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Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
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| Biography: Robert Barks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool |
The English statesman Robert Barks Jenkinson, 2d Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828), served as prime minister from 1812 to 1827 and was at the center of governmental decisions during more than a quarter century of foreign and domestic crises.
The eldest son of Charles Jenkinson, Robert Jenkinson was born in London on June 7, 1770. He received a superb education, first at Charterhouse and then at Christ Church, Oxford. Interested in history and foreign languages, Robert proved adept at debate, and it was through this talent that he won the notice and ultimately the friendship of his fellow student George Canning. After leaving Oxford, Jenkinson traveled to the Continent. At the age of 20 he was suddenly catapulted into public life by being chosen a member of Parliament for the borough of Appleby. When he was asked by William Pitt to defend an unpopular government measure, his brilliant speech won the approval of the entire House of Commons. He was appointed to the India Board in 1793 and the following year married Lady Louisa, daughter of the Earl of Bristol. During this time he was aided in his public and private affairs by Canning, who was also a rising young politician, and the two men seemed to make a most effective team.
In 1796 Jenkinson's father, who had been given a barony 10 years earlier, was raised to the earldom of Liverpool. The son thus received the title of the barony, Hawkesbury, as a courtesy; more important was the son's promotion to the lucrative and influential post of master of the mint. Hawkesbury supported most of Pitt's policies. When the Prime Minister sought to relieve Roman Catholics from some of the legal disabilities they labored under, he was forced to resign by King George III. But Hawkesbury had broken with Pitt over the Catholic issue, and he was willing to serve under Henry Addington, the new prime minister. At the age of 31 Hawkesbury was made foreign secretary and a member of the Cabinet. Almost his first task was to negotiate peace with the French. The resultant Treaty of Amiens seemed to make too many concessions to the French, now led by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the government was severely censured by the opposition. Hawkesbury ably defended his actions in Parliament. In 1803 he was created Baron Hawkesbury and immediately became the government's principal speaker in the House of Lords.
The next year Pitt returned to office, and Hawkesbury was moved to the home secretaryship, while keeping his leadership in the Lords. When Pitt died at the end of 1805, Hawkesbury was asked by George III to form a new ministry, but he declined and became the leader of the Tory opposition. The Whig ministry fell in 1807 and the Tories returned to power under the nominal leadership of the Duke of Portland; Hawkesbury, Canning, Lord Castlereagh, and Spencer Perceval directed matters. Canning and Castlereagh, however, quarreled and then dueled, and Portland's health gave way and he resigned from office. Therefore Hawkesbury, who succeeded to his father's title upon the earl's death in 1808, and Perceval formed a government, which in the face of formidable (and irresponsible) opposition carried on the war against Napoleon and the administration of the country until Perceval was assassinated by a madman in 1812.
Prime Minister
Among the domestic tasks facing Liverpool had been the setting up of a regency under Prince George. His close ties with the regent (the old king having gone mad for the last time in 1810) led him to be asked once more to form a ministry. In 1812 he became prime minister and thus headed a government which, with only the most minor changes of personnel, ruled England for 15 years. His greatest talent seemingly lay in his ability to survive; his survival appeared to rest on his ability to reconcile men of differing opinions. In the last analysis Liverpool possessed this power because his own views did not follow any hard ideological line but differed considerably on each major problem confronting him.
Liverpool's chief foreign assignment was of course the winning of the war - which by now had become two wars, one against the French and the other against the new United States. His first 3 years in office saw the one against Napoleon won (twice) and the one against the United States brought to a successful conclusion. The coming of peace served to focus discontent on Britain's economic and social problems, and for the last dozen years of his public life, Liverpool would be forced to contend most fiercely in this area. The principal issues were free trade as opposed to protectionism, taxation, public order, and Catholic emancipation.
Liverpool made no concession to civil unrest; after the suppression of a gathering at "Peterloo, " in 1819, he introduced the harsh measures known as the Six Acts into Parliament, where they were adopted by an overwhelming majority. When the Irish grew more unruly than usual in 1822, he not only opposed Canning's Catholic Relief Bill but suspended habeas corpus in Ireland and renewed the stringent Insurrection Bill; for the time, at least, these measures seemed to work.
The Prime Minister was much more "liberal" regarding questions of foreign policy. He supported Castlereagh in dealing with the reactionary powers of Europe and with the newly created South American nations. After Castlereagh's suicide, Liverpool strongly urged George IV to appoint Canning to his position as foreign secretary. From 1822 on Liverpool gave his full support to Canning's policies. Liverpool was also a "liberal" in economic policy. He favored free trade and advanced the cause of the "free traders" by securing William Huskisson's appointment as member of the Board of Trade in 1822. Though he did not succeed in abolishing the Corn Laws, which limited the amount of grain which could be imported into Britain, he did introduce a sliding scale which enabled the government to act at its discretion to remove inequities.
Early in 1827 Liverpool suffered a paralytic stroke. He left the political arena and died on Dec. 4, 1828. Under Liverpool the development of Cabinet government reached maturity; the role of the king was permanently reduced; and the subordination of the Cabinet to the prime minister was completed.
Further Reading
The most complete treatment of Liverpool is Charles Duke Yonge, Life and Administration of Robert Banks, Second Earl of Liverpool (3 vols., 1868). More accessible is Sir Charles Petrie, Lord Liverpool and His Times (1954). For the student of political history, W. R. Brock, Lord Liverpool and Liberal Toryism, 1820-27 (1941; 2d ed. 1967), is invaluable.
Additional Sources
Gash, Norman, Lord Liverpool: the life and political career of Robert Banks Jenkinson, Second Earl of Liverpool, 1770-1828, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984.
| British History: Robert Banks Jenkinson Liverpool |
Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd earl of (1770-1828). Liverpool was a capable and intelligent statesman. He entered the Commons while under age in 1790 and supported the war with France after 1793. After gaining experience at the India Board, he served Addington as foreign secretary, had two spells as home secretary, and between 1809 and 1812 proved himself as an efficient war secretary. When he became prime minister in 1812 the prospects for his ministry were uncertain but Liverpool soon showed that he was in command. The war against Napoleon was turning in favour of the allies. Liverpool was adroit in handling the prince regent: by 1820 he had the advantage of knowing that his colleagues would follow him out of office if he had to resign. It was Liverpool who insisted that the prince regent could not accede to the Holy Alliance in a personal capacity. Liverpool was protective towards the landed interest, but though he favoured a corn law he was compelled to accept a fixed duty in 1815 because his supporters were not prepared to accept a sliding scale. He opposed parliamentary reform, but was eager to find some compromise on the catholic question short of full emancipation. Liverpool was determined to maintain public order but had no desire to strengthen the powers of central government. Lacking a police force he had to rely on the local magistrates for law and order. At the time of the Peterloo affair in 1819 Liverpool criticized the Manchester magistrates in private but defended them in public. After 1820 the situation improved. The economy revived and Liverpool allowed his ministers greater freedom in reducing duties and stimulating trade. He appointed Canning as foreign secretary and gave more scope to Peel, Huskisson, and Robinson (Goderich). The extent to which the government depended upon him was revealed when a stroke compelled his retirement in 1827.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2d earl of Liverpool |
Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2d earl of, 1770-1828, English statesman. He was elected to Parliament as a Tory in 1790 and succeeded his father to the peerage in 1808. He served as foreign secretary (1801-3), home secretary (1804-6, 1807-9), and secretary for war and the colonies (1809-12) before becoming prime minister in 1812. His government presided over the end of the Napoleonic Wars, negotiated the peace settlement, and attempted to deal with the social and economic malaise that followed. His early domestic policy was typified by a strong conservatism in the face of changing social and economic conditions and by repressive legislation, including the periodic suspension of habeas corpus. His administration, initially thought of as weak, lasted for 15 years, in a large part due to his ability to work with colleagues more talented and ambitious than himself, allowing them broad responsibilities yet retaining the cohesion of the ministry. His cabinet included such disparate figures as Viscount Sidmouth, Lord Eldon, the duke of Wellington, Viscount Castlereagh, George Canning, and William Huskisson. During the 1820s government policy became increasingly liberal. The anti-trade union laws were repealed, and many trading restrictions were removed. In matters where Liverpool had had of necessity to remain politically equivocal, Catholic Emancipation and parliamentary reform, his administration gradually moved toward a more liberal position. He resigned because of ill health (1827).
Bibliography
See W. R. Brock, Lord Liverpool and Liberal Toryism, 1820-1827 (2d ed. 1967); N. Gash, Lord Liverpool (1985).
| Wikipedia: Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool |
| The Right Honourable The Earl of Liverpool PC |
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| In office 8 June 1812 – 9 April 1827 |
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| Monarch | George III (Under Regency) George IV |
| Preceded by | Spencer Perceval |
| Succeeded by | George Canning |
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| Born | 7 June 1770 London |
| Died | 4 December 1828 (aged 58) Kingston upon Thames, Surrey |
| Political party | Tory |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Signature |  |
Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool PC (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British politician and the longest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since the Union with Ireland in 1801.[1] During his time as Prime Minister from 1812 to 1827, Liverpool became known for repressive measures introduced to maintain order, but also for steering the country through the period of radicalism and unrest that followed the Napoleonic Wars.[2] Important events during his time as Prime Minister included the War of 1812, the Congress of Vienna, the Corn Laws, the Peterloo Massacre, the Trinitarian Act 1812 and the emerging issue of Catholic Emancipation.
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Early life
Jenkinson was baptised on 29 June 1770 at St. Margaret's, Westminster, the son of George III's close adviser Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool and his first wife, Amelia Watts. Jenkinson's 19 year old mother, who was part-Indian, died from the effects of childbirth one month after his birth.[3]
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 terms 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 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 against the abolition of the slave trade, which reflected his father's strong opposition to William Wilberforce's campaign. He served as 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 also 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 in 1796 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
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Home Secretary
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.[4] Most of his time as 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 (the only time that Liverpool did not hold government office between 1793 and after his retirement). 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 (as Hawkesbury had now become by the death of his father in December 1808) accepted 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 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 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, Goedrich and Wellington, had great difficulty with.
Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna
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 ensure 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 return 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, several years of peace followed.
The Corn Laws and trouble at home
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 a temporary measure to ease the transition to peacetime conditions. His chief economic problem during his time as 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 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.[4]
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 a largely 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.[5] In 1820, as 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.[5] 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 1835 following strikes.
Catholic emancipation
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 emanicpation, though did see marginal concessions as 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 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 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 (his riverside residence in Whitehall since 1810), he suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage, and asked 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.
Lord Liverpool's Administration (1812-1827)
- Lord Liverpool - First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Lords
- Lord Eldon - Lord Chancellor
- Lord Harrowby - Lord President of the Council
- Lord Westmorland - Lord Privy Seal
- Lord Sidmouth - Secretary of State for the Home Department
- Lord Castlereagh (Lord Londonderry after 1821) - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the House of Commons
- Lord Bathurst - Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
- Lord Melville - First Lord of the Admiralty
- Nicholas Vansittart - Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Lord Mulgrave - Master-General of the Ordnance
- Lord Buckinghamshire - President of the Board of Control
- Charles Bathurst - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- Lord Camden - minister without portfolio
Changes
- late 1812 - Lord Camden leaves the Cabinet.
- September, 1814 - William Wellesley-Pole (Lord Maryborough from 1821), the Master of the Mint, enters the Cabinet.
- February, 1816 - George Canning succeeds Lord Buckinghamshire at the Board of Control
- January, 1818 - Frederick John Robinson, the President of the Board of Trade, enters the Cabinet.
- January, 1819 - The Duke of Wellington succeeds Lord Mulgrave as Master-General of the Ordnance. Lord Mulgrave becomes minister without portfolio.
- 1820 - Lord Mulgrave leaves the cabinet.
- January, 1821 - Charles Bathurst succeeds Canning as President of the Board of Control, remaining also at the Duchy of Lancaster.
- January, 1822 - Robert Peel succeeds Lord Sidmouth as Home Secretary
- February, 1822 - Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn succeeds Charles Bathurst at the Board of Control. Bathurst remains at the Duchy of Lancaster and in the Cabinet.
- September, 1822 - Following the suicide of Lord Londonderry, George Canning becomes Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons.
- January, 1823 - Vansittart, elevated to the peerage as Lord Bexley, succeeds Charles Bathurst as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. F.J. Robinson succeeds Vansittart as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is succeeded at the Board of Trade by William Huskisson.
- 1823 - Lord Maryborough, the Master of the Mint, leaves the Cabinet. His successor in the office is not a Cabinet member.
Titles
- 2nd Earl of Liverpool
- Baron Hawkesbury
- Lord Hawkesbury
- Robert Jenkinson
External links
- Profile on the Downing Street website.
- Jenkinson at Find-A-Grave
- School history page on Jenkinson
References
- ^ Robert Walpole and William Pitt the Younger held office for longer, but before the United Kingdom was formed, although William Pitt, who served two terms was also the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1804 to 1806.
- ^ "Earl of Liverpool". http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/earl-of-liverpool.
- ^ D. Leonard 2008 Nineteenth-Century British Premiers: Pitt to Rosebery. Palgrave Macmillan: p. 82.
- ^ a b "Lord Liverpool". http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/Liverpool.html.
- ^ a b "Robert Jenkinson, Lord Liverpool". http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRliverpool.htm.
Bibliography
- Gash, N. Lord Liverpool: The Life and Political Career of Robert Banks Jenkinson, Second Earl of Liverpool 1770-1828. London 1984.
- Petrie, C. Lord Liverpool and His Times. London, 1954.
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