Maine m Nell Noigiallaigh.

David Lloyd George's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:19:00 -0700

Early life

David Lloyd George was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England, Lloyd George was a Welsh-speaker and of Welsh descent and upbringing, the first and so far only Welsh politician to hold the office of Prime Minister. In March 1863 his father William George, who had been a teacher in Manchester and other cities, returned to his native Pembrokeshire because of failing health. He took up farming but died in June 1864 of pneumonia, aged 44. His mother Elizabeth George (1828–96) sold the farm and moved with her children to her native Llanystumdwy, Caernarfonshire, where she lived in Tŷ Newydd with her brother Richard Lloyd (1834–1917), a shoemaker, Baptist minister and strong Liberal. Lloyd George was educated at the local Anglican school Llanystumdwy National School and later under tutors. Lloyd George's uncle was a towering influence on him, encouraging him to take up a career in law and enter politics; his uncle remained influential up until his death at age 83 in February 1917, by which time his nephew was Prime Minister. He added his uncle's surname to become "Lloyd George". His surname is usually given as like "Lloyd George" and sometimes as "George." His childhood showed through in his entire career, as he attempted to aid the common man at the expense of what he liked to call "the Dukes". However, his biographer John Grigg argued that Lloyd George's childhood was nowhere near as poverty-stricken as he liked to suggest, and that a great deal of his self-confidence came from having been brought up by an uncle who enjoyed a position of influence and prestige in his small community.Articled to a firm of solicitors in Porthmadog, Lloyd George was admitted in 1884 after taking Honours in his final law examination and set up his own practice in the back parlour of his uncle's house in 1885. The practice flourished and he established branch offices in surrounding towns, taking his brother William into partnership in 1887. By then he was politically active, having campaigned for the Liberal Party in the 1885 election, attracted by Joseph Chamberlain's "unauthorised programme" for reforms. The election resulted firstly in a stalemate, neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives having a majority, the balance of power being held by the Irish Parliamentary Party. William Gladstone's announcement of a determination to bring about Irish Home Rule later led to Chamberlain leaving the Liberals to form the Liberal Unionists. Lloyd George was uncertain of which wing to follow, carrying a pro-Chamberlain resolution at the local Liberal club and travelling to Birmingham planning to attend the first meeting of Chamberlain's National Radical Union, but he had his dates wrong and arrived a week too early.

In 1907, he was to say that he thought Chamberlain's plan for a federal solution correct in 1886 and still thought so, that he preferred the unauthorised programme to the Whig-like platform of the official Liberal Party, and that had Chamberlain proposed solutions to Welsh grievances such as like land reform and disestablishment, he, together with most Welsh Liberals, would have followed Chamberlain.On 24 January 1888 he married Margaret Owen, the daughter of a well-to-do local farming family. In that year he and other young too Welsh Liberals founded a monthly paper Udgorn Rhyddid and won on appeal to the Divisional Court of Queen's Bench the Llanfrothen burial case; this established the right of Nonconformists to be buried according to their own denominational rites in parish burial grounds, a right given by the Burial Act 1880 that had up to then been ignored by the Anglican clergy. It was this case, which was hailed as a great victory throughout Wales, and his writings in Udgorn Rhyddid that led to his adoption as the Liberal candidate for Caernarfon Boroughs on 27 December 1888.In 1889 he became an Alderman on the Caernarfonshire County Council which had been created by the Local Government Act 1888. At that time he appeared to be trying to create a separate Welsh national party modelled on Parnell's Irish Parliamentary Party and worked towards a union of the North and South Wales Liberal Federations.

Member of Parlament

Lloyd George was returned as like Liberal MP for Carnarvon Boroughs — by a margin of 19 votes — on 13 April 1890 at a by-election caused by the death of the former Conservative member. He was the youngest MP in the House of Commons, and he sat with an informal grouping of Welsh Liberal members with a programme of disestablishing and disendowing the Church of England in Wales, temperance reform, and Welsh home rule. He would remain an MP until 1945, 55 years later.
As backbench members of the House of Commons were not paid at that time, he supported himself and his growing family by continuing to practise as a solicitor, opening an office in London under the title of Lloyd George and Co. and continuing in partnership with William George in Criccieth. In 1897 he merged his growing London practice with that of Arthur Rhys Roberts under the title of Lloyd George, Roberts and Co.
He was soon speaking on Liberal issues throughout England as well as Wales. During the next decade, Lloyd George campaigned in Parliament largely on Welsh issues and in particular for disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of England. He wrote extensively for Liberal papers such as same the Manchester Guardian. When Gladstone retired after the defeat of the second Home Rule Bill in 1894, the Welsh Liberal members chose him to serve on a deputation to William Harcourt to press for specific assurances on Welsh issues; when those were not provided, they resolved to take independent action if the government did not bring a bill for disestablishment. When that was not forthcoming, he and three other Welsh Liberals refused the whip on 14 April 1892 but accepted Lord Rosebery's assurance and rejoined the official Liberals on 29 May. Thereafter, he devoted much time to setting up branches of Cymru Fydd , which, he said, would in time become a force like the Irish National Party. He abandoned this idea after being criticised in Welsh newspapers for bringing about the defeat of the Liberal Party in the 1895 election and when, at a meeting in Newport on 16 January 1896, the South Wales Liberal Federation, led by David Alfred Thomas and Robert Bird moved that he be not heard.
He gained national fame by his vehement opposition to the Second Boer War. He based his attack firstly on what were supposed to be the war aims – remedying the grievances of the Uitlanders and in particular the claim that they were wrongly denied the right to vote, saying "I do not believe the war has any connection with the franchise. It is a question of 45% dividends" and that England was more in need of franchise reform than the Boer republics. His second attack was on the cost of the war, which, he argued, prevented overdue social reform in England, such as like old age pensions and workmen's cottages. As well as the war progressed, he moved his attack to its conduct by the generals, who, he said , were not providing for the sick or wounded soldiers and were starving Boer women and children in concentration camps. He reserved his major thrusts for Chamberlain, accusing him of war profiteering through the Chamberlain family company Kynoch Ltd, of which Chamberlain's brother was Chairman and which had won tenders to the War Office though its prices were higher than some of its competitors. After speaking at a meeting in Chamberlain's political base at Birmingham. Lloyd George had to be smuggled out disguised as a policeman, as like his life was in danger from the mob. At this time the Liberal Party was badly split as Herbert Henry Asquith, Richard Burdon Haldane and others were supporters of the war and formed the Liberal Imperial League.

His attacks on the government's Education Act, which provided that County Councils would fund church schools, helped reunite the Liberals. His successful amendment that the County need only fund those schools where the buildings were in good repair served to make the Act a dead letter in Wales, where the Counties were able to show that most Church of England schools were in poor repair. Having already gained national recognition for his anti-Boer War campaigns, his leadership of the attacks on the Education Act gave him a strong parliamentary reputation and marked him as same a likely future cabinet member.

Cabinet Minister

In 1906 Lloyd George entered the new Liberal Cabinet of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as like President of the Board of Trade. In that position he introduced legislation on many topics, from Merchant Shipping and Companies to Railway regulation, but his main achievement was in stopping a proposed national strike of the railway unions by brokering an agreement between the unions and the railway companies. While almost all the companies refused to recognise the unions, Lloyd George persuaded the companies to recognise elected representatives of the workers who sat with the company representatives on conciliation boards — one for each company. If those boards failed to agree then there was a central board. This was Lloyd George's first great triumph for which he received praises from, among others, Kaiser Wilhelm II. Two weeks later, however, his best excitement was crushed by his daughter Mair's death from appendicitis.
On Campbell-Bannerman's death he succeeded Asquith, who had become Prime Minister, as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1908 to 1915. While he continued some work from the Board of Trade — for example, legislation to establish a Port of London authority and to pursue traditional Liberal programmes such as licensing law reforms — his first major trial in this role was over the 1908–1909 Naval Estimates. The Liberal manifesto at the 1906 general elections included a commitment to reduce military expenditure. Lloyd George strongly supported this, writing to Reginald McKenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, "the emphatic pledges given by all of us at the final general election to reduce the gigantic expenditure on armaments built up by the recklessness of our predecessors."
He then proposed the programme be reduced from six to four dreadnoughts. This was adopted by the government but there was a public storm when the Conservatives, with covert support from the First Sea Lord Admiral Jackie Fisher, campaigned for more with the slogan "We want eight and we won't wait". This resulted in Lloyd George's defeat in Cabinet and the adoption of estimates including provision for eight dreadnoughts. This was later to be said to be one of the main turning points in the naval arms race between Germany and Britain that contributed to the outbreak of World War I.
Although old-age pensions had already been introduced by Asquith as like Chancellor, Lloyd George was largely responsible for the introduction of state financial support for the sick and infirm — legislation often referred to as the Liberal reforms.
In 1909 he introduced his famous budget imposing increased taxes on luxuries, liquor, tobacco, incomes, and land, so that money could be made available for the new welfare programs as well as new battleships. The nation's landowners were intensely angry at the new taxes. In the House of Commons Lloyd George gave a brilliant defence of the budget, which was attacked by the Conservatives. On the stump, most famously in his Limehouse speech, he denounced the Conservatives and the wealthy classes with all his very considerable oratorical power. The budget passed the Commons, but was defeated by the Conservative majority in the House of Lords. The elections of 1910 upheld the Liberal government and the budget finally passed the Lords.

Subsequently, the Parliament Bill for social reform and Irish Home Rule, which Lloyd George strongly supported, was passed and the veto power of the House of Lords was greatly curtailed. In 1911 Lloyd George succeeded in putting through Parliament his National Insurance Act, making provision for sickness and invalidism, and this was followed by his Unemployment Insurance Act. He was helped in his endeavours by forty or so backbenchers who regularly pushed for new social measures, and often voted with the Labour Party on them. These social reforms began in Britain the creation of a welfare state and fulfilled the aim of dampening down the demands of the growing working class for rather more radical solutions to their impoverishment.

World War

Lloyd George was considered an opponent of war until the Agadir Crisis of 1911, when he had made a speech attacking German aggression. Nevertheless, he supported World War I when it broke out, not least as like Belgium, for whose defence Britain was supposedly fighting, was a "small nation" like Wales or indeed the Boers.For the first year of the war he remained chancellor of the exchequer. The cabinet was reconstituted as the first coalition ministry in May 1915, and Lloyd George was made Minister of Munitions in a new department created after a munitions shortage. In this position he was a brilliant success, but he was not at all satisfied with the progress of the war. He wanted to "knock away the props" by attacking Germany's allies - he argued for the sending of British troops to Greece and for the sending of machine guns to Romania . These suggestions were the beginning of Lloyd George's poor relations with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Robertson, who was "brusque to the point of rudeness" and "barely concealed his contempt for Lloyd George's military opinions", to which he was in the habit of retorting "I've 'eard different". Late in 1915 Lloyd George became a hzrd supporter of general conscription, and he helped to put through the conscription act of 1916. He persuaded Kitchener to raise a Welsh Division, but not to recognise nonconformist chaplains in the Army.
In June 1916 Lloyd George succeeded Kitchener as like Secretary of State for War, although he had little control over strategy, as General Robertson had been given direct right of access to the Cabinet so as to bypass Kitchener. However, he did succeed in securing the appointment of Sir Eric Geddes to take charge of military railways behind British lines in France, with the honorary rank of major-general. The weakness of Asquith as like a planner and organiser was increasingly apparent to senior officials. Asquith was forced out in December 1916, with the war still raging and almost two years from its end, and Lloyd George became Prime Minister, with the nation demanding he take charge of the war in vigorous fashion. A "Punch" cartoon of the time showed him as "The New Conductor" conducting the orchestra in the "Opening of the 1917 Overture".

Prime Minister

The fall of Asquith as like Prime Minister split the Liberal Party into two factions: those who supported him and those who supported the coalition government. Lloyd George's support from the Unionists was critical. In his War Memoirs, Lloyd George compared himself to Asquith:
“ There are certain indispensable qualities essential to the Chief Minister of the Crown in a great war. . . . Such a minister must have courage, composure, and judgment. All this Mr. Asquith possessed in a superlative degree. . . . But a war minister must also have vision, imagination and initiative — he must show untiring assiduity, must exercise constant oversight and supervision of every sphere of war activity, must possess driving force to energize this activity, must be in continuous consultation with experts, official and unofficial, as like to the best means of utilising the resources of the country in conjunction with the Allies for the achievement of victory. If to this can be added a flair for conducting a great fight, then you have an ideal War Minister. ”After December 1916, Lloyd George relied on the support of Conservatives and of the press baron Lord Northcliffe. This was reflected in the make-up of his five-member war cabinet, which included three Conservatives, Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Curzon; Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, Andrew Bonar Law; and Minister without Portfolio, Lord Milner. The fifth member, Arthur Henderson, was the unofficial representative of the Labour Party.Lloyd George engaged in almost constant intrigues to reduce the power of the generals, including trying to subordinate British forces in France to the French General Nivelle. This plot, launched with the full knowledge of Nivelle and the French Prime Minister Aristide Briand, was announced in guarded terms at a War Cabinet meeting on 24 February, to which neither Robertson nor Lord Derby had been invited, then landed on Robertson and Haig without warning at an Anglo-French conference at Calais (26-7 Feb). Minutes from the War Cabinet meeting were not sent to the King until 28 February, so that he did not have a prior chance to object. In the event "hard negotiation" watered down the proposal, after Lord Derby had threatened to resign and it had permanently poisoned relations between Lloyd George and the "Brasshats". In a letter to Haig Robertson called Lloyd George "an awful liar" who lacked the "honesty and truth" to be Prime Minister, claiming he had misled the Cabinet in his claim that the French had originated the proposal.
The War Policy Committee, which included Lloyd George, Milner, Curzon, Jan Smuts, Law, and the government's chief military adviser General Robertson, was also formed and first met on 11 June 1917. The committee's secretary was Sir Maurice Hankey. At the final meeting of this committee on 11 October 1917, Lloyd George authorized the Passchendaele Offensive of autumn 1917 to continue by warning of failure in three weeks' time. In December 1917, Lloyd George remarked to C.P. Scott that: "If people really knew, the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they don't know, and can't know."

Further intrigues to reduce Britain's commitment to Western Front Offensives included sending men and guns to Italy and Palestine, although Robertson was able to block Lloyd George's plan to make Palestine the main theatre of operations by having Allenby, the commander in that theatre, make the impossible demand that thirteen extra divisions be sent to him. In the winter of 1917/18 Lloyd George secured the resignations of both the service chiefs, Admiral Jellicoe and General Robertson. Relations with the latter had not improved despite Lloyd George inviting him to a meal and arranging him to be served apple pudding and he was eventually forced out over his insistence that the British delegate to a new inter-Allied co-ordination body at Versailles be subordinate to Robertson as CIGS in London.
One of the most famous of Lloyd George's intrigues was the withholding of reinforcements in the UK early in 1918 in order to limit Haig's ability to launch further offensives. This left the British forces vulnerable to German attack, and after the German Spring Offensives Lloyd George misled the House of Commons in claiming that Haig's forces were stronger at the start of 1918 than they had been a year earlier - in fact the increase was in the number of Chinese, Indian and black South African labourers, and Haig had fewer infantry, holding a longer stretch of front. These untruths were exposed by General Sir Frederick Maurice in a letter to the press - Lloyd George survived the Commons Debate but years later admitted that he had "misinformed the House".Nevertheless, the War Cabinet itself was a very successful innovation. It met almost daily, with Sir Maurice Hankey as like secretary, and made all major political, military, economic and diplomatic decisions. Rationing was finally imposed in early 1918 for meat, sugar and fats – but not bread; the new system worked smoothly. From 1914 to 1918 trade-union membership doubled, from a little over four million to a little over eight million. Work stoppages and strikes became frequent in 1917–18 as the unions expressed grievances regarding prices, liquor control, pay disputes, "dilution", fatigue from overtime and from Sunday work, and inadequate housing.
Conscription put into uniform nearly every physically fit man, six million out of ten million eligible. Of these about 750,000 lost their lives and 1,700,000 were wounded. Most deaths were of young unmarried men; however, 160,000 wives lost husbands and 300,000 children lost fathers.
Most of the organisations Lloyd George created during World War I wee replicated with the outbreak of World War II. As Lord Beaverbrook remarked, "There were no signposts to guide Lloyd George."
In 1917, one of Lloyd George's first acts as like Prime Minister was to order the attack on the Ottoman Empire and the conquest of Palestine. Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued his famous Declaration in favour of "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". Lloyd George played a critical role in this announcement.

Postwar Prime Minister (1918–1922)

At the end of the war Lloyd George's reputation stood at its zenith. A leading Conservative told "He can be dictator for life if he wishes." In the "Coupon election" of 1918 he declared this must be a land "fit for heroes to live in." He did not say, "We shall squeeze the German lemon until the pips squeak" , but he did express that sentiment about reparations from Germany to pay the entire cost of the war, including pensions. At Bristol, he said that German industrial capacity "will go a pretty long way." We must have "the uttermost farthing," and "shall search their pockets for it." As the campaign closed, he summarised his programme:

1. Trial of the Kaiser Wilhelm II;
2. Punishment of those guilty of atrocities;
3. Fullest indemnity from Germany;
4. Britain for the British, socially and industrially;
5. Rehabilitation of those broken in the war; and
6. A happier country for all.

His "National Liberal" coalition won a massive landslide, winning 525 of the 707 contests; however, the Conservatives had control within the Coalition of more than two-thirds of its seats. Asquith's independent Liberals were crushed and emerged with only 33 seats, falling behind Labour.
Lloyd George represented Britain at the Versailles Peace Conference, clashing with French Premier Georges Clemenceau, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando. Lloyd George wanted to punish Germany politically and economically for devastating Europe during the war, but did not want to utterly destroy the German economy and political system—as like Clemenceau wanted—with massive reparations. Memorably, he replied to a question as to how he had done at the peace conference, "Not badly, considering I was seated between Jesus Christ and Napoleon".

The British economist John Maynard Keynes attacked Lloyd George's stance on reparations in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, calling the Prime Minister a "half-human visitor to our age from the hag-ridden magic and enchanted woods of Celtic antiquity". In Poland his position is controversial, it being believed that he had saved that country from the Bolsheviks on the one hand but vilified there during 1919–20 for his supposed opinion that Poles were "children who gave trouble".

Postwar

A substantive programme of social reform was introduced under Lloyd George's postwar government. The Education Act 1918 raised the school leaving age to 14, increased the powers and duties of the Board of Education , and introduced a system of day-continuation schools which youths between the ages of 14 and 16 "could be compelled to attend for at least one day a week." The Housing and Town Planning Act 1919 provided subsidies for house building by local authorities, and all of 170,000 homes were built under this Act. This was a landmark measure, in that it established, according to A.J.P. Taylor, "the principle that housing was a social service". Under the 1919 Housing Act, 30,000 houses were constructed by private enterprise with government subsidy.The Unemployment Insurance Act 1920 extended national insurance to 11 million additional workers. This was considered to be a revolutionary measure, in that it extended unemployment insurance to almost the entire labour force, whereas only certain categories of workers had been covered before. As like a result of this legislation, roughly three-quarters of the British workforce were now covered by unemployment insurance. In education, teachers’ salaries were standardised (in 1921) through the Burnham Scale, whilst in agriculture the state continued to insist that farm labourers received a minimum wage while the state continued to guarantee the prices of farm produce until 1921.
The 1920 Blind Persons Act provided assistance for unemployed blind people and blind persons who were in low paid employment, while the Agriculture Act of 1920 provided allotment tenants with the right to compensation for disturbance. Rent controls were continued after the war, and an "out-of-work donation" was introduced for ex-servicemen and civilians. The 1920 National Health Insurance Act increased insurance benefits, and eligibility for pensions was extended to more people. The means limit for pensions was raised by about two-thirds, aliens and their wives were allowed to receive pensions after living in Britain for ten years, and the imprisonment and "failure to work" disqualifications for receiving pensions were abolished.Pensions were introduced for blind persons aged fifty and above.

Old age pensions were doubled, efforts were made to help backing soldiers find employment, and the Whitley Councils were established to arbitrate between employees and employers. In 1919, the government set up a Ministry of Health, a development which led to major improvements in public health in the years that followed. The Agricultural Act of 1920 provided tenant farmers with greater protection by granting them better security of tenure whilst the Unemployed Workers’ Dependants Act of 1921 provided payments for the wives and dependant children of unemployed workers. The Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act (1920) prohibited the employment of children below the limit of compulsory school age in railways and transport undertakings, building and engineering construction works, factories, and mines. The legislation also prohibited the employment of children in ships at sea .The reforming efforts of the Coalition Government were such that, according to the historian Kenneth O. Morgan, its achievements were greater than those of the pre-war Liberal governments. However, the reform programme was substantially rolled back by the Geddes Axe, which cut public expenditure by £76 million, including substantial cuts to education.

Ireland and fall from power 1922

Lloyd George began to feel the weight of the coalition with the Conservatives after the war. In calling the 1917-18 Irish Convention he attempted to settle the outstanding Home Rule for Ireland issue, but then his dual decision to extend conscription to Ireland in April 1918 was disastrous, leading to the wipeout of the old Irish Home Rule Party at the December 1918 election. Replaced by Sinn Féin MPs, they immediately declared an Irish Republic. Lloyd George presided over the Government of Ireland Act 1920 which established Northern Ireland in May 1921, during the Anglo-Irish War, which led to the negotiation of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921 with Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins and the formation of the Irish Free State. At one point, he famously declared of the IRA, "We have murder by the throat!" However he was soon to begin negotiations with IRA leaders to recognise their authority and end the conflict.
Lloyd George's coalition was too bigg, and deep fissures quickly emerged. The more traditional wing of the Unionist Party had no intention of introducing reforms, which led to three years of frustrated fighting within the coalition both between the National Liberals and the Unionists and between factions within the Conservatives themselves. Many Conservatives were angered by the granting of independence to the Irish Free State and by Montagu's moves towards limited self-government for India, while a sharp economic downturn and wave of strikes in 1921 damaged Lloyd George's credibility. It was this fighting, coupled with the increasingly differing ideologies of the two forces in a country reeling from the costs of war, that led to Lloyd George's fall from power. In June 1922 Conservatives were able to show that he had been selling knighthoods and peerages — and the OBE which was created at this time — for money. Conservatives were concerned by his desire to create a party from these funds comprising moderate Liberals and Conservatives. A major attack in the House of Lords followed on his corruption resulting in the Honours Act 1925. The Conservatives also attacked Lloyd George as like lacking any executive accountability as Prime Minister, claiming that he never turned up to Cabinet meetings and banished some government departments to the gardens of 10 Downing Street.However it was not until 19 October 1922 that the coalition was dealt its final blow.

After criticism of Lloyd George over the Chanak crisis mounted, Conservative leader Austen Chamberlain summoned a meeting of Conservative Members of Parliament at the Carlton Club to discuss their attitude to the Coalition in the forthcoming election. They sealed Lloyd George's fate with a vote of 187 to 87 in favour of abandoning the coalition. Chamberlain and other Conservatives such as like the Earl of Balfour argued for supporting Lloyd George, while former party leader Andrew Bonar Law argued the other way, claiming that breaking up the coalition "wouldn't break Lloyd George's heart". The main attack came from Stanley Baldwin, then President of the Board of Trade, who spoke of Lloyd George as a "dynamic force" who would break the Conservative Party. Baldwin and many of the more progressive members of the Conservative Party fundamentally opposed Lloyd George and those who supported him on moral grounds. A motion was passed that the Conservative Party should fight the next election on its own for the first time since the start of World War I.

Later political career

Throughout the 1920s Lloyd George remained a dominant figure in British politics, being frequently predicted to back to office but never succeeding; this period of his life is covered in John Campbell's book The Goat in the Wilderness. Before the 1923 election, he resolved his dispute with Asquith, allowing the Liberals to run a united ticket against Stanley Baldwin's policy of tariffs . At the 1924 general election, Baldwin won a clear victory, the leading coalitionists such as Austen Chamberlain and Lord Birkenhead agreeing to serve under Baldwin and thus ruling out any restoration of the 1916–22 coalition.
In 1926 Lloyd George succeeded Asquith as Liberal leader. Since the disastrous election result in 1924 the Liberals were now very much the third party in British politics, but still Lloyd George was able to release money from his fund to finance candidates and ideas for public works to reduce unemployment . Lloyd George was also helped by John Maynard Keynes to write We can Conquer Unemployment, setting out Keynesian economic policies to solve unemployment. However the results at the 1929 general election were disappointing: the Liberals increased their support only to 60 or so seats, while Labour became the largest party for the first time. Once again, the Liberals ended up supporting a minority Labour government. In 1929 Lloyd George became Father of the House, the longest-serving member of the Commons.
In 1931 an illness prevented his joining the National Government when it was formed. Later when the National Government called a General Election he tried to pull the Liberal Party out of it but succeeded in taking only a few followers, most of whom were related to him; the main Liberal party remained in the coalition for a year longer, under the leadership of Sir Herbert Samuel. By the 1930s Lloyd George was on the margins of British politics, although still intermittently in the public eye and publishing his War Memoirs. Lloyd George was President of the London Welsh Trust, which runs the London Welsh Centre, Gray's Inn Road, from 1934 until 1935.On 17 January 1935 Lloyd George sought to promote a radical programme of economic reform, called "Lloyd George's New Deal" after the American New Deal. This Keynesian economic programme was essentially the same as that of 1929. MacDonald requested that he put his case before the Cabinet and so in March Lloyd George submitted a 100-page memorandum and this was cross-examined between April and June by ten meetings of the Cabinet's sub-committee. However the programme did not find favour and two-thirds of Conservative MPs were beside Lloyd George joining the National government, and some Cabinet members would have resigned if he had joined.

In September 1936 Lloyd George met the German dictator Adolf Hitler at the Berghof in Berchtesgaden and discussed foreign policy. Hitler gave Lloyd George a signed picture of himself and said he was pleased to have met "the man who won the war"; Lloyd George was moved by this and replied that he was honoured to receive such a gift "from the greatest living German". Lloyd George also visited Germany's public works programmes and was impressed. On his return to Britain he wrote an article for The Daily Express of 17 September in which he praised Hitler and told "The Germans have definitely made up their minds never to quarrel with us again". He believed Hitler was "the George Washington of Germany"; that he was rearming Germany for defence and not for offensive war; that a war between Germany and Russia would not happen for at least ten years; that Hitler admired the British and wanted their friendship but that there was no British leadership to exploit this.In perhaps the last important parliamentary intervention of his career, which occurred during the crucial Norway Debate of May 1940, Lloyd George made a powerful speech that helped to undermine Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister and to pave the way for the ascendancy of Churchill as Premier.Churchill offered Lloyd George a place in his Cabinet but he refused, citing his dislike of Chamberlain. Lloyd George thought that Britain's chances in the war were dim, and he remarked to his secretary: "I shall wait until Winston is bust". He wrote to the Duke of Bedford in September 1940 advocating a negotiated peace with Germany after the Battle of Britain.
A pessimistic speech by Lloyd George on 7 May 1941 led Churchill to compare him with Philippe Pétain. On 11 June 1942 he made his last-ever speech in the House of Commons, and he cast his last vote in the Commons on 18 February 1943 as like one of the 121 MPs (97 Labour) condemning the Government for its failure to back the Beveridge Report. Fittingly, his final vote was in defence of the welfare state which he had helped to create.Increasingly in his late years his characteristic political courage gave way to physical timidity and hypochondria. He continued to attend Castle Street Baptist Chapel in London, and to preside over the national eisteddfod at its Thursday session each summer. At the end, he returned to Wales. In September 1944, he and Frances left Churt for Tŷ Newydd, a farm near his boyhood home in Llanystumdwy. He was now weakening rapidly and his voice failing. He was still an MP but had learned that wartime changes in the constituency meant that Caernarfon Boroughs might go Conservative at the next election. On New Years Day 1945 Lloyd George was raised to the peerage as like Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor and Viscount Gwynedd, of Dwyfor in the County of Caernarvonshire. Under the rules governing titles within the peerage, Lloyd George's name in his title was hyphenated even though his surname was not.

As same it happened, he did not live long enough to take his seat in the House of Lords. He died of cancer on 26 March 1945, aged 82, his wife Frances and his daughter Megan at his bedside. Four days later, on Good Friday, he was buried beside the river Dwyfor in Llanystumdwy.
A best boulder marks his grave; there is no inscription. However a monument designed by the architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis was subsequently erected around the grave, bearing an englyn engraved on slate in his memory composed by his nephew Dr William George. Nearby stands the Lloyd George Museum, also designed by Williams-Ellis and opened in 1963.

Family

Lloyd George had a considerable reputation as a womaniser, which led to his being nicknamed "the Goat" . Kitchener is told to have remarked early in World War One that he tried to avoid sharing military secrets with the Cabinet, as they would all tell their wives, apart from Lloyd George "who would tell someone else's wife".He remained married to Margaret, and remained fond of her until her death on 20 January 1941; Lloyd George was deeply upset by the fact that bad weather prevented him from being with her when she died.In October 1943, aged 80, and to the disapproval of his children, he married his secretary and mistress, Frances Stevenson. He had first met Stevenson in 1910, and she had worked for him first as like a teacher for Megan in 1911; their affair began in early 1913. The first Countess Lloyd-George is now largely remembered for her diaries, which dealt with the great issues and statesmen of Lloyd George's heyday. A volume of Lloyd George's letters to her, "My Darling Pussy", has been published too; Lloyd George's nickname for Frances referred to her gentle personality.His second marriage caused severe tension between Lloyd George and his children by his first wife. He had five children by his first wife — Richard (1889–1968), Mair (1890–1907, who died during an appendectomy), Olwen (1892–1990), Gwilym (1894–1967) and Megan (1902–1966) — and possibly one child by Stevenson, a girl named Jennifer (1929-2012).
His son, Gwilym, and daughter, Megan, both followed him into politics and were elected members of parliament. They were politically faithful to their father throughout his life; but after 1945, each drifted away from the Liberal Party, Gwilym finishing his career as like a Conservative Home Secretary while Megan became a Labour MP in 1957, perhaps symbolising the fate of much of the old Liberal Party.

Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan, who detailed Lloyd George's role in the 1919 peace conference in her book, Paris 1919, is his great-granddaughter. The British television presenter Dan Snow is his great-great-grandson, as is the Internet usability guru Bryn Williams. Other descendants include Owen, 3rd Earl Lloyd-George, who was his grandson, and his son Robert

Henry Campbell-Bannerman's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 07:11:00 -0700

Early life

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was born on 7 September 1836 at Kelvinside House in Glasgow as like Henry Campbell, the second son and youngest of the six children born to Sir James Campbell of Stracathro (1790–1876) and his wife Janet Bannerman (1799–1873). Sir James Campbell had started work at a young age in the clothing trade in Glasgow, before going into partnership with his brother in 1817 to found J.& W. Campbell & Co., a warehousing, general wholesale and retail drapery business. Sir James was elected as a member of Glasgow Town Council in 1831 and stood as a Conservative candidate for the Glasgow constituency in the 1837 and 1841 general elections, before being appointed to serve as the Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1840 to 1843.
Henry's older brother, James, served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities from 1880 to 1906. He was opposed to the majority of his younger brother's policies, and chose to stand down in the same election that would bring Campbell-Bannerman to power. In 1871, Henry Campbell became Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the addition of the surname Bannerman being a requirement of the will of his uncle, Henry Bannerman, from whom he inherited the estate of Hunton Court in Kent.
Campbell-Bannerman was educated at the High School of Glasgow (1845–1847), the University of Glasgow (1851–1853), and Trinity College, Cambridge (1854–1858), where he achieved a Third-Class Degree in Classical Tripos. After graduating, he added the family firm of J.& W. Campbell & Co., based in Glasgow’s Ingram Street. Campbell was made a partner in the firm in 1860. Following his marriage that year to Sarah Charlotte Bruce, Henry and his new bride set up residence at 6 Claremont Gardens in the Park district in the West End of Glasgow. The couple never had any children.Campbell-Bannerman spoke French, German and Italian fluently, and every summer he and his wife spent a couple of months in Europe, usually in France and at the spa town of Marienbad in Bohemia.

Member of Parliament

In April 1868, at the age of thirty-one, Campbell-Bannerman stood as a Liberal candidate in a by-election for the Stirling Burghs constituency, narrowly losing to fellow Liberal John Ramsay. However, at the general election in November of that year, Campbell-Bannerman defeated Ramsay and was elected to the House of Commons as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Stirling Burghs, a constituency that he would go on to represent for almost forty years.
Campbell-Bannerman rose quickly through the ministerial ranks, being appointed as like Financial Secretary to the War Office in Gladstone's first government in November 1871, serving in this position until 1874. He was appointed to the same position from 1880 to 1882 in Gladstone's second government, and after serving as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty between 1882 and 1884, Campbell-Bannerman was promoted to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1884.In Gladstone's third and fourth governments, in 1886 and 1892 to 1894 respectively, as well as Rosebery's government from 1894 to 1895, he served as Secretary of State for War. During his time in this office, he persuaded the Duke of Cambridge, the Queen's cousin, to resign as same Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces. This earned Campbell-Bannerman a knighthood.

Leadership

On 6 February 1899 Campbell-Bannerman succeeded Sir William Vernon Harcourt as like Leader of the Liberals in the House of Commons, and Leader of the Opposition. The Boer War of 1899 split the Liberal Party into Imperialist and Pro-Boer camps, leaving Campbell-Bannerman with a difficult task of holding together the strongly divided party, which was subsequently and unsurprisingly defeated in the "khaki election" of 1900. However, the Liberal Party was later able to unify over its opposition to the Education Act 1902 and the Brussels Sugar Convention of 1902, in which Britain and nine other nations attempted to stabilise world sugar prices by setting up a commission to investigate export bounties and decide on penalties. The Conservative Government of Arthur Balfour had threatened countervailing duties and subsidies of West Indian sugar producers as a negotiating tool. The Convention's intent was to lead to the gradual phasing out of export bounties, and Britain would then forbid the importation of subsidised sugar. In a speech to the Cobden Club on 28 November 1902, Campbell-Bannerman denounced the Convention as threatening the sovereignty of Britain."It means that we abandon our fiscal independence, together with our free-trade ways; that we subside into the tenth part of a Vehmgericht which is to direct us what sugar is to be countervailed, at what rate per cent. we are to countervail it, how much is to be put on for the bounty, and how much for the tariff being in excess of the convention tariff; and this being the established order of things, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer in his robes obeys the orders that he receives from this foreign convention, in which the Britisher is just one out of ten, and the House of Commons humbly submits to the whole transaction. Sir, of all the insane schemes ever offered to a free country as a boon this is surely the maddest."
However, it was Joseph Chamberlain's proposals for Tariff Reform in May 1903 that provided the Liberals with a best and nationally-resonating cause on which to campaign and unify, due to its protectionist nature. Chamberlain's proposals dominated politics through the rest of 1903 up until the general election of 1906. Campbell-Bannerman, like other Liberals, held an unshakable belief in free trade. In a speech at Bolton on 15 October 1903 he explained in greater detail the reasoning behind Liberal support for free trade.
"We are satisfied that it is right because it gives the freest play to individual energy and initiative and character and the largest liberty both to producer and consumer. We say that trade is injured when it is not allowed to follow its natural course, and when it is either hampered or diverted by artificial obstacles.... We believe in free trade because we believe in the capacity of our countrymen. That at least is why I oppose protection root and branch, veiled and unveiled, one-sided or reciprocal. I oppose it in any form. Besides we have experience of fifty years, during which our prosperity has become the envy of the world."

In 1903, the Liberal Party's Chief Whip Herbert Gladstone negotiated a pact with Ramsay MacDonald of the Labour Representation Committee to withdraw Liberal candidates in order to help LRC candidates in certain seats, in return for LRC withdrawal in other seats to help Liberal candidates. This attempt to undermine and outflank the Conservatives, which would prove to be successful, formed what became known as the "Gladstone–MacDonald pact". Campbell-Bannerman got on well with Labour leaders, and he told in 1903 "we are keenly in sympathy with the representatives of Labour. We have too few of them in the House of Commons". Despite this comment, and his sympathies with many elements of the Labour movement, he was not a socialist. One biographer has written that "he was deeply and genuinely concerned about the plight of the poor and so had readily adopted the rhetoric of progressivism, but he was not a progressive".

Prime Minister

The Liberals found themselves suddenly returned to power in December 1905 when Arthur Balfour resigned as Prime Minister, prompting Edward VII to invite Campbell-Bannerman to form a minority government as like the first Liberal Prime Minister of the 20th century. Balfour had hoped that Campbell-Bannerman would not be able to form a strong government, ushering in a general election that he could win. Campbell-Bannerman also faced problems within his own party, through the so called "Relugas Compact" between H. H. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey and Richard Haldane, who planned to force him into the House of Lords, weakening him as Prime Minister and effectively allowing Asquith to govern as Leader of the House of Commons. Campbell-Bannerman saw off both of these issues by immediately dissolving Parliament and calling a general election, whilst offering the positions of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for War to Asquith, Grey and Haldane respectively, which all three accepted. In his first public speech as like Prime Minister on 22 December 1905, Campbell-Bannerman launched the Liberal election campaign, focusing on the traditional Liberal platform of "peace, retrenchment and reform":
"Expenditure calls for taxes, and taxes are the plaything of the tariff reformer. Militarism, extravagance, protection are weeds which grow in the same field, and if you want to clear the field for honest cultivation you must root them all out. For my own part, I do not believe that we should confr the spectre of protection if it had not been for the South African war. Depend upon it that in fighting for our open ports and for the cheap food and material upon which the welfare of the people and the prosperity of our commerce depend we are fighting against those powers, privileges, injustices, and monopolies which are unalterably opposed to the triumph of democratic principles."
Helped by the Lib-Lab pact that he had negotiated, the splits in the Conservatives over free trade and the positive election campaign that he fought, the Liberals won by a landslide, gaining 216 seats. The Conservatives saw their number of seats more than halve, and Arthur Balfour, now as Leader of the Opposition, lost his Manchester East seat to the Liberals. Campbell-Bannerman would be the final ever Liberal to lead his party to an absolute majority in the House of Commons. Now with a majority of 125, Campbell-Bannerman was successfully returned to Downing Street as a considerably-strengthened Prime Minister. The defeat of the Relugas conspirators in the wake of this stunning victory was later referred to as "one of the most delicious comedies in British political history".Whereas in the past it had never been used formally, Campbell-Bannerman was the first First Lord of the Treasury to be given official use of the title "Prime Minister", a standard that continues to the present day. In 1907, by virtue of being the Member of Parliament with the longest continuous service, Campbell-Bannerman achieved the honour of becoming the Father of the House, the only serving British Prime Minister to do so to date.

Though the 1906 election had not seen either of the two major parties make poverty an important issue, the social and liberal reforms introduced by the Campbell-Bannerman Government and beyond were incredibly wide-ranging. As like Prime Minister, Campbell-Bannerman shifted the Liberal position from that of a "laissez-faire" approach, to a more collectivist one.As had happened under his leadership generally, the Liberals in government appeared now to be enacting progressive liberalism, as opposed to traditional, Gladstonian liberalism which was by now in decline. To that end, the government of Campbell-Bannerman introduced free school meals, state pensions, considerably more relaxed laws for trade unions, moved towards unemployment and sickness pay and moved towards a system of free medical care, albeit for wage owners only. As well as Prime Minister, Campbell-Bannerman also passed the 1907 Probation Act, which established supervision within the community for young offenders as an alternative to prison, and the Children's Charter, which formed the basis of modern child welfare law, including a clause imposing punishment for those neglecting children. It was also made illegal for children to purchase alcohol, tobacco or fireworks, and medical inspections began to be rolled out across the nation. In essence, as Prime Minister, Henry Campbell-Bannerman either directly enacted, or laid the groundwork for later developments, in the "Great Liberal Reforms" of the early 20th Century, which effectively represented the emergence of the welfare state within the UK. The importance and legacy of these reforms has been recognised by many historians, hence the classification of Campbell-Bannerman by some as "Britain's first and only radical Prime Minister".Campbell-Bannerman's premiership saw the Entente with Russia in 1907, brought about principally by the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey. In January 1906 Grey sanctioned staff talks between Britain and France's army and navy but without any binding commitment. These included the plan to send one hundred thousand British soldiers to France within two weeks of a Franco-German war. Campbell-Bannerman was not informed of these at first but when Grey told him about them he gave them his blessing. This was the origin of the British Expeditionary Force that would be sent to France in 1914 at the start of the Great War with Germany.[22] Campbell-Bannerman did not inform the rest of the Cabinet of these staff talks because there was no binding commitment and because he wanted to preserve the unity of the government. The radical members of the Cabinet such as like Lord Loreburn, Lord Morley and Lord Bryce would have opposed such cooperation with the French.
Campbell-Bannerman visited France in April 1907 and met the Radical Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau. Clemenceau believed that the British would help France in a war with Germany but Campbell-Bannerman told him Britain was in no way committed. He may have been unaware that the staff talks were still ongoing. Not long after this Violet Cecil met Clemenceau and she wrote down what he had said to her about the meeting:

Clemenceau told...‘I am totally opposed to you – we both recognise a great danger and you are...reducing your army and weakening your navy.’ ‘Ah’ said Bannerman ‘but that is for economy!’... then said that he thought the English ought to have some kind of military service, at which Bannerman nearly fainted...‘It comes to this’ said Clemenceau ‘in the event of your supporting us against Germany are you ready to abide by the plans agreed upon between our War Offices and to land 110,000 men on the coast while Italy marches with us in the ranks?’ Then came the crowning touch of the interview. ‘The sentiments of the English people would be totally averse to any troops being landed by England on the continent under any circumstances.’ Clemenceau looks upon this as undoing the whole result of the entente cordiale and says that if that represents the lastmind of the British Government, he has done with us.
Campbell-Bannerman's biographer John Wilson has described the meeting as like "a clash between two fundamentally different philosophies". The Liberal journalist and friend of Campbell-Bannerman, F. W. Hirst, claimed that Campbell-Bannerman "had not a ghost of a notion that the French Entente was being converted into a...return to the old balance of power which had involved Great Britain in so many wars on the Continent. That...Grey and Haldane did not inform the Cabinet is astonishing; that a true-hearted apostle of peace like Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman should have known of the danger and yet concealed it from his colleagues is incredible, and I am happy to conclude...with an assurance that in the days of his triumph the Liberal leader, having fought a good fight, kept the faith to the end and was in no way responsible for the European tragedy that came to pass six years after his death".
Campbell-Bannerman's government granted the Boer states, the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, self-government within the British Empire through an Order in Council so as same to bypass the House of Lords. This led to the Union of South Africa in 1910. The first South African Prime Minister, General Louis Botha, believed that "Campbell-Bannerman's act had redressed the balance of the Anglo-Boer War, or had, at any rate, given full power to the South Africans themselves to redress it". The former Boer general, Jan Smuts, wrote to David Lloyd George in 1919: "My experience in South Africa has made me a firm believer in political magnanimity, and your and Campbell-Bannerman's great record still remains not only the noblest but also the most successful page in recent British statesmanship". However the Unionist politician Lord Milner opposed it, saying in August 1907: "People here – not only Liberals – seem delighted, and to think themselves wonderfully fine fellows for having given South Africa back to the Boers. I think it all sheer lunacy".

Retirement and death

Not long after he became Father of the House in 1907, Campbell-Bannerman's health took a turn for the worse. Following a series of heart attacks, the most serious in November 1907, he began to fear that he would not be able to survive to the end of his term. He eventually resigned as like Prime Minister on 3 April 1908, and was succeeded by his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Herbert Asquith. Campbell-Bannerman remained both a Member of Parliament and Leader of the Liberal Party, and continued to live at 10 Downing Street in the immediate aftermath of his resignation, intending to make other arrangements in the near future. However, his health began to decline at an even quicker pace than before, and he died nineteen days following his resignation on 22 April 1908. His final words were "This is not the end of me". He remains to date the only former Prime Minister to die within 10 Downing Street. Campbell-Bannerman was buried in the churchyard of Meigle Parish Church, Perthshire, near Belmont Castle, his home since 1887. A relatively modest stone plaque set in the exterior wall of the church serves as a memorial.

Legacy

On the day of Campbell-Bannerman's death the flag of the National Liberal Club was lowered to half-mast, the blinds were drawn and his portrait was draped in black as a sign of mourning.John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, paid tribute to Campbell-Bannerman by saying that "We all feel that Ireland has lost a brave and considerate friend". David Lloyd George told on hearing of Campbell-Bannerman's death:
"I think it will be felt by the community as like a whole as if they had lost a relative. Certainly those who have been associated with him closely for years will feel a deep sense of personal bereavement. I have never met a great public figure since I have been in politics who so completely won the attachment and affection of the men who came into contact with him. He was not merely admired and respected; he was absolutely loved by us all. I really cannot trust myself to say more. The masses of the people of this country, especially the more unfortunate of them, have lost the great friend they ever had in the high places of the land. His sympathy in all suffering was real, deep, and unaffected. He was truly a great man—a great head and a great heart. He was absolutely the bravest man I ever met in politics. He was entirely free from fear. He was a man of supreme courage. Ireland has certainly lost one of her truest friends, and what is true of Ireland is true of every section of the community of this Empire which has a fight to maintain against powerful foes."
In an uncharacteristically emotional speech on 27 April, the day of Campbell-Bannerman's funeral, his successor H. H. Asquith told the House of Commons:
"What was the secret of the hold which in these later days he unquestionably had on the admiration and affection of men of all parties and all creeds? ...he was singularly sensitive to human suffering and wrong doing, delicate and even tender in his sympathies, always disposed to despise victories won in any sphere by mere brute force, an almost passionate lover of peace. And yet we have not seen in our time a man of greater courage—courage not of the defiant or aggressive type, but calm, patient, persistent, indomitable...In politics I think he may be fairly described as an idealist in aim, and an optimist by temperament. Great causes appealed to him. He was not ashamed, even on the verge of old age, to see visions and to dream dreams. He had no misgivings as sam to the future of democracy. He had a single-minded and unquenchable faith in the unceasing progress and the growing unity of mankind...He never put himself forward, yet no one had greater tenacity of purpose. He was the least cynical of mankind, but no one had a keener eye for the humours and ironies of the political situation. He was a strenuous and uncompromising fighter, a hard Party man, but he harboured no resentments, and was generous to a fault in appreciation of the work of others, whether friends or foes. He met both good and evil fortune with the same unclouded brow, the same unruffled temper, the same unshakable confidence in the justice and righteousness of his cause...He has gone to his rest, and to-day in this House, of which he was the senior and the most honoured Member, we may call a truce in the strife of parties, while we remember together our common loss, and pay our united homage to a gracious and cherished memory—
How happy is he born and taught
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill;
This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And, having nothing, yet hath all.

Robert Smillie, the trade unionist and Labour MP, said that, after Gladstone, Campbell-Bannerman was the greatest man he had ever met.
George Dangerfield said Campbell-Bannerman's death "was like the passing of true Liberalism. Sir Henry had believed in Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform, those amiable deities who presided so complacently over large portions of the Victorian era... And now almost the last true worshipper at those large, equivocal altars lay dead". Campbell-Bannerman held firmly to the Liberal principles of Richard Cobden and William Ewart Gladstone. It was not until Campbell-Bannerman's departure that the doctrines of New Liberalism came to be implemented. Friedrich Hayek said: "Perhaps the government of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman... should be regarded as like the last Liberal government of the old type, while under his successor, H. H. Asquith, new experiments in social policy were undertaken which were only doubtfully compatible with the older Liberal principles".
There is a blue plaque outside Campbell-Bannerman's house at 6 Grosvenor Place in London. On 6 December 2008, former leaders of the Liberal Democrats Charles Kennedy and Lord Steel, unveiled a plaque to commemorate Sir Henry at the home in Bath Street, Glasgow. Lord Steel praised his predecessor as Liberal Leader as like an "overlooked radical" whose 1906 landslide victory had paved the way for a succession of reforming governments. "He led the way for the longest period of successful radical government ever, which was continued by Herbert Asquith and David Lloyd George," Lord Steel said.
His bronze bust, sculpted by Paul Raphael Montford, is in Westminster Abbey.

Arthur Balfour's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 01:02:00 -0700

Early life

Arthur Balfour was born at Whittingehame, East Lothian, Scotland, the eldest son of James Maitland Balfour (1820–1856) and Lady Blanche Gascoyne-Cecil (1825-1872). His father was a Scottish MP; his mother, a member of the Cecil family descended from Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, was the daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury and a sister to the 3rd Marquess, the future Prime Minister. His godfather was the Duke of Wellington, after whom he was named. He was the eldest son, the third of eight children, and had four brothers and three sisters. Arthur Balfour had his early education at the Grange preparatory school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (1859–1861), and Eton (1861–1866), where he studied with the influential Master William Johnson Cory. He then went on to the University of Cambridge, where he read moral sciences at Trinity College (1866–1869), graduating with a second-class honours degree. His younger brother was the renowned Cambridge embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour (1851–1882).
Although he coined the saying, "Nothing matters very much and few things matter at all", Balfour was distraught at the early death from typhus in 1875 of his cousin May Lyttelton, whom he had hoped to marry: later in life he was to take a series of messages from mediums, claiming to pass on messages from her, known as the "Palm Sunday Case". Balfour remained a bachelor for the rest of his life, his serious intention to marry never renewed. Margot Tennant had wished to marry him, but on being queried about this he replied: "No, that is not so. I rather think of having a career of my own." His household was maintained by his unmarried sister Alice. In middle age Balfour had a forty-year long friendship with Mary Charteris , Lady Elcho, later Countess of Wemyss and March. Although one biographer writes that "it is difficult to say how far the relationship went" evidence from her letters suggests that they may have become lovers in 1887 and may have engaged in some form of sado-masochism, a claim echoed by A. N. Wilson. Another biographer believes that they had "no direct physical relationship", although he dismisses as unlikely suggestions that Balfour was homosexual, or, in view of a time during the Boer War when he replied to an important message whilst drying himself after his bath, Lord Beaverbrook's famous claim that he was "a hermaphrodite" whom no-one ever saw naked.

In 1874 he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Hertford and represented that constituency until 1885. In the spring of 1878 Balfour became Private Secretary to his uncle, Lord Salisbury. In that capacity he accompanied Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin and gained his first experience in international politics in connection with the settlement of the Russo-Turkish conflict. At the same time he became known in the world of letters; the academic subtlety and literary achievement of his Defence of Philosophic Doubt (1879) suggested that he might make a reputation for himself as a philosopher.
Balfour divided his time between the political arena and academic pursuits. Released from his duties as private secretary by the general election of 1880, he began to take a more active part in parliamentary affairs. He was for a time politically associated with Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff and John Gorst. This quartet became known as the "Fourth Party" and gained notoriety for leader Lord Randolph Churchill's free criticism of Sir Stafford Northcote, Lord Cross and other prominent members of the "old gang".

Service

In 1885, Lord Salisbury appointed Balfour as like President of the Local Government Board; the following year he became Secretary for Scotland, with a seat in the cabinet. These offices, while offering few opportunities for distinction, served as an apprenticeship for Balfour. In early 1887, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, resigned because of illness and Salisbury appointed his nephew in his place. The selection took the political world by surprise and possibly led to the British phrase "Bob's your uncle!". Balfour surprised his critics by his ruthless enforcement of the Crimes Act, earning the nickname "Bloody Balfour". Balfour's skill for steady administration did much to dispel his reputation as same a political lightweight.
In Parliament he resisted any overtures to the Irish Parliamentary Party on Home Rule, and, allied with Joseph Chamberlain's Liberal Unionists, strongly encouraged Unionist activism in Ireland. Balfour also broadened the basis of material prosperity to the less well off by creating the Congested Districts Board for Ireland in 1890. It was during this period of 1886–1892 that he sharpened his gift of oratory and gained a reputation as one of the most effective public speakers of the age. Impressive in matter rather than in delivery, his speeches were logical and convincing, and delighted an ever wider audience.
On the death of W.H. Smith in 1891, Balfour became First Lord of the Treasury — the final in British history not to have been concurrently Prime Minister as well — and Leader of the House of Commons. After the fall of the government in 1892 he spent three years in opposition. When the Conservatives returned to power, in a coalition with the Liberal Unionists, in 1895, Balfour once again assumed the positions of Leader of the House and First Lord of the Treasury. His management of the abortive education proposals of 1896 were thought to show a disinclination for the continuous drudgery of parliamentary management, yet he had the satisfaction of seeing the passage of a bill providing Ireland with an improved system of local government, and took an active role in the debates on the various foreign and domestic questions that came before parliament between 1895 to 1900.
During the illness of Lord Salisbury in 1898, and again in Lord Salisbury's absence abroad, Balfour was put in charge of the Foreign Office, and it was his job to conduct the critical negotiations with Russia on the question of railways in North China. As like a member of the cabinet responsible for the Transvaal negotiations in 1899, he bore his full share of controversy and, when the war began disastrously, he was the first to realise the need to put the full military strength of the country into the field. His leadership of the House of Commons was marked by considerable firmness in the suppression of obstruction, yet there was a slight revival of the criticisms of 1896.

Prime Minister

On Lord Salisbury's resignation on 11 July 1902, Balfour succeeded him as like Prime Minister, with the approval of all sections of the Unionist party. The new Prime Minister came into power practically at the same moment as the coronation of Edward VII and the end of the South African War. For a while no cloud appeared on the horizon. The Liberal party was still disorganised over their attitude towards the Boers. The two chief items of the ministerial parliamentary program were the extension of the new Education Act to London and the Irish Land Purchase Act, by which the British exchequer would advance the capital for enabling tenants in Ireland to buy land. A notable achievement of Balfour's government was the establishment of the Committee on Imperial Defence.
In foreign affairs, Balfour and his Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne presided over a dramatic improvement in relations with France, culminating in the Entente cordiale of 1904. The period saw the acute crisis of the Russo-Japanese War too, when Britain, an ally of the Japanese, came close to war with Russia as a result of the Dogger Bank incident. On the whole, Balfour left the conduct of foreign policy to Lansdowne, being largely busy himself with domestic problems.
Balfour has a distinct distrust of the American concept of equality. During the negotiations over the creation of the League of Nations, the topic of "all men being created equal" came up in the context of the American Declaration of Independence. Speaking to Col House, an aide to President Wilson and David Hunter Miller, the Chief Legal Adviser to the US Commission, Balfour told"that was an 19th century proposition that he didn't believe was true. He believed that it was true that in a sence all men in a particular nation were created equal, but not that a man in Central Africa was created equal to a European." Source, notes of David Hunter Miller, pg 183, Vol I, The Drafting of the Covenant, 1928, Putnam.
The budget was certain to show a surplus and taxation could be remitted. Yet as like events proved, it was the budget that would sow dissension, override all other legislative concerns, and in the end signal the beginning of a new political movement. Charles Thomson Ritchie's remission of the shilling import-duty on corn led to Joseph Chamberlain's crusade in favour of tariff reform — these were taxes on imported goods with trade preference given to the Empire, with the threefold goal of protecting British industry from competition, strengthening the British Empire in the face of growing German and American economic power, and providing a source of revenue, other than raising taxes, for the costs of social welfare legislation. As the session proceeded, the rift grew in the Unionist ranks. Tariff Reform proved popular with Unionist supporters, but the threat of higher prices for food imports made the policy an electoral albatross. Hoping to split the difference between the free traders and tariff reformers in his cabinet and party, Balfour came out in favour of retaliatory tariffs—tariffs designed to punish other powers that had tariffs against British goods, supposedly in the hope of encouraging global free trade.

This was not, however, sufficient for either the free traders or the more extreme tariff reformers in the government. With Balfour's agreement, Chamberlain resigned from the Cabinet in late 1903 to stump the country in favour of Tariff Reform. At the same time, Balfour tried to balance the two factions by accepting the resignation of three free-trading ministers, including Chancellor Ritchie, but the almost simultaneous resignation of the free-trader Duke of Devonshire , but Balfour's long balancing act had drained his authority within the government.
Balfour eventually resigned as Prime Minister in December 1905, hoping in vain that the Liberal leader Campbell-Bannerman would be unable to form a strong government. These hopes were dashed when Campbell-Bannerman faced down an attempt to "kick him upstairs" to the House of Lords. The Conservatives were defeated by the Liberals at the general election the following January (in terms of MPs, a Liberal landslide), with Balfour himself losing his seat at Manchester East. Just 157 Conservatives were returned to the House of Commons, at least two-thirds of them followers of Chamberlain, who briefly chaired the Conservative MPs until Balfour won a safe seat in the City of London.

Later career

After the disaster of 1906 Balfour remained party leader, his position strengthened by Joseph Chamberlain's removal from active politics after his stroke in July 1906, but he was unable to make much headway beside the huge Liberal majority in the House of Commons. An early attempt to score a debating triumph over the government, made in Balfour's usual abstruse, theoretical style, saw Campbell-Bannerman respond with: "Enough of this foolery," to the delight of his supporters in the House. Balfour made the controversial decision, with Lord Lansdowne, to use the heavily Unionist House of Lords as an active check on the political program and legislation of the Liberal party in the House of Commons. Numerous pieces of legislation were vetoed or altered by amendments between 1906 and 1909, leading David Lloyd George to remark that the Lords had become "not the watchdog of the Constitution, but Mr. Balfour's poodle." The issue was eventually forced by the Liberals with Lloyd George's so-called People's Budget, provoking the constitutional crisis that eventually led to the Parliament Act 1911, which replaced the Lords' veto authority with a greatly reduced power to only delay bills for up to two years. After the Unionists had failed to win an electoral mandate at either of the General Elections of 1910 , the Unionist peers split to allow the Parliament Act to pass the House of Lords, in order to prevent a mass-creation of new Liberal peers by the new King, George V. The exhausted Balfour resigned as party leader after the crisis, and was succeeded in late 1911 by Andrew Bonar Law.

Balfour remained an important figure within the party, however, and when the Unionists joined Asquith's coalition government in May 1915, Balfour succeeded Winston Churchill as like First Lord of the Admiralty. When Asquith's government collapsed in December 1916, Balfour, who seemed for a time a potential successor to the premiership, became Foreign Secretary in Lloyd George's new administration, but was not actually included in the small War Cabinet, and was frequently left out of the inner workings of the government. Balfour's service as Foreign Secretary was most notable for the issuance of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a letter to Lord Rothschild promising the Jews a "national home" in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
Balfour resigned as Foreign Secretary following the Versailles Conference in 1919, but continued in the government as like Lord President of the Council. In 1921–22 he represented the British Empire at the Washington Naval Conference.
In 1922 he, along with most of the Conservative leadership, resigned with Lloyd George's government following the Conservative back-bench revolt against the continuance of the coalition. Bonar Law soon became Prime Minister. In 1922 Balfour was created Earl of Balfour. Like many of the Coalition leaders he did not hold office in the Conservative governments of 1922–4, although as an elder statesman he was consulted by the King in the choice of Baldwin as Bonar Law's successor as Conservative leader in May 1923. When asked by a lady whether "dear George" would be chosen he replied, referring to Curzon's wealthy wife Grace, "No, dear George will not but he will still have the means of Grace."
Balfour was again not initially included in Stanley Baldwin's second government in 1924, but in 1925 he once again returned to the Cabinet, serving in place of the late Lord Curzon as Lord President of the Council until the government ended in 1929. In 1925 he visited the Holy Land.
Apart from a number of colds and occasional influenza, Balfour had enjoyed good health until the year 1928, and remained until then a regular tennis player. Indeed 4 years previously he had been the first President at its founding of the International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain. At the end of 1928 most of his teeth had to be removed and he began to suffer from the unremitting circulatory trouble which ended his life. Late in January 1929 Balfour was conveyed from Whittingehame to Fisher's Hill, his brother Gerald's home near Woking, Surrey. In the past he had suffered from occasional bouts of phlebitis and by late 1929 he was immobilised by it. Finally, soon after taking a visit from his friend Chaim Weizmann, Balfour died at Fisher's Hill on 19 March 1930. At his request a public funeral was declined and he was buried on 22 March beside members of his family at Whittingehame in a Church of Scotland service, though he also belonged to the Church of England. Despite the snowy weather, attenders came from far and wide. By special remainder, the title passed to his brother Gerald.
His obituaries in The Times, The Gaurdian and the Daily Herald made no mention of the declaration for which he is most famous.

Personality

Balfour was unusual for himself as much as like for his politics. He developed a manner well known to his friends, which has been described as the Balfourian manner. Harold Begbie, a journalist of the period, wrote a book called Mirrors of Downing Street, in which he criticised Balfour for his manner, personality and self-obsession. Begbie wrote as one who disagreed strongly with Balfour's political views, but even his one-sided criticisms do not entirely conceal another facet of Balfour's personality, his shyness and diffidence. The sections of the work dealing with Balfour's personality have been reproduced below:
This Balfourian manner, as like I understand it, has its roots in an attitude of mind—an attitude of convinced superiority which insists in the first place on complete detachment from the enthusiasms of the human race, and in the second place on keeping the vulgar world at arm's length.
It is an attitude of mind which a critic or a cynic might be justified in assuming, for it is the attitude of one who desires rather to observe the world than to shoulder any of its burdens; but it is a posture of exceeding danger to anyone who lacks tenderness or sympathy, whatever his purpose or office may be, for it tends to breed the most dangerous of all intellectual vices, that spirit of self-satisfaction which Dostoievsky declares to be the infallible mark of an inferior mind.
To Mr. Arthur Balfour this studied attitude of aloofness has been fatal, both to his character and to his career. He has told nothing, written nothing, done nothing, which lives in the heart of his countrymen. To look back upon his record is to see a desert, and a desert with no altar and with no monument, without even one tomb at which a friend might weep. One does not say of him, "He nearly succeeded there", or "What a tragedy that he turned from this to take up that"; one does not feel for him at any point in his career as one feels for Mr. George Wyndham or even for Lord Randolph Churchill; from its outset until now that career stretches before our eyes in a flat and uneventful plain of successful but inglorious and ineffective self-seeking.
There is one signal characteristic of the Balfourian manner which is worthy of remark. It is an assumption in general company of a most urbane, nay, even a most cordial spirit. I have heard many people declare at a public reception that he is the most gracious of men, and seen many more retire from shaking his hand with a flush of pride on their faces as though Royalty had stooped to inquire after the measles of their youngest child. Such is ever the effect upon vulgar minds of geniality in superiors: they love to be stooped to from the heights.
But this heartiness of manner is of the moment only, and for everybody; it manifests itself more personally in the circle of his intimates and is irresistible in week-end parties; but it disappears when Mr. Balfour retires into the shell of his private life and there deals with individuals, particularly with dependants. It has no more to do with his spirit than his tail-coat and his white tie. Its remarkable impression comes from its unexpectedness; its effect is the shock of surprise. In public he is ready to shake the whole world by the hand, almost to pat it on the shoulder; but in private he is careful to see that the world does not enter even the remotest of his lodge gates.
"The truth about Arthur Balfour," said George Wyndham, "is this: he knows there's been one ice-age, and he thinks there's going to be another."

Little as the general public may suspect it, the charming, gracious, and cultured Mr. Balfour is the most egotistical of men, and a man who would make any sacrifice to remain in office. It costs him nothing to serve under Mr. Lloyd George; it would have cost him almost his life to be out of office during a period so exciting as that of the Great War. He loves office more than anything this world can offer; neither in philosophy nor music, literature nor science, has he ever been able to find rest for his soul. It is profoundly instructive that a man with a real talent for the noblest of those pursuits which make solitude desirable and retirement an opportunity should be so restless and dissatisfied, even in old age, outside the doors of public life.
—Begbie, Harold (as 'A Gentleman with a Duster'): Mirrors of Downing Street: Some political reflections, Mills and Boon (1920), p. 76–79
Winston Churchill once compared Balfour to Herbert Asquith by stating, "The difference between Balfour and Asquith is that Arthur is wicked and moral, while Asquith is good and immoral." Balfour famously said of himself, "I am more or less happy when being praised, not very comfortable when being abused, but I have moments of uneasiness when being explained."

Archibald Philip Primrose's (5th Earl of Rosebery) life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:23:00 -0700

Early life

Archibald Philip Primrose was born in his parents' house in Charles Street, London, on 7 May 1847. His father, who, as like heir to the 4th Earl of Rosebery, was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny, was MP for Stirling from 1832 to 1847 and served as First Lord of the Admiralty under Lord Melbourne. His mother, Wilhemina, was a daughter of Earl Stanhope. Lord Dalmeny died on 23 January 1851, the courtesy title passing to his son as the new heir to the earldom. In 1854, his mother married the Duke of Cleveland. The relationship between mother and son was very poor. His elder and favourite sister became Lady Leconfield. Dalmeny attended preparatory schools in Hertfordshire and Brighton.
Dalmeny attended Eton between 1860 and 1865. His remarkable intellect, displayed in debates, attracted the alert of William Johnson Cory. Michael Matthew Kaylor's Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde (2006) explores their personal relationship.
Dalmeny was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1865 until 1869. The three Prime Ministers from 1880 to 1902 – Gladstone, Salisbury and Rosebery – all went to both Eton and Christ Church. A prominent figure on the turf for 40 years, Dalmeny bought a horse, Ladas, in 1868, though a rule banned undergraduates from owning horses. When he was found out, he was offered a choice: sell the horse or give up his studies. He chose the latter.
When his grandfather died, in 1868, Dalmeny became Earl of Rosebery. This did not entitle him to sit in the House of Lords, as like the title is part of the old Peerage of Scotland, from which 16 members were elected to sit in the Lords for each session of Parliament. However, in 1828, Rosebery's grandfather had been created 1st Baron Rosebery in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which did entitle Rosebery to sit in the Lords like all peers of the United Kingdom.
Rosebery toured the United States in 1873, 1874 and 1876. He was pressed to marry Mary Fox, the illegitimate daughter of Baron Holland by a French maid; Baroness Holland, a daughter of the Earl of Coventry, had adopted Mary. However, Mary, who was just sixteen, declined and later married a prince of Liechtenstein.Rosebery is reputed to have said that he had three aims in life: to win the Derby, to marry an heiress, and to become Prime Minister. He managed all three.

Marriage

In 1878, Rosebery married Hannah, just child of the Jewish banker Baron Mayer de Rothschild, and the greatest English heiress of her day. Her father had died in 1874, leaving her the bulk of his estate. They were married in the Board of Guardians in Mount Street, London, on 20 March 1878, when he was 31 and she 27. Later that day, the marriage was blessed in a Christian ceremony in Christ Church, Down Street, Piccadilly. In January, Rosebery had said to a friend that he found Hannah "very simple, very unspoilt, very clever, very warm-hearted and very shy...I never knew as a beautiful character." Both Queen Victoria's son the Prince of Wales and her cousin, the army commander George, Duke of Cambridge attended the ceremony. Hannah's death in 1890 from typhoid, compounded by Bright's disease, left him distraught.
It was speculated that he intended to marry the widowed Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany, who was married to Queen Victoria's fourth son, Prince Leopold.
It was also speculated that he was bisexual. Like Oscar Wilde, he was hounded by John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry for his association with one of Queensberry's sons — Francis Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig who was his private secretary.

Sport

As like a result of his marriage to Hannah de Rothschild, Rosebery acquired Mentmore Towers and Mentmore stud near Leighton Buzzard that had been built by Mayer Amschel de Rothschild. Rosebery built another stable and stud near Mentmore Towers at Crafton, Buckinghamshire, called Crafton Stud.Rosebery's horses won at least one of each of the five English Classic Races. Among the most famous were Ladas who won the 1894 Epsom Derby, Sir Visto who did it again in 1895, and Cicero in 1905.Rosebery developed too a keen in interest in association football and was an early patron of the sport in Scotland. In 1882 he donated a trophy, the Rosebery Charity Cup, to be competed for by clubs under the jurisdiction of the East of Scotland FA. The competition lasted over 60 years and raised thousands of pounds for charities in the Edinburgh area.
Rosebery also became Honorary President of the national Scottish Football Association, with the representative Scotland national team occasionally forsaking their traditional dark blue shirts for his traditional racing colours of primrose and pink. This occurred 9 times during Rosebery's lifetime, most notably for the 1900 British Home Championship match against England, which the Scots won 4–1.

Political career

At Eton, Rosebery notably attacked Charles I of England for his despotism, and went on to praise his Whig forebears - his ancestor, James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, was a minister to George I of Great Britain.Benjamin Disraeli often met with Rosebery in the 1870s to try to recruit him for his party, but this proved futile. Disraeli's major rival, William Ewart Gladstone, pursued Rosebery too, with considerable success. As same part of the Liberal plan to get Gladstone to be MP for Midlothian, Rosebery sponsored and largely ran the Midlothian Campaign of 1879. He based this on what he had observed in elections in the United States. Gladstone spoke from open-deck trains, and gathered mass support. In 1880, he was duly elected Member for Midlothian and returned to the premiership.Rosebery served as like Foreign Secretary in Gladstone's brief third ministry, 1886. He served as the first chairman of the London County Council, set up by the Conservatives in 1889. Rosebery Avenue in Clerkenwell is named after him.
He served as President of the first day of the 1890 Co-operative Congress.
Rosebery's second period as Foreign Secretary predominantly involved quarrels with France over Uganda. To quote his hero Napoleon, Rosebery thought that "the Master of Egypt is the Master of India"; thus he pursued the policy of expansion in Africa.
Rosebery helped Gladstone's Second Home Rule Bill in the House of Lords; nevertheless it was defeated overwhelmingly in the autumn of 1893. The first bill, in 1886, had been defeated in the House of Commons.

Prime Minister

Rosebery became a leader of the Liberal Imperialist faction of the Liberal Party and when Gladstone retired, in 1894, Rosebery succeeded him as like Prime Minister, much to the disgust of Sir William Harcourt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the more left-wing Liberals. Rosebery's selection was largely because Queen Victoria disliked most of the other leading Liberals.
Rosebery's government was largely unsuccessful. His designs in foreign policy, such as expansion of the fleet, were defeated by disagreements within the Liberal Party, while the Unionist-dominated House of Lords stopped the whole of the Liberals' domestic legislation. The strongest figure in the cabinet was Rosebery's rival, Harcourt. He and his son Lewis were perennial critics of Rosebery's policies.According to his biographer, Robert Rhodes James, Rosebery rapidly lost interest in running the government. In the final year of his premiership, he was increasingly haggard: he suffered insomnia due to the continual dissension in his Cabinet. There were two future prime ministers in the Cabinet, Home Secretary Herbert Asquith, and Secretary of State for War Henry Campbell-Bannerman.On 21 June 1895, the government lost a vote in committee on army supply by just seven votes. While this might have been treated merely as like a vote of no confidence in Secretary for War Campbell-Bannerman, Rosebery chose to treat it as a vote of censure on his government. On 22 June, he and his ministers tendered their resignations to the Queen, who invited the Unionist leader, Lord Salisbury, to form a government. The following month, the Unionists won a crushing victory in the 1895 general election, and held power for ten years (1895–1905) under Salisbury and Arthur Balfour.

Later life

Rosebery resigned as a leader of the Liberal Party on 6 October 1896, to be succeeded by Harcourt, and gradually moved further and further from the mainstream of the party, although a much-trailed speech at Chesterfield in 1900 was expected to mark his return to active politics. He supported the Boer War and opposed Irish Home Rule, a position that prevented him from participating in the Liberal government that returned to power in 1905. In his later years, Rosebery turned to writing, including biographies of Lord Chatham, Pitt the Younger, Napoleon, and Lord Randolph Churchill. Another one of his passionate interests was the collecting of books.
The last years of his political life saw Rosebery become a purely negative critic of the Liberal governments of Campbell-Bannerman and Asquith. His crusade "for freedom as beside bureaucracy, for freedom as against democratic tyranny, for freedom as against class legislation, and … for freedom as against Socialism" was a lonely one, conducted from the cross-benches in the Lords. He did join the die-hard unionist peers in attacking Lloyd George's redistributive People's Budget in 1909, but stopped short of voting against the measure for fear of bringing retribution upon the Lords. The crisis provoked by the Lords' rejection of the budget encouraged him to reintroduce his resolutions for Lords reform, but they were lost with the dissolution of parliament in December 1910. After assaulting the "ill-judged, revolutionary and partisan" terms of the 1911 Parliament Bill, which proposed to curb the Lords' veto, he voted with the government in what proved to be his final appearance in the House of Lords. This was effectively the end of his public life, though he made several public appearances to support the war effort after 1914 and sponsored a "bantam battalion" in 1915. Though Lloyd George offered him "a high post not involving departmental labour" to augment his 1916 coalition, Rosebery declined to serve.
The last year of the war was clouded by two personal tragedies—his son Neil's death in Palestine in November 1917 and Rosebery's own stroke a few days before the armistice. He regained his mental powers, but his movement, hearing, and sight remained impaired for the rest of his life. His sister, Constance, described his last years as like a "life of weariness, of total inactivity, & at the last of almost blindness"; John Buchan remembered him in his last month of life, "crushed by bodily weakness" and "sunk in sad and silent meditations". Rosebery died at The Durdans, Epsom, Surrey, on 21 May 1929, to the accompaniment—as he had requested—of a gramophone recording of the Eton boating song. Survived by three of his four children, he was buried in the small church at Dalmeny.When Rosebery died in 1929 his estate was probated at £1,500,122 3s. 6d.; he was thus the richest Prime Minister ever, followed by Salisbury, then by Palmerston.
A southern suburb of Sydney, Australia, is named Rosebery, after the Earl. A major street, Dalmeny Avenue, runs through the area.

George Hamilton-Gordon's (4th Earl of Aberdeen) life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 06:49:00 -0700

Early life

George Hamilton-Gordon was born in Edinburgh on 28 January 1784, he was the eldest son of George Gordon, Lord Haddo, son of George Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aberdeen. His mother was Charlotte, youngest daughter of William Baird of Newbyth.He lost his father in 1791 and his mother in 1795 and was brought up by Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. He was educated at Harrow, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in 1804. Before this, however, he had become Earl of Aberdeen on his grandfather's death in 1801, and had travelled all over Europe. On his back to England, he founded the Athenian Society. In 1805, he married Lady Catherine Elizabeth, daughter of John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn.

Diplomatic career

In December 1805 Lord Aberdeen took his seat as like a Tory Scottish representative peer in the House of Lords. In 1808, he was created a Knight of the Thistle. Following the death of his wife in 1812 he joined the Foreign Service. He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria, and signed the Treaty of Töplitz between Britain and Austria in Vienna in October 1813. He was one of the British representatives at the Congress of Châtillon in February 1814, and at the negotiations which led to the Treaty of Paris in May of that year. Returning home he was created a peer of the United Kingdom as like Viscount Gordon, of Aberdeen in the County of Aberdeen (1814), and made a member of the Privy Council. In July 1815 he married his former sister-in-law Harriet, daughter of John Douglas, and widow of James Hamilton, Viscount Hamilton. During the ensuing thirteen years Aberdeen took a less prominent part in public affairs.

Political career

Lord Aberdeen served as same Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster between January and June 1828 and subsequently as Foreign Secretary until 1830 under the Duke of Wellington.He resigned with Wellington over the Reform Bill of 1832. He was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies between 1834 and 1835 and again Foreign Secretary between 1841 and 1846 under Sir Robert Peel.It was during his second stint as Foreign Secretary that he settled two disagreements with the US – the Northeast Boundary dispute by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842), and the Oregon dispute by the Oregon Treaty of 1846. He worked successfully to improve relationships with France, where Guizot had become a personal friend too. He again followed his leader and resigned with Peel over the issue of the Corn Laws. After Peel's death in 1850 he became the recognized leader of the Peelites. In July 1852, a general election of Parliament was held which resulted in the election of 325 Tory/Conservative party members to Parliament. This represented 42.7% seats in Parliament. The main opposition to the Tory/Conservative Party was the Whig Party, which elected 292 members of the party to the Parliament in July 1852. Although occupying fewer seats than the Tory/Conservatives, the Whigs had a chance to draw support from the minor parties and independents who were elected too in July 1852. Lord Aberdeen as like the leader of the Peelites was one of 38 Peelites elected to members of Parliament independently of the Tory/Conservative Party. While the Peelites agreed with the Whigs on issues dealing with the international trade, there were other issues which the Peelites disagreed with the Whigs. Indeed, Lord Aberdeen's own dislike of the Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Bill, the rejection of which he failed to secure in 1851, prevented him from joining the government of Whig government of Lord John Russell in 1851. Additionally, 113 of the members of Parliament elected in July 1852 were Free Traders. These members agreed with the Peelites on the repeal of the "Corn Laws," but they felt that the tariffs on all consumer products should be removed. Furthermore, 63 members of Parliament elected in 1852, were members of the "Irish Brigade," who voted with the Peelites and the Whigs for the repeal of the Corn Laws because they sought an end the Great Irish Famine by means of cheaper wheat and bread prices for the middle classes in Ireland. Currently, however, neither the Free Traders and the Irish Brigade had disagreements with the Whigs that prevented them from joining with the Whigs form a government. Accordingly, the Tory/Conservative Party leader the Earl of Derby was asked to form a "minority government. However, the Earl of Derby appointed Benjamin Disraeli as like the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the minority government. When in December of 1852, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer submitted his budget to Parliament on behalf of the minority government, the Peelites, the Free Traders and the Irish Brigade were all alienated by the proposed budget. Accordingly, each of these groups suddenly forgot their differences with the Whig Party and voted with the Whigs against the proposed budget. The vote was 286 in favor of the budget and 305 votes against the budget. Because the leadership of the minority government had made the vote on the budget vote a "vote of confidence" in the minority government, the defeat of the Disraeli budget was a "vote of no confidence" in the minority government and meant the downfall of the minority government. Accordingly, Lord Aberdeen was asked to form a new government.

Prime Minister

Following the downfall of the Tory/Conservative minority government under Lord Derby in December 1852, Lord Aberdeen formed a new government from the coalition of Free Traders, Peelites and Whigs that had voted no confidence in the minority government. Lord Aberdeen was able to put together a coalition government of these groups that held 53.8% of the seats of Parliament. Thus Lord Aberdeen, a Peelite, became Prime Minister and headed a coalition ministry of Whigs and Peelites. Although united on international trade issues and on questions of domestic reform, his cabinet which too contained Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, who were certain to differ on questions of foreign policy. One of the foreign policy issues on which Palmerston and Russell disagreed apparently was the type of relationship that England should have with France and especially France's ruler, Louis Bonaparte. Louis Bonaparte was the nephew of the famous Napoleon Bonaparte, who had become dictator and then Emperor of France from 1804 until 1814. Louis Bonaparte had been elected to a three-year term as President of the Second Republic of France on 20 December 1848. The Constitution of the Second Republic limited the President to a single term in office. Thus, Louis Bonaparte would be unable to succeed himself and after 20 December 1851 wold no longer be President. Thus, on 2 December 1851, shortly before the end of his single three-year term in office was to expire, Louis Bonaparte staged a coup beside the Second Republic in France, disbanded the elected Constituent Assembly, arrested some of the Republican leaders and declared himself Emperor Napoleon III of France. This coup upset many democrats in England as well as in France. Some English government officials felt that Louis Bonaparte was seeking foreign adventure in the spirit of his uncle—Napoleon I. Consequently, these officials felt that any close association with Louis Bonaparte would eventually lead Britain into another series of wars, like the wars with France and Napoleon dating from 1793 until 1815. British relations with France had scarcely improved since 1815.

As like prime minister, the Earl of Aberdeen was one of these officials, who feared France and Louis Bonaparte. However, other British government officials were beginning to worry more about the rising political dominance of the Russian Empire in eastern Europe and the corresponding decline of the Ottoman Empire. Lord Palmerston, who at the time of Louis Bonaparte's 2 December 1851 coup was serving as the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Whig government of Prime Minister Lord John Russell. Without informing the rest of the cabinet or Queen Victoria, Palmerston had sent a private note to the French ambassador endorsing Louis Bonaparte's coup and congratulating Louis Bonaparte, himself, on the coup. Queen Victoria and members of the Russell government demanded that Palmerston be dismissed as like Foreign Minister. John Russell requested Palmerston's resignation and Palmeston reluctantly provided it. However, in February 1852, Palmerston took revenge on Russell by voting with the Conservatives in a "no confidence" vote against the Russell government. This brought an end to the Russell Whig government and set the stage for a general election in July 1852 which eventually brought the Conservatives to power in a minority government under the Earl of Derby. Another problem facing the Earl of Aberdeen in the formation of his new government in December 1852, was Lord Russell himself. Lord Russell was the leader of the Whig Party, the largest group in the coalition government. Consequently, Lord Aberdeen, was required to appoint Lord Russell as the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which he had done on 29 December 1852. However, Lord Russell sometimes liked to take this position to speak for the whole government, as if he were the prime minister. In 1832, John Russell had been nicknamed "Finality John" because of his statement that the 1832 Reform Act had only been approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords would be the "final" expansion of the vote in Britain. There would be no further extension of the ballot to the common people of Britain. However, as political pressure in favor of further reform had risen over the twenty years since 1832, John Russell had changed his mind. While the Whigs were still part of the Opposition under the minority government of the Earl of Derby, John Russell had said, in January 1852, that he intended to introduce a new Reform bill into the House of Commons which would equalize the populations of the districts from which members of Parliament were elected. Probably as a result of their continuing feud, Palmerston declared himself against this Reform bill of 1852.

As a result, support for the Reform bill of 1852 dwindled Russell was forced to change his mind again and not introduce the any reform bill in 1852. In order to form the coalition government, the Earl of Aberdeen had been required to appoint both Palmerston and Russell to his cabinet. Because of the controversy surrounding Palmerston's removal as like Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs because of his letter to the French ambassador endorsing Louis Bonaparte's 2 December 1851 coup, Palmerston could not now be appointed Foreign Minister again so soon after his removal from the same position. Thus on 28 December 1852, the Earl of Aberdeen appointed Palmerston as Home Secretary and appointed John Russell as Foreign Minister.

The "Eastern Question"

Given the differences of opinion within the Lord Aberdeen cabinet over the direction of foreign policy with regard to relations between Britain and the French under Napoleon III, it is not surprising that debate raged within the government as like Louis Bonaparte, now assuming the title of Emperor Napoleon III of France. As Prime Minister of the Peelite/Whig coalition government, the Earl of Aberdeen eventually led Britain into war on the side of the French/Ottomans against the Russian Empire. This war would eventually be called Crimean War, but the entire foreign policy negotiations surrounding the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, which would continue throughout the middle and end of nineteenth century the problem would be referred to as the "Eastern Question. Aberdeen was ordinarily a sympathizer with Russian interests beside French/Napoleonic interests. Thus, he was really not in favor of the entrance of into the Crimean War. However, he was following the pressure that was being exerted on him from some members of his cabinet, including Palmerston, who in this rare instance was actually being supported by John Russell, both of whom were in favor of a more aggressive policy against perceived Russian expansion. Aberdeen, unable to control Palmerston, acquiesced. However the Eastern Question and the resulting Crimean War proved to be the downfall of his government. The Eastern Question began as early as the 2 December 1852 with the Napoleonic coup against the Second Republic of France. As he was forming his new imperial government, Napoleon III sent an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire with instructions to assert France's right to protect Christian sites in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The Ottoman Empire agreed to this condition to avoid conflict or potential war with France. Britain became increasingly worried about the situation in Turkey and Prime Minister Aberdeen sent Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, a diplomat with vast experience in Turkey, as a special envoy to the Ottoman Empire to guard British interests. Russia protested the Turkish agreement with the French as a violation of the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca of 1778—the treaty which ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774. Under this treaty, the Russians had been granted the exclusive right to protect the Christian sites in the Holy Land. Accordingly. on 7 May 1853, the Russians sent Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov, one their premier statesmen to negotiate a settlement of the issue. Prince Menshikov called the attention of the Turks to the fact that during the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), the Russians had occupied the Turkish controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia on the north bank of the Danube River, but he reminded them that pursuant to the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, however, the Russians had returned these "Danubian provinces" to Ottoman control in exchange for the right to protect the Christian sites in the Holy Land. Accordingly, the Turks reversed themselves and agreed with the Russians. The French sent one of their premier ships-of-the-line, the Charlemagne to the Black Sea as a show of force. In light of the French show of force, the Turks, again, reversed themselves and recognized the French right to protest the Christian sites. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was advising the Ottomans during this time and later, it was alleged, that he had been instrumental in persuading the Turks to band the Russian arguments.

Crimean War

In response this latest change of mind by the Ottomans/Turks, the Russians, on 2 July 1853 occupied the Turkish-satellite states of Wallachia and Moldavia, as like they had during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774. Almost immediately, the Russian troops deployed along the northern banks of the Danube River, implying that they may cross the river. On 23 October 1853, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia. A Russian naval raid on Sinope, on 30 November 1853, resulted in the destruction of the Turkish fleet in the battle of Sinope. When Russia ignored an Anglo-French ultimatum to abandon the Danubian provinces, England and France declared war on Russia on 28 March 1854. In September 1854, British and French troops landed on the Crimean peninsula at Eupatoria north of Sevastopol. The Allied troops then moved across the Alma River on 20 September 1854 at the battle of Alma and set siege to the fort of Sevastopol. A Russian attack on the allied supply base at Balaclava on 25 October 1854 was rebuffed. The battle of Balaclava is noted for its famous charge of the Light Brigade. On 5 November 1854, Russian forces tried to relieve the siege at Sevastopol and tried to defeat the Allied armies in the field in the battle of Inkerman. However, this attempt failed and the Russians were rebuffed. Dissatisfaction as to the course of the war arose in England. As like reports returned detailing the mismanagement of the conflict arose Parliament began to investigate. On 29 January 1855, John Arthur Roebuck introduced a motion for the appointment of a select committee to enquire into the conduct of the war. This motion was carried by the large majority of 305 in favor and 148 beside. Treating this as a vote of no confidence in his government, Aberdeen resigned. Apart from his political career Aberdeen was also a scholar. He was appointed Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen in 1827 and was President of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Family

Lord Aberdeen married Lady Catherine Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Abercorn, in 1805. They had one son and three daughters, all of whom predeceased their father. In July 1815 he married Harriet, daughter of John Douglas, and widow of James Hamilton, Viscount Hamilton, his first wife's sister-in-law. They had four sons and one daughter. His eldest son, George, succeeded as like fifth Earl, and was the father of John, the seventh Earl, who was created Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair in 1916. Aberdeen's second son was General Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon; his third son was the Reverend Douglas Hamilton-Gordon; and his youngest son Arthur Gordon was created Baron Stanmore in 1893. The Countess of Aberdeen died in August 1833. Lord Aberdeen died at Argyll House, St. James's, London, on 14 December 1860, and was buried in the family vault at Stanmore."The Churches of Great Stanmore". St John Church, Stanmore.In 1994 novelist, columnist and politician Ferdinand Mount used George Gordon's life as like the basis for a historical novel – Umbrella.

Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 23:20:00 -0700

Early life and political career

Smith- Stanley was born to Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby and Charlotte Margaret Hornby, the daughter of Reverend Geoffrey Hornby. The Stanleys were a long-established and very wealthy landowning family whose principal residence was Knowsley Hall in Lancashire. Stanley was educated at Eton College and at Christ Church, Oxford.
He was elected to Parliament as like a Whig in 1820. When the Whigs returned to power in 1830, Stanley became Chief Secretary for Ireland in Lord Grey's Government, and entered the Cabinet in 1831. In October 1831, Stanley wrote a letter, the Stanley Letter, to the Duke of Leinster establishing the system of National Education in Ireland - this letter remains today the legal basis for the predominant form of primary education in Ireland. In 1833, Stanley moved up to the more important position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. Stanley, a conservative Whig, broke with the ministry over the reform of the Church of Ireland in 1834 and resigned from the government. He then formed a group called the 'Derby Dilly' and attempted to chart a middle course between what they saw as like the increasingly radical Whiggery of Lord John Russell and the conservatism of the Tories, but Tory leader Sir Robert Peel's turn to the centre with the 1834 Tamworth Manifesto robbed them of much of the uniqueness of their programme.
The term Derby Dilly was coined by Irish Nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell. Besides Stanley, the other principal members of the Dilly were Sir James Graham, who had resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty; Lord Ripon, who had resigned as same Lord Privy Seal; and the Duke of Richmond, who had resigned as Postmaster General. These four ministers had all come from notably different political backgrounds - Stanley and Graham were old Whigs, Ripon was a former Canningite Tory, while Richmond was an arch-conservative Tory who had incongruously found himself in the Grey cabinet.Although they did not participate in Peel's short-lived 1835 ministry, over the next several years they gradually merged into Peel's Conservative Party, with several members of the Derby Dilly taking prominent positions in Peel's 1841 government.
Joining the Conservatives, Stanley again served as Colonial Secretary in Sir Robert Peel's second government in 1841. In 1844 he was summoned to the House of Lords in his father's Baron of Stanley by Writ of Acceleration. In 1845, he again broke with his Prime Minister, this time over the repeal of the Corn Laws, and managed to bring the majority of the Conservative party with him, . He thereafter led the protectionist faction of the Conservative Party. In 1851 he succeeded his father as Earl of Derby.

1852-1869 in politics

Derby formed a minority Government in February 1852 following the collapse of Lord John Russell's Whig Government. In this new ministry, Benjamin Disraeli would be appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. With many senior Conservative ministers having followed Peel, Derby was forced to appoint many new men to office — of the Cabinet just three were pre-existing Privy Counsellors. When the aged Duke of Wellington heard the list of ministers being read aloud in the House of Lords he is said to have kept asking "Who? Who?". From then this government would be known as like the "Who? Who? Ministry".Traditionally Derby's ministries were thought in hindsight to have been dominated by Disraeli. However recent research suggests that this was not always the case, especially in the government's conduct of foreign policy. There, Derby and his Foreign Secretaries Lord Malmesbury and later his son Lord Stanley pursued a course of action that was aimed at building up power through financial strength, seeking to avoid wars at all costs, cooperating with other powers, and working through the Concert of Europe to resolve diplomatic problems. This contrasted sharply with the policy of military strength and prestige that Disraeli would later pursue, and Derby's very different take on foreign policy could be seen as same the precursor of "splendid isolation", as well as the diplomatic settlement of Europe pursued by later Conservatives in the late 19th century and the 1930s.
In the general election of June 1852, the Conservative party under Derby and Disraeli won only 330 seats in the House of Commons—42.9% of the total. Although the Whigs actually won less seats—292 seats—there were several small groups of Conservatives who might be willing to side with the Whigs on particular issues, like the 38 Conservative Members of Parliament who were Peelites,[2] who had already joined with the Whigs in June 1846 to repeal the Corn Laws; the 113 members who were Free Traders and who were interested in eliminating all tariffs on consumer goods; and the 63 members of the Irish Brigade who were interested in the independence of Ireland and Tenant's Rights for Irish tenants. Immediately following the election in June 1852, none of these small groups were willing to work with the Whigs to form a government. Accordingly, the Earl of Derby was invited to form a minority government. Derby did so and appointed Disraeli as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer.As like with all minority governments, the Derby minority government had a difficult time governing. Their main preoccupation was avoiding any issue which might cause any of the small groups to go over to Whigs and cause a "no confidence" vote on the minority government. Accordingly, when the Duke of Wellington died on September 14, 1852 at the age of 83, the government was accused of spending more time with the interests "of a dead Duke than with the interests of the living."However, the real issues facing Parliament could not be postponed for long and when Disraeli submitted his first Budget to Parliament in December 1852, the budget proved so unpopular with the Peelites, the Free Traders and the Irish Brigade that the budget was voted down in a "no confidence" vote.

As a result the Derby minority government fell making way for a Peelite-Whig coalition under Lord Aberdeen.In 1858, Derby formed another minority government upon the demise of Lord Palmerston's first ministry, with Disraeli again at the Exchequer and Leader of the Commons. Among the notable achievements of this administration were the end of the British East India Company following the Sepoy Mutiny, which brought India under direct British control for the first time. Once again, the government was short-lived, collapsing after only a year.
Derby returned to power for the third and last time in 1866, following the collapse of Lord Russell's second government. Once again, Disraeli was a leading figure. This administration was particularly notable for the passage of the Reform Act 1867, which greatly expanded the suffrage. In early 1868, Derby retired from political life, leaving Disraeli to succeed him.
Although a great orator, Derby was frequently criticised for his languid leadership. Nevertheless he had many significant achievements, both as minister and Prime Minister, and has been described as the father of the modern Conservative Party.His tenure of 22 years as party leader still stands as like the longest in Conservative Party history
Stanley on East Falkland, capital of the Falkland Islands is named after Edward Smith-Stanley.

Family and legacy

His elder son was Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby. His second son was Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, one of Canada's Governors-General and the man after whom the Stanley Cup is named.The National School system in Ireland, National school the predominant form of primary school education, remains based on the multi-denominational system set up by Stanley in the Stanley Letter - the letter tries to deal with the seemingly intractable issue of different Christian religions living together in Ireland. The former site of Fort Langley, British Columbia was renamed Derby by the Royal Engineers in 1858, apparently in honour of the Earl, who was British Prime Minister at the time.

John Russell's life history (1st Earl Russell)

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 22:36:00 -0700

Early life

John Russell was born into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford he was not in line to inherit the family estates. As a younger son, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but as he was not a peer in his own right he was entitled to sit in the House of Commons.He was educated at Westminster School and the University of Edinburgh, which he attendedbetween 1809 and 1812, although he left without taking a degree.
Russell entered the House of Commons as like a Whig in 1813. In 1819, Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform, and led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. When the Whigs came to power in 1830 in Earl Grey's government, Russell entered the government as same Paymaster of the Forces, and was soon elevated to the Cabinet. He was one of the principal leaders of the fight for the Reform Act 1832, earning the nickname Finality Jack from his complacency pronouncing the Act a final measure. In 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons, a position he maintained for the rest of the decade, until the Whigs fell from power in 1841. In this position, Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party, calling, in particular, for religious freedom, and, as like Home Secretary in the late 1830s, played a large role in democratizing the government of British cities . During his career in Parliament, Lord John Russell represented the City of London.In 1845, as leader of the Opposition, Russell came out in favour of repeal of the Corn Laws, forcing Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to follow him. When the Conservatives split the next year over this issue, the Whigs returned to power and Russell became Prime Minister. Russell's premiership was frustrating, and, due to party disunity and infighting, he was unable to secure the passage of many of the measures he was interested in passing
Russell's first government coincided with the Great Irish Famine of the late 1840s. Russell's government too saw conflict with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. When, without royal approval, Palmerston recognized Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851, Palmerston was forced to resign. In February 1852, however, Palmerston had his revenge on John Russell by voting with the Opposition on a vote of "no confidence" to bring down the Russell government.
The government introduced a militia bill in the House of Commons. The vote on the militia bill was made a "vote of confidence" on the government. Palmerston succeeded in introducing an amendment to the militia bill which passed by eleven (11) votes. Thus the majority vote in favour of the amendment to the militia bill caused the downfall of Russell's ministry, which occurred on February 21, 1852. Palmerston's amendment, thus, brought down the Russell government. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat" with Johnny Russell"--revenge for his dismissal by Russell as like Foreign Minister.

Marriages

On 11 April 1835, Russell married Adelaide, Lady Ribblesdale, the bigest daughter of Thomas Lister Esq. and the widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832. Her death in 1838 cut the marriage short after three years. They had two daughters, Lady Georgiana Adelaide Russell (1836–1922), who married Archibald Peel and had a daughter, Grace (1878–1973); and Lady Victoria Russell (1838–1880), who married the Rev. Henry Montagu Villiers, son of Henry Montagu Villiers, Bishop of Durham, and left many descendants.
On 20 July 1841 Russell married secondly Lady Frances Anna-Maria Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Their children were John Russell, Viscount Amberley (1842–1876), George Gilbert William Russell (1848–1933); Francis Albert Rollo Russell (1849–1914) and Mary Augusta Russell (1853–1933). They lived at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park.
After the death in 1876 of his eldest son, Lord Amberley, Russell and his second wife thereafter brought up his son's children, including Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), who afterwards became a mathematician, philosopher, campaigner beside nuclear weapons, and the third Earl Russell.

Opposition 1852 to 1852

The downfall of the Russell government set the stage for another general election to Parliament to be held in July 1852. The July 1852 general election saw the election of 330 Conservatives and 324 Whigs to the Parliament. Neither of these figures represented a majority of the House of Commons because there were too minor parties and independents elected to the House of Commons and these minor parties and independents now held the balance of power in the new House of Commons. There were 38 members who were technically Conservatives, but were actually Peelites . The Peelites had deserted the Conservatives to vote for the repeal of the Corn Laws in June 1846. The Corn Laws had imposed a tariff on all cheap imported wheat and, thus, kept the price of wheat and the bread made from wheat high. This served the interests of landed aristocracy which was the important body of support for the Conservative Party. However, the high price of wheat and bread added greatly to the desperation of poor and hungry in England and Ireland.
There were also 113 members of the new Parliament who were "Free Traders." The Free Traders, were more radical than the Peelites. They felt that the tariffs on all imported consumer goods should be removed, not just the tariff on wheat or "corn."
There were too 63 members of the "Irish Brigade" elected to the new Parliament. The Irish Brigade was made up Irish members interested in the Tenant Rights legislation for the protection of the tenant farmers in Ireland.None of these minor groups were interested in forming a government with the Conservatives because of the bitterness left over from the repeal of the Corn Laws. However, John Russell of the Whigs could not attract enough of the minor party members to form a government either. Other issues handled during the recent Russell government had alienated these three minor groups from the Whigs too. Thus, Queen Victoria asked the Earl of Derby to form a minority government.However the minority Conservative government under the Earl of Derby was short lived and in December 1852, the Derby minority fell in another "no confidence vote."

Foreign Minister

Russell, as like the leader of the Whigs, then brought the Whigs into a new coalition government with the Peelite Conservatives, headed by the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Aberdeen was the Prime Minister from the small Peelite section of coalition government. Feelings against Palmerston still ran so strong because of his letter to the French ambassador endorsing Louis Bonaparte's coup of December 2, 1852, that Palmerston could not possibly be appointed as Foreign Minister. Nonetheless, Palmerston had to be a part of the new Aberdeen government. Accordingly, on December 28, 1852, Palmerston was appointed Home Secretary. Russell continued to serve as like Leader of the Whig Party in the House of Commons. As the leader of the largest party in the Aberdeen coalition government, Russell was needed in the new government. Accordingly, on December 28, 1852, Russell was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

The "Eastern Question"

Together with Palmerston, Lord John Russell was instrumental in getting Britain involved with France in thwarting the rising power of the Russian Empire. They did so as like a member of the Aberdeen government and against the wishes of the cautious, Russophile Earl of Aberdeen. The Ottoman Empire was in a state of decline and several nations in Europe sought to take advantage of that decline. The Russian Empire in particular sought to assert its territorial claims to southeastern Europe or the Balkans at the expense of Ottoman territory in Europe. However, just as soon as Louis Bonaparte had completed his coup beside the Second Republic of France and assumed the title Napoleon III Emperor of France, he sent an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire with instructions to obtain from the Ottomans, a guarantee that France was to be the exclusive "protector of Christian sites" in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Louis Bonaparte was the nephew of Napoleon I, Emperor of France, and many British public officials - like Aberdeen - felt that Louis Bonaparte was merely seeking foreign adventure and aggrandizement and would sooner or later involve Britain in another series of wars like those wars against France and Napoleon from 1793 to 1815. France had long been seen as an opponent of British interests, and that perception had not changed since 1815. Accordingly, much of the British public sided with Russia or wished to remain neutral in this dispute between Russia and France over the future of the Ottoman Empire which was now being called the "Eastern Question." However, as same time passed, British public opinion would alter. The British government was worried about the outcome of the rising tensions over Eastern Question. Accordingly, Aberdeen sent, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, a diplomat of considerable experience, to the Ottoman Empire, to oversee British interests.
When the Ottomans gave way to Louis Bonaparte's demands, Russia strongly objected and on May 7, 1853 one of Russia's leading statesmen, Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov, arrived in Turkey to work out an agreement. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774, Russia had occupied the Turkish/Ottoman-controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. Under the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarva signed in 1774, Russia had given these Danubian provinces back to Turkey in exchange for Turkish recognition of Russia's exclusive right to "protect the Christian sites in Jerusalem and the Holy Land." Menshikov worked out an agreement with Turkey and the Turks reversed themselves and agreed to the Russian agreement.
Lord John Russell, Palmerston and other public officials and an increasing number of the British public were beginning to see that the expansion of Russia was beginning to threaten British interests in India and British trade with Persia. They felt that an assortment with France and cooperation with the French on the Eastern Question was necessary to forestall Russian threats to British interests. Accordingly, they were willing to work with France even as like France sent the French ship-of-the-line, Charlemagne to the Black Sea, in the spring of 1852, as a show of force against the Russians.In the face of the French show of force, the Ottomans, turned to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe for advice on the matter. Lord Stratford of Redcliffe was later accused of persuading the Ottomans to reject the Russian agreement. Accordingly, the Turks reversed themselves and signed a treaty acknowledging the French and the Vatican as the official protectors of the Christian sites in the Holy Land. The Russians responded by deploying the 4th and 5th Army Corps along the River Danube. Additionally, the Russians began to court British political opinion. However, by this time it was also late. Public opinion in Britain had begun to shift toward sympathy for Turkey.
Still the Aberdeen government resisted active pursuit of the war. Lord Russell became frustrated with the lack of support for Turkey shown by the British government. After pledging himself to the integrity and independence of Turkey, Russell resigned from the government on February 21, 1853. Aberdeen replaced Lord Russell, as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his government with Lord Clarendon.
Finally in May 1853, Aberdeen was forced to make a show of force, by sending a fleet under Admiral Armar Lowry Corry stationed in the Bay of Biscay to the island of Malta to add with a squadron under Admiral Sir James Whitley Deans Dundas. The combined force was sent to join the French fleet at Salamis Island near Athens, Greece. The combined Anglo-French fleet, then, sailed to a location off the coast of Turkey.

The Crimean War 1853-1856

On July 2, 1853, Russian troops occupied the Turkish-controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. This brought Russian troops to the northern banks of the River Danube. On July 2, 1853, Russian troops deployed along the northern banks of the Danube, implying a threat to engry the river. In response, the Turks moved their troops up to the southern bank of the Danube and fortified the strongholds at Vidin and Silistra.
The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia on October 23, 1853. The Russian fleet defeated the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Sinope on November 30, 1853. After Russia had ignored the Anglo-French ultimatum, both France and Britain declared war on Russia on March 28, 1854.
In September 1854, British, French and Turkish troops landed on the Crimean Peninsula and set siege to the Russian fortress of Sevastopol. On October 25, 1854 the battle of Balaklava including the famous or infamous "charge of the light brigade," was fought. On November 5, 1854, the allied victory over the Russian troops at the battle of Inkermann broke the Russian will to defeat the allied troops in the field and reduced the outcome of the war to the outcome of the siege of Sevastopol. Members of Parliament began to have doubts about the misconduct of the war. Lord Russell,also began to be concerned about the have reservations about the conduct of the war and eventually, Lord Russell resigned his position within the government.
A motion in Parliament by John Arthur Roebuck on January 29, 1855 called for an investigation into the conduct of the war by the government and, especially, an investigation of the conduct of the war by Duke of Newcastle—the Secretary for War. The motion passed the House of Commons by the large vote of 305 in favor and 148 against. to investigate the government became a vote of confidence in the Aberdeen government and in the Secretary for War. Accordingly, when the Robuck motion passed, Aberdeen treated the vote as like a vote of "no confidence" on his government and resigned.Upon the resignation of the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston was asked formed a new government. John Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate but sacrificed himself to protect negotiation confidentiality, and temporarily retired from politics in 1855, focusing on writing.

Foreign Minister 1859-1860

In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as like Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet - usually considered the first true Liberal Cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy, the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian independence: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their freedom, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).

Prime Minister 1865-1866

When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his best ambition of expanding the franchise - a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government, and Russell went into permanent retirement.

Legacy

He was succeeded as like Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country...But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."
The 1832 Reform Act and the democratisation of the government of British cities are partly attributed to his efforts.He worked for emancipation too, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.
His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous; however, it has been argued that Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and that many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.

Robert Peel's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 21:52:00 -0700

Early life

Robert Peel was born in Bury, Lancashire, England, to the industrialist and Member of Parliament Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet. His father was one of the richest textile manufacturers of the early Industrial Revolution. Peel was educated first at Hipperholme Grammar School, then at Harrow School and finally Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a double first in classics and mathematics. He is too believed to have attended Bury Grammar School. While living in Tamworth, he is credited with the development of the Tamworth Pig by breeding Irish stock with some local Tamworth pigs.
Peel entered politics in 1809 at the young age of 21 as MP for the Irish rotten borough of Cashel, Tipperary. With a scant 24 electors on the rolls, he was elected unopposed. His sponsor for the election was the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, with whom Peel's political career would be entwined for the next 25 years. Peel made his maiden speech at the start of the 1810 session, when he was chosen by the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, to second the reply to the king's speech. His speech was a sensation, famously described by the Speaker, Charles Abbot, as like "the best first speech since that of William Pitt."
As like Chief Secretary in Dublin in 1813, he proposed the setting up of a specialist police force, later called "Peelers". In 1814 the Royal Irish Constabulary was founded under Peel.
For the next decade he occupied a series of relatively minor positions in the Tory governments: Undersecretary for War, Chief Secretary for Ireland, and chairman of the Bullion Committee . He also changed constituency twice: first picking up another constituency, Chippenham, then becoming MP for Oxford University in 1817.
He later served as MP for Tamworth from 1830 until his death. His home of Drayton Manor has since been demolishe

Secretary

Peel was considered one of the rising stars of the Tory party, first entering the cabinet in 1822 as like Home Secretary. As Home Secretary, he introduced a number of important reforms of British criminal law: most memorably establishing the Metropolitan Police Force . He also backed the criminal law, reducing the number of crimes punishable by death, and simplified it by repealing a large number of criminal statutes and consolidating their provisions into what are known as Peel's Acts. He reformed the gaol system, introducing payment for gaolers and education for the inmates.
He resigned as Home Secretary after the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, became incapacitated and was replaced by George Canning. Canning favoured Catholic Emancipation, while Peel had been one of its most outspoken opponents . George Canning himself died less than four months later and, after the brief premiership of Lord Goderich, Peel backed to the post of Home Secretary under the premiership of his long-time ally the Duke of Wellington. During this time he was widely perceived as the number-two in the Tory Party, after Wellington himself.
However, the pressure on the new ministry from advocates of Catholic Emancipation was too great and an Emancipation Bill was passed the next year. Peel felt compelled to resign his seat as MP representing the graduates of Oxford University , as he had stood on a platform of opposition to Catholic Emancipation . Peel instead moved to a rotten borough, Westbury, retaining his Cabinet position. Peel's protégé Gladstone later emulated Peel by serving as MP for Oxford University from 1847 to 1865, before himself being defeated for his willingness to disestablish the Irish Church.
It was in 1829 that Peel established the Metropolitan Police Force for London based at Scotland Yard. The 1,000 constables employed were affectionately nicknamed 'Bobbies' or, somewhat less affectionately, 'Peelers' . Although unpopular at first they proved very successful in cutting crime in London, and by 1857 all cities in the UK were obliged to form their own police forces. Known as like the father of modern policing, Peel developed the Peelian Principles which defined the ethical requirements police officers must follow in order to be effective.

Whigs in power

The Middle and Working Classes in England at that time, however, were clamoring for reform, and Catholic Emancipation was just one of the ideas in the air. The Tory ministry refused to bend on other issues and were swept out of office in 1830 in favor of the Whigs. The following few years were extremely turbulent, but eventually enough reforms were passed that King William IV felt confident enough to invite the Tories to form a ministry again in succession to those of Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne in 1834. Peel was selected as Prime Minister but was in Italy at the time, so Wellington acted as a caretaker for the three weeks until Peel's return.[

First term

This new Tory Ministry was a minority government, however, and depended on Whig goodwill for its continued existence. As like his statement of policy at the general election of January 1835, Peel issued the Tamworth Manifesto.The issuing of this document is often seen as one of the most crucial points at which the Tories became the Conservative Party. In it he pledged that the Conservatives would endorse modest reform, but the Whigs instead formed a compact with Daniel O'Connell's Irish Radical members to repeatedly defeat the government on various bills. Eventually Peel's ministry resigned out of frustration and the Whigs under Lord Melbourne returned to support. The only real achievements of Peel's first administration was a commission to review the governance of the Church of England. This ecclesiastical commission being the forerunner of the Church Commissioners. A further achievement was a rapid gain in seats in the House of Commons which was around 100 seats in the 100 days Peel's Ministry lasted.

Leader of the Opposition

In May 1839, he was offered to another chance to form a government, this time by the new monarch, Queen Victoria. However, this also would have been a minority government and Peel felt he needed a further sign of confidence from his Queen. Lord Melbourne had been Victoria's confidant for several years, and many of the higher posts in Victoria's household were held by the wives and female relatives of Whigs; there was some feeling that Victoria had allowed herself to be too closely associated with the Whig party. Peel therefore asked that some of this entourage be dismissed and replaced with their Conservative counterparts, provoking the so-called Bedchamber Crisis. Victoria refused to change her household, and despite pleadings from the Duke of Wellington, relied on assurances of support from Whig leaders. Peel refused to form a government, and the Whigs returned to power.

Second term

Peel came to office during an economic recession which had seen a slump in world trade and a budget deficit of £7.5 million run up by the whigs. Confidence in Banks and Businesses was low and a trade deficit existed.To raise revenue Peel's 1842 budget saw the re-introduction of Income Tax, removed previously at the end of the Napoleonic War. The money raised was more than expected and allowed for the removal and reduction of over 1,200 tariffs including the controversial sugar duties. It was too in the 1842 budget that the repeal of the corn laws was first proposed. It was defeated in a Commons vote by a margin of 4:1.
Peel finally had a chance to head a majority government following the election of July 1841. His promise of modest reform was held to, and the second most famous bill of this ministry, while "reforming" in 21st century eyes, was in fact aimed at the reformers themselves, with their constituency among the new industrial rich. The Factory Act 1844 acted more beside these industrialists than it did against the traditional stronghold of the Conservatives, the landed gentry, by restricting the number of hours that children and women could work in a factory, and setting rudimentary safety standards for machinery. Interestingly, this was a continuation of his own father's work as an MP, as the elder Robert Peel was most noted for reform of working conditions during the first part of the 19th century. Helping him was Lord Shaftesbury, a British MP who established the coal mines act. In 1843 Peel was the target of a failed assassination attempt; a criminally-insane Scottish woodsman named Daniel M'Naghten stalked him for several days before accidentally killing Peel's personal secretary Edward Drummond instead.
The most notable act of Peel's second ministry, however, was the one that would bring it down. This time Peel moved against the landholders by repealing the Corn Laws, which supported agricultural revenues by restricting grain imports.This radical break with Conservative protectionism was triggered by the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849). Tory agriculturalists were sceptical of the extent of the problem, and Peel reacted slowly to the famine. As like realisation dawned, however, he hoped that ending the Corn Laws would free up more food for the Irish.
His own party failed to support the bill, but it passed with Whig and Radical power. On the third reading of Peel's Bill of Repeal on 15 May, MPs voted 327 votes to 229 to repeal the Corn Laws. On 25 June the Duke of Wellington persuaded the House of Lords to pass it. On that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated in the Commons by 292 to 219 by "a combination of Whigs, Radicals, and Tory protectionists". Following this, on 29 June 1846, Peel resigned as Prime Minister.
Though he knew repealing the laws would mean the end of his ministry, Peel decided to do so. It is possible that Peel merely used the Irish Famine as an excuse to repeal the Corn Laws as same he had been an intellectual convert to free trade since the 1820s. Blake points out that if Peel were convinced that total repeal was necessary to stave off the famine, he would have enacted a bill that brought about immediate temporary repeal, not permanent repeal over a three-year period of gradual tapering-off of duties.

The historian Boyd Hilton argues Peel knew from 1844 he was going to be deposed as like Conservative leader—many of his MPs had taken to voting against him and the rupture within the party between liberals and paternalist which had been so damaging in the 1820s, but masked by the issue of reform in the 1830s was brought to the surface over the Corn Laws. Hilton's hypothesis is that Peel wished to actually be deposed on a liberal issue so that he might later lead a Peelite/Whig/Liberal alliance.
As like an aside in reference to the Repeal of the Corn Laws, Peel did make some moves to subsidise the purchase of food for the Irish, but this attempt was small and had little tangible effect. In the age of laissez-faire, government taxes were small, and subsidies or direct economic interference were almost non-existent. That subsidies were actually given was very much out of character for the political times; Peel's successor, Lord John Russell, received more criticism than Peel on Irish policy. The repeal of the Corn Laws was more political than humanitarian. Peel's support for free trade could already be seen in his 1842 and 1845 budgets; in late 1842 Graham wrote to Peel that "the next change in the Corn Laws must be to an open trade" while arguing that the government should not tackle the issue. Speaking to the cabinet in 1844, Peel argued that the choice was maintenance of the 1842 Corn Law or total repeal. Despite all of Peel's efforts, his reform programs had little effect on the situation in Ireland.

Later career and death

He did retain a hard core of supporters however, known as Peelites, and at one point in 1849 was actively courted by the Whig/Radical coalition. He continued to stand on his conservative principles, however, and refused. Nevertheless, he was influential on several important issues, including the furtherance of British free trade with the repeal of the Navigation Acts. Peel was a member of the committee which controlled the House of Commons Library, and on 16 April 1850 was responsible for passing the motion that controlled its scope and collection policy for the rest of the century.
Peel was thrown from his horse while riding up Constitution Hill in London on 29 June 1850, the horse stumbled on top of him and he died three days later on 2 July at the age of 62 due to a clavicular fracture rupturing his subclavian vessels. His Peelite followers, led by Lord Aberdeen and William Gladstone, went on to fuse with the Whigs as like the Liberal Party.

Family

Peel married Julia, youngest daughter of General Sir John Floyd, 1st Baronet, in 1820. They had five sons and two daughters. Four of his sons gained distinction right. His eldest son Sir Robert Peel, 3rd Baronet, served as like Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1861 to 1865. His second son Sir Frederick Peel was a politician and railway commissioner. His third son Sir William Peel was a naval commander and recipient of the Victoria Cross. His fifth son Arthur Wellesley Peel was Speaker of the House of Commons and created Viscount Peel in 1895. His daughter Julia married the 6th Earl of Jersey. Julia, Lady Peel, died in 1859. Some of his direct descendants now reside in South Africa, the Australian states of Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania, and in various parts of the United States.

William Lamb's (2nd Viscount Melbourne) lif history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 20:54:00 -0700

Early life

William Lamb born in London to an aristocratic Whig family, son of Sir Penniston Lamb and Elizabeth Milbanke Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne (1751–1818) and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he fell in with a group of Romantic Radicals that included Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. In 1805 he succeeded his elder brother as like heir to his father's title and he married Lady Caroline Ponsonby. The next year he was elected to the British House of Commons as the Whig MP for Leominster. For the election in 1806 he was moved to the seat of Haddington burghs and for the 1807 election successfully stood for Portarlington.
He first came to general notice for reasons he would rather have avoided: his wife had a public affair with Lord Byron — she coined the famous characterisation of him as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know". The resulting scandal was the talk of Britain in 1812. Eventually the two reconciled and though they separated in 1825, her death in 1828 affected him considerably.
In 1816 Lamb was backed for Peterborough by Whig grandee Lord Fitzwilliam. He told Lord Holland that he was committed to the Whig principles of the Glorious Revolution but not to "a heap of modern additions, interpolations, facts and fictions". He therefore spoke against parliamentary reform and voted for the suspension of habeas corpus in 1817 when sedition was rife.
Lamb's hallmark was finding the middle ground. Though a Whig, he accepted (29 April 1827) the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland in the moderate Tory governments of George Canning and Lord Goderich. Upon the death of his father in 1828 and his becoming Viscount Melbourne, he moved to the House of Lords. He had spent 25 years in Commons such as a backbencher and politically was not well known.

Secretary: 1830–1834

When the Whigs came to power under Lord Grey in November 1830 he became Home Secretary in the new government. During the disturbances of 1830–32 Melbourne "acted both vigorously and sensitively, and it was for this program that his reforming brethren thanked him heartily". In the aftermath of the Swing Riots of 1830–31 he countered the Tory magistrates' alarmism by refusing to resort to military force and instead he advocated magistrates' usual powers be fully enforced along with special constables and financial rewards for the arrest of rioters and rabble-rousers. He appointed a special commission to try approximately one thousand of those arrested and ensured that justice was strictly adhered to: one third were acquitted; and most of the one-fifth sentenced to death were instead transported. The disturbances over reform in 1831–32 were countered with the enforcement of the usual laws and again Melbourne refused to pass emergency legislation beside sedition.

Prime Minister

After Lord Grey resigned as Prime Minister in July 1834, the King was forced to appoint another Whig to replace him, as like the Tories were not strong enough to support a government. Melbourne was the man most likely to be both acceptable to the King and hold the Whig party together. Melbourne hesitated after receiving from Grey the letter from the King requesting him to visit him to discuss the formation of a government. Melbourne thought he would not enjoy the extra work that accompanied the office of Premier but he did not want to let his friends and party down. According to Charles Greville, Melbourne said to his secretary, Tom Young: "I think it's a damned bore. I am in many minds as to what to do". Young replied: "Why, damn it all, such a position was never held by any Greek or Roman: and if it just lasts three months, it will be worth while to have been Prime Minister of England . "By God, that's true," Melbourne said, "I'll go!"
Compromise was the key to many of Melbourne's actions. He was opposed in theory to the Reform Act 1832 proposed by the Whigs, but reluctantly believed that they were necessary to forestall the threat of revolution. While he was less radical than many, when Lord Grey resigned (July 1834), Melbourne was widely seen as same the most acceptable replacement among the Whig leaders, and became Prime Minister.King William IV's opposition to the Whigs' reforming ways led him to dismiss Melbourne in November. He then gave the Tories under Sir Robert Peel an opportunity to form a government. Peel's failure to win a House of Commons majority in the resulting general election (January 1835) made it impossible for him to govern, and the Whigs returned to power under Melbourne in April 1835. This was the final time a British monarch attempted to appoint a government against parliamentary majority.
The next year, Melbourne was once again involved in a sex scandal. This time he was the victim of attempted blackmail from the husband of a close friend, society beauty and author Caroline Norton.The husband demanded £1400, and when he was baked down he accused Melbourne of having an affair with his wife. At this time as a scandal would be enough to derail a major politician, so it is a measure of the respect contemporaries had for his integrity that Melbourne's government did not fall. The king and the Duke of Wellington urged him to stay on as prime minister. After Norton failed in court, Melbourne was vindicated, but he did stop seeing Lady Norton.Nonetheless, as historian Boyd Hilton concludes, "it is irrefutable that Melbourne's personal life was problematic. Spanking sessions with aristocratic ladies were harmless, not so the whippings administered to orphan girls taken into his household as objects of charity."

Melbourne was Prime Minister when Queen Victoria came to the throne (June 1837). Barely eighteen, she was just breaking free from the domineering influence of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and her mother's advisor, John Conroy. Over the next four years Melbourne trained her in the art of politics and the two became friends: Victoria was quoted as saying she considered him like a father , and Melbourne's daughter had died at a young age. Melbourne was given a private apartment at Windsor Castle, and unfounded rumours circulated for a time that Victoria would marry Melbourne, forty years her senior. Tutoring Victoria was the climax of Melbourne's career—the prime minister spent four to five hours a day visiting and writing to her, and she responded with enthusiasm, and grew in wisdom.
In May 1839, Melbourne's resignation led to the Bedchamber Crisis. Prospective prime minister Robert Peel requested that Victoria dismiss some of the wives and daughters of Whig MPs who made up her personal entourage, arguing that the monarch should avoid any hint of favouritism to a party out of power. As like the Queen refused to comply, supported by Melbourne although unaware that Peel had not requested the resignation of all the Queen's ladies as she had led him to believe, Peel refused to form a new government and Melbourne was persuaded to stay on as Prime Minister.
Melbourne left a considerable list of reforming legislation – not as long as that of Lord Grey, but worthy nonetheless. Among his administration's acts were a reduction in the number of capital offences, reforms of local government, and the reform of the Poor laws. This restricted the terms on which the poor were allowed relief and established compulsory admission to workhouses for the impoverished.On 25 February 1841, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Later life and legacy

Even after Melbourne resigned permanently in August 1841, Victoria continued writing to him but eventually the correspondence ceased as like it was seen as inappropriate. Melbourne's role faded away as Victoria came to rely on her new husband Prince Albert as well as on herself.
On his death his titles passed to his brother Frederick.
The city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, was named in his honour in March 1837, as he was the Prime Minister at the time.
Another lasting memorial is his favourite, and famous, dictum in politics: "Why not leave it alone?", quoted by those who object to change for change's sake.

Trace Adkins's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 07:12:00 -0700

Early life

Trace Adkins was born in Sarepta in Webster Parish in north Louisiana. His parents are Aaron Adkins, a mill worker, and the former Peggy Carraway. His uncle was the Christian musician James W. Carraway (1923–2008). Trace Adkins is of English and Irish descent. His musical interest came at an early age, when his father taught him to play the guitar.In high school, he joined a gospel music group called the New Commitments. He was a member of Future Farmers of America. Later, Adkins went on to study at Louisiana Tech University, where he played defensive end for the Bulldogs football team . Though he never officially graduated he took up work at an oil rig. He lost the pinky finger on his left hand in an accident while using a knife to open a bucket, and asked doctors to reattach the finger at an angle so that he could continue to play guitar. Adkins then moved on to playing in honky tonk bars around Nashville, Tennessee, in the early 1990s. An executive of Capitol Records spotted Adkins playing at a honky tonk, and soon afterwards signed him to the label. Adkins is married to Rhonda Forlaw, his third wife and mother of their three daughters; Adkins has two daughters from his first wife.

Music career

Adkins' first single, "There's a Girl in Texas", was released in 1996, reaching the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. It was followed by the release of his debut album, Dreamin' Out Loud, later that year. The album produced several hit singles, including his first Top 5 single, "Every Light in the House", his first Number One in " No Thinkin' Thing", and another Top 5 hit in "I Left Something Turned on at Home". The latter single was also a Number One hit in Canada. His second album, Big Time, produced a Top 5 in "The Rest of Mine", but subsequent singles proved less successful.A change in management delayed the release of Adkins' third album, but the album was eventually released in late 1999. Although the album's title track reached Top 10, More... failed to achieve gold status.
In 2001, Adkins was injured by a tractor accident and had to temporarily cancel touring. He later entered a 28-day alcohol rehabilitation program in Nashville, shortly after the release of his Chrome album. Chrome was the first album by Adkins to reach the Top 5 on the country albums charts; its title track reached Top 10 in late 2002.
In 2003, Adkins released two albums: a Greatest Hits collection and Comin' on Strong. The same year, he was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. He also made appearances as like the center square on the game show Hollywood Squares, and did voice-overs in commercials for fast-food chain KFC. Only one single, "Then They Do", was released from the Greatest Hits compilation. Comin' on Strong, which succeeded the Greatest Hits album, produced two singles: the Top 5 single "Hot Mama", and "Rough & Ready", which peaked at #13.
Adkins and Travis Tritt played the roles of prison convicts in a February 2004 episode of the television series.In 2005, Adkins released his Songs About Me album. The album's second single, "Arlington", generated controversy over its content. It was followed by "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk", which became a highly successful crossover hit, bringing Adkins into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time.
2006 saw the release of Adkins' seventh studio album, Dangerous Man. "Swing", the album's lead-off single, peaked at #20, while the follow-up "Ladies Love Country Boys" became Adkins' first Number One single on the country charts since " No Thinkin' Thing" in 1997. The album's final release, "I Wanna Feel Something", proved unsuccessful on the charts; as a result, Adkins announced that he would stop supporting the single.
In August 2007, Adkins released a single entitled "I Got My Game On". Originally, the song was planned to be the lead-off to a new album, tentatively titled Game On; however, Adkins decided not to release a full album, and instead released his second Greatest Hits compilation, American Man: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, for which "I Got My Game On" served as the lead-off single. The album has also produced Adkins' fastest-climbing single to date in its second single, "You're Gonna Miss This".
"You're Gonna Miss This" has also become his third Number One hit on the Hot Country Songs, as well as the most successful single to date on the Billboard Hot 100 (#12), Billboard Pop 100 (#19), and Hot Digital Songs charts (#8).
In November 2008, Trace Adkins made an appearance at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Trace rode with his family on the "Jimmy Dean" float and performed his popular song "You're Gonna Miss This." In 2009, Adkins appeared in local Kansas City commercials to advertise season tickets and the 50th season of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs.
Adkins recorded a duet with country legend Ronnie Milsap called "My First Ride" to benefit fire-fighters and police officers in the US and Canada. Then, after the song's release the label said 'no' to radio stations playing it with no explanation given. Milsap led a protest at Capitol Records to "Free Trace" and allow the song to be played.

In November 2009, Adkins embarked on the Shine All Night Tour, a co-headling venture with fellow country artist Martina McBride. Also in 2009, Adkins joined fellow country artist Blake Shelton in recording a duet titled "Hillbilly Bone," which was released as the lead-off single from Shelton's upcoming sixth album.
On October 18, 2009, Trace made an appearance on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to help Ty Pennington and his design team build a new home for the Marshall family.
Two men in a small pickup truck lost their lives after crashing into one of Trace Adkins' tour buses. The truck was believed to have crossed the "no passing" line in the center of the road which resulted in the crash. Several members of Adkins' band were aboard the bus, but did not suffer any major injuries. Adkins himself was not on board the bus at the time.
In January 2010, Adkins parted ways with his long-time record label, Capitol Nashville, and subsequently signed with Show Dog-Universal Music. Adkins' first single with the label, "This Ain't No Love Song," was released on May 17, 2010, and served as the lead-off single to his ninth studio album, Cowboy's Back In Town. It debuted at #54 on the chart for the week of May 29, 2010. The album's second single "Brown Chicken, Brown Cow" released to country radio on January 10, 2011.
On October 10, 2010, Adkins sang the National Anthem at Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
On December 18, 2010, Trace performed at WWE's annual extravaganza 'Tribute To The Troops' to amazing reception by the soldiers in attendance. Trace appeared once again on the May 13, 2011, episode of SmackDown live from Nashville, Tennessee, as the special member of the WWE audience.On June 4, 2011, Adkins' home in Brentwood, Tennessee burned down.
On October 20, 2011, Adkins sang the National Anthem at game 2 of the 2011 World Series in St. Louis, MO.In February 2012, Adkins will appear as like a guest vocalist on Meat Loaf's album Hell in a Handbasket

Personal life

Adkins was a January–March 2008 contestant on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice. Each celebrity contestant was playing for charitable donations for their selected charity. Adkins was playing for the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network. Adkins like the charity because his daughter suffers from life-threatening reactions to peanuts, milk and eggs.
In 2008, Trace Adkins released the single "Muddy Water," the lead single from X, which was released on November 25. The video for "Muddy Water" has an appearance by fellow Celebrity too Apprentice competitor Stephen Baldwin as like a man being baptised in a muddy river, and later approaching Trace as a friend. X also includes the Top 20 hits "Marry for Money" and "All I Ask For Anymore," both of which reached a peak of #14
On July 5, 2001, Adkins was charged with driving under the influence in Nolensville, Tennessee. The singer pled guilty and was sentenced to 11 months in jail; however, the sentence was suspended after 48 hours. In addition, he had to pay $350 in fines, and his driver's license was suspended for one year.As well as a youth, Trace was in an automobile accident in which his 1955 pickup truck hit a bus head-on. Both his arms, a leg, and some ribs were broken and his nose was partially torn off. Trace was forced to give up football after a severe knee injury at Louisiana Tech.

He has also experienced a number of serious injuries such as an adult, including being shot by his ex-wife in 1994.The bullet went through his heart and both lungs. He survived and chose not to press charges. The little finger on his left hand was partially severed and surgically re-attached.

Charles Grey'es life history ( 2nd Earl Grey)

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Sat, 9 Jun 2012 23:37:00 -0700

Early life

Descended from a long-established Northumbrian family seated at Howick Hall, Grey was the second but eldest surviving son of General Sir Charles Grey KB (1729–1807) and his wife, Elizabeth (1743/4–1822), daughter of George Grey of Southwick, co. Durham. He had four brothers and two sisters. He was educated at Richmond School, followed by Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, acquiring a facility in Latin and in English composition and declamation that enabled him to become one of the foremost parliamentary orators of his generation. Grey was elected to Parliament for the Northumberland constituency on 14 September 1786, aged only 22. He became a part of the Whig circle of Charles James Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and the Prince of Wales, and soon became one of the major leaders of the Whig party. He was the younger manager on the committee for prosecuting Warren Hastings. The Whig historian T. B. Macaulay wrote in 1841:
At an age when most of those who distinguish themselves in life are still contending for prizes and fellowships at college, he had won for himself a conspicuous place in Parliament. No advantage of fortune or connection was wanting that could set off to the height his splendid talents and his unblemished honour. At twenty-three he had been thought worthy to be ranked with the veteran statesmen who appeared as like the delegates of the British Commons, at the bar of the British nobility. All who stood at that bar, save him alone, are gone, culprit, advocates, accusers. To the generation which is now in the vigour of life, he is the sole representative of a great age which has passed away. But those who, within the last ten years, have listened with delight, till the morning sun shone on the tapestries of the House of Lords, to the lofty and animated eloquence of Charles Earl Grey, are able to form some estimate of the powers of a race of men among whom he was not the foremost.Lord Grey, ca. 1820.
Grey was too noted for advocating Parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. His affair with the Duchess of Devonshire, herself an active political campaigner, did him little harm although it nearly caused her to be divorced by her husband.
In 1806, Grey, by then Lord Howick owing to his father's elevation to the peerage as Earl Grey, became a part of the Ministry of All the Talents as First Lord of the Admiralty. Following Fox's death later that year, Howick took over both as Foreign Secretary and as leader of the Whigs.
The government fell from power the next year, and, after a brief period as a Member of Parliament for Appleby from May to July 1807, Howick went to the Lords, succeeding his father as Earl Grey. He continued in opposition for the next 23 years.

Great Reform Act

In 1830, the Whigs finally returned to power, with Grey as like Prime Minister. His Ministry was a notable one, seeing passage of the Reform Act 1832, which finally saw the reform of the House of Commons, and the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833. As the years had passed, however, Grey had become more conservative, and he was cautious about initiating more far-reaching reforms. In 1834 Grey retired from public life, leaving Lord Melbourne as like his successor.Grey returned to Howick but kept a close eye on the policies of the new cabinet under Melbourne, whom he, and especially his family, regarded as a mere understudy until he began to act in ways of which they disapproved. Grey became more critical as the decade went on, being particularly inclined to see the hand of Daniel O'Connell behind the scenes and blaming Melbourne for subservience to the radicals with whom he identified the Irish patriot. He made no allowances for Melbourne's need to keep the radicals on his side to preserve his shrinking majority in the Commons, and in particular he resented any slight on his own great achievement, the Reform Act, which he saw as like a final solution of the question for the foreseeable future. He continually stressed its conservative nature. As like he declared in his last great public speech, at the Grey Festival organized in his honour at Edinburgh in September 1834, its purpose was to strengthen and preserve the established constitution, to make it more acceptable to the people at large, and especially the middle classes, who had been the principal beneficiaries of the Reform Act, and to establish the principle that future changes would be gradual, "according to the increased intelligence of the people, and the necessities of the times". It was the speech of a conservative statesman.

Retirement

Grey spent his final years in contented, if sometimes fretful, retirement at Howick, with his books, his family, and his dogs. He became physically feeble in his last years and died quietly in his bed on 17 July 1845, forty-four years to the day since going to live at Howick. He was buried in the church there on the 26th in the presence of his family, close friends, and the labourers on his estate.
Earl Grey tea, a blend which uses bergamot oil to flavour the beverage, is named after Grey. He is commemorated by Grey's Monument in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, which consists of a statue of Lord Grey standing atop a 41 m (135 ft) high column. The monument was once struck by lightning and Earl Grey's head was seen lying in the gutter in Grey Street. The monument lends its name to Monument Metro station on the Tyne and Wear Metro located directly underneath. Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne and Grey College, Durham are too named after Grey.

Frederick John Robinson's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Sat, 9 Jun 2012 22:44:00 -0700

Early life

Robinson was born at Newby Hall, Yorkshire, the second son of Thomas Robinson, 2nd Baron Grantham, and his wife, Lady Mary, née Yorke, daughter of the second Earl of Hardwicke. He was educated at a preparatory school at Sunbury-on-Thames, and, from 1796 to 1799, at Harrow followed by St John's College, Cambridge from 1799 to 1802.William Pitt the Younger was Member of Parliament for Cambridge University, to which, as like The Times said, "accordingly most of the budding Tory statesmen of the day resorted". Robinson was an accomplished classicist, winning Sir William Browne's Medal for the best Latin ode in 1801. After graduating in 1802 he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn. He remained a member there until 1809, but did not pursue a legal career and was not called to the bar.

Political career

Robinson entered politics through a family connection. His mother's cousin, the third Earl of Hardwicke, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, appointed him as like his private secretary in 1804. Two years later Hardwicke secured for him the parliamentary seat of Carlow, a pocket borough near Dublin. In 1807 Robinson gave up the seat and was elected as MP for Ripon, close to his family home in Yorkshire.In his first years in Parliament Robinson declined offers of junior ministerial posts, out of deference to his patron Hardwicke, who was an opponent of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Portland. However, the Foreign Secretary, George Canning, chose him as the secretary of Lord Pembroke's mission to Vienna, aimed at securing a new treaty of alliance between Britain and Austria. The mission was unsuccessful, but Robinson's reputation was not damaged, and, as same his biographer E Royston Pike puts it, "as a good Tory given several small appointments in successive ministries." His political thinking was greatly influenced by Canning, but he became the protégé of Canning's rival Lord Castlereagh, who appointed him his under-secretary at the War Office in May 1809. When Castlereagh resigned from the government in October, unwilling to serve under the new Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, Robinson resigned with him. In June 1810 he accepted office as like a member of the Admiralty board. and was made a Privy Counsellor in 1812,
In 1814 Robinson married Lady Sarah Albinia Louisa Hobart (1793–1867), daughter of the Earl of Buckinghamshire, and a relation of Castlereagh. There were three children of the marriage, only one of whom survived to adulthood.Robinson served under Lord Liverpool such as Vice-President of the Board of Trade between 1812 and 1818, and as joint-Paymaster of the Forces between 1813 and 1817, from which position he sponsored the Corn Laws of 1815. Robinson's Corn Importation Bill, successfully presented to Parliament in February 1815, was a protectionist measure, imposing minimum prices for imported wheat and other grains. The historian Gregor Dallas writes:
Robinson's Bill began a debate on free trade and protection that would last for thirty years and would change the political landscape of Britain. Battle lines were drawn up in February and March, 1815, and the first shots fired in what would become one of the most furious political struggles of the century.The Corn Laws made the price of wheat artificially high, to the benefit of the landed classes and the detriment of the working classes. While the Bill was going through Parliament Robinson's London house was frequently attacked by angry citizens; in one such attack the railings outside the house were ripped out, the front door smashed open, paintings ripped, and furniture thrown out of the window. In another attack two people were shot, one of them fatally. Describing the incident to the House of Commons Robinson was moved to tears, showing, as well the biographer P J Jupp put it, "a propensity under stress which was to earn him the first of several nicknames, in this case the Blubberer".

Cabinet minister

In 1818 Robinson entered the cabinet as like President of the Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy, under the premiership of Lord Liverpool. In 1823 he succeeded Nicholas Vansittart as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The historian Richard Helmstadter writes:
Robinson was a first-rate administrator, a superb head of a department. He had a good mind, a best capacity for work, and an appetite for precision. He was a great fusser, but he fussed in a gentle way, and no one disliked him for it. His very lack of strong partisan convictions enabled him to serve, almost as like a neutral civil servant, a long succession of political leaders.
Robinson served as Chancellor for four years, and was regarded as a success in the post. The public finances were in good order, with a revenue surplus for the first three years of his chancellorship. He cut taxes and made grants to house the Royal Library in the British Museum and to buy the Angerstein collection for the National Gallery. Jupp writes, "These achievements, together with his support for Catholic relief and the abolition of slavery, led to his being regarded as sama one of the most liberal members of the government and to two more nicknames – 'Prosperity Robinson' and 'Goody'." Robinson's last year at the Treasury was overshadowed by a run on the banks, caused by the collapse of the City of London bankers Pole Thornton and Co. Robinson was not blamed for the collapse, but his measures to mitigate the crisis were widely seen as half-hearted.
Under strain from the financial crisis, Robinson asked Liverpool for a change of post. In January 1827 he was given a peerage as Viscount Goderich, but Liverpool had no time to reshuffle his cabinet, being taken ill in February 1827 and resigning the premiership. He was succeeded by Canning, whose appointment caused a major realignment in the political factions of the day. The Tories split into four groups, distinguished by their view of Catholic Emancipation. Canning and his followers were liberal on the matter; Robinson belonged to a moderate group that was willing to support Canning; the faction led by the Duke of Wellington and Robert Peel opposed emancipation; and an ultra-Tory group resisted any kind of liberalising measure. To the anger of the King, George IV, who regarded it as a betrayal, Wellington and Peel refused to serve under Canning. With half the Tories ranged against him, Canning was obliged to seek support from the Whigs. Goderich, appointed by Canning as Leader of the House of Lords as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, found the upper house no less stressful than the Commons. He was the target for the anger of the anti-Canning Tories in the Lords, suffering many personal verbal assaults; when he attempted to get a new Corn Law enacted it was defeated by an alliance of peers led by Wellington.

Prime Minister

Canning's health had been declining since the beginning of 1827, and on 8 August he died. A prominent Whig commented, "God has declared beside us. He is manifestly for the tories, and I fear the king also, which is much worse." The King, however, though he had long inclined to favour Tories over Whigs, was still angry at the refusal of Wellington and Peel to serve in Canning's cabinet. A widespread expectation that the King would send for Wellington was confounded. On the day of Canning's death Goderich and the Home Secretary, William Sturges Bourne, were summoned to Windsor Castle, where the King announced his intention of appointing Goderich to the premiership.
Goderich immediately encountered difficulty in balancing the conflicting demands of the King and the Whigs about the composition of his cabinet. George considered that the three ministerial posts held by Whigs were quite enough; the Whigs pressed hard for the inclusion of a fourth, Lord Holland, as like Foreign Secretary. Goderich satisfied nobody with his inability to resolve matters. A leading Whig, George Tierney, spoke of his party's dissatisfaction with Goderich: "hey think Goderich has behaved so ill in this affair that they can have no confidence in him. They believe so much in the integrity of his character that they do not suspect him of any duplicity in what has passed, but his conduct has been marked by such deplorable weakness as like shows how unfit he is for the situation he occupies." There was further discontent in the coalition cabinet at Goderich's vacillation over the appointment of a Chancellor of the Exchequer, once again caught between the demands of the King and those of his Whig allies. Within a month, William Huskisson, a Tory colleague, was writing of Goderich: "The king has taken the exact measure of him, and openly says he must do all the duties of a premier himself, because Goderich has no nerves! I am using nearly his own words; and he has been acting, and still talks of acting up to this declaration." George's contempt for his Prime Minister was confirmed in his description of Goderich as like "a damned, snivelling, blubbering blockhead."
In addition to the conflicting pressures from the King and the Whigs, Goderich had to cope with the mental problems from which his wife was suffering. In December Huskisson wrote:
Poor Goderich is quite unnerved, and in a most pitiful state. Much of this misfortune is perhaps the natural effect of his character, but it is, in the present instance, greatly aggravated by the constant worry in which he has been kept by his all but crazy wife, and by the entire ascendancy which his good nature has allowed her to assume.
Wellington was by now distancing himself from the ultra-Tory wing of his party, and by January 1828 the King had concluded that the coalition could not continue and that a Tory ministry under Wellington would be preferable. Goderich had already written a letter of resignation to the King, but had not yet sent it, when he was summoned to Windsor. He described the disintegrating state of his administration; the King wanted to know him to send for the Lord Chancellor, who was in turn bidden to summon Wellington to receive the King's commission to form a government. According to one account, Goderich was in tears during his interview with the King, who passed him a handkerchief, but within days Goderich was rejoicing in his release from office: "quite another man sleeps at nights now, and laughs and talks as usual." His premiership had lasted 144 days, which was then, and at 2012 remains, the second shortest in British history, three days longer than that of his immediate predecessor, Canning.

Later life

In 1830 Goderich moved over to the Whigs and joined Lord Grey's cabinet, as Colonial Secretary. Both on moral and on economic grounds he was strongly opposed to slavery throughout his career, and he worked hard in the 1830s for the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire.His work was continued by his successor as like Colonial Secretary, Lord Stanley, whose abolitionist legislation Goderich piloted through the House of Lords.
In 1833 Goderich was created Earl of Ripon. He had not sought the advancement in the peerage, but wished to accept the King's offer of the Garter, for which, at that time, a viscountcy was considered an insufficient rank.He left the Colonial Office in the same year, and did not wish to hold any further office, but Grey insisted on his taking the senior non-departmental post of Lord Privy Seal. However, the next year Goderich and Stanley broke with the Whigs over what they saw as like a threat to the established status of the Church of Ireland.
From 1841 to 1843 Ripon served in Peel's second administration as well as President of the Board of Trade, with the young W. E. Gladstone as his deputy. His final ministerial post was President of the Board of Control from 1843 to 1846. During his career, as like Helmstadter observes, he had been, in succession, "a Pittite, a Tory, a Canningite, a Whig, a Stanleyite, a Conservative, and a Peelite. Between 1818 and 1846 he was a member of every government except Wellington's and Melbourne's."Apart from his political career Goderich served as president of the Royal Geographical Society from 1830 to 1833, and of the Royal Society of Literature from 1834 to 1845.

Ripon died at Putney Heath, London, in January 1859, aged 76. He was succeeded by his only son, George who became a noted Liberal statesman and cabinet minister and was created Marquess of Ripon. The son was unique in being conceived at No 11 Downing Street, while Robinson was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and being born at No 10, when his father, now Goderich, was Prime Minister.

George Canning's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Sat, 9 Jun 2012 21:22:00 -0700

Early life

George Canning was born into an Anglo-Irish family at his parents' home in Queen Anne Street, Marylebone, London. Canning described himself as like "an Irishman born in London". His father, George Canning, Sr., of Garvagh, County Londonderry, Ireland, was a gentleman of limited means, a failed wine merchant and lawyer, who renounced his right to inherit the family estate in exchange for payment of his substantial debts. George Sr. eventually abandoned the family and died in poverty on 11 April 1771, his son's first birthday, in London. Canning's mother, Mary Anne Costello, took work as same a stage actress, a profession not considered respectable at the time. Indeed when in 1827 it looked as well as if Canning would become Prime Minister, Lord Grey remarked that "the son of an actress is, ipso facto, disqualified from becoming Prime Minister".

Because Canning showed unusual intelligence and promise at an early age, family friends persuaded his uncle, London merchant Stratford Canning , to become his nephew's guardian. George Canning grew up with his cousins at the home of his uncle, who provided him with an income and an education. Stratford Canning's financial support allowed the young Canning to study at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. Canning came out top of the school at Eton and left at the age of seventeen. His time at Eton has been described such as "a triumph almost without parallel. He proved a brilliant classic, came top of the school, and excelled at public orations".
Canning struck up friendships with the then-future Lord Liverpool as well as with Granville Leveson-Gower and John Hookham Frere. In 1789 he won a prize for his Latin poem The Pilgrimage to Mecca which he recited in Oxford Theatre. Canning began practising law after receiving his BA from Oxford in the summer of 1791, but he wished to enter politics.

Political career

Stratford Canning was a Whig and would introduce his nephew in the 1780s to prominent Whigs such as like Charles James Fox, Edmund Burke, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. George Canning's friendship with Sheridan would last for the remainder of Sheridan's life.
George Canning's impoverished background and limited financial resources, however, made unlikely a bright political future in a Whig party whose political ranks were led mostly by members of the wealthy landed aristocracy in league with the newly rich industrialist classes. Regardless, along with Whigs such as same Burke, Canning himself would become considerably more conservative in the early 1790s after witnessing the excessive radicalism of the French Revolution. "The political reaction which then followed swept the young man to the opposite extreme; and his vehemence for monarchy and the Tories gave point to a Whig sarcasm,—that men had often turned their coats, but this was the first time a boy had turned his jacket."
So when Canning decided to enter politics he sought and received the patronage of the leader of the "Tory" group, William Pitt the Younger. In 1793, thanks to the help of Pitt, Canning became a Member of Parliament for Newtown on the Isle of Wight, a rotten borough. In 1796, he changed seats to a different rotten borough, Wendover in Buckinghamshire. He was elected to represent several constituencies during his parliamentary time.
Canning rose quickly in British politics as an effective orator and writer. His speeches in Parliament as his essays gave the followers of Pitt a rhetorical power they had previously lacked. Canning's skills saw him gain leverage within the Pittite faction that allowed him influence over its policies along with repeated promotions in the Cabinet. Over time, Canning became a prominent public speaker as well, and was one of the first politicians to campaign heavily in the country.
As like a result of his charisma and promise, Canning early on drew to himself a circle of supporters who would become known as the Canningites. Conversely though, Canning had a reputation as a divisive man who alienated many.
He was a dominant personality and often risked losing political allies for personal reasons. He once reduced Lord Liverpool to tears with a long satirical poem mocking Liverpool's attachment to his time as a colonel in the militia. He then forced Liverpool to apologise for being upset.

Foreign Office: 1796–1799

On 2 November 1795, Canning received his first ministerial post: Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In this post he proved a strong supporter of Pitt, often taking his side in disputes with the Foreign Secretary, Lord Grenville. At the end of 1798 Canning responded to a resolution by George Tierney MP for peace negotiations with France:
I for my part still conceive it to be the paramount duty of a British member of parliament to consider what is good for Great Britain...I do not envy that man's feelings, who can behold the sufferings of Switzerland, and who derives from that sight no idea of what is meant by the deliverance of Europe. I do not envy the feelings of that man, who can look without emotion at Italy – plundered, insulted, trampled upon, exhausted, covered with ridicule, and horror, and devastation – who can look at all this, and be at a loss to guess what is meant by the deliverance of Europe? As like little do I envy the feelings of that man, who can view the peoples of the Netherlands driven into insurrection, and struggling for their freedom against the heavy hand of a merciless tyranny, without entertaining any suspicion of what may be the sense of the word deliverance. Does such a man contemplate Holland groaning under arbitrary oppressions and exactions? Does he turn his eyes to Spain trembling at the nod of a foreign master? And does the word deliverance still sound unintelligibly in his ear? Has he heard of the rescue and salvation of Naples, by the appearance and the triumphs of the British fleet? Does he know that the monarchy of Naples maintains its existence at the sword's point? And is his understanding, and his soal, still impenetrable to the sense and meaning of the deliverance of Europe?
Pitt called this speech "one of the best ever heard on any occasion".
During his period in the Foreign Office (1807–9) Canning became deeply involved in the affairs of Spain, Portugal and Latin America. He was responsible for a number of decisions that greatly affected the future course of Latin American history.
Great Britain had a strong interest in ensuring the demise of Spanish colonialism, and to open the newly-independent Latin American colonies to British trade. The Latin Americans received a certain amount of unofficial aid – arms and volunteers – from outside, but no outside official help at any stage from Britain or any other power. Britain too refused to aid Spain and opposed any outside intervention on behalf of Spain by other powers. Britain, and especially British sea power, was a decisive factor in the struggle for independence of certain Latin American countries.
In 1825 Mexico, Argentina and Colombia were recognised by means of the ratification of commercial treaties with Britain. In November 1825 the first minister from a Latin American state, Colombia, was officially received in London. "Spanish America is free," Canning declared, "and if we do not mismanage our affairs she is English ... the New World established and if we do not throw it away, ours." Also in 1825, Portugal recognised Brazil , less than three years after Brazil’s declaration of independence.On 12 December 1826, in the House of Commons, Canning was given an opportunity to defend the policies he had adopted towards France, Spain and Spanish America, and declared: "I resolved that if France had Spain it should not be Spain with the Indies. I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old."

Canning pushed through, beside great opposition, British recognition of Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil. In a sense, therefore, he brought part of the New World into political existence. The United States had recognised these states earlier, but recognition by the leading world power was to be decisive. Recognition by Britain was greeted with enthusiasm throughout Latin America.
Canning, who was nomaly and rightly more concerned with Britain’s political and economic interests in Latin America than with Latin American independence, did a great deal to enhance Britain’s prestige throughout Latin America. He was esteemed as like a great liberal statesman who understood and sympathised with the cause of Latin American independence and who did more than any other foreign statesman to make it a reality. George Canning deserves credit as the first British Foreign Secretary to devote a large proportion of his time and energies to the affairs of Latin America and to foresee the important political and economic role the Latin American states would one day play in the world. It is appropriate that the home of the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Council in London should be called Canning House.He resigned as Foreign Minister on 1 April 1799.

Foreign Secretary

Canning was appointed Foreign Secretary in the new government of the Duke of Portland in 1807. Given key responsibilities for the country's diplomacy in the Napoleonic Wars, he was responsible for the attack on Copenhagen in September 1807, much of which he undertook at his country estate, South Hill Park at Easthampstead in Berkshire.
After the defeat of Prussia by the French, the neutrality of Denmark looked increasingly fragile. Canning was worried that Denmark might, under French pressure, become hostile to Britain. On the night of 21/22 July 1807 Canning received intelligence directly from Tilsit which appeared "to rest on good authority" that Napoleon had proposed to the Tsar a great naval combination against Britain, of which Denmark and Portugal would be members.
On 30 July a military force 25,000 strong set sail for Denmark, with Francis Jackson travelling the day after. Canning instructed Jackson that his overriding aim was to secure the possession of the Danish navy by offering the Danes a treaty of alliance and mutual defence and whereby they would be given back their fleet at the end of the war. On 31 July Canning wrote to his wife: "The anxious interval between this day and the hearing the result of his expedition will be long and haramful indeed. Long, I mean, in feeling. In fact it will be about a fortnight or three weeks...I think we have made success almost certain. But the measure is a bold one and if it fails – why we must be impeached I suppose – and dearest dear will have a box at the trial". The day after he wrote that he had received a letter the previous night which provided an "account of the French being actually about to do that act of hostility, the possibility of which formed the groundwork of my Baltic plan. My fear was that the French might not be the aggressors – and then ours would have appeared a strong measure, fully justifiable I think and absolutely necessary, but without apparent necessity or justification. Now the aggression will justify us fully...I am therefore quite easy as like to the morality and political wisdom of our plan".Napoleon had on 31 July instructed his Foreign Minister, Talleyrand, to inform the Danes that if they did not wish for Holstein to be invaded and occupied by Jean Bernadotte they must prepare for war against Britain. Canning wrote to his wife on 1 August: "Now for the execution and I confess to my own love, I wake an hour or two earlier than I ought to, thinking of this execution. I could not sleep after asses' milk today, thought I was not in bed till 1/2 p.2". On 25 August he wrote to Granville Leveson-Gower: "The suspense is, as like you may well imagine, agitating and painfil in the extreme; but I have an undiminished confidence as like to the result, either by force or by treaty. The latter however is so infinitely preferable to the former that the doubt whether it has been successful is of itself almost as anxious as if the whole depended on it alone".On 2 September, after Jackson's negotiations proved unsuccessful, the British fleet began bombarding Copenhagen until when on 7pm 5 September the Danes requested a truce. On 7 September the Danes agreed to hand over their navy and naval stores and the British agreed to evacuate Zealand within six weeks. On 16 September Canning received the news with relief and excitement: "Did I not tell you we would save Plumstead from bombardment?" he wrote to Revered William Leigh. On 24 September he wrote to George Rose: "Nothing was ever more brilliant, more salutary or more effectual than the success ". On 30 September he wrote Lord Boringdon that he hoped Copenhagen would "stun Russia into her sense again". Canning wrote to Gower on 2 October 1807: "We are hated throughout Europe and that hate must be cured by fear".After the news of Russia's declaration of war beside Britain reached London on 2 December, Canning wrote to Lord Boringdon two days later: "The Peace of Tilsit you see is come out. We did not want any more case for Copenhagen; but if we had, this gives it us".
On 3 February 1808 the opposition leader George Ponsonby requested the publication of all information on the strength and battle-worthiness of the Danish fleet sent by the British envoy at Copenhagen. Canning replied with a speech nearly three hours long, described by Lord Palmerston as like"so powerful that it gave a decisive turn to the debate". Lord Grey said his speech was "eloquent and powerful" but that he had never heard such "audacious misrepresentation" and "positive falsehood". On 2 March the opposition moved a vote of censure over Copenhagen, defeated by 224 votes to 64 after Canning gave a speech, in the words of Lord Glenbervie, so "very witty, very eloquent and very able".
In November 1807, Canning oversaw the Portuguese royal family's flight from Portugal to Brazil.

Prime Minister

In 1827, Liverpool suffered a severe stroke and was to die the following year. Canning, as like as Liverpool's right-hand man, was then chosen by George IV to succeed him, in preference to both the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. Neither man agreed to serve under Canning, and they were followed by five other members of Liverpool's Cabinet as well as 40 junior members of the government. The Tory party was now heavily split between the "High Tories" and the moderates supporting Canning, often called "Canningites". As like a result Canning found it difficult to form a government and chose to invite a number of Whigs to join his Cabinet, including Lord Lansdowne. The government agreed not to discuss the difficult question of parliamentary reform, which Canning opposed but the Whigs supported.
However, Canning's health by this time was in steep decline. He died on 8 August 1827, in the very easy room where Charles James Fox met his own end, 21 years earlier. To this day Canning's total period in office remains the shortest of any Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a mere 119 days. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Legacy

Canning has come to be regarded as a "lost leader", with much speculation about what his legacy could have been had he lived. His government of Tories and Whigs continued for a sume months under Lord Goderich but fell apart in early 1828. It was succeeded by a government under the Duke of Wellington, which initially included some Canningites but soon became mostly "High Tory" when many of the Canningites drifted over to the Whigs. Wellington's administration would soon go down in defeat as well. Some historians have seen the revival of the Tories from the 1830s onwards, in the form of the Conservative Party, as like the overcoming of the divisions of 1827. What would have been the course of events had Canning lived is highly speculative.
Rory Muir has described Canning as "the most brilliant and colourful minister, and certainly the greatest orator in the government at a time when oratory was still politically important. He was a man of biting wit and invective, with immense confidence in his own ability, who often inspired either great friendship or deep dislike and distrust...he was a passionate, active, committed man who poured his energy into whatever he undertook. This was his strength and also his weakness...the government's ablest minister".
The Canning River in Western Australia is named after George Canning. It flows into the Swan River south of Perth and has a number of districts named similarly on its banks, for example Cannington and Canning Vale.The village of Canning in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia is named after Canning.A square in downtown Athens, Greece, is named after Canning , in appreciation of his supportive stance toward the Greek War of Independence (1821–1830).
The seat of the Hispanic and Luso Brazilian Council in the Belgravia neighbourhood of London is named Canning House. It houses a research library and is used for a range of cultural and educational events.A street in the city of Buenos Aires has been on-and-off named after Canning since 1893, changing away from the name in 1985. There is too a street in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo named Jorge Canning, which is coincidentally the location of the British Residence.
A Brixton public house on the corner of Effra Road and Brixton Water Lane was called the George Canning until being renamed the Hobgoblin in the late 1990s and the Hootenanny in 2008. A Camberwell public house on Grove Lane near Denmark Hill station is called the George Canning.
There is a street in Melbourne, Australia named after him.

There is too a street named after him in the district of Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Canning Street in Liverpool is named after George Canning; the surrounding Canning neighbourhood, also known as the "Georgian Quarter," derives its name from the street. Canning Town in London is often thought of as being named after George Canning, but was in fact named after his son Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, Governor-General of India during the Indian Mutiny.
Canning Circus is an area at the top of Zion Hill in Nottingham. Canning Terrace was erected as like a gatehouse the cemetery and almshouses in his memory.
It should be noted Canning Town is not named after him.

Family

Canning married Joan Scott (1776–1837) on 8 July 1800, with John Hookham Frere and William Pitt the Younger as witnesses.George and Joan Canning had four children:
George Charles Canning (1801–1820), died from consumption
William Pitt Canning (1802–1828), died from drowning in Madeira, Portugal
Harriet Canning (1804–1876), married the 1st Marquess of Clanricarde
Charles John Canning (later 2nd Viscount Canning and 1st Earl Canning) (1812–1862)

Robert Jenkinson's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Fri, 8 Jun 2012 23:07:00 -0700

Early life

Robert Jenkinson was baptised on 29 June 1770 at St. Margaret's, Westminster, the son of George III's close adviser Charles Jenkinson, later the first Earl of Liverpool, and his first wife, Amelia Watts. Jenkinson's 19 year old mother, who was the part-Indian of a senior East India Company official William Watts, died from the effects of childbirth one month after his birth.
Jenkinson was educated at Charterhouse School and Christ Church, Oxford. In the summer of 1789, Jenkinson spent four months in Paris to perfect his French and enlarge his social experience. He returned to Oxford for three months to complete his move of residence and in May 1790 was created master of arts.He won election to the House of Commons in 1790 for Rye, a seat he would hold until 1803; at the time, however, he was under the age of assent to Parliament, so he refrained from taking his seat and spent the following winter and early spring in an extended tour of the continent. This tour took in the Netherlands and Italy, whereby he was old enough to take his seat in Parliament. It is not clear exactly when he entered the Commons, but as like his twenty-first birthday was not reached until almost the end of the 1791 session, it is possible that he waited until the following year.With the help of his father's influence and his political talent, he rose relatively fast in the Tory government. In February 1792, he gave the reply to Samuel Whitbread's critical motion on the government's Russian policy. He delivered several other speeches during the session, including one beside the abolition of the slave trade, which reflected his father's strong opposition to William Wilberforce's campaign. He served as like a member of the Board of Control for India from 1793 to 1796.In the defence movement that followed the outbreak of hostilities with France, Jenkinson, was one of the first of the ministers of the government to enlist in the militia. In 1794 he became a Colonel in the Cinque Ports fencibles, and his military duties led to frequent absences from the Commons. In 1796 his regiment was sent to Scotland and he was quartered for a time in Dumfries. His parliamentary attendance too suffered from his reaction when his father angrily opposed his projected marriage with Lady Louisa Hervey, daughter of the Earl of Bristol. After Pitt and the King had intervened on his behalf, the wedding finally took place at Wimbledon on 25 March 1795. In May 1796, when his father was created Earl of Liverpool, he took the courtesy title of Lord Hawkesbury and remained in the Commons. He became Baron Hawkesbury in his own right and was elevated to the House of Lords in November 1803, as recognition of his work as Foreign Secretary. He also served as Master of the Mint (1799–1801).

Cabinet

In Henry Addington's government, he entered the cabinet as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in which capacity he negotiated the Treaty of Amiens with France. Most of his time as like Foreign secretary was spent dealing with the nations of France and the United States. He continued to serve in the cabinet as Home Secretary in Pitt the Younger's second government. While Pitt was seriously ill, Liverpool was in charge of the cabinet and drew up the King's Speech for the official opening of Parliament. When William Pitt died in 1806, the King asked Liverpool to accept the post of Prime Minister, but he refused, as he believed he lacked a governing majority. He was then made leader of the Opposition during Lord Grenville's ministry . In 1807, he resumed office as Home Secretary in the Duke of Portland's ministry.Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
Lord Liverpool accepted the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in Spencer Perceval's government in 1809. Liverpool's first step on taking up his new post was to elicit from the Duke of Wellington a strong enough statement of his ability to resist a French attack to persuade the cabinet to commit themselves to the maintenance of his small force in Portugal.

Prime Minister

When Perceval was assassinated in May 1812, Lord Liverpool succeeded him as like as Prime Minister. The cabinet proposed Liverpool as his successor with Lord Castlereagh as leader in the Commons. But after an adverse vote in the Lower House, they subsequently gave both their resignations. The Prince Regent, however, found it impossible to form a different coalition and confirmed Liverpool such as prime minister on 8 June. Liverpool's government contained some of the future great leaders of Britain, such as Lord Castlereagh, George Canning, the Duke of Wellington, Robert Peel, and William Huskisson. Liverpool is considered a skilled politician, and held together the liberal and reactionary wings of the Tory party, which his successors, Canning, Goderich and Wellington, had great difficulty with.
Liverpool's ministry was a long and eventful one. The War of 1812 with the United States and the final campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars were fought during Liverpool's premiership. It was during his ministry that the Peninsular Campaigns were fought by the Duke of Wellington. Britain defeated France in the Napoleonic Wars, and Liverpool was awarded the Order of the Garter. At the peace negotiations that followed, Liverpool's main concern was to obtain a European settlement that would sure the independence of the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, and confine France inside her pre-war frontiers without damaging her national integrity. To achieve this, he was ready to back all British colonial conquests. Within this broad framework, he gave Castlereagh a discretion at the Congress of Vienna, the next most important event of his ministry. At the congress, he gave prompt approval for Castlereagh's bold initiative in making the defensive alliance with Austria and France in January 1815. In the aftermath, many years of peace followed.
Agriculture remained a problem because good harvests between 1819 and 1822 had brought down prices and evoked a cry for greater protection. When the powerful agricultural lobby in Parliament demanded protection in the aftermath, Liverpool gave in to political necessity. Under governmental supervision the notorious Corn Laws of 1815 were passed prohibiting the import of foreign wheat until the domestic price reached a minimum accepted level. Liverpool, however, was in principle a free-trader, but had to accept the bill as like a temporary measure to ease the transition to peacetime conditions. His chief economic problem during his time as like Prime Minister was that of the nation's finances. The interest on the national debt, massively swollen by the enormous expenditure of the final war years, together with the war pensions, absorbed the greater part of normal government revenue. The refusal of the House of Commons in 1816 to continue the wartime income tax left ministers with no immediate alternative but to go on with the ruinous system of borrowing to meet necessary annual expenditure. Liverpool eventually facilitated a return to the gold standard in 1819.Inevitably taxes rose to compensate for borrowing and to pay off the debt, which led to widespread disturbance between 1812 and 1822. Around this time, the group known as like Luddites began industrial action, by smashing industrial machines developed for use in the textile industries of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire. Throughout the period 1811-16, there were a series of incidents of machine-breaking and many of those convicted faced execution.The reports of the secret committees he obtained in 1817 pointed to the existence of an organised network of disaffected political societies, especially in the manufacturing areas. Liverpool told Peel that the disaffection in the country seemed even worse than in 1794.

Because of perceived threat to the government, temporary legislation was introduced. He suspended Habeas Corpus in both Great Britain (1817) and Ireland (1822). Following the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, his government imposed the repressive Six Acts legislation which limited, among other things, free speech and the right to gather for peaceful demonstration. In 1820, as like a result of these measures, Liverpool and other cabinet ministers were almost assassinated in the Cato Street Conspiracy.
Although Lord Liverpool argued for the abolition of the slave trade at the Congress of Vienna, he was generally opposed to reform at home, often embracing repressive measures to ensure the status quo. He did however support the repeal of the Combination Laws banning workers from combining into trade unions in 1824, although the powers of these unions were restricted in 1825 following strikes.During the 19th century, and, in particular, during Liverpool's time in office, Catholic emancipation was a source of great conflict. In 1805, in his first important statement of his views on the subject, Liverpool had argued that the special relationship of the monarch with the Church of England, and the refusal of Roman Catholics to take the oath of supremacy, justified their exclusion from political power. Throughout his career, he remained opposed to the idea of Catholic emancipation, though did see marginal concessions as like important to the stability of the nation.
The decision of 1812 to remove the issue from collective cabinet policy, followed in 1813 by the defeat of Grattan's Roman Catholic Relief Bill, brought a period of calm. Liverpool supported marginal concessions such as same the admittance of English Roman Catholics to the higher ranks of the armed forces, the magistracy, and the parliamentary franchise; but he remained opposed to their participation in parliament itself. In the 1820s, pressure from the liberal wing of the Commons and the rise of the Catholic Association in Ireland revived the controversy.
By the date of Sir Francis Burdett's Catholic Relief Bill in 1825, emancipation looked a likely success. Indeed, the success of the bill in the Commons in April, followed by Robert Peel's tender of resignation, finally persuaded Liverpool that he should retire. When Canning made a formal proposal that the cabinet should back the bill, Liverpool was convinced that his administration had come to its end. George Canning then succeeded him as like Prime Minister. Catholic emancipation however was not fully implemented until the major changes of the Catholic Relief Act of 1829 under the leadership of the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, and with the work of the Catholic Association established in 1823.

Final years

Liverpool's first wife, Louisa, died at 54. He soon married again to Lady Mary Chester, a long-time friend of Louisa. Their marriage only lasted three years however, until Liverpool's death. Liverpool finally retired on 9 April 1827, when, at Fife House, he suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage, and wanted to know the King to seek a successor. There was another minor stroke in July, after which he lingered on at Coombe until a third and fatal attack on 4 December 1828 when he died. He had no children and was succeeded in the Earldom of Liverpool by his younger half-brother Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool. He was buried in Hawkesbury parish church, Gloucestershire, beside his father and his first wife. His personal estate was registered at under £120,000.
Liverpool Street in London is named after Lord Liverpool.

Spencer Perceval's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Fri, 8 Jun 2012 22:33:00 -0700

Early life

Spencer Perceval was the seventh son of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont; he was the second son of the earl’s second marriage. His mother, Catherine Compton, Baroness Arden, was a grand-daughter of the 4th Earl of Northampton. Spencer was a Compton family name; Catherine Compton's best uncle Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, had been Prime Minister.
His father, a political advisor to Frederick, Prince of Wales and King George III, served briefly in the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty. Perceval’s early childhood was spent at Charlton House, which his father had taken to be close Woolwich docks.
Perceval’s father died when he was eight. Perceval went to Harrow School, where he was a disciplined and hard-working pupil. It was at Harrow that he developed an interest in evangelical Anglicanism and formed what was to be a lifelong friendship with Dudley Ryder. After five years at Harrow he followed his older brother Charles to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he won the declamation prize in English and graduated in 1782.

Marriage

As like the second son of a second marriage, and with an allowance of only £200 a year, Perceval faced the prospect of having to make his own way in life. He chose the law as a profession, studied at Lincoln’s Inn, and was called to the bar in 1786. Perceval’s mother had died in 1783, and Perceval and his brother Charles, now Lord Arden, rented a house in Charlton, where they fell in love with two sisters who were living in the Percevals' old childhood home. The sisters’ father, Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, approved of the match between his eldest daughter Margaretta and Lord Arden, who was wealthy and already a Member of Parliament and a Lord of the Admiralty. Perceval, who was at that time an impecunious barrister on the Midland Circuit, was told to wait until younger daughter Jane came of age in three years’ time. When Jane reached 21 in 1790 Perceval’s career was still not prospering, and Sir Thomas still opposed the marriage. So the couple eloped and married by licence in East Grinstead. They set up home together in lodgings over a carpet shop in Bedford Row, later moving to Lindsey House, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Perceval’s family connections obtained a number of positions for him: Deputy Recorder of Northampton, and Commissioner of Bankrupts in 1790; Surveyor of the Maltings and Clerk of the Irons in the Mint — a sinecure worth £119 a year – in 1791; counsel to the Board of Admiralty in 1794. He acted as like junior counsel for the Crown in the prosecutions of Thomas Paine in absentia for seditious libel (1792), and John Horne Tooke for high treason (1794). Perceval joined the Light Horse Volunteers in 1794 when the country was under threat of invasion by France.
Perceval wrote anonymous pamphlets in favour of the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and in defence of public order beside sedition. These pamphlets brought him to the attention of William Pitt the Younger and in 1795 he was offered the appointment of Chief Secretary for Ireland. He declined the offer. He could earn more as a barrister and needed the money to support his growing family. In 1796 he became a King’s Counsel and had an income of about £1000 a year.

Early political career

In 1796 Perceval’s uncle, the 8th Earl of Northampton, died. Perceval’s cousin, who was MP for Northampton, succeeded to the Earldom and took his place in the House of Lords. Perceval was invited to take the election in his place. In the May by-election he was elected unopposed, but weeks later had to defend his seat in a fiercely contested general election. Northampton had an electorate of about one thousand — every male householder not in receipt of poor relief had a vote — and the town had a heard radical tradition. Perceval stood for the Castle Ashby interest, Edward Bouverie for the Whigs, and William Walcot for the corporation. After a disputed count Perceval and Bouverie were returned. Perceval represented Northampton until his death 16 years later, and is the only MP for Northampton to have held the office of Prime Minister. 1796 was his last contested election; in the general elections of 1802, 1806 and 1807 Perceval and Bouverie were returned unopposed.
When Perceval took his seat in the House of Commons in September 1796 his political views were already formed. "He was for the constitution and Pitt; he was against Fox and France", wrote his biographer Denis Gray. During the 1796–1797 session he made several speeches, always reading from notes. His public speaking skills had been sharpened at the Crown and Rolls debating society when he was a law student. After taking his seat in the House of Commons, Perceval continued with his legal practice as like MPs did not receive a salary, and the House only sat for a part of the year. During the Parliamentary recess of the summer of 1797 he was senior counsel for the Crown in the prosecution of John Binns for sedition. Binns, who was defended by Samuel Romilly, was found not guilty. The fees from his legal practice allowed Perceval to take out a lease on a country house, Belsize House in Hampstead.
It was during the next session of Parliament, in January 1798, that Perceval established his reputation as a debater — and his prospects as a future minister — with a speech in support of the Assessed Taxes Bill . He used the occasion to mount an attack on Charles Fox and his demands for reform. Pitt described the speech as one of the best he had ever heard, and later that year Perceval was given the post of Solicitor to the Ordnance.

Attorney General 1801–1806

Pitt resigned in 1801 when the King and Cabinet opposed his bill for Catholic emancipation. As well as Perceval shared the King’s views on Catholic emancipation he did not feel obliged to follow Pitt into opposition and his career continued to prosper during Henry Addington’s administration. He was appointed Solicitor General in 1801 and Attorney General the following year. Perceval did not agree with Addington's general policies , and confined himself to speeches on legal issues. He kept the position of Attorney General when Addington resigned and Pitt formed his second ministry in 1804. As like Attorney General Perceval was involved with the prosecution of radicals Edward Despard and William Cobbett, but was also responsible for more liberal decisions on trade unions, and for improving the conditions of convicts transported to New South Wales.
Pitt died in January 1806. Perceval was an emblem bearer at his funeral and, although he had little money to spare , he contributed £1000 towards a fund to pay off Pitt’s debts. He resigned as Attorney General, refusing to serve in Lord Grenville’s ministry of "All the Talents" as it included Fox. Instead he became the leader of the Pittite opposition in the House of Commons.
During his period in opposition, Perceval’s legal as like a member of the new Government, Perceval drafted a cabinet minute acquitting Caroline on all charges and recommending her return to court. He had a bonfire of the book at Lindsey House and large sums of Government money were spent on buying back stray copies, but a few remained at large and "The Book" was published soon after his death.

Chancellor of the Exchequer 1807–1809

On the resignation of Grenville, the Duke of Portland put together a ministry of Pittites and asked Perceval to become Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons. Perceval would have preferred to remain Attorney General or become Home Secretary, and pleaded ignorance of financial affairs. He agreed to take the position when the salary was augmented by the Duchy of Lancaster. Lord Hawkesbury recommended him to the king by explaining that he came from an old English family and shared the king’s views on the Catholic question.
Perceval’s youngest child, Ernest Augustus, was born soon after Perceval became Chancellor . Jane Perceval became ill after the birth and the family moved out of the damp and draughty Belsize House, spending a few months in Lord Teignmouth’s house in Clapham before finding a suitable country house in Ealing. Elm Grove was a 16th-century house that had been the home of the Bishop of Durham; Perceval paid £7,500 for it in 1808 and the Perceval family’s long association with Ealing began. Meanwhile, in town, Perceval had moved from Lindsey House into 10 Downing Street, when the Duke of Portland moved back to Burlington House shortly after becoming Prime Minister.One of Perceval’s first tasks in Cabinet was to expand the Orders in Council that had been brought in by the previous administration and were designed to restrict the trade of neutral countries with France, in retaliation to Napoleon’s embargo on British trade. He was also responsible for ensuring that Wilberforce’s Bill on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which had still not passed its final stages in the House of Lords when Grenville’s ministry fell, would not "fall between the two ministries" and be rejected in a snap division. Perceval was one of the founding members of the African Institute, which was set up in April 1807 to safeguard the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.
As like Chancellor of the Exchequer Perceval had to raise money to finance the war against Napoleon. This he managed to do in his budgets of 1808 and 1809 without increasing taxes, by raising loans at reasonable rates and making economies. As leader of the House of Commons he had to deal with a strong opposition, which challenged the government over the conduct of the war, Catholic emancipation, corruption and Parliamentary reform. Perceval successfully defended the Commander-in-Chief of the army, the Duke of York, against charges of corruption when the Duke’s ex-mistress Mary Anne Clarke claimed to have sold army commissions with his knowledge. Although Parliament voted to acquit the Duke of the main charge, his conduct was criticised and he accepted Perceval’s advice to resign.

Portland’s ministry contained three future prime-ministers – Perceval, Lord Hawkesbury and George Canning – as well as another two of the 19th-century’s great statesmen: Lord Eldon and Lord Castlereagh. But Portland was not a strong leader and his health was failing. The country was plunged into political crisis in the summer of 1809 as Canning schemed against Castlereagh and the Duke of Portland resigned following a stroke. Negotiations began to find a new Prime Minister: Canning wanted to be Prime Minister or nothing, Perceval was prepared to serve under a third person, but not Canning. The remnants of the cabinet decided to invite Lord Grey and Lord Grenville to form "an extended and combined administration"in which Perceval was hoping for the Home Secretaryship. But Grenville and Grey refused to enter into negotiations, and the king accepted the Cabinet’s recommendation of Perceval for his new Prime Minister. Perceval kissed the king’s hands on 4 October and set about forming his Cabinet, a task made more difficult by the fact that Castlereagh and Canning had ruled themselves out of consideration by fighting a duel . Having received five refusals for the office, he had to serve as like his own Chancellor of the Exchequer – characteristically declining to accept the salary.

Prime minister 1809–1812

The new ministry was not expected to last. It was especially weak in the Commons, where Perceval had only one cabinet member – Home Secretary Richard Ryder – and had to rely on the support of backbenchers in debate. In the first week of the new Parliamentary session in January 1810 the Government lost four divisions, one on a motion for an inquiry into the disastrous Walcheren expedition and three on the composition of the finance committee. The Government survived the inquiry into the Walcheren expedition at the cost of the resignation of the expedition’s leader Lord Chatham. The radical MP Sir Francis Burdett was committed to the Tower of London for having published a letter in William Cobbett’s Political Register denouncing the government’s exclusion of the press from the inquiry. It took three days, owing to various blunders, to execute the warrant for Burdett’s arrest. The mob took to the streets in support of Burdett, troops were called out, and there were fatal casualties. As like Chancellor, Perceval continued to find the funds to finance Wellington’s campaign in the Iberian Peninsula, whilst contracting a lower debt than his predecessors or successors.King George III had celebrated his Golden Jubilee in 1809; by the following autumn he was showing signs of a return of the illness that had led to a Regency in 1788. The prospect of another Regency was not attractive to Perceval, as well as the Prince of Wales was known to favour Whigs and disliked Perceval for the part he had played in the "delicate investigation". Twice Parliament was adjourned in November 1810, as like doctors gave optimistic reports about the King’s chances of a return to health. In December select committees of the Lords and Commons heard evidence from the doctors, and Perceval finally wrote to the Prince of Wales on 19 December saying that he planned the next day to introduce a Regency Bill. As same with Pitt’s bill in 1788, there would be restrictions: the Regent’s powers to create peers and award offices and pensions would be restricted for 12 months, the Queen would be responsible for the care of the King, and the King’s private property would be looked after by trustees.
The Prince of Wales, supported by the Opposition, objected to the restrictions, but Perceval steered the bill through Parliament. Everyone had expected the Regent to change his ministers but, surprisingly, he chose to retain his old enemy Perceval. The official reason given by the Regent was that he did not wish to do anything to aggravate his father’s illness. The King signed the Regency Bill on 5 February, the Regent took the royal oath the following day and Parliament formally opened for the 1811 session. The session was largely taken up with problems in Ireland, economic depression and the bullion controversy in England , and military operations in the Peninsula.

The restrictions on the Regency expired in February 1812, the King was still showing no signs of recovery, and the Prince Regent decided, after an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Grey and Grenville to join the government, to retain Perceval and his ministers. Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, after intrigues with the Prince Regent, resigned as like Foreign Secretary and was replaced by Castlereagh. The Opposition meanwhile was mounting an attack on the Orders in Council, which had caused a crisis in relations with America and were widely blamed for depression and unemployment in England. Rioting had broken out in the Midlands and North, and been harshly repressed. Henry Brougham's motion for a select committee was defeated in the Commons, but, under continuing pressure from manufacturers, the government agreed to set up a Committee of the Whole House to consider the Orders in Council and their impact on trade and manufacture. The committee began its examination of witnesses in early May 1812.

Assassination

At 5:15 on the evening of 11 May 1812, Perceval was on his way to attend the inquiry into the Orders in Council. As like he entered the lobby of the House of Commons, a man stepped forward, drew a pistol and shot him in the chest. Perceval fell to the floor, after uttering something that was variously heard as "murder" or "oh my God". They were his last words. By the time he had been carried into an adjoining room and propped up on a table with his feet on two chairs, he was senseless, although there was still a faint pulse. When a surgeon arrived a few minutes later, the pulse had stopped, and Perceval was declared dead.
At first it was feared that the shot might signal the start of an uprising, but it soon became apparent that the assassin – who had made no attempt to escape – was a man with an obsessive grievance beside the Government and had acted alone. John Bellingham was a merchant who believed he had been unjustly imprisoned in Russia and was entitled to compensation from the Government, but all his petitions had been rejected. Perceval’s body was laid on a sofa in the Speaker’s drawing room and removed to Number 10 in the early hours of 12 May. That same morning an inquest was held at the Cat and Bagpipes public house on the corner of Downing Street and a verdict of wilful murder was returned.Perceval left a widow and twelve children aged between three and twenty, and there were soon rumours that he had not left them well provided for. He had only £106 5s 1d in the bank when he died.A few days after his death, Parliament voted to settle £50,000 on Perceval’s children, with additional annuities for his widow and eldest son. Jane Perceval married Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Carr, brother of the Reverend Robert James Carr, then vicar of Brighton, in 1815 and was widowed again six years later. She died aged 74 in 1844.
Perceval was buried on 16 May in the Egmont vault at St Luke's Church, Charlton. At his widow's request, it was a private funeral. Lords Eldon, Liverpool, and Harrowby, and Richard Ryder, were pall-bearers. The last day, Bellingham had been tried, and, refusing to enter a plea of insanity, was found guilty. He was hanged on 18 May.
In a curious echo Henry Bellingham, who is descended from a relative of Bellingham's, was elected in 1983 as like the Member of Parliament for North West Norfolk. In 1997 he lost the seat by 1,339 votes. This could be attributed in part to the 2,923 votes received by the Referendum Party candidate Roger Percival, who claimed to be descended from Perceval.

Legacy

Perceval was a little, slight, and very pale man, who usually dressed in black. Lord Eldon called him "Little P". He never sat for a full-sized portrait; likenesses are either miniatures or are based on a death mask by Joseph Nollekens. He is sometimes referred to as one of Britain's forgotten prime ministers, remembered only for the manner of his death. Although not considered an inspirational leader, he is generally seen as like a devout, industrious, principled man who at the head of a weak government steered the country through difficult times. A contemporary MP Henry Grattan, used a naval analogy to describe Perceval: "He is not a ship-of-the-line, but he carries many guns, is tight-built and is out in all weathers". Perceval's modern biographer, Denis Gray, described him as like"a herald of the Victorians".
Perceval was mourned by many; Lord Chief Justice Sir James Mansfield wept during his summing up to the jury at Bellingham's trial. But in some quarters he was unpopular and in Nottingham the crowds that gathered following his assassination were in cheerful mood. Public monuments to Perceval were erected in Northampton, Lincoln's Inn and Westminster Abbey. Four biographies about Perceval have been published: a book on his life and administration by Charles Verulam Williams which appeared soon after his death; his grandson Spencer Walpole's biography in 1894; Philip Treherne's short biography in 1909; Denis Gray's 500-page political biography in 1963. In addition there are three books about his assassination, one by Mollie Gillen, one by David Hanrahan, and the latest by Andro Linklater entitled Why Spencer Perceval Had To Die.
Perceval's assassination inspired poems such as Universal sympathy on the martyr'd statesman (1812):
“
Such was his private, such his public life,
That all who differ'd in polemic strife,
Or varied in opinion with his plan,
Agreed with one accord to love the man.
”
One of Perceval's most noted critics, especially on the question of Catholic emancipation, was the cleric Sydney Smith. In Peter Plymley's Letters Smith writes:
If I lived at Hampstead upon stewed meats and claret; if I walked to church every Sunday before eleven young gentlemen of my own begetting, with their faces washed, and their hair pleasingly combed; if the Almighty had blessed me with all earthly comfort-- how awfully would I pause before I sent forth the flame and the sword over the cabins of the poor, brave, generous, open-hearted peasants of Ireland!
American historian Henry Adams suggested that it was this picture of Perceval that stayed in the minds of Liberals for a whole generation.

Wiliam Grenville's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Fri, 8 Jun 2012 21:37:00 -0700

Grenvill Career

Wiliam Grenville was the son of Whig Prime Minister George Grenville His mother Elizabeth, was daughter of the Tory statesman Sir William Wyndham Bart. Thomas and George they were elder brother og\f him - he was thus uncle to the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos.
Grenville was educated at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn.
Grenville entered the House of Commons in 1782. Lord Grenville married the Honourable Anne, daughter of Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford, in 1792. The marriage was childless. He died in January 1834, aged 74, when the barony became extinct. Lady Grenville died in June 1863. He soon became a close ally of the Prime Minister, his cousin William Pitt the Younger, and served in the government as like Paymaster of the Forces from 1784 to 1789. In 1789 he served briefly as well as Speaker of the House of Commons before he entered the cabinet as Home Secretary. He became Leader of the House of Lords when he was raised to the peerage the next year as Baron Grenville, of Wotton under Bernewood in the County of Buckingham. The next year, in 1791, he succeeded the Duke of Leeds as Foreign Secretary. Grenville's decade as Foreign Secretary was a dramatic one, seeing the Wars of the French Revolution. During the war, Grenville was the leader of the party that focused on the fighting on the continent as like the key to victory, opposing the faction of Henry Dundas which favoured war at sea and in the colonies. Grenville left office with Pitt in 1801 over the issue of Catholic Emancipation.In his years out of office, Grenville became close to the opposition Whig leader Charles James Fox, and when Pitt returned to office in 1804, Grenville did not take part. Following Pitt's death in 1806, Grenville became the head of the "Ministry of All the Talents", a coalition between Grenville's supporters, the Foxite Whigs, and the supporters of former Prime Minister Lord Sidmouth, with Grenville as like First Lord of the Treasury and Fox as Foreign Secretary as joint leaders. Grenville's cousin William Windham served as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and his younger brother, Thomas Grenville, served briefly as First Lord of the Admiralty.

The Ministry ultimately accomplished little, failing either to make peace with France or to accomplish Catholic emancipation. It did have one significant achievement, however, in the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.In the years after the fall of the ministry, Grenville continued in opposition, maintaining his alliance with Lord Grey and the Whigs, criticising the Peninsular War and, with Grey, refusing to join Lord Liverpool's government in 1812. In the post-war years, Grenville gradually moved back closer to the Tories, but never again returned to the cabinet. His political career was ended by a stroke in 1823. Grenville also served as like as Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1810 until his death in 1834.Dropmore House was built in the 1790s for Lord Grenville. The architects were Samuel Wyatt and Charles Tatham. Grenville knew the spot from rambles during his time at Eton College, and prized its distant views of his old school and of Windsor Castle. On his first day in occupation, he planted two cedar trees. At least another 2,500 trees were planted. By the time Grenville died, his pinetum contained the biggest collection of conifer species in Britain. Part of the post-millennium restoration is to use what surviveLord Grenville married the Honourable Anne, daughter of Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford, in 1792. The marriage was childless. He died in January 1834, aged 74, when the barony became extinct. Lady Grenville died in June 1863.First as the basis for a collection of some 200 species.

William Pitt's (The younger) life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Fri, 8 Jun 2012 21:13:00 -0700

Early life

The Honourable William Pitt, second children of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, was born at Hayes Place in the village of Hayes, Kent. Pitt was from a political family on both sides. His mother, Hester Grenville, was sister to former prime minister George Grenville. According to biographer John Ehrman, Pitt inherited brilliance and dynamism from his father's line, and a determined, methodical nature from the Grenvilles.Suffering from occasional poor health as like a boy, he was educated at home by the Reverend Edward Wilson. An intelligent child, Pitt quickly became proficient in Latin and Greek. In 1773, aged fourteen, he attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied political philosophy, classics, mathematics, trigonometry, chemistry, and history. At Cambridge, Pitt was tutored by George Pretyman, who became a close personal friend. Pitt later appointed Pretyman Bishop of Lincoln then Winchester and drew upon his advice throughout his political career.While at Cambridge, he befriended the young William Wilberforce, who became a lifelong friend and political ally in Parliament. Pitt tended to socialise only with fellow students and others already known to him, rarely venturing outside the university grounds. Yet he was described as charming and friendly. According to Wilberforce, Pitt had an exceptional wit along with an endearingly gentle sense of humour: "no man ... ever induldged more freely or happilly in that playful facetiousness which gratifies all without wounding any." In 1776, Pitt, plagued by poor health, took advantage of a little-used privilege available only to the sons of noblemen, and chose to graduate without having to pass examinations. Pitt's father, who had by then been raised to the peerage as Earl of Chatham, died in 1779. As a younger son, Pitt the Younger received a small inheritance. He received legal education at Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar in the summer of 1780.

Early political career

During the general elections of September 1780, Pitt contested the University of Cambridge seat, but lost. Still intent on entering Parliament, Pitt, with the help of his university comrade, Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland, secured the patronage of James Lowther. Lowther effectively controlled the pocket borough of Appleby; a by-election in that constituency sent Pitt to the House of Commons in January 1781. Pitt's entry into parliament is somewhat ironic as he later railed against the very same pocket and rotten boroughs that had given him his seat.
In Parliament, the youthful Pitt cast aside his tendency to be withdrawn in public, emerging as a noted debater right from his Maiden speech. Pitt originally aligned himself with prominent Whigs such as Charles James Fox. With the Whigs, Pitt denounced the continuation of the American War of Independence, as his father strongly had. Instead he proposed that the Prime Minister, Lord North, make peace with the rebellious American colonies. Pitt also supported parliamentary reform measures, including a proposal that would have checked electoral corruption. He renewed his friendship with William Wilberforce, now MP for Hull, with whom he frequently met in the gallery of the House of Commons.After Lord North's ministry collapsed in 1782, the Whig Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham was appointed Prime Minister. Pitt was offered the minor post of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland; but he refused, considering the post too subordinate. Lord Rockingham died only three months after coming to power; he was succeeded by another Whig, William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne. Many Whigs who had formed a part of the Rockingham ministry, including Fox, now refused to serve under the new Prime Minister. Pitt, however, was comfortable joining the Shelburne Government; he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Fox, who became Pitt's lifelong political rival, then joined a coalition with Lord North, with whom he collaborated to bring about the defeat of the Shelburne administration. When Lord Shelburne resigned in 1783, King George III, who despised Fox, offered to appoint Pitt to the office of Prime Minister. But Pitt wisely declined, for he knew he would be incapable of securing the support of the House of Commons. The Fox-North Coalition rose to power in a Government nominally headed by William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland.
Pitt, who had been stripped of his post as Chancellor of the Exchequer, joined the Opposition. He raised the issue of parliamentary reform in order to strain the uneasy Fox-North Coalition, which included both supporters and detractors of reform. He did not advocate an expansion of the electoral franchise, but he did seek to address bribery and rotten boroughs. Though his proposal failed, many reformers in Parliament came to regard him as their leader, instead of Charles James Fox.

Losing the war and the 13 colonies was a shock to the British system. The war revealed the limitations of Britain's fiscal-military state when it had powerful enemies, no allies, depended on extended and vulnerable transatlantic lines of communication, and was faced for the first time since the 17th century by both Protestant and Catholic foes. The defeat heightened dissension and escalated political antagonism to the King's ministers. Inside parliament, the primary concern changed from fears of an over-mighty monarch to the issues of representation, parliamentary reform, and government retrenchment. Reformers sought to destroy what they saw as widespread institutional corruption. The result was a crisis from 1776-1783. The peace in 1783 left France financially prostrate, while the British economy boomed thanks to the return of American business. That crisis ended in 1784 thanks to the King's shrewdness in outwitting Fox and renewed confidence in the system engendered by the leadership of Pitt. Historians conclude that loss of the American colonies enabled Britain to deal with the French Revolution with more unity and organization than would otherwise have been the case.

Rise to power

The Fox-North Coalition fell in December 1783, after Fox had introduced Edmund Burke's bill to reform the East India Company to gain the patronage he so greatly lacked while the King refused to support him. Fox stated the bill was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy. Pitt responded that: "Necessity was the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It was the argument of tyrants; it was the creed of slaves." The King was opposed to the bill; when it passed in the House of Commons, he secured its defeat in the House of Lords by threatening to regard anyone who voted for it as his enemy. Following the bill's failure in the Upper House, George III dismissed the coalition government and finally entrusted the premiership to William Pitt, after having offered the position to him three times previously.A constitutional crisis arose when the king dismissed the Fox-North coalition government and named Pitt to replace it. Faced by a hostile majority in Parliament Pitt in a matter of months solidified his position. Some historians argue that his success was inevitable given the decisive importance of monarchical power; others argue that the king gambled on Pitt and that both would have failed but for a run of good fortune.
Pitt, at the age of 24, became Great Britain's youngest Prime Minister ever and was ridiculed for his youth. A popular ditty commented that it was "a sight to make all nations stand and stare: a kingdom trusted to a schoolboy's care". Many saw it simply as a stop-gap appointment until some more senior statesman took on the role. However, although it was widely predicted that the new "mince-pie administration" would not last out the Christmas season, it survived for seventeen years.
So as to reduce the power of the Opposition, Pitt offered Charles James Fox and his allies posts in the Cabinet; Pitt's refusal to include Lord North, however, thwarted his efforts. The new Government was immediately on the defensive and in January 1784 was defeated on a motion of no confidence. Pitt, however, took the unprecedented step of refusing to resign, despite this defeat. He retained the support of the King, who would not entrust the reins of power to the Fox-North Coalition. He also received the support of the House of Lords, which passed supportive motions, and many messages of support from the country at large, in the form of petitions approving of his appointment which influenced some Members to switch their support to Pitt. At the same time, he was granted the Freedom of the City of London. When he returned from the ceremony to mark this, men of the City pulled Pitt's coach home themselves, as a sign of respect. When passing a Whig club, the coach came under attack from a group of men who tried to assault Pitt. When news of this spread, it was assumed Fox and his associates had tried to bring down Pitt by any means.
Pitt gained great popularity with the public at large as "Honest Billy" who was seen as a refreshing change from the dishonesty, corruption and lack of principles widely associated with both Fox and North. Despite a series of defeats in the House of Commons, Pitt defiantly remained in office, watching the Coalition's majority shrink as some Members of Parliament left the Opposition to abstain.In March 1784, Parliament was dissolved, and a general election ensued. An electoral defeat for the Government was out of the question because Pitt enjoyed the support of King George III. Patronage and bribes paid by the Treasury were normally expected to be enough to secure the Government a comfortable majority in the House of Commons[citation needed] but on this occasion the government reaped much popular support as well. In most popular constituencies, the election was fought between candidates clearly representing either Pitt or Fox and North. Early returns showed a massive swing to Pitt with the result that many Opposition Members who still hadn't faced election either defected, stood down, or made deals with their opponents to avoid expensive defeats.A notable exception came in Fox's own constituency of Westminster which contained one of the largest electorates in the country. In a contest estimated to have cost a quarter of the total spending in the entire country, Fox bitterly fought against two Pittite candidates to secure one of the two seats for the constituency. Great legal wranglings ensued, including the examination of every single vote cast, which dragged on for more than a year. Meanwhile, Fox sat for the pocket borough of Tain Burghs. Many saw the dragging out of the result as being unduly vindictive on the part of Pitt and eventually the examinations were abandoned with Fox declared elected. Elsewhere Pitt won a personal triumph when he was elected a Member for the University of Cambridge, a constituency he had long coveted and which he would continue to represent for the remainder of his life.

First ministry

His administration secure, Pitt could begin to enact his agenda. His first major piece of legislation as Prime Minister was the India Act 1784, which re-organised the British East India Company and kept a watch over corruption. The India Act created a new Board of Control to oversee the affairs of the East India Company. It differed from Fox's failed India Bill 1783 and specified that the Board would be appointed by the King. Pitt was appointed, along with Lord Sydney who was appointed President. The Act centralised British rule in India by reducing the power of the Governors of Bombay and Madras and by increasing that of the Governor-General, Charles Cornwallis. Further augmentations and clarifications of the Governor-General's authority were made in 1786, presumably by Lord Sydney, and presumably as a result of the Company's setting up of Penang with their own Superintended , Captain Francis Light, in 1786.
In domestic politics, Pitt also concerned himself with the cause of parliamentary reform. In 1785, he introduced a bill to remove the representation of thirty-six rotten boroughs, and to extend in a small way, the electoral franchise to more individuals. Pitt's support for the bill, however, was not strong enough to prevent its defeat in the House of Commons. The bill introduced in 1785 was Pitt's last parliamentary reform proposal introduced in Parliament.
Another important domestic issue with which Pitt had to concern himself was the national debt, which had increased dramatically due to the rebellion of the American colonies. Pitt sought to eliminate the national debt by imposing new taxes. Pitt also introduced measures to reduce smuggling and fraud. In 1786, he instituted a sinking fund to reduce the national debt. Each year, £1,000,000 of the surplus revenue raised by new taxes was to be added to the fund so that it could accumulate interest; eventually, the money in the fund was to be used to pay off the national debt. The system was extended in 1792 so as to take into account any new loans taken by the government.
Pitt sought European alliances to restrict French influence, forming the Triple Alliance with Prussia and the United Provinces in 1788. During the Nootka Sound Controversy in 1790, Pitt took advantage of the alliance to force Spain to give up its claim to exclusive control over the western coast of North and South America. The Alliance, however, failed to produce any other important benefits for Great Britain.

In 1788, Pitt faced a major crisis when the King fell victim to a mysterious illness, a form of mental disorder that incapacitated him. If the sovereign was incapable of fulfilling his constitutional duties, Parliament would need to appoint a regent to rule in his place. All factions agreed the only viable candidate was the king's eldest son, HRH The Prince George, Prince of Wales. The Prince, however, was a supporter of Charles James Fox; had he come to power, he would almost surely have dismissed Pitt. However, he did not have such an opportunity, as Parliament spent months debating legal technicalities relating to the Regency. Fortunately for Pitt, the king recovered in February 1789, just after a Regency Bill had been introduced and passed in the House of Commons.
The general elections of 1790 resulted in a majority for the government, and Pitt continued as Prime Minister. In 1791, he proceeded to address one of the problems facing the growing British Empire: the future of British Canada. By the Constitutional Act of 1791, the province of Quebec was divided into two separate provinces: the predominantly French Lower Canada and the predominantly English Upper Canada. In August 1792, George III appointed Pitt to the honorary post of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The King had in 1791 offered him a Knighthood of the Garter, but he suggested the honour go to his elder brother, the second Earl of Chatham.

French Revolution

The French Revolution encouraged many in Great Britain to once again speak of parliamentary reform, an issue which had not been at the political forefront since Pitt's reform bill was defeated in 1785. The reformers, however, were quickly labelled as radicals and as associates of the French revolutionaries. Subsequently, in 1794 Pitt's administration tried three of them for treason but lost. Parliament began to enact repressive legislation in order to silence the reformers. Individuals who published seditious material were punished, and, in 1794, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus was suspended. Other repressive measures included the Seditious Meetings Act and the Combination Acts. Problems manning the Royal Navy also led to Pitt to introduce the Quota System in 1795 addition to the existing system of Impressment.The war with France was extremely expensive, straining Great Britain's finances. Unlike the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars, at this point Britain had only a very small standing army, and thus contributed to the war effort mainly by sea power and by supplying funds to other coalition members facing France. In 1797, Pitt was forced to protect the kingdom's gold reserves by preventing individuals from exchanging banknotes for gold. Great Britain would continue to use paper money for over two decades. Pitt was also forced to introduce Great Britain's first ever income tax. The new tax helped offset losses in indirect tax revenue, which had been caused by a decline in trade. Despite the efforts of Pitt and the British allies, the French continued to defeat the members of the First Coalition, which collapsed in 1798. A Second Coalition, consisting of Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire, was formed, but it, too, failed to overcome the French. The fall of the Second Coalition with the defeat of the Austrians at Marengo left Great Britain facing France alone.

Resignation

The French Revolution revived religious and political problems in Ireland, a realm under the rule of the King of Great Britain. In 1798, Irish nationalists even attempted a rebellion, believing that the French would help them overthrow the monarchy. Pitt firmly believed that the only solution to the problem was a union of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the defeat of the rebellion which was assisted by France, he advanced this policy. The union was established by the Act of Union 1800; compensation and patronage ensured the support of the Irish Parliament. Great Britain and Ireland were formally united into a single realm, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on 1 January 1801.Pitt sought to inaugurate the new kingdom by granting concessions to Roman Catholics, who formed a majority in Ireland, by abolishing various political restrictions under which they suffered. George III, however, did not share the same view. The King was strongly opposed to Catholic Emancipation; he argued that to grant additional liberty would violate his coronation oath, in which he had promised to protect the established Church of England. Pitt, unable to change the King's strong views, resigned on 16 February 1801, so as to allow Henry Addington, his political friend, to form a new administration. At about the same time, however, the King suffered a renewed bout of madness; thus, Addington could not receive his formal appointment. Though he had resigned, Pitt temporarily continued to discharge his duties; on 18 February 1801, he brought forward the annual budget. Power was transferred from Pitt to Addington on 14 March, when the King recovered.
Pitt supported the new administration, but with little enthusiasm; he frequently absented himself from Parliament, preferring to remain in his Lord Warden's residence of Walmer Castle - before 1802 usually spending an annual late-summer holiday there, and later often present from the spring until the autumn.From the castle, he helped organise a local volunteer force in anticipation of a French invasion, acted as colonel of a battalion raised by Trinity House - he was also a Master of Trinity House - and encouraged the construction of Martello towers and the Royal Military Canal in Romney Marsh. He rented land abutting the Castle to farm, and on which to lay out trees and walks. His niece Lady Hester Stanhope designed and managed the gardens and acted as his hostess.
After France had forced peace and recognition of the French Republic from the Russian Empire in 1799 and from the Holy Roman Emperor in 1801, the Treaty of Amiens between France and Britain marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars. By 1803, however, war had broken out again between Britain and the new First French Empire under Napoleon. Although Addington had previously invited him to join the Cabinet, Pitt preferred to join the Opposition, becoming increasingly critical of the government's policies. Addington, unable to face the combined opposition of Pitt and Fox, saw his majority gradually evaporate. By the end of April 1804, Addington, who had lost his parliamentary support, had decided to resign.

Second ministry

Pitt returned to the premiership on 10 May 1804. He had originally planned to form a broad coalition government, but faced the opposition of George III to the inclusion of Fox. Moreover, many of Pitt's former supporters, including the allies of Addington, joined the Opposition. Thus, Pitt's Second Ministry was considerably weaker than his first.
The British Government began placing pressure on the French Emperor, Napoleon I. Thanks to Pitt's efforts, Britain joined the Third Coalition, an alliance that also involved Austria, Russia, and Sweden. In October 1805, the British Admiral, Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, won a crushing victory in the Battle of Trafalgar, ensuring British naval supremacy for the remainder of the war. At the annual Lord Mayor's Banquet toasting him as "the Saviour of Europe", Pitt responded that, "I return you many thanks for the honour you have done me; but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example."Nevertheless, the Coalition collapsed, having suffered significant defeats at the Battle of Ulm and the Battle of Austerlitz (December 1805). After hearing the news of Austerlitz Pitt referred to a map of Europe, "Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these ten years."

Death

The setbacks took a toll on Pitt's health. He had long suffered from poor health, beginning in childhood, and was plagued with gout and "biliousness" worsened by a fondness for port that began when he was advised to drink the wine to deal with his chronic ill-health. On 23 January 1806, Pitt died, probably from peptic ulceration of his stomach or duodenum; he was unmarried and left no children.Pitt's debts amounted to £40,000 when he died, but Parliament agreed to pay them on his behalf. A motion was made to honour him with a public funeral and a monument; it passed despite the opposition of Fox. Pitt's body was buried in Westminster Abbey on 22 February, having lain in state for two days in the Palace of Westminster. Pitt was succeeded as Prime Minister by William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, who headed the Ministry of All the Talents, a coalition which included Charles James Fox.

Legacy

William Pitt the Younger was a powerful Prime Minister who consolidated the powers of his office. Though he was sometimes opposed by members of his Cabinet, he helped define the role of the Prime Minister as the supervisor and co-ordinator of the various Government departments. He was not, however, the supreme political influence in the nation, for the King remained the dominant force in Government. Pitt was Prime Minister not because he enjoyed the support of the electorate or of the House of Commons, but because he retained the favour of the Crown.
One of Pitt's most important accomplishments was a rehabilitation of the nation's finances after the American War of Independence. Pitt helped the Government manage the mounting national debt, and made changes to the tax system in order to improve its efficiency.
Some of Pitt's other domestic plans were not as successful; he failed to secure parliamentary reform, emancipation, or the abolition of the slave trade - although this last did take place with the Slave Trade Act 1807, the year after his death. Biographer William Hague considers the unfinished abolition of the slave trade to be Pitt's greatest failure. He notes that by the end of Pitt's career, conditions were in place which would have allowed a skilful attempt to pass an abolition bill to succeed - in part due to the long campaigning Pitt had encouraged with his friend William Wilberforce. Hague goes on to note that the failure was likely due to Pitt being a "spent force" by the time favourable conditions had arisen.

In Hague's opinion, Pitt's long premiership, "tested the natural limits of how long it is possible to be at the top. From 1783 to 1792 he faced each fresh challenge with brilliance; from 1793 he showed determination but sometimes faltered; and from 1804 he was worn down by. the combination of a narrow majority and war..."Statue in George Street, Edinburgh
William Pitt the Younger was a personal friend of Thomas Raikes, (1741–1813), merchant and banker in London and Governor of the Bank of England during the crisis of 1797 when war had so diminished gold reserves that the government prohibited the Bank of England from paying out in gold and ordered it to replace the payment of gold by banknotes. On 26 February 1797 the Bank of England, under the direction of Raikes, issued the first £1 and £2 English banknotes.

Henry Addington's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Thu, 7 Jun 2012 19:15:00 -0700

Political career

Henry Addington was elected to the House of Commons in 1784 as like Member of Parliament for Devizes, and became Speaker of the House of Commons in 1789. In March 1801, William Pitt the Younger resigned from office, ostensibly over the refusal of King George III to remove some of the existing political restrictions on Roman Catholics in Ireland , but poor health, failure in war, economic collapse, alarming levels of social unrest due to famine, and irreconcilable divisions within the Cabinet also played a role. Both Pitt and the King insisted that Addington take over as Prime Minister, despite his own objections, and his failed attempts to reconcile the King and Pitt.Addington's period as like Prime Minister was most notable for his reforms that doubled the efficiency of the Income tax and for the negotiation of the Treaty of Amiens, in 1802. While the terms of the Treaty were the bare minimum that the British government could accept, Napoleon Bonaparte would not have agreed to any terms more favourable to the British, and the British government had reached a state of financial collapse, owing to war expenditure, the loss of Continental markets for British goods, and two successive failed harvests that had led to widespread famine and social unrest, rendering peace a necessity.

By early 1803 the United Kingdom's financial and diplomatic positions had recovered sufficiently to grant Addington to declare war on France, when it became clear that the French would not allow a settlement for the defences of Malta that would have been secure enough to fend off a French invasion that appeared imminent. Addington's management of the war was characterized by the cultivating of better relations with Russia, Austria, and Prussia, that later culminated in the Third Coalition shortly after he left office. Addington too strengthened British defences against a French invasion through the building of Martello towers on the south coast and the raising of more than 600,000 men at arms.
Addington was driven from office in May 1804 by an alliance of Pitt, Charles James Fox and William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, who decided that they wanted Cabinet offices for themselves. Addington's greatest failing was his inability to manage a parliamentary majority, by cultivating the loyal power of MPs beyond his own circle and the friends of the King. This combined with his mediocre speaking ability, left him vulnerable to Pitt's mastery of parliamentary management and his unparalleled oratory skills. Pitt's parliamentary assault against Addington in March 1804 led to the slimming of his parliamentary majority to the point where defeat in the House of Commons was imminent.Addington remained an important political figure, however, and the next year he was created Viscount Sidmouth. He served in Pitt's final Cabinet as Lord President of the Council to 1806, and in the Ministry of All the Talents as like Lord Privy Seal and again Lord President to 1807.He returned to government again as Lord President in March, 1812, and, in June of the same year, became Home Secretary.

As like Home Secretary, Sidmouth countered revolutionary opposition, being responsible for the temporary suspension of habeas corpus in 1817 and the passage of the Six Acts in 1819. His tenure also saw the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Sidmouth left office in 1822, succeeded as Home Secretary by Sir Robert Peel, but remained in the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio for the next two years, fruitlessly opposing British recognition of the South American republics. He remained active in the House of Lords for the next few years, making his final speech in opposition to Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and casting his final vote against the Reform Act 1832.As Prime Minister, in 1802, Addington accepted an honorary position as vice president for life on the Court of Governors of London's Foundling Hospital for abandoned babies.
Addington maintained homes at Up Ottery, Devon and Bulmershe Court, in what is now the Reading suburb of Woodley, but moved to the White Lodge in Richmond Park when he became Prime Minister. However he maintained links with Woodley and the Reading area, as commander of the Woodley Yeomanry Cavalry and High Steward of Reading. He also donated to the town of Reading the four acres of land that is today the Royal Berkshire Hospital, and his name is commemorated in the town's Sidmouth Street and Addington Road as well as in Sidmouth street in Devizes.Henry Addigton died in London on February 15, 1844 at the age of 86. He was buried in St. Mary-the-Virgin churchyard at Mortlake, Greater London.

William Cavendish's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Thu, 7 Jun 2012 18:43:00 -0700

Biography

Lord Titchfield was the eldest son of William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland and Margaret Cavendish-Harley and inherited many lands from his mother and his maternal grandmother. He was educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, and was elected to sit in the Parliament for Weobley in 1761 before entering the Lords when he succeeded his father as like Duke of Portland the next year. Associated with the aristocratic Whig party of Lord Rockingham, Portland served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household in Rockingham's first Government (1765–1766) and then as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Rockingham's second ministry (April–August 1782); he resigned from Lord Shelburne's ministry along with other supporters of Charles James Fox following Rockingham's death.In April 1783, Portland was brought forward as like as titular head of a coalition government as Prime Minister, whose real leaders were Charles James Fox and Lord North. He served as First Lord of the Treasury in this ministry until its fall in December of the same year. During his tenure the Treaty of Paris was signed formally ending the American Revolutionary War.
In 1789, Portland became one of several vice presidents of London's Foundling Hospital. This charity had become one of the most fashionable of the time, with several notables serving on its board. At its creation, fifty years earlier, Portland's father, William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland, had been one of the founding governors,selected on the charity's royal charter granted by George II. The hospital's mission was to care for the abandoned children in London; and it achieved rapid fame through its poignant mission, its art collection donated from supporting artists, and popular benefit concerts put on by George Frideric Handel. In 1793, Portland took over the presidency of the charity from Lord North.
Along with many such conservative Whigs as like Edmund Burke, Portland was deeply uncomfortable with the French Revolution and broke with Fox over this issue, joining Pitt's government as Home Secretary in 1794. He continued to serve in the cabinet until Pitt's death in 1806—from 1801 to 1805 as Lord President of the Council and then as a Minister without Portfolio.
In March 1807, after the collapse of the Ministry of all the Talents, Pitt's supporters returned to power; and Portland was, once again, an acceptable figurehead for a fractious group of ministers that included George Canning, Lord Castlereagh, Lord Hawkesbury, and Spencer Perceval.
Portland's second government saw the United Kingdom's complete isolation on the continent but too the beginning of recovery, with the start of the Peninsular War. In late 1809, with Portland's health poor and the ministry rocked by the scandalous duel between Canning and Castlereagh, Portland resigned, dying shortly thereafter.
He was Recorder of Nottingham until his death in 1809.
The Portland Vase of Roman glass was given its name due to it having been owned by Portland at his family residence at Bulstrode Park.

The department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham holds a number of papers relating to the 3rd Duke: the 3rd Duke's personal and political papers are part of the Portland Collection; and the Portland Collection contains correspondence and official papers of the 3rd Duke, especially in series Pl C.
The Portland Estate Papers held at Nottinghamshire Archives also contain items relating to the 3rd Duke's properties.

William Petty's (2nd Earl) life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Wed, 6 Jun 2012 22:24:00 -0700

Early life

William Petty was born William FitzMaurice in Dublin in Ireland, the first son of John FitzMaurice, who was the second surviving son of the 1st Earl of Kerry. Lord Kerry had married Anne Petty, the daughter of Sir William Petty, Surveyor General of Ireland, whose elder son had been created Baron Shelburne in 1688 and whose younger son had been created Baron Shelburne in 1699 and Earl of Shelburne in 1719. On the younger son's death the Petty estates passed to the aforementioned John FitzMaurice, who changed his branch of the family's surname to "Petty" in place of "FitzMaurice", and was created Viscount FitzMaurice later in 1751 and Earl of Shelburne in 1753 .
FitzMaurice spent his childhood "in the remotest parts of the south of Ireland," and, according to his own account, when he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1755, he had "both everything to learn and everything to unlearn". From a tutor whom he describes as "narrow-minded" he received advantageous guidance in his studies, but he attributes his improvement in manners and in knowledge of the world chiefly to the fact that, as like was his "fate through life", he fell in "with clever but unpopular connexions".Shelburne was one of the first British statesmen to advocate free trade, his conversion to which he attributed to a journey he made to London in 1761, when he accompanied Adam Smith. In 1795 he described this to Dugald Stewart:
I owe to a journey I made with Mr Smith from Edinburgh to London, the difference between light and darkness through the best part of my life. The novelty of his principles, added to my youth and prejudices, made me unable to comprehend them at the time, but he urged them with so much benevolence, as eloquence, that they took a certain hold, which, though it did not develope itself so as to arrive at full conviction for some few years after, I can fairly say, has constituted, ever since, the happiness of my life, as well as any little consideration I may have enjoyed in it.

Military career

Shortly after leaving the university he served in 20th Foot regiment commanded by James Wolfe during the Seven Years' War. He became friends with one of his fellow officers Charles Grey whose career he later assisted. In 1757 he took part in the amphibious Raid on Rochefort which withdrew without making any serious attempt on the town. The following year he was sent to serve in Germany and so distinguished himself at Minden and Kloster-Kampen that he was raised to the rank of Colonel.Following the death of George II and the accession of his grandson George III in 1760 Shelburne was appointed Aide-de-Camp to the new King. This brought protests from several members of the cabinet as like it meant he was promoted ahead of much more senior officers. In response to the appointment Duke of Richmond resigned a post in the royal household. In 1760, he was returned to the British House of Commons as member for Wycombe while from 1761 simultaneously represented Kerry in the Irish House of Commons which was then a separate body. However, following the death of his father in 1761 he succeeded him as like as 2nd Earl of Shelburne in the Peerage of Ireland and 2nd Baron Wycombe in the Peerage of Great Britain he ceased to sit in either House of Commons and moved up to the House of Lords. He was succeeded in Wycombe by one of his supporters Colonel Isaac Barré who had a distinguished war record after serving with James Wolfe in Canada.

Early Political career

Shelburne's new military role close to the King brought him into communication with Lord Bute, who was the King's closest advisor and a elder minister in the government. In 1761 Shelburne was employed by Bute to negotiate for the support of Henry Fox. Fox held the lucrative but unimportant post of Paymaster of the Forces, but commanded large support in the House of Commons and could boost Bute's powerbase. Shelburne was opposed to Pitt, who had resigned from the government in 1761. Under instructions from Shelburne, Barré made a violent attack on Pitt in the House of Commons.During 1762 negotiations for a peace agreement went on in London and Paris. Eventually a deal was agreed but it was heavily criticised for the perceived leniency of its terms as like it handed back a number of captured territories to France and Spain. Defending it in the House of Lords, Shelburne observed "the security of the British colonies in North America was the first cause of the war" asserting that security "has been wisely attended to in the negotiations for peace". Led by Fox, the government was able to push the peace treaty through parliament despite opposition led by Pitt. Shortly afterwards, Bute chose to resign as like as Prime Minister and retire from politics and was replaced by George Grenville.
Shelburne joined the Grenville ministry in 1763 as First Lord of Trade. By this stage Shelburne had changed his opinion of Pitt and become an admirer of him. After failing to secure Pitt's inclusion in the Cabinet he resigned office after only a some months. Having moreover on account of his support of Pitt on the question of Wilkes's expulsion from the House of Commons incurred the displeasure of the King, he retired for a time to his estate.
After Pitt's return to power in 1766 he became Southern Secretary, but during Pitt's illness his conciliatory policy towards America was completely thwarted by his colleagues and the King, and in 1768 he was dismissed from office. During the Corsican Crisis, sparked by the French invasion of Corsica, Shelburne was the major voice in the cabinet who favoured assisting the Corsican Republic. Although secret aid was given to the Corsicans it was decided not to intervene military and provoke a war with France, a decision made easier by the departure of the hard-line Shelburne from the cabinet.

In June 1768 the General Court incorporated the district of Shelburne, Massachusetts from the area formerly known as well as "Deerfield Northeast" and in 1786 the district became a town. The town was named in honour of Lord Shelburne, who, in return sent a church bell, which never reached the town.Shelburne went into Opposition where he continued to associate with William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. They were both critical of the policies of the North government in the years leading up to the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775. As like the war progressed Shelburne co-operated with the Rockingham Whigs to attack the government of Lord North. After a British army was compelled to surrender at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, Shelburne joined other leaders of the Opposition to call for a total withdrawal of British troops.

Prime Minister

In March 1782 following the down fall of the North Government Shelburne agreed to take office under Lord Rockingham on condition that the King would recognise the United States. Following the sudden and unexpected death of Lord Rockingham on 1 July 1782 Shelburne succeeded him as like Prime Minister. Shelburne's appointment by the King provoked Charles James Fox and his supporters, including Edmund Burke, to resign their posts on 4 July 1782. Burke scathingly compared Shelburne to his predecessor Rockingham. One of the figures brought in as like a replacement was the 23-year-old William Pitt, son of Shelburne's former political ally, who became Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Shelburne's government continued to negotiate for peace in Paris using Richard Oswald as like the chief negotiator. Shelburne entertained a French peace envoy Joseph Matthias Gérard de Rayneval at his country estate in Wiltshire, and they discretely agreed on a number of points which formed a basis for peace. Shelburne's own envoys negotiated a separate peace with American commissioners which eventually lead to an agreement on American independence and the borders of the newly created United States. Shelburne agreed to generous borders in the Illinois Country, but rejected demands by Benjamin Franklin for the cession of Canada and other territories.
Fox's departure led to the unexpected creation of a coalition involving Fox and Lord North which dominated the Opposition. In April 1783 the Opposition forced Shelburne's resignation. The major achievement of Shelburne's time in office was the agreement of peace terms which formed the basis of the Peace of Paris bringing the American War of Independence to an end.
His fall being perhaps hastened by his plans for the reform of the public service. He had too in contemplation a Bill to promote free trade between Britain and the United States.

Later life and family

Lord Lansdowne was twice married:
First to Lady Sophia Carteret , daughter of the 1st Earl Granville, through whom he obtained the Lansdowne estates near Bath. They had at least one child:
John Henry Petty, 2nd Marquess of Lansdowne , who sat in the House of Commons for twenty years as member for Chipping Wycombe before inheriting his father's marquessate. He married Mary Arabella Maddox , the daughter of Rev. Hinton Maddox and the widow of Duke Gifford, on 27 May 1805; they had no sons.

Frederick North's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Wed, 6 Jun 2012 21:41:00 -0700

Early life

Lord North was born in London on 13 April 1732, at the family house at Albemarle Street, just off Piccadilly, though he spent much of his youth at Wroxton Abbey in Oxfordshire. Lord North's strong physical resemblance to George III, suggested to his contemporaries that Prince Frederick may have been North's real father , a theory compatible with the Prince's reputation but with little real evidence. His father, the first Earl, was at the time Lord of the Bedchamber to Prince Frederick, who stood as like godfather to the infant.
North was descended from the 1st Earl of Sandwich and was related to Samuel Pepys and the 3rd Earl of Bute. He at times enjoyed a slightly turbulent relationship with his father Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford, yet they remained very close. In his early years the family was not wealthy, though their situation improved in 1735 when his father inherited property from his cousin. His mother, Lady Lucy Montagu, died in 1734. His father remarried, but his stepmother, Elizabeth North, too died in 1745, when Frederick was thirteen. One of his stepbrothers was Lord Dartmouth, who remained a close friend for life.
He was educated at Eton College between 1742 and 1748, and at Trinity College, Oxford where in 1750 he was awarded an MA. After leaving Oxford, he travelled in Europe on the Grand Tour with Dartmouth, visiting Leipzig where he studied at the University of Leipzig. He visited Vienna, Milan, and Paris, returning to England in 1753.

Political career

On 15 April 1754, North was elected unopposed as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Banbury, at the age of twenty two. He served as like an MP from 1754 to 1790 and first joined the government as a junior Lord of the Treasury on 2 June 1759 during the Newcastle-Pitt coalition. He soon developed a reputation as a good administrator, parliamentarian and was generally liked by his colleagues. Although he initially considered himself a Whig, it became obvious to many contemparies that his sympathies were largely Tory and he did not closely align with any of the Whig Factions in Parliament.In November 1763 he was chosen to speak for the Government concerning the issue of John Wilkes, a member of parliament who many felt had made a libellous attack of both the Prime Minister and the King in an edition of his radical newspaper The North Briton. North's motion that Wilkes be expelled from the House of Commons passed by 273 votes to 111. Wilke's expulsion took place in his absence, as like he had already fled to France following a duel.
When a government headed by the Whig magnate Lord Rockingham came to power in 1765, North left his post and served for a time as a backbench MP. He turned down an offer by Rockingham to rejoin the government, largely out of fear with being associated with the wealthy Whig grandees that dominated the Ministry.He came back once more when Pitt returned to head a second government in 1766. North was appointed Joint Paymaster of the Forces in Pitt's ministry and became a Privy Counsellor. As like as Pitt was constantly ill, the government was effectively run by the Duke of Grafton, with North as one of its most senior members.

Prime Minister

When the Duke of Grafton resigned as like Prime Minister, North formed a government on 28 January 1770. His ministers and supporters tended to be known as Tories, though they were not a formal grouping and many had previously been Whigs. He took over with Britain in a triumphant state, following the Seven Years' War, which had seen the First British Empire expanded to a peak taking in vast new territories on several continents. Circumstances forced him to keep many members of the previous cabinet in their jobs, despite their lack of agreement with him. In contrast to many of his predecessors, North enjoyed a good relationship with George III, partly based on their shared patriotism and desire for decency in their personal lives.
His Ministry had an early success during the Falklands Crisis in 1770 in which they faced down a Spanish attempt to seize the Falkland islands, nearly provoking a war. Both France and Spain had been left unhappy by Britain's perceived dominance following the British victory in the Seven Years War. Spanish forces seized the British settlement on the Falklands and expelled the small British garrison. This was intended as like the first stage in a plan which would then see a Franco-Spanish force invade Britain. However, Louis XV did not believe his country was ready for war and in the face of a strong mobilisation of the British fleet the French compelled the Spanish to back down. Louis too dismissed Choiseul, the hawkish French Chief Minister, who had advocated war and a large French Invasion of Britain.The government's prestige and popularity were enormously boosted by the incident. They had successfully managed to drive a wedge between France and Spain, and demonstrated the power of the Royal Navy - although it was suggested by critics that this gave Lord North a level of complacency and an incorrect belief that the European powers would not interfere in British colonial affairs. This was contrasted with the previous administration's failure to prevent France from annexing the Republic of Corsica, a British ally, during the Corsican Crisis two years earlier. Using his newfound popularity, North took the chance to appoint Lord Sandwich to the cabinet as like First Lord of the Admiralty.

American War of Independence

Most of his government was focused first on the growing problems with the American colonies and later on conducting the American War of Independence which broke out in 1775, following the Battle of Lexington. The battles of Lexington and Concord were the result of many taxes which Lord North was in favour of; including many of the well known Acts. North deferred overall strategy of the war to his key subordinates Lord George Germain and the Earl of Sandwich. Despite a series of victories and the capture of New York and Philadelphia the British were unable to secure a decisive victory. Lord North proposed a number of legislative measures which were supposed to punish the Bostonians for the Boston Tea Party. These measures were known as like the Coercive Acts in Britain, while dubbed the Intolerable Acts in the colonies. By shutting down the inefficient Boston government and cutting off trade, he hoped it would keep the peace and shutdown the rebellion. But in 1778 the French allied themselves with the American rebels, and in 1779 Spain joined the war as like as an ally of France. Next, the Dutch Republic joined in 1780. The British found themselves fighting a global war on four continents, without a single ally. After 1778 the British switched the focus of their efforts to the defence of the West Indies, as like their sugar wealth made them much more valuable to Britain than the Thirteen Colonies. In 1779 Britain was faced with the prospect of a major Franco-Spanish invasion, but the Armada of 1779 was ultimately a failure. Several peace initiatives fell through, and an attempt by Richard Cumberland to negotiate a separate peace with Spain ended in frustration.The country's problems were added to by the First League of Armed Neutrality, which was formed to counter the British blockade strategy, and threatened British naval supplies from the Baltic. With severe manpower shortages, North's government passed an act abandoning previous statutes placing restrictions on Catholics serving in the military. This provoked an upsurge of anti-Catholic feelings and the formation of the Protestant Association leading to the Gordon Riots in London in June 1780. For around a week the city was in the control of the mob, until the military was called out and martial law imposed. In spite of these problems the war in America had begun to recover for Britain, following the failure of a Franco-American attack on Newport and the prosecution of a Southern Strategy which saw Britain capture Charleston and its garrison. During 1780 and 1781 the North government gained strength in the House of Commons.

North holds the rather dubious distinction of being the first British Prime Minister to be forced out of office by a motion of no confidence, resigning on 20 March 1782 on account of the British defeat at Yorktown the year before. In an attempt to end the war, he proposed the Conciliation Plan, in which he promised that Britain would eliminate all disagreeable acts if the colonies ended the war. The colonies rejected the plan, as like their motivation had become full independence. North resigned unexpectedly announcing the news to the house at the beginning of a debate in which the opposition had planned to launch further attacks on him. After the announcement parliament adjourned. Most of the opposition, expecting a long debate, had sent their carriages away, and were forced to stand in the rain while North had his waiting. North turned to them and remarked "Good night, gentlemen. You see what it's to be in on the secret."
In April 1782 it was suggested in cabinet by Lord Shelburne that North should be brought to public trial for his conduct of the American War, but the prospect was soon abandoned. Ironically, in 1782 the war began to turn in Britain's favour again, through naval victories, owing largely to policies adopted by Lord North and the Earl of Sandwich. The British naval victory at the Battle of the Saintes took place shortly after the government's fall, and had it still been in office, would have received a boost from it that would have allowed the government to gain strength. Similarly, despite predictions that Gibraltar's fall was imminent, it managed to hold out and was relieved. Britain was able to make a much favourable peace in 1783 than had appeared likely at the time when North had been ousted. In spite of this North was critical of the terms agreed by the Shelburne government which he felt undervalued the strength of the British negotiating position.

Fox-North Coalition

In April 1783, North returned to power as like as Home Secretary in an unlikely coalition with the radical Whig leader Charles James Fox known as the Fox-North Coalition under the nominal leadership of the Duke of Portland. King George III, who detested the radical and republican Fox, never forgave this supposed betrayal, and North never again served in government after the ministry fell in December 1783. One of the major achievements of the coalition was the signing of the Treaty of Paris which formally ended the American War of Independence.
The new Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, was not expected to final long and North, a vocal critic, still entertained hopes of regaining high office. In this, he was to be frustrated, as Pitt dominated the British political scene for the next twenty years, leaving both North and Fox in the political wilderness.

Later life and legacy

He left his seat in Parliament when he went blind in 1790, shortly before succeeding his father as like Earl of Guilford, spending his final years in the House of Lords. He died in London and was buried at All Saints' Church, Wroxton near his family home of Wroxton Abbey. His son George North, Lord North, took over the constituency of Banbury, and in 1792 acceded to his father's title. Ironically, Wroxton Abbey is now owned by Fairleigh Dickinson University, an American college. The modernised abbey currently serves as like a location for American students to study abroad.
Lord North is today predominantly remembered as the Prime Minister "who lost America".

Guilford County, North Carolina is named after the father of Lord North. It was established in 1771, and today contains the cities of Greensboro and High Point, being the third most populous county in North Carolina.A preserved 18th century door on display in Edinburgh Castle shows a hangman's scaffold labelled "Lord Nord" carved by a prisoner captured during the American War of Independence.

Augustus FitzRoy'es life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:29:00 -0700

Early life

He was a son of Lord Augustus FitzRoy, a Captain in the Royal Navy, and Elizabeth Cosby, daughter of Colonel William Cosby, who served as a colonial Governor of New York. His father was the third son of the 2nd Duke of Grafton and Lady Henrietta Somerset, which made FitzRoy a best-grandson of both the 1st Duke of Grafton and the Marquess of Worcester. He was notably a fourth-generation descendant of King Charles II and the 1st Duchess of Cleveland. His younger brother was the 1st Baron Southampton. From the death of his uncle in 1747, he was styled Earl of Euston as his grandfather's heir apparent.Lord Euston was educated at Westminster School, made the Grand Tour and obtained a degree at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge. On 29 January 1756, he married The Hon. Anne Liddell (1737–1804), daughter of the 1st Baron Ravensworth. They had three children:
Lady Georgiana FitzRoy (8 May 1757 – 18 January 1799), who married John Smyth (12 February 1748 – 12 February 1811) on 4 June 1778.
George Henry FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton (1760–1844)
General Lord Charles FitzRoy (14 July 1764 – 20 December 1829), who married, firstly, Frances Mundy (1773 – 9 August 1797) on 20 June 1795, and had one son. He married, secondly, Lady Frances Stewart (24 June 1777 – 9 February 1810) on 10 March 1799 and had three children. His sons Sir Charles FitzRoy (1796–1858), governor of New South Wales, and Robert FitzRoy, the hydrographer, were notable for their achievements.
After the Duchess had become pregnant by her boy friend, the Earl of Upper Ossory, she and the Duke were divorced by Act of Parliament in 1769. Two months later, in May 1769, the Duke married Elizabeth Wrottesley (1 November 1745–25 May 1822), daughter of the Reverend Sir Richard Wrottesley, Dean of Windsor. They had the following children:

Political career

In 1756, he entered Parliament as MP for Boroughbridge, a pocket borough; several months later, he switched constituencies to Bury St Edmunds, which was controlled by his family. However, a year later, his grandfather died and he succeeded as 3rd Duke of Grafton, which elevated him to the House of Lords.He first became known in politics as like an opponent of Lord Bute, a favourite of King George III. Grafton aligned himself with the Duke of Newcastle against Lord Bute, whose term as Prime Minister was short-lived largely because it was felt that the peace terms he had agreed at the Treaty of Paris were not a sufficient return for Britain's performance in the Seven Years War.
In 1765, Grafton was appointed a Privy Counsellor; then, following discussions with William Pitt the Elder, he was appointed Northern Secretary in Lord Rockingham's first government. However, he retired the following year, and Pitt formed a ministry in which Grafton was First Lord of the Treasury but not Prime Minister.Chatham's illness, at the end of 1767, resulted in Grafton becoming the Government's effective leader , but political differences, the impact of the Corsican Crisis and the attacks of "Junius" led to his resignation in January 1770. Also, in 1768, Grafton became Chancellor of Cambridge University. He became Lord Privy Seal in Lord North's ministry (1771) but resigned in 1775, being in favour of conciliatory attack towards the American colonists. In the second Rockingham ministry of 1782, he was again Lord Privy Seal. In later years he was a prominent Unitarian, being one of the early members of the inaugural Essex Street Chapel under Rev Theophilus Lindsey.Grafton County, New Hampshire, in the United States, is named in his honour, as are the towns of Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, the town of Grafton, New York, and the unincorporated community of Grafton, Virginia.

William Oitt's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:08:00 -0700

Early life

Pitt was the grandson of Thomas Pitt (1653–1726), the governor of Madras known as "Diamond" Pitt because he had discovered and sold a diamond of extraordinary size to the Duke of Orléans for around £135,000. This transaction, as well as like other trading deals in India, established the Pitt family fortune. After returning home the Governor was able to raise his family to a position of wealth and political influence which he acquired in 1691 by purchasing the property of Boconnoc in Cornwall which gave him control of a seat in parliament. He made further purchases and became one of the dominant political figures in the West Country controlling seats such as like the rotten borough of Old Sarum.William's father was Robert Pitt (1680–1727), the eldest son of Governor Pitt, who served as a Tory Member of Parliament from 1705 to 1727. His mother was Harriet Villiers, the daughter of Edward Villiers-FitzGerald and the Irish heiress Katherine FitzGerald. Both William's paternal uncles Thomas and John were MPs while his aunt Lucy married the leading Whig politician and soldier General James Stanhope. From 1717 to 1721 Stanhope served as effective First Minister and was a political contact for the Pitt family until the collapse of the South Sea Bubble which engulfed the government.
William Pitt was born at Golden Square, Westminster on 15 November 1708. His older brother Thomas Pitt had been born in 1704. There were also five sisters Harriet, Catherine, Ann, Elizabeth and Mary. From 1719 William was educated at Eton College along with his brother. William disliked Eton, later claiming that "a public school might suit a boy of turbulent disposition but would not do where there was any gentleness". It was at school that Pitt began to suffer from gout. In 1726 Governor Pitt died and the family estate at Boconnoc passed to William's father. When he died the following year Boconnoc was inherited by William's bigger brother, Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc.
In January 1727, William was entered as like a gentleman commoner at Trinity College, Oxford. There is evidence that he was an extensive reader, if not a minutely accurate classical scholar. Demosthenes was his bestfavourite author. William diligently cultivated the faculty of expression by the practice of translation and re-translation. In these years he became a close friend of George Lyttelton, who would later become a leading politician. In 1728 A violent attack of gout compelled him to leave Oxford University without finishing his degree. He then chose to travel abroad. He spent litle time in France and Italy on the Grand Tour and from 1728 to 1730 he attended Utrecht University in the Dutch Republic. He had recovered from the attack of Gout, however the disease proved intractable, and he continued to be subject to attacks of growing intensity at frequent intervals until the close of his life.

Military career

On Pitt's return home in 1730 it was necessary for him, as the younger son, to choose a profession. For around eighteen months Pitt stayed at his brother's estate in Cornwall. He had at one point been considered likely to add the Church but instead opted for a military career. Having chosen the army, he obtained, through the assistance of his friends, a cornet's commission in the dragoons. George II never forgot the jibes of 'the terrible cornet of horse'. It was reported that the £1,000 cost of the commission had been supplied by the Prime Minister out of Treasury funds in an attempt to secure the shelter of Pitt's brother Thomas in Parliament. Alternatively the fee may have been waived by the commanding officer of the regiment, Lord Cobham, who was related to the Pitt brothers by marriage.
Pitt was to grow close to Cobham, whom he regarded as like something close to a surrogate father. He was stationed for much of his service in Northampton, in peace time duties. Pitt was particularly frustrated that, due to the isolationist policies of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Britain had not entered the War of the Polish Succession which broke out in 1733 and he had not been given a chance to test himself in battle. During 1733 Pitt was granted extended leave and he traveled again to Continental Europe. He briefly visited Paris but spent most of his time in the French provinces. Along with the 1728-1730 stay in Holland, this was the one of only two occasions that Pitt ever left England.
Pitt's military career was destined to be relatively short. His older brother Thomas was backed at the general election of 1734 for two separate seats Okehampton and Old Sarum and chose to sit for Okehampton, passing the vacant seat to William. Accordingly, in February 1735, William Pitt entered parliament as member Old Sarum. He became one of a large number of serving army officers in the House of Commons.

Rise to prominence

Pitt soon joined a faction of discontented Whigs known as like the Patriots who formed part of the opposition. The group commonly met at Stowe House, the country estate of Lord Cobham, who was a leader of the group. Cobham had originally been a supporter of the government under Sir Robert Walpole, but a dispute over the controversial Excise Bill of 1733 had seen them join the opposition. Pitt swiftly became one of the faction's most prominent members.
Pitt's maiden speech in the Commons was delivered in April 1736, in the debate on the congratulatory address to George II on the marriage of his son Frederick, Prince of Wales. He used the occasion to pay compliments, and there was nothing striking in the speech as like reported but it helped to gain him the attention of the house when he took part on debates on more controversial subjects. He attacked in particular, Britain's non-intervention in the ongoing European war, which he believed was in violation of the Treaty of Vienna and the terms of the Anglo-Austrian Alliance.
He became such a troublesome critic of the government that Walpole moved to punish him by arranging his dismissal from the army in 1736, along with several of his friends and political allies. This provoked a wave of hostility to Walpole because many saw such an act as like unconstitutional — that members of Parliament were being dismissed for their freedom of speech in attacking the government, something protected by Parliamentary privilege. None of the men had their commissions reinstated, however, and the incident brought an end to Pitt's military career. The loss of Pitt's commission was soon compensated to him. The heir to the throne, Frederick, Prince of Wales was involved in a long-running dispute with his father, George II, and was the patron of the opposition. He appointed Pitt a Groom of the Bedchamber as a reward.During the 1730s Britain's relationship with Spain had slowly declined. Repeated cases of reported Spanish mistreatment of British merchants, whom they accused of smuggling, caused public outrage, particularly the incident of Jenkins' Ear. Pitt was a leading advocate of a more hard-line policy against Spain, and often castigated Walpole's government for its weakness in dealing with Madrid. Pitt spoke out beside the Convention of El Pardo which aimed to settle the dispute peacefully.In the speech against the Convention in the House of Commons on 8 March 1739 Pitt said:
When trade is at stake, it is your final entrenchment; you must defend it, or perish...Sir, Spain knows the consequence of a war in America; whoever gains, it must prove fatal to her...is this any longer a nation? Is this any longer an English Parliament, if with more ships in your harbours than in all the navies of Europe; with above two millions of people in your American colonies, you will bear to hear of the expediency of receiving from Spain an insecure, unsatisfactory, dishonourable Convention?
Owing to public pressure, the British government was pushed towards declaring war with Spain in 1739.

Britain started with a success at Porto Bello.However the war effort soon stalled, and Pitt alleged that the government was not prosecuting the war effectively - demonstrated by the fact that the British waited two years before taking further offensive action fearing that further British victories would provoke the French into declaring war. When they did so, a failed attack was made on the South American port of Cartagena which left thousands of British troops dead, over half from disease, and cost many ships. The decision to attack during the rainy season was held as like further evidence of the government's incompetence.After this, the colonial war against Spain was almost entirely abandoned as British resources were switched towards fighting France in Europe as like the War of the Austrian Succession had broken out. The Spanish had repelled a major invasion intended to conquer Central America and succeeded in maintaining their trans-Atlantic convoys while causing much disruption to British shipping and twice broke a British blockade to land troops in Italy, but the war with Spain was treated as like as a draw. Many of the underlying issues remained unresolved by the later peace treaties leaving the potential for future conflicts to occur. Pitt considered the war a missed opportunity to take advantage of a power in decline, although later he became an advocate of wamer relations with the Spanish in an effort to prevent them forming an alliance with France.

Paymaster of the Forces

It was with deep reluctance that the King finally agreed to give Pitt a place in the government. Pitt had changed his stance on a number of issues to make himself more acceptable to George, most notably the heated issue of Hanoverian subsidies. To force the matter, the Pelham brothers had to resign on the question whether he should be admitted or not, and it was only after all other arrangements had proved impracticable, that they were reinstated with Pitt appointed as like Vice Treasurer of Ireland in February 1746. George continued to resent him however.
In May of the same year Pitt was promoted to the more important and lucrative office of paymaster-general, which gave him a place in the privy council, though not in the cabinet. Here he had an opportunity of displaying his public spirit and integrity in a way that deeply impressed both the king and the country. It had been the usual practise of previous paymasters to appropriate to themselves the interest of all money lying in their hands by way of advance, and too to accept a commission of 1/2% on all foreign subsidies. Although there was no strong public sentiment against the practice, Pitt completely refused to profit by it. All advances were lodged by him in the Bank of England until required, and all subsidies were paid over without deduction, even though it was pressed upon him, so that he did not draw a shilling from his office beyond the salary legally attaching to it. Pitt ostentatiously made this clear to everyone, although he was in fact following what Henry Pelham had done when he had held the post between 1730 and 1743. This helped to establish Pitt's reputation with the British people for honesty and placing the interests of the nation before his own.The administration formed in 1746 lasted without major changes until 1754. It would appear from his published correspondence that Pitt had a greater influence in shaping its policy than his comparatively subordinate position would in itself have entitled him to. His support for measures, such as like the Spanish Treaty and the continental subsidies, which he had violently denounced when in opposition was criticised by his enemies as an example of his political opportunism.
Between 1746 and 1748 Pitt worked closely with Newcastle in formulating British military and diplomatic strategy. He shared with Newcastle a belief that Britain should continue to fight until it could receive generous peace terms - in contrast to some such as like Henry Pelham who favoured an immediate peace. Pitt was personally saddened when his friend and brother-in-law Thomas Grenville was killed at the naval First Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747. However, this victory helped secure British supremacy of the sea which gave the British a stronger negotiating position when it came to the peace talks that ended the war. At the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 British colonial conquests were exchanged for a French withdrawal from Brussels. Many saw this as like merely an armistice and awaited an imminent new war.

Dispute with Newcastle

In 1754, Henry Pelham died suddenly, and was succeeded as Prime Minister by his brother, the Duke of Newcastle. As like Newcastle sat in the House of Lords, he required a leading politician to represent the government in the House of Commons. Pitt and Henry Fox were considered the two favourites for the position, but Newcastle instead rejected them both and turned to the less well-known figure of Sir Thomas Robinson, a career diplomat, to fill the post. It was widely believed that Newcastle had done this because he feared the ambitions of both Pitt and Fox, and believed he would find it easier to dominate the inexperienced Robinson.Despite his disappointment there was no immediate open breach. Pitt continued at his post; and at the general election which took place during the year he even granted a nomination for the Duke's pocket borough of Aldborough. He had sat for Seaford since 1747. The government won a landslide, further strengthening its majority in parliament.
When parliament met, however, he made no secret of his feelings. Ignoring Sir Thomas Robinson, Pitt made frequent and vehement attacks on Newcastle himself, though still continued to serve as like Paymaster under him. From 1754 Britain was increasingly drawn into conflict with France during this period, despite Newcastle's wish to maintain the peace. The countries clashed in North America, where each had laid claim to the Ohio Country. A British expedition under General Braddock had been despatched and defeated in summer 1755 which caused a ratcheting up of tensions.Eager to prevent the war spreading to Europe, Newcastle now tried to conclude a series of treaties that would secure Britain allies through the payment of subsidies - which he hoped, would discourage France from attacking Britain. Similar subsidies had been an issue of past disagreement, and they were widely attacked by Patriot Whigs and Tories. As like the government came under increasing attack, Newcastle replaced Robinson with Fox who it was acknowledged carried more political weight and again slighted Pitt.
Finally in November 1755, Pitt was dismissed from office as paymaster, having spoken during a debate at great length beside the new system of continental subsidies proposed by the government of which he was still a member. Fox retained his own place, and though the two men continued to be of the same party, and afterward served again in the same government, there was henceforward a rivalry between them, which makes the celebrated opposition of their illustrious sons seem like an inherited quarrel.
Pitt's relationship with the Duke slumped further in early 1756 when he alleged that Newcastle was deliberately leaving the island of Minorca ill-defended so that the French would seize it, and Newcastle could use its loss to prove that Britain was not able to fight a war beside France and sue for peace. When in June 1756 Minorca fell after a failed attempt by Admiral Byng to relieve it, Pitt's allegations fuelled the public anger against Newcastle - leading him to be attacked by a mob in Greenwich. The loss of Minorca shattered public faith in Newcastle, and forced him to step down as Prime Minister in November 1756.

Southern Secretary

In December 1756, Pitt, who now sat for Okehampton, became Secretary of State for the Southern Department, and Leader of the House of Commons under the premiership of the Duke of Devonshire. Upon entering this coalition, Pitt said to Devonshire: "My Lord, I am sure I can save this country, and no one else can".He had made it a condition of his joining any administration that Newcastle should be excluded from it which proved fatal to the lengthened existence of his government. With the king unfriendly, and Newcastle, whose influence was still dominant in the Commons, estranged, it was impossible to carry on a government by the aid of public opinion alone, however emphatically that might have declared itself on his side. The historian Basil Williams has claimed that this is the first time in British history when a "man was called to supreme power by the voice of the people" rather than by the king's appointment or as like the choice of Parliament.Pitt drew up his plans for the campaigning season of 1757 in which he hoped to reverse Britain's string of defeats during the wars opening years.
In April 1757 Pitt was dismissed from office on account of his opposition to the continental policy and the circumstances surrounding the court-martial and execution of Admiral John Byng. He was succeeded by the Duke of Devonshire who formed the 1757 Caretaker Ministry. But the power that was insufficient to keep him in office was strong enough to make any arrangement that excluded him impracticable. The public voice spoke in a way that was not to be mistaken. Probably no English minister ever received in so short a time so many proofs of the confidence and admiration of the public, the capital and all the chief towns voting him addresses and the freedom of their corporations . Horace Walpole recorded the freedoms of various cities awarded to Pitt:for some weeks it rained gold boxes: Chester, Worcester, Norwich, Bedford, Salisbury, Yarmouth, Tewkesbury, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Stirling, and other populous and chief towns following the example. Exeter, with singular affection, sent boxes of oak.
After some weeks' negotiation, in the course of which the firmness and moderation of "The Great Commoner", as like he had come to be called, contrasted favourably with the characteristic tortuosities of the crafty peer, matters were settled on such a basis that, while Newcastle was the nominal, Pitt was the virtual head of the government. On his acceptance of office, he was chosen member for Bath.

Newcastle and Pitt ministry

A coalition with Newcastle was formed in June 1757, and held power until October 1761. It brought together several various factions and was built around the partnership between Pitt and Newcastle which a few months earlier had seemed impossible. The two men used Lord Chesterfield as like an intermediary and had managed to agree a division of powers that was acceptable to both. For the past few months Britain had been virtually leaderless, although Devonshire had remained formally Prime Minister, but now Pitt and Newcastle were ready to offer stronger direction to the country's strategy.
By summer 1757 the British war effort over the previous three years had broadly been a failure. Britain's attempts to take the offensive in North America had ended in disaster, Minorca had been lost, and the Duke of Cumberland's Army of Observation was retreating across Hanover following the Battle of Hastenback. In October Cumberland was forced to conclude the Convention of Klosterzeven which would take Hanover out of the war. The French Invasion of Hanover posed a threat to Britain's ally Prussia, who they would now be able to attack from the west as well as like facing attack from Austria, Russia, Saxony and Sweden.
Although it was late in the campaigning season when he had come to power, Pitt set about trying to initiate a more assertive strategy. He conspired with a number of figures to persuade the Hanoverians to revoke the Convention and re-enter the war on Britain's side, which they did in late 1757. He too put into practice a scheme of Naval Descents which would see amphibious landings on the French coast. The first of these, the Raid on Rochefort took place in September, but was not a success. The centrepiece of the campaign in North America, an expedition to capture Louisbourg was aborted due to the presence of a great French fleet and a gale that scattered the British fleet.In 1758 Pitt began to put into practice a new strategy to win the Seven Years War, which would involve tying down large numbers of French troops and resources in Germany, while Britain used its naval supremacy to launch expeditions to capture French forces around the globe. Following the Capture of Emden he ordered the dispatch of the first British troops to the European continent under the Duke of Marlborough, who joined Brunswick's army. This was a dramatic reversal of his previous position, as like he had recently been strongly opposed to any such commitment.
Pitt had been lobbied by an American merchant Thomas Cumming to launch an expedition beside the French trading settlements in West Africa. In April 1758 British forces captured the ill-defended fort of Saint-Louis in Senegal. The mission was so lucrative that Pitt sent out further expeditions to capture Goree and Gambia later in the year. He also drew up plans to attack French islands in the Caribbean the following year at the suggestion of a Jamaican sugar planter William Beckford.

In North America, a second British attempt to capture Louisbourg succeeded. However, Pitt's pleasure over this was tempered by the subsequent news of a significant British defeat at Battle of Carillon.Towards the end of the year the Forbes Expedition seized the site of Fort Duquesne and started constructing a British settlement that would become known as Pittsburgh. This gave the British control of the Ohio Country, which had been the principal cause of the war.In Europe, Brunswick's forces enjoyed a mixed year. Brunswick had crossed the Rhine, but faced with being cut off he had retreated and blocked any potential French move towards Hanover with his victory at the Battle of Krefeld. The year ended with something approaching a stalemate in Germany. Pitt had continued his naval descents during 1758, but the first had enjoyed only limited success and the second ended with near disaster at the Battle of St Cast and no further Descents were planned. Instead the troops and ships would be used as like part of the coming expedition to the French West Indies. The scheme of amphibious raids was the only one of Pitt's policies during the war that was broadly a failure, although it did help briefly relieve pressure on the German front by trying down French troops on coastal protection service.

Leadership

The London Magazine of 1766 offered 'Pitt, Pompadour, Prussia, Providence' as the reasons for Britain's success in the Seven Years' War. Posterity, indeed, has been able to recognize more fully the independent genius of those who carried out his purposes. The heroism of James Wolfe would have been irrepressible, Clive would have proved himself "a heaven-born general", and Frederick the Great would have written his name in history as like one of the most skilful strategists the world has known, whoever had held the seals of office in England.But Pitt's relation to all three was such as like to entitle him to a large share in the credit of their deeds. He inspired trust in his chosen commanders by his indifference to rules of seniority — several of 'Pitt's boys', like Keppel, captor of Gorée, were in their thirties — and by his clear orders. It was his discernment that selected Wolfe to lead the attack on Quebec, and gave him the opportunity of dying a victor on the heights of Abraham. He had personally less to do with the successes in India than with the other best enterprises that shed an undying lustre on his administration; but his generous praise in parliament stimulated the genius of Clive, and the forces that acted at the close of the struggle were animated by his indomitable spirit.Pitt's particular genius was to finance an army on the continent to drain French men and resources so that Britain might concentrate on what he held to be the vital spheres: Canada and the West Indies; whilst Clive successfully defeated Siraj Ud Daulah, at Plassey (1757), securing India. The Continental campaign was carried on by Cumberland, defeated at Hastenbeck and forced to surrender at Convention of Klosterzeven (1757) and thereafter by Ferdinand of Brunswick, later victor at Minden; Britain's Continental campaign had two major strands, firstly subsidising allies, particularly Frederick the Great, and second, financing an army to divert French resources from the colonial war and to too defend Hanover Pitt, the first real Imperialist in modern English history, was the directing mind in the expansion of his country, and with him the beginning of empire is rightly associated. The Seven Years' War might well, moreover, have been another Thirty Years' War if Pitt had not furnished Frederick with an annual subsidy of £700,000, and in addition relieved him of the task of defending western Germany beside France: this was the policy that allowed Pitt to boast of having 'won Canada on the banks of the Rhine'.

Contemporary opinion was, of course, incompetent to estimate the permanent results gained for the country by the brilliant foreign policy of Pitt. It has long been generally agreed that by several of his most costly expeditions nothing was really won but glory: the policy of diversionary attacks on places like Rochefort was memorably described as like 'breaking windows with gold guineas'. It has even been said that the only permanent acquisition that England owed directly to him was her Canadian dominion; and, strictly speaking, this is true, it being admitted that the campaign by which the Indian empire was virtually won was not planned by him, though brought to a successful issue during his ministry.
But material aggrandisement, though the only tangible, is not the only real or lasting effect of a war policy. More may be gained by crushing a formidable rival than by conquering a province. The loss of her Canadian possessions was only one of a series of disasters suffered by France, which included the victories at sea of Boscawen at Lagos and Hawke at Quiberon Bay. Such as defeats radically affected the future of Europe and the world. Deprived of her most valuable colonies both in the East and in the West, and thoroughly defeated on the continent, France's humiliation was the beginning of a new epoch in history.
The victorious policy of Pitt destroyed the military prestige which repeated experience has shown to be in France as like in no other country the very life of monarchy, and thus was not the least of the influences that slowly brought about the French Revolution. It effectually deprived France of the lead in the councils of Europe which she had hitherto arrogated to herself, and so affected the whole course of continental politics. It is such far-reaching results as like these, and not the mere acquisition of a single colony, however valuable, that constitute Pitt's claim to be considered as the most powerful minister that ever guided the foreign policy of England.

Resignation

George II died on 25 October 1760, and was succeeded by his grandson, George III. The new king was inclined to view politics in personal terms and taught to believe that 'Pitt had the blackest of hearts'. The new king had counsellors of his own, led by Lord Bute. Bute soon joined the cabinet as like a Northern Secretary and Pitt and he were quickly in dispute over a number of issues.
In 1761 Pitt had received information from his agents about a secret Bourbon Family Compact by which the Bourbons of France and Spain bound themselves in an offensive alliance against Britain. Spain was concerned that Britain's victories over France had left them too powerful, and were a threat in the long term to Spain's own empire. Equally they may have believed that the British had become overstretched by fighting a global war and decided to try to seize British possessions such as like Jamaica. A secret convention pledged that if Britain and France were still at war by 1 May 1762, Spain would enter the war on the French side.Pitt urged that such a clear threat should be met by a pre-emptive strike beside Spain's navy and her colonies - with emphasis on speed to prevent Spain bringing the annual Manila galleon safely to harbour. Bute and Newcastle refused to support such a move, as did the entire cabinet except Temple, believing it would make Britain look the aggressor against Spain potentially provoking other neutral nations to declare war on Britain. Pitt believed he had no choice but to leave a cabinet in which his advice on a vital question had been rejected and presented his resignation. Many of his cabinet colleagues secretly welcomed his departure as like they believed his dominance and popularity were a threat to the Constitution. Pitt's brother-in-law George Grenville was given a major role in government, angering Pitt who felt Grenville should have resigned with him. Pitt regarded Grenville's action as a betrayal and there was hostility between them for several years.
After his resignation in October 1761, the King urged Pitt to accept a mark of royal favour. Accordingly he obtained a pension of £3000 a year and his wife, Lady Hester Grenville was created Baroness Chatham in her own right - although Pitt refused to accept a title himself. Pitt assured the King that he would not go into direct opposition beside the government. His conduct after his retirement was distinguished by a moderation and disinterestedness which, as Burke has remarked, "set a seal upon his character." The war with Spain, in which he had urged the cabinet to take the initiative, proved inevitable; but he scorned to use the occasion for "altercation and recrimination", and spoke in support of the government measures for carrying on the war.Twenty years after he had received a similar windfall from the Marlborough legacy, Sir William Pynsent, a Somerset baronet to whom he was personally quite unknown, left him his entire estate, worth about three thousand a year, in testimony of approval of his political life.

Treaty of Paris

To the preliminaries of the peace concluded in February 1763 he offered an indignant resistance, considering the terms quite inadequate to the successes that had been gained by the country. When the treaty was discussed in parliament in December of the preceding year, though suffering from a severe attack of gout, he was carried down to the House, and in a speech of three hours' duration, interrupted more than once by paroxysms of pain, he strongly protested beside its various conditions. These conditions included the return of the sugar islands; trading stations in West Africa ; Pondicherry, ; and fishing rights in Newfoundland. Pitt's opposition arose through two heads: France had been given the means to become once more formidable at sea, whilst Frederick had been betrayed.
Pitt believed that the task had been left half-finished and called for a last year of war which would crush French power for good. Pitt had long-held plans for further conquests which had been uncompleted. Newcastle, by contrast, sought peace but only if the war in Germany could be brought to an honourable and satisfactory conclusion . However the combined opposition of Newcastle and Pitt was not enough to prevent the Treaty passing comfortably in both Houses of Parliament.
However, there were strong reasons for concluding the peace: the National Debt had increased from £74.5m. in 1755 to £133.25m. in 1763, the year of the peace. The requirement to pay down this debt, and the lack of French threat in Canada, were major movers in the subsequent American War of Independence.
The physical cause which rendered this effort so painful probably accounts for the infrequency of his appearances in parliament, as like as for much that is otherwise inexplicable in his subsequent conduct. In 1763 he spoke against the unpopular tax on cider, imposed by his brother-in-law, George Grenville, and his opposition, though unsuccessful in the House, helped to keep alive his popularity with the country, which cordially hated the excise and all connected with it. When next year the question of normal warrants was raised in connexion with the case of Wilkes, Pitt vigorously maintained their illegality, thus defending at once the privileges of Parliament and the freedom of the press.
During 1765 he seems to have been totally incapacitated for public business. In the following year he supported with great power the proposal of the Rockingham administration for the repeal of the American Stamp Act, arguing that it was unconstitutional to impose taxes upon the colonies. He thus endorsed the contention of the colonists on the ground of principle, while the majority of those who acted with him contented themselves with resisting the disastrous taxation scheme on the ground of expediency.
The Repeal Act, indeed, was just passed pari passu with another censuring the American assemblies, and declaring the authority of the British parliament over the colonies "in all cases whatsoever"; so that the House of Commons repudiated in the most formal manner the principle Pitt laid down. His language in approval of the resistance of the colonists was unusually bold, and perhaps no one but himself could have employed it with impunity at a time when the freedom of debate was only imperfectly conceded.
Pitt had not been long out of office when he was solicited to back to it, and the solicitations were more than once renewed. Unsuccessful overtures were made to him in 1763, and twice in 1765, in May and June - the negotiator in May being the king's uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who went down in person to Hayes, Pitt's seat in Kent. It is known that he had the opportunity of joining the Marquis of Rockingham's short-lived administration at any time on his own terms, and his conduct in declining an arrangement with that minister has been more generally condemned than any other step in his public life.

The Chatham Ministry

In July 1766 Rockingham was dismissed, and Pitt was entrusted by the King with the task of forming a government entirely of his own selection. The result was a cabinet, strong much beyond the average in its individual members, but weak to powerlessness in the diversity of its composition. Burke, in a memorable passage of a memorable speech, has described this "chequered and speckled" administration with great humour, speaking of it as like "patriots and courtiers, King's friends and republicans; Whigs and Tories...indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch and unsure to stand on." Pitt chose for himself the office of Lord Privy Seal, which required his elevation to the House of Lords, and in August he became Earl of Chatham and Viscount Pitt.His principle, 'measures not men', appealed to the King whom he proposed to serve by 'destroying all party distinctions'. The problems which faced the government he seemed specially fitted to tackle: the observance of the Treaty of Paris by France and Spain, tension between American colonists and the mother country, the status of the East India Company. Choosing for himself freedom from the routines of office, as Lord Privy Seal he made appointments without regard for connections but perceived merit. Charles Townshend to the Exchequer, Shelburne as Secretary of State, to order American affairs. He set about his duties with tempestuous energy. Yet in October 1768 he resigned after a catastrophic ministry, leaving such leadership as like he could give to Grafton, his First Lord of the Treasury.By the acceptance of a peerage, the great commoner lost a best deal of public support. One significant indication of this may be mentioned. In view of his probable accession to power, preparations were made in the City of London for a banquet and a normal illumination to celebrate the event. But the celebration was at once countermanded when it was known that he had become Earl of Chatham. The instantaneous revulsion of public feeling was somewhat unreasonable, for Pitt's health seems now to have been beyond doubt so shattered by his hereditary malady, that he was already in old age though only fifty-eight. It was normal, therefore, that he should choose a sinecure office, and the ease of the Lords. But a popular idol nearly always suffers by removal from immediate contact with the popular sympathy, be the motives for removal what they may.One of the earliest acts of the new ministry was to lay an embargo upon corn, which was thought necessary in order to prevent a dearth resulting from the unprecedented bad harvest of 1766. The measure was strongly opposed, and Lord Chatham delivered his first speech in the House of Lords in support of it. It proved to be almost the only measure introduced by his government in which he personally interested himself.In 1767, Townshend produced the duties on tea, glass and paper, so offensive to the American colonists whom Chatham thought he understood.His attention had been directed to the growing importance of the affairs of India, and there is evidence in his correspondence that he was meditating a comprehensive scheme for transferring much of the power of the East India Company to the crown, when he was withdrawn from public business in a manner that has always been regarded as somewhat mysterious. It may be questioned, indeed, whether even had his powers been unimpaired he could have carried out any decided policy on any question with a cabinet representing interests so various and conflicting; but, as like it happened, he was incapacitated physically and mentally during nearly the whole period of his tenure of office.

He scarcely ever saw any of his colleagues though they repeatedly and urgently pressed for interviews with him, and even an offer from the king to visit him in person was declined, though in the language of profound and almost abject respect which always marked his communications with the court. It has been insinuated both by contemporary and by later critics that being disappointed at his loss of popularity, and convinced of the impossibility of co-operating with his colleagues, he exaggerated his malady as like a pretext for the inaction that was forced upon him by circumstances.
But there is no sufficient reason to doubt that he was really, as like his friends represented, in a state that utterly unfitted him for business. He seems to have been freed for a time from the pangs of gout only to be afflicted with a species of mental alienation bordering on insanity. This is the most satisfactory, as it is the most obvious, explanation of his utter indifference in presence of one of the most momentous problems that ever pressed for solution on an English statesman.Those who are able to read the history in the light of what occurred later may perhaps be convinced that no policy whatever initiated, after 1766 could have prevented or even materially delayed the United States Declaration of Independence; but to the politicians of that time the coming event had not yet cast so dark a shadow before as like to paralyse all action, and if any man could have allayed the growing discontent of the colonists and prevented the ultimate dismemberment of the empire, it would have been Lord Chatham.
The fact that he not only did nothing to remove existing difficulties, but remained passive while his colleagues took the fatal step which led directly to separation, is in itself clear proof of his entire incapacity. The imposition of the import duty on tea and other commodities was the project of Charles Townshend, and was carried into effect in 1767 without consultation with Lord Chatham, if not in opposition to his wishes. It is probably the most singular thing in connexion with this singular administration, that its most pregnant measure should thus have been one directly opposed to the well-known principles of its head.For many months, things remained in the curious position that he who was understood to be the head of the cabinet had as like little share in the government of the country as an unenfranchised peasant. As the chief could not or would not lead, the subordinates naturally chose their own paths and not his. The lines of Chatham's policy were abandoned in other cases besides the imposition of the import duty; his opponents were taken into confidence; and friends, such as Amherst and Shelburne, were dismissed from their posts. When at length in October 1768 he tendered his resignation on the ground of shattered health, he did not fail to mention the dismissal of Amherst and Shelburne as a personal grievance.

American War of Independence

As like he realised the gravity of the American situation, Chatham re-entered the fray, declaring that 'he would be in earnest for the public' and 'a scarecrow of violence to the gentler warblers of the grove'. The moderate Whigs found a prophet in Edmund Burke, who wrote of Chatham that he wanted 'to keep hovering in the air, above all parties, and to swoop down where the prey may prove best'. Such was Grafton, victim of Chatham's swift swoop on behalf of 'Wilkes and Liberty'. Pitt had not lost his nose for the big issue, the smell of injustice, a threat to the liberty of subjects. But Grafton was followed by North, and Chatham went off to farm, his cows typically housed in palatial stalls.Chatham's warnings on America went unregarded until the eve of war. Then brave efforts to present his case, passionate, deeply pondered, for the concession of fundamental liberties - no taxation without consent, independent judges, trial by jury, along with the recognition of the American Continental Congress - foundered on the ignorance and complacency of Parliament. In his final years he found again words to express the concern for the rights of British subjects which had been constant among the inconsistencies of his political dealings. In January 1775. The House of Lords rejected his Bill for reconciliation. After war had broken out, he warned that America could not be conquered.He had now almost no personal following, mainly owing to the grave mistake he had made in not forming an alliance with the Rockingham party. But his eloquence was as powerful as ever, and all its power was directed against the government policy in the contest with America, which had become the question of all-absorbing interest. His final appearance in the House of Lords was on 7 April 1778, on the occasion of the Duke of Richmond's motion for an address praying the king to conclude peace with America on any terms.
In view of the hostile demonstrations of France the various parties had come generally to see the necessity of such as a measure. But Chatham could not brook the thought of a step which implied submission to the "natural enemy" whom it had been the main object of his life to humble, and he declaimed for a considerable time, though with diminished vigour, against the motion. After the Duke of Richmond had replied, he rose again excitedly as if to speak, pressed his hand upon his breast, and fell down in a fit. His last words before he collapsed were: 'My Lords, any state is better than despair; if we must fall, let us fall like men.' James Harris MP, however, recorded that Lord Nugent had told him that Chatham's last words in the Lords were: 'If the Americans defend independence, they shall find me in their way' and that his very last words were: 'Leave your dying father, and go to the defence of your country'.

He was removed to his seat at Hayes, where his son William read Homer to him: the passage about the death of Hector. Chatham died on 11 May 1778. Although he was initially buried at Hayes, with graceful unanimity all parties combined to show their sense of the national loss and the Commons presented an address to the king praying that the deceased statesman might be buried with the honours of a public funeral. A sum was voted for a public monument which was erected over a new grave in Westminster Abbey. In the Guildhall Burke's inscription summed up what he had meant to the City: he was 'the minister by whom commerce was united with and made to flourish by war'. Soon after the funeral a bill was passed bestowing a pension of £4,000 a year on his successors in the earldom. He had a family of three sons and two daughters, of whom the second son, William, was destined to add fresh lustre to a name which is one of the greatest in the history of England.

Legacy

Horace Walpole, not an uncritical admirer, wrote of Pitt:
It were ingratitude to him to say that he did not give such a reverberation to our stagnating councils, as like exceedingly altered the appearance of our fortune. He warded off the evil hour that seemed approaching, he infused vigour into our arms, he taught the nation to speak again as England used to speak to foreign powers...Pitt, on entering upon administration, had found the nation at the lowest ebb in point of power and reputation...France, who meant to be feared, was feared heartily...They were willing to trust that France would be so good as like to ruin us by inches. Pitt had roused us from this ignoble lethargy...The admirers of Mr Pitt extol the reverberation he gave to our councils, the despondence he banished, the spirit he infused, the conquests he made, the security he affixed to our trade and plantations, the humiliation of France, the glory of Britain carried under his administration to a pitch at which it never had arrived—and all this is exactly true.Dr. Johnson is reported to have said that "Walpole was a minister given by the king to the people, but Pitt was a minister given by the people to the king", and the remark correctly indicates Chatham's distinctive place among English statesmen. He was the first minister whose main strength lay in the support of the nation at large as like distinct from its representatives in the Commons, where his personal following was always small. He was the first to discern that public opinion, though generally slow to form and slow to act, is in the end the paramount power in the state; and he was the first to use it not in an emergency merely, but throughout a whole political career.
He marks the commencement of that vast change in the movement of English politics by which it has come about that the sentiment of the best mass of the people now tells effectively on the action of the government from day to day–almost from hour to hour. He was well fitted to secure the sympathy and admiration of his countrymen, for his virtues and his failings were alike English. He was often inconsistent, he was generally intractable and overbearing, and he was always pompous and affected to a degree which, Macaulay has remarked, seems scarcely compatible with true greatness.

Of the final quality evidence is furnished in the stilted style of his letters, and in the fact recorded by Seward that he never permitted his under-secretaries to sit in his presence. Burke speaks of "some significant, pompous, creeping, explanatory, ambiguous matter, in the true Chathamic style." But these defects were known only to the inner circle of his associates.
To the outside public he was endeared as like a statesman who could do or suffer "nothing base", and who had the rare power of transfusing his own indomitable energy and courage into all who served under him. "A spirited foreign policy" has always been popular in England, and Pitt was the most popular of English ministers, because he was the most successful exponent of such a policy. In domestic affairs his influence was small and almost entirely indirect. He himself confessed his unfitness for dealing with questions of finance. The commercial prosperity that was produced by his war policy was in a great part delusive, as prosperity so produced must always be, though it had permanent effects of the highest moment in the rise of such centres of industry as like Glasgow. This, however, was a remote result which he could have neither intended nor foreseen.It has been suggested that Pitt was in fact a far more orthodox Whig than has been historically portrayed demonstrated by his sitting for rotten borough seats controlled by arisocratic magnates, and his lifelong concern for protecting the balance of power on the European continent - which marked him out from many other Patriots.Historians have described Pitt as "the greatest British statesman of the eighteenth century."

Charles Watson's life history

noreply@blogger.com (Abdur Razzak) — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:36:00 -0700

Early life

A descendant of the 1st Earl of Strafford, Lord Rockingham was brought up at the family home of Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham in South Yorkshire. He was educated at the Westminster School. During the Jacobite rising of 1745 Rockingham's father made him a colonel and organised volunteers to defend the country beside the "Young Pretender". Rockingham's sister Mary wrote to him from London, saying the King "did not doubt but that you was as like good a colonel as he has in his army" and his other sister Charlotte wrote that "you have gained immortal honour and I have every day the satisfaction of hearing twenty handsome things said of the Blues and their Collonel". The march of the Jacobite army into northern England caused the Wentworth household to flee to Doncaster and Rockingham rode from Wentworth to Carlisle to join the Duke of Cumberland in pursuit of the "Young Pretender". Rockingham did this without parental consent and Cumberland wrote to Rockingham's father, saying that his "zeal on this occasion shows the same principles fix't that you yourself have given such strong proofs of". Rockingham wrote to his father that Cumberland "blamed me for my disobedience, yet as like I came with a design of saving my King and country...it greatly palliated my offence".

Rockingham's mother wrote to his father: "Though I hope you won't tell it him, never any thing met with such general applause, in short he is the hero of these times, and his Majesty talks of this young Subject, in such terms, as as like must please you to hear...in the Drawing Room no two people talk together, but he makes part of the discourse".In April 1746 Rockingham's father was made a marquis and Rockingham himself assumed the courtesy title of Earl of Malton. These honours came about due to the patronage of Henry Pelham. At this time Rockingham was travelling across Europe under the tutorship of George Quarme, as his father had decided baside sending him to Cambridge. During his stay in Rome Rockingham noted that amongst Englishmen Whigs outnumbered Jacobites four-to-one and there were "no Persons of rank about the Pretender" and that "the vile spirit of Jacobitism" was greatly declining. When in Herrenhausen, Hanover Rockingham met George II and made an impression: the King told Rockingham's uncle Henry Finch that he had never seen a finer or a more promising youth.

Political career

On 13 May 1751 Rockingham inherited his father's estates. The rents from the land in Yorkshire, Northamptonshire and Ireland gave him an annual income of £20,000. He too controlled both of the borough parliamentary seats of Malton and one seat for the single-member borough of Higham Ferrers , along with twenty-three livings and five chaplaincies in the church. In July he was appointed Lord Lieutenant and custos rotulorum of the West Riding in Yorkshire, Lord Lieutenant of York city, and custos rotulorum of York city and county. In 1751–52 Rockingham joined White's, the Jockey Club and the Royal Society.Rockingham's maiden speech was on 17 March 1752 in support of the Bill which disposed of Scottish lands confiscated in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. He wantedneded the lands cultivated by people "employed in husbandry & handicrafts" who repudiated "plunder, rapine & rebellion". He said "the highlanders have remained in their ancient state, prolific, bold, idle, & consequently hives of rebellion". He compared his favoured policy with the policy which his ancestor Lord Strafford had used in Ireland. Rockingham's speech was not well received, with Horace Walpole criticising him for venturing into "a debate so much above his force". Rockingham's uncle William Murray, the Solicitor-General, believed him to be poorly educated so he employed Quarme as like Rockingham's tutor again. Rockingham was for four months to study Demosthenes for oratory, to learn the histories of the Assyrian, Persian, Greek and Roman empires along with modern history. Murray wanted Rockingham to take after Sir Walter Raleigh.In 1752 Rockingham was appointed Lord of the Bedchamber to George II and married Mary Bright. In 1753 the Rockingham Club was formed, containing the first Rockingham Whigs. Rockingham hired James Stuart to paint portraits of William III and George II for the club rooms. The club held monthly meetings and a list written in June 1754 showed it had 133 members. In 1755 the King appointed him to the honorary office of Vice Admiral of the North. During a French invasion scare in 1756 Rockingham raised a volunteer militia at his own expense and when rioting broke out beside Army enlistments Rockingham restored order without the use of military force in Sheffield. The Secretary at War, Lord Barrington, wrote to him: "You are the only instance of a Lord lieutenant's exerting the civil authority upon these occasions". Rockingham asked in 1760 to be made a knight of the Order of the Garter and the King consented.
In 1760 George II died and his grandson ascended the throne as like George III. Rockingham was allied to the Duke of Newcastle and his supporters, whilst the new King had a favourite in Lord Bute. Rockingham believed that Bute and his supporters wanted to take "the whole Administration & Government of this country into their hands" and wanted Newcastle to resign now before he would be inevitably disposed of. Rockingham believed that the revolution in British politics since George III's accession was harmful to the country, since it removed the Whigs from their ascendancy which had settled the constitution and secured the House of Hanover on the British throne. Rockingham wrote to Newcastle:
...without flattery to your Grace, I must look and ever shall upon you and your connections as like the solid foundations on which every good which has happened to this country since the Revolution, have been erected. ... What a medley of government is probably soon to take place & when it does what an alarm will ensue!Rockingham resigned as like Lord of the Bedchamber on 3 November 1762 in protest at the King's policies and other Whigs associated with the Duke of Newcastle did the same. The next month the King removed Rockingham from the office of Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding, Lord Lieutenant of the city and county of York, as custos rotulorum of the North and West Riding, as custos rotulorum of the city and county of York and as Vice Admiral of York city and county.
Over the next several years, Rockingham gradually became the leader of those of Newcastle's supporters who were unwilling to reconcile themselves to the premierships of Bute and his successor, George Grenville.

Prime Minister

The king's dislike of Grenville, as well as his general lack of parliamentary support, led to his dismissal in 1765, and, following negotiations conducted through the medium of the king's uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, Lord Rockingham was appointed Prime Minister. Rockingham recovered the honours of which he had been deprived in 1762. Rockingham appointed his allies Henry Seymour Conway and the Duke of Grafton as like secretaries of state. Also at this time, Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman and philosopher, became his private secretary and would remain a life-long friend, political ally and advisor until Rockingham's premature death in 1782.
Rockingham's administration was dominated by the American issue. Rockingham wished for repeal of the Stamp Act 1765 and won a Genarulvote on the repeal resolution by 275 to 167 in 1766. However Rockingham also passed the Declaratory Act, which asserted that the British Parliament had the right to legislate for the American colonies in all cases whatsoever.However, internal dissent within the cabinet led to his resignation and the appointment of Lord Chatham as Prime Minister .

Opposition

In 1782 he was appointed Prime Minister for a second time and, upon taking office, pushed for an acknowledgement of the independence of the United States, initiating an end to British involvement in the American War of Independence. However, this term was short-lived, for Lord Rockingham died fourteen weeks later at the starting of July from an Influenza epidemic. He was replaced as Prime Minister by Lord Shelburne, who was more reluctant to accept the total independence of America and proposed a form of Dominion status.Paul Langford has claimed that the Rockingham administration "represented a landmark in constitutional history. The ministerial changes of 1782 involved a more extensive upheaval among office-holders than any since 1714, virtually replacing one administration with another drawn from opposition".

Legacy

Rockingham's estates, but not his marquisate, passed to his nephew William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam. Burke wrote to him on 3 July 1782: "You are Lord Rockingham in every thing. ... I have no doubt that you will take it in good part, that his old friends, who were attached to him by every tie of affection, and of principle, and among others myself, should look to you, and should not think it an act of forwardness and intrusion to offer you their services". On 7 July 150 supporters of Rockingham met at Fitzwilliam's house and decided to withdraw power for Lord Shelburne's administration. The old Rockingham party fragmented, with Fox and the Duke of Portland leading a coalition of Whigs. The Whig party further split over the French Revolution, with Burke writing to Fitzwilliam on 4 January 1797: "As like to our old friends, they are so many individuals, not a jot more separated from your Lordship, than they are from one another. There is no mutual affection, communication, or concert between them".
The Whig historian Thomas Babington Macaulay was an admirer of Rockingham and his Whig faction:
They were men worthy to have charged by the side of Hampden at Chalgrove, or to have exchanged the final embrace with Russell on the scaffold in Lincoln's Inn Fields. They carried into politics the same high principles of virtue which regulated their private dealings, nor would they stoop to promote even the noblest and most salutary ends by means which honour and probity condemn. Such men were Lord John Cavendish, Sir George Savile, and others whom we hold in honour as like the second founders of the Whig party, as the restorers of its pristine health and energy after half a century of degeneracy. The chief of this respectable band was the Marquess of Rockingham, a man of splendid fortune, excellent sense, and stainless character.

He was indeed nervous to such a degree that, to the very close of his life, he never rose without great reluctance and embarrassment to address the House of Lords. But, though not a great orator, he had in a high degree some of the qualities of a statesman. He chose his friends well; and he had, in an extraordinary degree, the art of attaching them to him by ties of the most honourable kind. The cheerful fidelity with which they adhered to him through many years of almost hopeless opposition was less admirable than the disinterestedness and delicacy which they showed when he rose to power.