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The Right Honourable
The Viscount Melbourne
PC FRS
	The Right Honourable; The Viscount Melbourne ; PC FRS
	;
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
	In office; 18 April 1835 – 30 August 1841
Monarch	William IV; Victoria
Preceded by	Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Succeeded by	Sir Robert Peel, Bt
	In office; 16 July 1834 – 14 November 1834
Monarch	William IV
Preceded by	The Earl Grey
Succeeded by	The Duke of Wellington
Born	15 March 1779; London, England
Died	24 November 1848 (aged 69); Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire
Political party	Whig
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Signature

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS (15 March 1779 – 24 November 1848) was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary (1830–1834) and Prime Minister (1834 and 1835–1841), and was a mentor of Queen Victoria. The city of Melbourne in Australia was named after him.

[edit] Early life

Born in London to an aristocratic Whig family and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge,^[1] 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 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 (a seat he held until 1812).^[2]

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 (1828) affected him considerably.

In 1816 Lamb was returned 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".^[2] He therefore spoke against parliamentary reform and voted for the suspending of habeas corpus in 1817 when sedition was rife.^[2]

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 Lord Goderich. Upon the death of his father in 1828 and his becoming Viscount Melbourne, he moved to the House of Lords.

[edit] Home 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 function that his reforming brethren thanked him heartily".^[2] 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.^[2] The disturbances over reform in 1831-32 were countered with the enforcement of the usual laws and again Melbourne refused to pass emergency legislation against sedition.^[2]

After the Merthyr Rising of 1831, the British government, led by Lord Melbourne, was determined that at least one rebel should die as an example. A 23 year-old miner named Dic Penderyn was accused of stabbing a soldier in the leg with a seized bayonet. The people of Merthyr Tydfil were convinced that he was innocent, and 11,000 signed a petition demanding his release. The government refused, and Penderyn was hanged at Cardiff market on 13 August 1831. In 1874 it was discovered that another man named Ianto Parker, not Dic Penderyn, had stabbed the soldier and then fled to America fearing capture by the authorities ^[3], and also that witness James Abbott, who had testified at Penderyn's trial, admitted that he had lied under oath, under the orders of Lord Melbourne, in order to secure a conviction.

[edit] Prime Minister: 1834, 1835–1841

Compromise was the key to many of Melbourne's actions. He was opposed in theory to the radical governmental reforms 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 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 last time a British monarch attempted to dismiss a prime minister.

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 turned down he accused Melbourne of having an affair with his wife. In the early 19th century even one sexual scandal (like the one two decades earlier involving Lord 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 Mr. Norton was unable to produce any evidence of an affair, the scandal died away.

Nonetheless, as Boyd Hilton records, "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."^[4]

Melbourne was Prime Minister when Queen Victoria came to the throne (June 1837). Barely eighteen, she was only 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 (her own had died when she was only eight months old), 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.

Lord Melbourne.

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 favouritism 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. On 25 February 1841, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society.^[5]

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 establishing compulsory admission to workhouses for the impoverished poor.

[edit] Later life: 1841–1848

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 and Gotha as well as on herself.

[edit] Legacy

The city of Melbourne, Australia, was named in his honour in March 1837, as he was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time. (For further information see Melbourne.)

Another lasting memorial is his favourite, and most famous, dictum in politics: "Why not leave it alone?", quoted by those who object to change for change's sake.

[edit] Melbourne's Governments

[edit] Notes

^ Lamb, the Hon. Henry William in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Peter Mandler, ‘Lamb, William, second Viscount Melbourne (1779–1848)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 27 Dec 2009.
^ Gwyn A. Williams, The Merthyr Rising of 1831, Groom Helm Ltd. (1978) p.196, citing Western Mail, 14 October 1874. isbn: 0709902204
^ Boyd Hilton, A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People? England 1783-1846 (Oxford 2006), p. 500.
^ "Lists of Royal Society Fellows". http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1727. Retrieved 2006-12-15.

[edit] References

Boyd Hilton, A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People? England 1783-1846 (Oxford 2006).
Peter Mandler, ‘Lamb, William, second Viscount Melbourne (1779–1848)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 27 Dec 2009.
Philip Ziegler, Melbourne: A Life of William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1976).

[edit] External links

William Lamb, 2nd viscount Melbourne in the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.
More about William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne on the Downing Street website.
Historica’s Heritage Minute video docudrama “Responsible Government.” (Adobe Flash Player.)

Political offices
Preceded by Henry Goulburn	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1827 – 1828	Succeeded by The Lord Francis Leveson-Gower
Preceded by Sir Robert Peel, Bt	Home Secretary 1830 – 1834	Succeeded by Viscount Duncannon
Preceded by The Earl Grey	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 16 July 1834 – 14 November 1834	Succeeded by The Duke of Wellington (caretaker, followed by) Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Preceded by The Earl Grey	Leader of the House of Lords 1834	Succeeded by The Duke of Wellington
Preceded by Sir Robert Peel, Bt	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 18 April 1835 – 30 August 1841	Succeeded by Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Preceded by The Duke of Wellington	Leader of the House of Lords 1835 – 1841	Succeeded by The Duke of Wellington
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Lubbock Charles Kinnaird	Member of Parliament for Leominster with John Lubbock 1806	Succeeded by John Lubbock Henry Bonham
Preceded by Sir Oswald Mosley	Member of Parliament for Portarlington 1807 – 1812	Succeeded by Arthur Shakespeare
Preceded by William Elliot George Ponsonby	Member of Parliament for Peterborough with William Elliot 1816–1819 Sir James Scarlett 1819 1816 – 1819	Succeeded by Sir James Scarlett Sir Robert Heron
Preceded by Thomas Brand Sir John Saunders Sebright	Member of Parliament for Hertfordshire with Sir John Saunders Sebright 1819 – 1826	Succeeded by Sir John Saunders Sebright Nicolson Calvert
Preceded by George Canning William Henry John Scott	Member of Parliament for Newport (Isle of Wight) with William Henry John Scott 1827	Succeeded by William Henry John Scott Spencer Perceval
Preceded by William Russell Charles Tennyson	Member of Parliament for Bletchingley with Charles Tennyson 1827 – 1828	Succeeded by Charles Tennyson William Ewart
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Peniston Lamb	Baron Melbourne 1829 – 1848	Succeeded by Frederick Lamb
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Peniston Lamb	Viscount Melbourne 1829 – 1848	Succeeded by Frederick Lamb

[0] Lamb, the Hon. Henry William in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.

[ODNB-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Peter Mandler, ‘Lamb, William, second Viscount Melbourne (1779–1848)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 27 Dec 2009.

[2] Gwyn A. Williams, The Merthyr Rising of 1831, Groom Helm Ltd. (1978) p.196, citing Western Mail, 14 October 1874. isbn: 0709902204

[3] Boyd Hilton, A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People? England 1783-1846 (Oxford 2006), p. 500.

[4] "Lists of Royal Society Fellows". http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1727. Retrieved 2006-12-15.

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