Prime Ministers - Spencer Perceval to The Viscount Goderich

PRIME MINISTERS

- Spencer Perceval to The Earl of Ripon

By Alijan Kirk

With huge thanks and appreciation we wish Alijan Kirk the best as he moves forward on to his university life, sadly leaving us behind but starting a brand new adventure. This will be his last feature, for now anyway. We hope he might make a come back from time to time but once he has those assignments due in it might be tricky. At least he has had plenty of practice with deadlines, we have heard him say he loves a deadline so hopefully all his work at university will be in on time. We are all really proud of him and we will be following his progress closely. With a keen interest in politics, history and comedy and a talent for all three, it will be interesting to see which path he takes. Well Done Alijan

As you may know already, in this series, I chose to write about five Prime Ministers per article. Furthermore, several Prime Ministers have had non-consecutive terms in office, such as The Duke of Newcastle or William Pitt the Younger, but since they were still the same person, I would not count their second term as one of the five I’d cover, so I’d have maybe six sections for five Prime Ministers.

It worked out well, since I was always able to cover all their terms in the same article. Today we would have been covering another Prime Minister who had non-consecutive terms, The Duke of Wellington. Unfortunately, he just so happens to be the last one in this group of five, and is then separated by two more Prime Ministers before he returns to office. I don’t want to cover his second term here and thus not keep to the chronology of time by excluding the other two, nor do I want to split his terms across articles. www.lancmag.com

So here, I will only cover four Prime Ministers and that way I can put both of the Duke of Wellington’s terms in the same article. I doubt you will mind much, as I’ve noticed that what were supposed to be “brief profiles” have been getting particularly long.

SPENCER PERCEVAL

As a son of the Earl of Egmont, Spencer Perceval had many relatives in the world of politics, having even succeeded his cousin as the Tory MP for Northampton. Perceval was fast in making a name for himself and distinguishing himself from his relatives, eventually rising to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer under the Duke of Portland.

After Portland’s resignation, George Canning was actively lobbying to become the next Prime Minister, wanting either the top job or nothing. Perceval was willing to serve under any member of the Portland cabinet except for Canning. Eventually, the Portland cabinet decided to invite Earl Grey and Lord Grenville to form a government but the two refused to enter negotiations and thus the cabinet recommended to the King that Perceval become Prime Minister, which he accepted.

From the get go, Perceval’s time as Prime Minister had problems. He’d offered the position of Chancellor to five different people who all refused, forcing Perceval to serve as his own Chancellor. In addition to this, Perceval’s government was particularly weak in the House of Commons, with only one Cabinet member sitting there, Richard Ryder, the Home Secretary, requiring Perceval to have to rely on the support of backbenchers during debate. Furthermore, only a few months into the new administration, the government faced an enquiry over the disastrous Walcheren Expedition as well as losing three motions on the composition of the finance

While they survived the enquiry, the government was far from safe. After publishing a letter denouncing the government, the radical MP Sir Francis Burdett was imprisoned in the Tower of London, resulting in a mob breaking out in support of Burdett. This led to troops being called in and numerous fatalities.

Some time after his Golden Jubilee, King George III began to show signs of his infamous illness once again. As with the first bout of it back in 1788, the possibility of a regency was again being discussed. The prospect of a regency wasn’t one Perceval was fond of, as the Prince of Wales was known to favour Whigs and personally disliked Perceval. Initially, it looked like a regency was not needed as the King’s doctors gave optimistic reports that he could recover. However by December 1810, with no improvement from the King, Perceval relented and wrote a letter to the Prince of Wales to let him know of his intent to introduce a regency bill the next day, December 20th. As with the regency bill in 1788, Perceval added restrictions to the potential regency. The regent’s powers to create peers and award offices would be restricted for twelve months, the Queen would be responsible for the King’s care, and the King’s private property would be looked after by trustees.

Supported by the Opposition, the Prince of Wales objected to these restrictions, to no avail. Perceval was able to drive the bill through. On February 5th, 1811, the King gave ascent to the regency bill and the Prince of Wales promptly took the royal oath to become the Prince Regent. With his dislike of Perceval known, everyone had expected the Prince Regent to replace the government, however he surprisingly chose to retain Perceval for the next session of Parliament. The next year for the government was largely uneventful, with focus mainly being on problems with Ireland and an economic depression.

the King was still showing no sign of recovery and thus the regency would continue. The Prince Regent did make an attempt to persuade Grey and Grenville to join the government to no success, so he chose to retain Perceval’s government yet again. The government was still facing tough times, as the Opposition was in attack of the Orders in Council, which had caused a crisis in relations with America and were also blamed for the economic depression. The Orders in Council were so unpopular, rioting had broken out in the North and the Midlands, but were largely repressed. Mounted with pressure, the government agreed to set up an inquiry into the Orders in Council and their impact on trade and manufacture.

On May 11th, 1812, as he entered the lobby of the House of Commons to attend a session of the inquiry, a man named John Bellingham approached Perceval and shot him in the chest. By the time a surgeon arrived, it was too late and Perceval was declared dead, the only Prime Minister to be assassinated. Bellingham had believed he was wrongfully imprisoned in Russia and thus was entitled to compensation from the government, who rejected his petitions. He was tried and hanged for assassinating the Prime Minister.

THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL

After Perceval’s assassination, the Prince Regent found difficulty in finding a replacement. The Regent’s first four choices turned down the premiership and so his fifth choice, Robert Jenkinson, the Earl of Liverpool reluctantly accepted the offer. The proposal was that Liverpool would lead the government from the House of Lords, while the government’s leader in the Commons would be Lord Castlereagh. However, the House of Commons voted against the proposal and thus Liverpool and Castlereagh both handed in their resignations, bringing a very quick end to Liverpool’s premiership. Just kidding. The Prince Regent really couldn’t find any other coalition to form a government and so confirmed Liverpool as Prime Minister anyway. Liverpool’s government was one to be reckoned with, Liverpool himself was considered a skilled politician who held together both wings of the Tory Party and he had an allstar Cabinet, featuring the likes of Lord Castlereagh, George Canning, William Huskisson, Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington.

Liverpool’s premiership was full of war. Days after the government was formed, the War of 1812 against the United States broke out. It was during this war that the British set fire to both the White House and US Capitol Building. The War of 1812 would end in a draw in 1915. The country was also involved in conflict closer to home, participating in the Napoleonic Wars against France. Alongside many European nations, Napoleon was defeated and exiled. Britain then participated in the Congress of Vienna, which was to decide what to do with Europe, especially in regards to the territories Napoleon had invaded. Liverpool’s vision was to restore France to its pre-war borders, while maintaining their integrity, as well as ensuring the independence of Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. The British representative at the Congress of Vienna, Lord Castlereagh, devised a bold plan to establish a defensive alliance with France and Austria, which Liverpool approved of. This alliance proved useful as ten months after being exiled, Napoleon returned to try and reclaim his rule on France, an unsuccessful measure resulting in his defeat in the Battle of Waterloo, led by the Duke of Wellington. With Napoleon exiled again, the Congress of Vienna were able to permanently restore the French monarchy, and years of peace followed.

Back at home, Britain was facing a few financial issues, which can be expected following wars, therefore taxes had to be raised to pay off the national debt. To no surprise, many were unhappy with increased taxes, and notably a group called the Luddites began industrial action by smashing industrial machines developed for the use of the textile industry. Up until 1816 there were numerous incidents of machine breaking and therefore many of those convicted of doing so faced execution. The Government was spending a large amount of its resources on paying off national debt and funding war pensions. When the House of Commons refused to continue the warfare income tax, the initial response was to borrow money. Knowing how ruinous government borrowing can be, Liverpool eventually facilitated a return to the gold standard. Later on, the nation had issues involving the agriculture industry. As a result of multiple good harvests, many crops had become incredibly cheap, which led to calls for protection of prices. The powerful agriculture lobbyists in Parliament were able to push Liverpool into passing the Corn Laws, which prohibited the import of foreign wheat until the domestic price had reached a certain level, which helped the transition to peacetime.

Despite this, many societies were still agitated by the economic troubles. Since Liverpool felt that the Government was under threat, he introduced temporary legislation, suspending habeas corpus. Most significantly, a protest in Manchester of about 60,000 people had been responded to by local magistrates to bring in the Army, resulting in the deaths of 18 people and hundreds more injured, in an event now known as the Peterloo Massacre. In response, the Government introduced new legislation known as the Six Acts, which was very repressive. Among some of its restrictions were free speech and the right to peacefully protest. These measures resulted in the foiled Cato Street Conspiracy, which plotted to assassinate Liverpool and the Cabinet.

Liverpool also faced the problem of Catholic emancipation. Liverpool was personally opposed to the idea, arguing that the special relationship between the monarch and the Church of England, plus the Catholic refusal to take the oath of supremacy, justified their exclusion from political power. However, Liverpool did see

marginal concessions as important to national stability. By 1925, Catholic emancipation had become quite likely to succeed in parliament. When George Canning suggested that the Cabinet should back the bill, Liverpool became convinced that his time as Prime Minister had come to an end. Following a severe stroke in 1827, Liverpool finally retired on April 9th. Liverpool died just over a year later, aged 58.

GEORGE CANNING

As Lord Liverpool’s right hand man, the King invited George Canning, the MP for Seaford, to form a new government. Canning had most recently served as Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons since the suicide of Lord Castlereagh in 1922. In selecting Canning, the King (now George IV), had passed over both the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel for the job. As a result, both men decided not to serve in Canning’s government, alongside five other Cabinet ministers and 40 junior ministers. This split the Tory party between the ‘High Tories’, and the more moderate ‘Canningites’. The party split meant Canning struggled to form a government and decided to invite a number of Whigs to join the Cabinet, as well as making himself Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Things started off somewhat badly for Canning as Prime Minister, but don’t worry, it gets worse. When he took office, Canning’s health was already on the decline and he ended up dying of tuberculosis on August 8th, 1927, aged 57. Having died only 119 days into office, Canning is the shortest serving Prime Minister in history.

ADDENDUM: When I began writing this, the Prime Minister was Boris Johnson. Since then, Liz Truss has both been and gone. As I’m sure everyone is aware, Liz Truss’ 49 days in office is somewhat shorter than Canning’s 119 days. I decided not to go back and change anything, so I thought I’d add this little addendum at the end. THE VISCOUNT GODERICH

When Canning died, the King was still angry with the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel for refusing to serve in Canning’s Cabinet, thus not inviting either of them to form a government. The man he did appoint was F. J. Robinson, the Viscount Goderich, who had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Liverpool and War Secretary under Canning.

Straight away, Goderich faced difficulty in balancing the conflicting demands of the King and the Whigs about the composition of his Cabinet. The King felt three Whigs in government were enough, while the Whigs pushed for a fourth member, Lord Holland, to be appointed Foreign Secretary. Goderich left nobody satisfied with his inability to resolve matters. In fact, Goderich actually made things worse with his indecisiveness on choosing a new Chancellor. Many of Goderich’s fellow Tories were showing growing contempt for Goderich, as was the King, who described Goderich as “a damned, snivelling, blubbering blockhead”. In addition to the stress he was getting from the King and the Whigs, Goderich had a stressful home life, as a result of his wife’s worsening mental health.

As 1828 began, the Duke of Wellington had been gradually distancing himself from the High Tory wing of the party, which led the King to conclude that a Tory-Whig coalition could not continue any further and a Tory ministry led by Wellington would be better. In fact, Goderich seemed to hold a similar opinion, having written a letter of resignation but not yet sending it. One account states that during his meeting with the King, Goderich was in tears but within a few days was very happy. Regardless, after 144 days in office, Goderich was no longer the Prime Minister, having the second shortest premiership after his immediate predecessor. After leaving the premiership, Goderich remained in Government and in 1833 was made Earl of Ripon. He would eventually die in January 1859, aged 76.

allied with Spain and Portugal when the Peninsular War broke out, a result of Napoleon’s France attempting to invade the Spanish Peninsula. By 1809, Britain’s government had not taken an active role in the war and Portland’s health was poor. To make matters worse, the government’s reputation took a hit following a scandalous duel between George Canning and Lord Castlereagh. With that, Portland resigned on October 4, 1809 and died at the end of that same month.  LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 175