Background
William Lamb was born on 15 March 1779, the second son of Peniston Lamb and Elizabeth Milbanke.
politician prime minister statesman
William Lamb was born on 15 March 1779, the second son of Peniston Lamb and Elizabeth Milbanke.
He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge.
His political career began in 1806 when he became M.P. for Leominster. In 1807 he became M.P. for Portarlington. He left the Commons in 1812 but returned as M.P. for Northampton in 1816, and for Hertfordshire from 1819 to 1826. He was also M.P. for Newport in the Isle of Wight in 1827 and for Bletchingley between 1827 and 1829, before succeeding to the viscountcy of Melbourne in 1829, which gave him a seat in the House of Lords.
Lamb accepted his first ministerial post when he became chief secretary for Ireland in George Canning’s brief coalition government of 1827. After Canning’s death, he was associated with a liberal Tory group led by William Huskisson and the third Viscount Palmerston; but all three men left the Duke of Wellington’s government in 1828. Viscount Melbourne returned as home secretary in Lord Grey’s Whig government in November 1830, committing himself to the process of parliamentary reform, although he was not its most enthusiastic supporter.
In July 1834, while acting as home secretary, Melbourne became prime minister after Lord Grey’s resignation. His natural conservatism and genial style seem to have made him the best candidate; but within four months he had been dis-missed by King William IV, mainly due to his attempt to impose Lord John Russell as leader of the House of Commons against the wishes of the monarch. However, the Tories, under Sir Robert Peel, were unable to sustain a government after the general election; and Melbourne, meeting with radical M.P.s and Daniel O’Connell in April 1835, negotiated the “Lichfield House Compact,” a troublesome alliance of liberals that formed another administration under Melbourne.
From the start, Lamb was a Whig, supporting a party that dated to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when the “irresponsibility of the Crown” was tempered by “responsible ministers” who wished to work through Parliament for reforms including parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. Nevertheless, by 1822 he was attacking extraparliamentary activity and was becoming a conservative Whig, or perhaps a liberal Tory.
In many respects his early enthusiasm for reform was waning. Indeed, as home secretary he was almost reactionary. He advertised high rewards for anyone bringing to justice the “Swing Rioters” who were burning haystacks throughout the countryside in 1830. He also waged a campaign against trade unionism. Between November 1830 and July 1834, he presided over the prosecution, imprisonment, and deportation to Tasmania of the Tolpuddle Martyrs— agricultural laborers who had assembled illegally in 1834 to discuss ways of raising their wages.
An intelligent man of broad political and literary tastes. He both preceded and followed Sir Robert Peel into office; and although his reputation suffers by comparison with Peel, there is no doubt that his ministries did pass important reforming legislation.
Melbourne has been much maligned in comparison to Peel, but he was an effective politician. Although Melbourne was reluctant to undertake some kinds of reform (being a gentleman landowner, he naturally shared the interests of the landowning classes), his ministries nevertheless played a significant role in introducing a number of reforms. William Gladstone later acknowledged the importance of the legislation that Melbourne’s government had enacted, and Benjamin Disraeli also praised his “generally moderate, well-matured and statesmanlike schemes”. Melbourne’s aristocratic Whig politics ensured that radical change was tempered by patriotism and responsibility in the shaping of the early Whig-Liberal party.
He married Lady Caroline Ponsonby, daughter of the third Earl of Bessborough, in 1805, but separated from her in 1825.
William Lamb, the second Viscount Melbourne, is best remembered for his tempestuous and unhappy marriage to Lady Caroline Lamb, who was besotted by Lord Byron, and by the fact that he acted as political tutor to Queen Victoria after she ascended to the throne at age 18 in 1837.