A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume IVMcCarthy, Justin H. (Justin Huntly)
History
A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume IV
McCarthy, Justin H. (Justin Huntly)
Great Britain -- History -- 1714-1837; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1714-1837
The King had a good deal of trouble in forming an Administration. Lord
Goderich became Prime Minister, with Lyndhurst again as Lord
Chancellor, and Huskisson in Goderich's former place at the War and
Colonial Office. Lord Goderich, as we have seen, had been sent into
the House of Lords when Canning became Prime Minister. Up to that time
he was Mr. Frederick John Robinson, generally known by the nickname of
"Prosperity Robinson." This satirical designation he obtained from the
fact that while he was President of the Board of Trade, and {66} still
later when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had always made it
his business in each session to describe the country as in a condition
of unparalleled prosperity. More than that, he always insisted on
declaring that the particular schemes of taxation that he brought
forward were destined, beyond all possibility of doubt, to increase
still further that hitherto unexampled prosperity. It had been his
fortune, in his early official career, to propose and carry some
schemes of taxation which met with such passionate opposition in some
parts of the country as to lead to serious rioting and even to loss of
life. But all the time he saw only prosperity as the result of his
financial enterprises, and hence the nickname, which is still
remembered in England's Parliamentary history.
[Sidenote: 1828--The struggle for religious equality]
Lord Goderich was not a man of remarkable political capacity, and he
was a poor, ineffective, and even uninteresting speaker, except when
the audacity of his statements, and his prophecies, and the tumult of
interruptions and laughter that they created, lent a certain
Parliamentary interest to his orations. He had an immense amount of
that sort of courage which, in the colloquial language of our times,
would probably be described as bumptiousness. He had an unlimited
faith in his own capacity, and he saw nothing but success, personal and
national, where observers in general could discern only failure. He
was one of a class of men who are to be found at all times of
Parliamentary history, and who manage somehow, nobody quite knows how,
to make themselves appear indispensable to their political party. He
was not, however, without any faculty for improvement, and of late
years he had derived some instruction from Canning's teaching and
example in politics and in finance. Such as he was, his appointment as
Prime Minister in succession to Canning seemed about the safest
compromise the King could make under all the existing conditions. His
position as a stop-gap was maintained but a very short time. During
his Administration, or perhaps it ought rather to be called his nominal
Administration, the substantial result of Canning's recent foreign
policy was seen in the destruction {67} of the Turkish and Egyptian
fleets at the battle of Navarino, which led almost immediately to the
Sultan's acknowledgment of the independence of Greece.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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