John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (born August 18, 1792 in London , † May 28, 1878 in Pembroke Lodge , Richmond Park , Surrey ) was a liberal reformist and twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under Queen Victoria .

Life

Childhood and education

Russell, third son of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford , attended Westminster School and studied philosophy, history and political science at the University of Edinburgh .

The way to the opposition leader

As early as July 1813, Russell entered the House of Commons for a constituency that his father owned, and since 1819 has been constantly striving to reform the parliamentary elections. His proposals were initially rejected in the first stages of the discussion. On the other hand, a legislative proposal that he introduced in 1826 came at least for a second reading. It envisaged the transfer of the right to vote in a number of dilapidated and insignificant constituencies to large and densely populated factory towns that had previously been excluded from representation in parliament.

In these disputes he had already acquired an excellent position within the Whig party , which was further strengthened when he worked energetically and successfully in 1828 for the repeal of the test acts and in 1829 for the emancipation of the Catholics. In 1830 Russell took another attempt at reform and introduced a bill that should give the cities of Leeds , Manchester and Birmingham representation in parliament. This time, too, he didn’t win the day, but he became Paymaster General in the Liberal Cabinet Gray and in June 1832 had the satisfaction of seeing his long-standing efforts crowned by the adoption of the Reform Act .

With the resignation of the Whigs in November 1834, he also resigned to take over the leadership of the opposition when Parliament reopened in February 1835. His clever tactics succeeded in implementing the appropriation clause , which persuaded the Tories to resign.

In 1836 he was made an honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

State Secretary and Colonial Minister

In the government Melbourne (April 1835) Russell was Leader of the House of Commons , to Russell took over the Ministry of the Interior , which he in 1839 with the war and the Colonial Office ( Secretary of State for War and the Colonies ) exchanged. The most important legislative measures of this government, the new town order, the Irish Tenth Bill , the new poor legislation, the organization of public education and the improvement of the administration of justice, are to a large extent due to Russell, who at the same time as head of the internal administration the endeavors of the Chartists and Held down radicals.

After the government resigned in August 1841, Russell resumed leadership of the opposition, but supported the efforts of the Peel administration to improve freedom of trade, the living conditions of the working classes and the maintenance of calm in Ireland.

First government (July 1846 – February 1852)

After Peel's resignation, in July 1846, as the recognized head of the Whigs, Russell was entrusted with the formation of the new government in which he himself assumed the post of Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasure. During this reign the Great Famine fell in Ireland , which was considerably exacerbated by the policies of his government. When, in December 1851, Russell had disposed of Lord Palmerstons in a negligent manner, the position of the Cabinet became untenable, and in late February 1852 the Whig Government resigned.

Minister in the following cabinets

John Russell, Francis Grant , 1853

After a brief reign of Lord Derby , he joined Lord Aberdeen's coalition government on December 17, 1852, as Ministerial Head of the House of Commons. On February 21, 1853 he handed over the foreign office provisionally administered by him to George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon and, after the outbreak of war with Russia, took over the presidency of the Secret Council, but resigned on January 25, 1855, a few days before The coalition government is overthrown. He was also Secretary of State for the Colonies from February to July 1855 .

In the new Palmerston government , Russell assumed colonial administration and represented the United Kingdom at the Vienna Peace Conferences in February. As a result of the attacks that his behavior was subjected to, he resigned July 13th. In the new Palmerston government set up on June 18, 1859, he took over the foreign office again and on July 30, 1861, was promoted to peer as Earl Russell . His foreign policy was based predominantly on the guidelines of Palmerston. During the Italian War he favored the national uprising, but allowed the annexation of Savoy to France.

On the occasion of the Polish January Uprising of 1863 , he suffered a decisive defeat when the Russian government simply disregarded his notes in which he advocated Poland. He also offered his mediation in the American Civil War , and in 1864, during the London Conference to end the German-Danish War , he took a decisive side for Denmark.

Second government (October 1865-June 1866)

When Palmerston died October 18, 1865, Russell assumed the post of Prime Minister, leaving the direction of foreign affairs to George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon . In the next legislative term, Gladstone presented the new Reform Bill on March 12, 1866, but it met with such fierce opposition that Russell submitted his dismissal on June 26, 1866.

Late years

Russell has not held a state office since then. As before for the reform of the House of Commons, he now worked for that of the House of Lords and in April 1869 introduced a bill which was intended to provide for the appointment of a number of peers for life, but this was rejected and not renewed.

Up until his last years Russell was one of the few Whigs in the old sense, an intelligent, honest, open-hearted politician who was genuinely enthusiastic about the welfare of his fatherland; but all these outstanding qualities could not maintain his earlier influence after new party formations had pulled the floor from under the feet of the politics of the old whigaristocracy. As a speaker, Russell was distinguished less by his oratorical momentum than by the clarity of thought development and skillful dialectics . A selection of his speeches was published in 2 volumes in 1870.

His heir was his grandson Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell , born August 12, 1865, son of Viscount Amberley (born 1842, died January 9, 1876). After the death of their son, John Russell and his wife took on the upbringing of their grandson Bertrand Russell , the well-known philosopher and Nobel Prize winner.

Quotes

“Lord John Russell's whole life has been a life on false pretenses - false pretenses of parliamentary reform, false pretexts of religious freedom, false pretenses of free trade. So sincere was his belief in the use of false pretenses that he considered it perfectly possible not only to become a British statesman on false pretenses, but also poets, thinkers and historians on false pretenses. "

- Karl Marx

"Parties are like snails in which it is the tail that moves the head."

- John Russell

Works (selection)

• Essay on the history of the English government and constitution , London 1821, new edition 1873, German by Kritz, Leipzig 1825.
• Memoirs of the affairs of Europe; from the peace of Utrecht to the present time , London 1824-29, 2 volumes.
• Essay on causes of the French revolution , 1832.
• The biography of Lord John Russell .
• Life and times of CJ Fox , 3 volumes, London 1859–67.

His last major work, Recollections and Suggestions (1873, 2nd edition 1875; German, Halle 1876), which can be regarded as the political testament of the aged statesman, is particularly important . He also wrote a tragedy: Don Carlos (1823), and published Thomas Moore's letters and diaries (1852–56, 8 volumes; smaller edition 1860), Fox's correspondence, etc. (1853–57, 4 volumes).

literature

• Russell, John Russell, 1st Earl . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 23 : Refectory - Sainte-Beuve . London 1911, p. 863 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Commons : John Russell, 1st Earl Russell  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Literature by and about John Russell, 1st Earl Russell in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about John Russell, 1st Earl Russell  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jim Donelly; The Irish Famine . BBC History
2. ^ Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: Works , Volume 11. Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the SED. Verlag Dietz, Berlin 1961, p. 384.
3. ^ Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: Works, Articles, Drafts, January to December 1855. Complete edition (MEGA): Dept. I: Works, Articles, Drafts. Volume 14. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3050036109 , p. 575.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Earl Russell 1861-1878	John Francis Stanley Russell