John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century.

Background and education

Russell was born into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford he was not in line to inherit the family estates. As a younger son, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but as he was not a peer in his own right he was entitled to sit in the House of Commons.

He was educated at Westminster School and the University of Edinburgh, which he attended between 1809 and 1812, although he left without taking a degree.[1]

Public life

Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813. In 1819, Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform, and led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. When the Whigs came to power in 1830 in Earl Grey's government, Russell entered the government as Paymaster of the Forces, and was soon elevated to the Cabinet. He was one of the principal leaders of the fight for the Reform Act 1832, earning the nickname Finality Jack from his complacency pronouncing the Act a final measure. In 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons, a position he maintained for the rest of the decade, until the Whigs fell from power in 1841. In this position, Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party, calling, in particular, for religious freedom, and, as Home Secretary in the late 1830s, played a large role in democratizing the government of British cities (other than London). During his career in Parliament, Lord John Russell represented the City of London.[2]
In 1845, as leader of the Opposition, Russell came out in favour of repeal of the Corn Laws, forcing Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to follow him. When the Conservatives split the next year over this issue, the Whigs returned to power and Russell became Prime Minister. Russell's premiership was frustrating, and, due to party disunity and infighting, he was unable to secure the passage of many of the measures he was interested in passing

Russell's first government coincided with the Great Irish Famine of the late 1840s. Russell's government also saw conflict with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. When, without royal approval, Palmerston recognized Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851, Palmerston was forced to resign. In February 1852, however, Palmerston had his revenge on John Russell by voting with the Opposition on a vote of "no confidence" to bring down the Russell government.

The government introduced a militia bill in the House of Commons. The vote on the militia bill was made a "vote of confidence" on the government. Palmerston succeeded in introducing an amendment to the militia bill which passed by eleven (11) votes. Thus the majority vote in favour of the amendment to the militia bill caused the downfall of Russell's ministry, which occurred on February 21, 1852. Palmerston's amendment, thus, brought down the Russell government. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell"[this quote needs a citation]--revenge for his dismissal by Russell as Foreign Minister.

[edit]In Opposition February 1852 until December of 1852

The downfall of the Russell government set the stage for another general election to Parliament to be held in July 1852. The July 1852 general election saw the election of 330 Conservatives and 324 Whigs to the Parliament. Neither of these figures represented a majority of the House of Commons because there were also minor parties and independents elected to the House of Commons and these minor parties and independents now held the balance of power in the new House of Commons. There were 38 members who were technically Conservatives, but were actually Peelites (followers of the late Robert Peel).[3] The Peelites had deserted the Conservatives to vote for the repeal of the Corn Laws in June 1846. The Corn Laws had imposed a tariff on all cheap imported wheat and, thus, kept the price of wheat and the bread made from wheat high. This served the interests of landed aristocracy which was the main body of support for the Conservative Party. However, the high price of wheat and bread added greatly to the desperation of poor and hungry in England and Ireland.
There were also 113 members of the new Parliament who were "Free Traders."[4] The Free Traders, were more radical than the Peelites. They felt that the tariffs on all imported consumer goods should be removed, not just the tariff on wheat or "corn."
There were also 63 members of the "Irish Brigade" elected to the new Parliament.[4] The Irish Brigade was made up Irish members interested in the Tenant Rights legislation for the protection of the tenant farmers in Ireland.
None of these minor groups were interested in forming a government with the Conservatives because of the bitterness left over from the repeal of the Corn Laws. However, John Russell of the Whigs could not attract enough of the minor party members to form a government either. Other issues handled during the recent Russell government had alienated these three minor groups from the Whigs also. Thus, Queen Victoria asked the Earl of Derby to form a minority government.


Portrait of John Russell by Francis Grant, 1853
However the minority Conservative government under the Earl of Derby was short lived and in December 1852, the Derby minority fell in another "no confidence vote."
[edit]Foreign Minister in the Aberdeen Government

Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, then brought the Whigs into a new coalition government with the Peelite Conservatives, headed by the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Aberdeen was the Prime Minister from the small Peelite section of coalition government. Feelings against Palmerston still ran so strong because of his letter to the French ambassador endorsing Louis Bonaparte's coup of December 2, 1852, that Palmerston could not possibly be appointed as Foreign Minister. Nonetheless, Palmerston had to be a part of the new Aberdeen government. Accordingly, on December 28, 1852, Palmerston was appointed Home Secretary. Russell continued to serve as Leader of the Whig Party in the House of Commons. As the leader of the largest party in the Aberdeen coalition government, Russell was needed in the new government. Accordingly, on December 28, 1852, Russell was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
[edit]The "Eastern Question"

Together with Palmerston, Lord John Russell was instrumental in getting Britain involved with France in thwarting the rising power of the Russian Empire. They did so as a member of the Aberdeen government and against the wishes of the cautious, Russophile Earl of Aberdeen. The Ottoman Empire was in a state of decline and several nations in Europe sought to take advantage of that decline. The Russian Empire in particular sought to assert its territorial claims to southeastern Europe or the Balkans at the expense of Ottoman territory in Europe. However, just as soon as Louis Bonaparte had completed his coup against the Second Republic of France and assumed the title Napoleon III Emperor of France, he sent an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire with instructions to obtain from the Ottomans, a guarantee that France was to be the exclusive "protector of Christian sites" in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Louis Bonaparte was the nephew of Napoleon I, Emperor of France, and many British public officials - like Aberdeen - felt that Louis Bonaparte was merely seeking foreign adventure and aggrandizement and would sooner or later involve Britain in another series of wars like those wars against France and Napoleon from 1793 to 1815. France had long been seen as an opponent of British interests, and that perception had not changed since 1815. Accordingly, much of the British public sided with Russia or wished to remain neutral in this dispute between Russia and France over the future of the Ottoman Empire which was now being called the "Eastern Question."[5] However, as time passed, British public opinion would alter. The British government was worried about the outcome of the rising tensions over Eastern Question. Accordingly, Aberdeen sent, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, a diplomat of considerable experience, to the Ottoman Empire, to oversee British interests.
When the Ottomans gave way to Louis Bonaparte's demands, Russia strongly objected and on May 7, 1853 one of Russia's leading statesmen, Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov, arrived in Turkey to work out an agreement.[6] During the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774, Russia had occupied the Turkish/Ottoman-controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. Under the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarva signed in 1774, Russia had given these Danubian provinces back to Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) in exchange for Turkish recognition of Russia's exclusive right to "protect the Christian sites in Jerusalem and the Holy Land." Menshikov worked out an agreement with Turkey and the Turks reversed themselves and agreed to the Russian agreement.[7]
Lord John Russell, Palmerston and other public officials and an increasing number of the British public were beginning to see that the expansion of Russia was beginning to threaten British interests in India and British trade with Persia. They felt that an agreement with France and cooperation with the French on the Eastern Question was necessary to forestall Russian threats to British interests. Accordingly, they were willing to work with France even as France sent the French ship-of-the-line, Charlemagne to the Black Sea, in the spring of 1852, as a show of force against the Russians.[8] In the face of the French show of force, the Ottomans, turned to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe for advice on the matter.[9] Lord Stratford of Redcliffe was later accused of persuading the Ottomans to reject the Russian agreement. Accordingly, the Turks reversed themselves and signed a treaty acknowledging the French and the Vatican as the official protectors of the Christian sites in the Holy Land. The Russians responded by deploying the 4th and 5th Army Corps along the River Danube. Additionally, the Russians began to court British political opinion. However, by this time it was too late. Public opinion in Britain had begun to shift toward sympathy for Turkey. Still the Aberdeen government resisted active pursuit of the war. Lord Russell became frustrated with the lack of support for Turkey shown by the British government. After pledging himself to the integrity and independence of Turkey,[10] Russell resigned from the government on February 21, 1853. Aberdeen replaced Lord Russell, as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his government with Lord Clarendon.
Finally in May 1853, Aberdeen was forced to make a show of force,[11] by sending a fleet under Admiral Armar Lowry Corry stationed in the Bay of Biscay to the island of Malta to join up with a squadron under Admiral Sir James Whitley Deans Dundas. The combined force was sent to join the French fleet at Salamis Island near Athens, Greece.[12] The combined Anglo-French fleet, then, sailed to a location off the coast of Turkey.[13]
[edit]The Crimean War 1853-1856

On July 2, 1853, Russian troops occupied the Turkish-controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia.[14] This brought Russian troops to the northern banks of the River Danube. On July 2, 1853, Russian troops deployed along the northern banks of the Danube, implying a threat to cross the river. In response, the Turks moved their troops up to the southern bank of the Danube and fortified the strongholds at Vidin and Silistra.
The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia on October 23, 1853. The Russian fleet defeated the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Sinope on November 30, 1853. After Russia had ignored the Anglo-French ultimatum, both France and Britain declared war on Russia on March 28, 1854.
In September 1854, British, French and Turkish troops landed on the Crimean Peninsula and set siege to the Russian fortress of Sevastopol. On October 25, 1854 the battle of Balaklava including the famous or infamous "charge of the light brigade," was fought. On November 5, 1854, the allied victory over the Russian troops at the battle of Inkermann broke the Russian will to defeat the allied troops in the field and reduced the outcome of the war to the outcome of the siege of Sevastopol. Members of Parliament began to have doubts about the misconduct of the war. Lord Russell, too began to be concerned about the have reservations about the conduct of the war and eventually, Lord Russell resigned his position within the government.
A motion in Parliament by John Arthur Roebuck on January 29, 1855 called for an investigation into the conduct of the war by the government and, especially, an investigation of the conduct of the war by Duke of Newcastle—the Secretary for War.[15] The motion passed the House of Commons by the large vote of 305 in favor and 148 against.[16] to investigate the government became a vote of confidence in the Aberdeen government and in the Secretary for War. Accordingly, when the Robuck motion passed, Aberdeen treated the vote as a vote of "no confidence" on his government and resigned.
Upon the resignation of the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston was asked formed a new government. John Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate (accepting the Colonial Office) but sacrificed himself to protect negotiation confidentiality, and temporarily retired from politics in 1855, focusing on writing.
[edit]Foreign Minister in the Palmerston Government 1859-1860

In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet - usually considered the first true Liberal Cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy, the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian independence: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).
[edit]The House of Lords 1860

Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester and of Ardsalla in the County of Meath, and in 1861. As a peer in his own right, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.
[edit]Prime Minister Again 1865-1866

When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise - a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government, and Russell went into permanent retirement.
[edit]Marriages and children



Adelaide Lister, Russell's first wife (d. 1838)
On 11 April 1835, Russell married Adelaide, Lady Ribblesdale, the eldest daughter of Thomas Lister Esq. and the widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.[17] Her death in 1838 cut the marriage short after three years. They had two daughters, Lady Georgiana Adelaide Russell (1836–1922), who married Archibald Peel and had a daughter, Grace (1878–1973); and Lady Victoria Russell (1838–1880), who married the Rev. Henry Montagu Villiers, son of Henry Montagu Villiers, Bishop of Durham, and left many descendants.[18]
On 20 July 1841 Russell married secondly Lady Frances Anna-Maria Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Their children were John Russell, Viscount Amberley (1842–1876), George Gilbert William Russell (1848–1933); Francis Albert Rollo Russell (1849–1914) and Mary Augusta Russell (1853–1933). They lived at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park.[19]
After the death in 1876 of his eldest son, Lord Amberley, Russell and his second wife thereafter brought up his son's children, including Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), who afterwards became a mathematician, philosopher, campaigner against nuclear weapons, and the third Earl Russell.
[edit]Legacy

He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country...But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."[20]
The 1832 Reform Act and the democratisation of the government of British cities are partly attributed to his efforts.
He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.
His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous; however, it has been argued[by whom?] that Russell himself (a "Foxite" populist) was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and that many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.
[edit]