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William Lamb Biography |
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Lord Melbourne, Baron of Kilmore, Baron Melbourne of Melbourne (March 15, 1779-November 24, 1848) was home secretary (1830-1834) and prime minister (1834 and 1835-1841) of Britain, and mentor of Queen Victoria.
Born in London to an aristocratic Whig family and educated at Eton and Cambridge University, 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 heir to his father's title and married Lady Caroline Ponsonby. The next year he was elected to the British House of Commons as the Whig MP for Leominster.
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 characterization 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 (1828) affected him considerably.
Lamb's hallmark was finding the middle ground. Though a Whig, he accepted the post of Irish Secretary (1827) in the moderate Tory governments of George Canning and Viscount Goderich. Upon the death of his father in 1828 and his becoming Viscount Melbourne, he moved to the House of Lords, but when the Whigs came to power under Earl Grey in November 1830 he became Home Secretary in the new government.
Again, compromise was the key to Melbourne's actions. He was opposed to the radical governmental reforms proposed by the Whigs, but rather than forcing a breach he worked from within the party to prevent passage of the Reform Act of 1832. Although he was unsuccessful in this, when Grey resigned (July 1834), Melbourne was widely seen as 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 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.
The next year, Melbourne was once again involved in a sexual scandal. This time he was the victim of attempted blackmail from the husband of a female friend. The husband demanded £1400, and when he was turned down he accused Melbourne of having an affair with his wife. In Victorian times even one sexual scandal (like the one two decades earlier involving Byron) would be enough to finish off the career of most men, so it is a measure of the respect contemporaries had for his integrity that Melbourne's government did not fall. After Norton was unable to produce any evidence of an affair, the scandal died away.
Melbourne was Prime Minister when Queen Victoria came to the throne (June 1837). Barely eighteen, she was only just breaking free from the somewhat malevolent influence of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and her mother's advisor, Sir 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 (her own had died when she was only eight months old), and Melbourne's grown son had died recently. 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.
In May 1839 the Bedchamber Crisis occurred when Melbourne tried to resign and Victoria rejected the request of prospective Tory prime minister Robert Peel that she dismiss some of the wives and daughters of Whig MPs who made up her personal entourage. As monarch she was expected to avoid any hint of favoritism to a party out of power, so her action (which was supported by the Whigs) led to Peel's refusal to form a new government. Melbourne was eventually persuaded to stay on as Prime Minister.
Even after Melbourne resigned permanently in August 1841, Victoria continued writing to him. This too was forbidden, however, for the same reasons as before, and eventually the correspondence was forced to an end. Melbourne's role faded away as Victoria came to rely on her new husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg as well as on herself.
Melbourne left a considerable list of reforming legislation - not as long as that of Earl Grey, but worthy in its own right. Among his administration's acts were a reduction in the number of capital offenses, reform of the Poor Laws, and reforms of local government.
Melbourne's most lasting memorial is the city of Melbourne, Australia, which was named after him in 1837.
Lord Melbourne's First Government, July - November 1834
Lord Melbourne - First Lord of the Treasury
Lord Brougham - Lord Chancellor
Lord Lansdowne - Lord President of the Council
Lord Mulgrave - Lord Privy Seal
Lord Duncannon - Secretary of State for the Home Department
Lord Palmerston - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Thomas Spring-Rice - Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
Lord Auckland - First Lord of the Admiralty
Lord Althorp - Chancellor of the Exchequer
Charles Poulett Thomson - President of the Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy
Charles Grant - President of the Board of Control
James Abercromby - Master of the Mint
Sir John Cam Hobhouse - First Commissioner of Woods and Forests
Lord Holland - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Lord John Russell - Paymaster of the Forces
Edward Ellice - Secretary at War
Lord Melbourne's Second Government, April 1835 - August 1839
Lord Melbourne - First Lord of the Treasury
Lord Lansdowne - Lord President of the Council
Lord Duncannon - Lord Privy Seal and First Commissioner of Woods and Forests
Lord John Russell - Secretary of State for the Home Department
Lord Palmerston - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Lord Glenelg - Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
Lord Auckland - First Lord of the Admiralty
Thomas Spring-Rice - Chancellor of the Exchequer
Charles Poulett Thomson - President of the Board of Trade
Sir John Cam Hobhouse - President of the Board of Control
Lord Holland - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Lord Howick - Secretary at War
The Great Seal is in commission
Changes
September, 1835 - Lord Minto succeeds Lord Auckland as First Lord of the Admiralty
January, 1836 - Lord Cottenham becomes Lord Chancellor and enters the Cabinet.
February, 1839 - Lord Normanby, formerly Lord Mulgrave, succeeds Lord Glenelg as Colonial Secretary
Lord Melbourne's Third Government, August 1839 - September 1841
Lord Melbourne - First Lord of the Treasury
Lord Cottenham - Lord Chancellor
Lord Lansdowne - Lord President of the Council
Lord Duncannon - Lord Privy Seal and First Commissioner of Woods and Forests
Lord Normanby - Secretary of State for the Home Department
Lord Palmerston - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Lord John Russell - Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
Lord Minto - First Lord of the Admiralty
Sir Francis Thornhill Baring - Chancellor of the Exchequer
Henry Labouchere - President of the Board of Trade
Sir John Cam Hobhouse - President of the Board of Control
Lord Holland - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Thomas Babington Macaulay - Secretary at War
Lord Morpeth - Chief Secretary for Ireland
Changes
January, 1840 - Lord Clarendon succeeds Lord Duncannon as Lord Privy Seal.
October, 1840 - Lord Clarendon succeeds Lord Holland as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, remaining also Lord Privy Seal
June, 1841 - Sir George Grey succeeds Lord Clarendon as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Clarendon remains Lord Privy Seal. |
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