Lord Liverpool: The Life And Political Career Of Robert Banks Jenkinson, Second Earl Of Liverpool, 1770-1828

by Norman Gash

Less cynical than Talleyrand, more imaginative than Metternich, as creative as Guizot, Lord Liverpool was one of the great European conservatives of his age. He served as prime minister for the longest continuous term in nineteenth-century Britain and presided over the triumphant years of the Napoleonic War, the strife-torn era of the "Peterloo" massacre, and the founding of the great liberal free-trade revolution in financial and commercial policy that heralded Victorianism.

Norman Gash's biography is the first modern reassessment of this misunderstood statesman. Gas places Liverpool within the kaleidoscopic parliamentary politics of the time and shows how he governed with the collective strength and unity of the cabinet. By offering parsimonious administration and enlightened economic policy. Liverpool hoped to preserve the old constitution and prevent both Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform. Balancing interests and preserving order, Liverpool also contended with the vicissitudes of the still powerful monarchs -- the aging and disturbed George III and the capricious and self-indulgent George IV, whose attempted divorce almost toppled the Liverpool administration.

This is not only an account of one of the most professional prime ministers of Great Britain, but also the story of the personal relations that shaped Lord Liverpool and the private life that gave him immense satisfaction. Based on correspondence and Lord Liverpool's private papers, Gash's work recasts the history of a turbulent age and its most prominent political figure.

265 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

A specialist in 19th century British history, Norman Gash taught at St Andrews University from 1946 until his retirement as professor of modern history in 1980.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

If asked to name Britain’s greatest prime ministers, most people with a passing familiarity with the country’s history are likely to identify such familiar figures as Winston Churchill, William Gladstone, Lord Palmerston, or Margaret Thatcher. One name that is likely to go unmentioned, however, is that of Robert Banks Jenkinson, the second Earl of Liverpool, even though an excellent case can be made that he deserves to be remembered as one of Britain’s finest leaders. As Norman Gash points out at the start of his biography of Liverpool, whereas most prime ministers are remembered for leading their country to victory in war, or for coping with economic and social turmoil, or for introducing successful domestic policies, Liverpool is almost alone in distinguishing himself in all three categories, serving as prime minister through the climax of the Napoleonic Wars and during the difficult yet ultimately successful transition back to peacetime life. Yet while leaders such as Churchill and David Lloyd George are honored today for similar achievements, Liverpool is largely forgotten.

One factor in why Liverpool isn’t better remembered may be the conventionality of his childhood and personal life. While many of his prime ministerial counterparts experienced dramatic personal lives, Liverpool experienced an upbringing typical for his time. His father Charles Jenkinson was a career politician who, as was standard for the time, grew wealthy from the various sinecures he held. With his mother’s death barely a month after his birth, young Robert spent frequent time with relatives and at boarding schools, where he applied himself to his studies. After a couple of years at Oxford University, Jenkinson spent several months in France. His time there coincided with the outbreak of the French Revolution, a momentous period his firsthand observation of which did much to shape his burgeoning political views.

Thanks to his father's friendship with the king, George III, Robert had little difficulty winning a seat in Parliament. Establishing a reputation as a convincing and effective speechmaker, he became a junior minister in William Pitt’s administration and enjoyed a rapid rise. With Pitt’s resignation in 1801 Lord Hawkesbury (as Jenkinson became known when his father was made Earl of Liverpool in 1796) became Foreign Secretary in Henry Addington’s ministry. When Pitt returned Hawkesbury became Home Secretary, and was even offered the premiership when Pitt resigned for the second and final time in 1806, but declined the opportunity. After a brief period in opposition, Hawkesbury returned to office as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, in which capacity he served until Spencer Perceval’s assassination in June 1812 created a vacuum that Liverpool (the earldom to which Hawkesbury succeeded in 1808) was selected to fill.

Gash devotes well over half of his book to chronicling Liverpool’s premiership, which covered some of the most tumultuous years in Britain’s history. Foremost on his agenda was his country’s ongoing war with Napoleonic France, to which was soon added a war with the United States. In waging both Liverpool enjoyed good fortune, as in less than three years Britain had achieved victory over France and gained a peace in America that preserved Britain’s hold on Canada. Yet the transition to peace proved no less challenging, as his government struggled with reducing defense expenditures while simultaneously coping with social unrest fueled by an economic recession. Political radicalism posed a persistent challenge, with the thwarting of the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820 doing little to assuage the unease created by the attempt to assassinate Liverpool and his cabinet in one fell swoop. And persisting through all of this was the ongoing difficulties posed by the new king., George IV, whose marital woes were exploited by the radicals as a weapon against the administration.

Liverpool managed these affairs through a combination of prudent judgment and good interpersonal skills. Throughout the book Gash notes his ability to get along with people of often difficult temperament, which aided his ability to hold together a government containing ministers of conflicting viewpoints. Nevertheless, the strain inevitably told on his well-being, and the loss of his beloved wife Louisa in 1822 deprived him of his main source of emotional support. Though Liverpool soon remarried, the exhausting toll of his job undoubtedly played a role in triggering the massive cerebral hemorrhage Liverpool suffered in April 1827, which forced his retirement and contributed to his death a year later.

In his introduction Gash states that his goal in writing this book was ”simply to uncover more about Liverpool as a person and as a politician.” Though he declaims any pretensions to having written the definitive account of his subject’s life and times, his modesty shouldn’t diminish his achievement with this book. With it he gives readers a lucid account of Liverpool’s career, one grounded in both his subject’s personal papers and the author’s own masterful grasp of the politics of the era. While it may not be the comprehensive study of Liverpool that Gash believes is warranted, it is nonetheless a good overview of Liverpool’s life and one that makes a convincing case for why he deserves far greater recognition than he has received until now.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This man Lord Liverpool, formerly known as Robert Banks Jenkinson was a prime minister who led
Great Britain from the Napoleonic Wars through the Regency years right into the middle of George IV's reign. The cabinet he presided over included such as the Duke of Wellington, Lord Castlereagh,
Viscount Sidmouth, Sir Robert Peel, George Canning, William Huskisson and down in junior office
William Gladstone. I don't think the United Kingdom ever had a more brilliant array of talent, nor
a larger group of egos. Yet Liverpool stayed on until illness forced him out. Probably a few cabinet
crises were averted because Liverpool was where he was.

Liverpool was born in 1770 to the first Earl of Liverpool and at the tender age of 20 got a seat in the
House of Commons. But he was also in the army and was frequently absent from Parliament due to military activities.

Under various ministries he was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Secretary of State
for War which he was at the time the Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated. Liverpool
became Prime Minister in 1812 and stayed until 1827.

There was a whole lot going. Liverpool saw the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the settlement of European peace from a general war for nearly 100 years. Liverpool saw the repeal
of the Corn Laws which crippled prosperity. He pushed for that and his government nearly fell.

In those years the Whigs were almost a shadow, but the Tory Party was a big tent in those years
and accommodated all I named above. These guys had opinions and egos and it took a Job like
patience dealing with all these talents.

There was the regency crisis where the Prince of Wales served as Regent for his father George III
who had gone completely bonkers. When George III died in 1820, the prince became George IV.
There was a big brouhaha over the Queen whom George was estranged from. Queen Charlotte
conveniently died before that could become a crisis.

Catholic Emancipation which was always attached to the perennial Irish question and Liverpool
was against. And of course the crisis to come was for reapportionment of Parliament which was
about 800 years overdue. That broke after Liverpool died.

Which was in 1828 after he sustained a stroke in 1827 which paralyzed him. Liverpool belongs in
that rank of near great prime ministers. Norman Gash's book is a good picture of those times, with
what Liverpool had to deal with and how he did.

[Rob Markley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short excellent political biography of an extremely significant figure - sympathetic and explanatory. Great read for those who might know who Liverpool was already