Lord John Russell was aptly described (by Sir William Harcourt, q.v.) as the last Doge of Whiggism, but he could equally be considered the first Liberal Prime Minister, embodying in his own attitudes the mid-Victorian transition from traditional Whiggery to Gladstonian Liberalism.
Certainly he was thoroughly imbued with the optimism that was such a hallmark of the Victorian Liberal outlook; as Sydney Smith remarked, he would have been willing to have built St Peter's, commanded the Channel Fleet, or to have operated on a patient for the stone (and would not have been deterred by the collapse of the sacred edifice, the sinking of the fleet, or the patient's death).
Little Johnny Russell was only five feet, four and three-quarter inches tall, and weighed eight stones. Explaining this diminutive stature, Smith commented that before the start of the Reform Act crisis, Russell was 'over six feet high. But, engaged in looking after your interests, fighting the peers, the landlords and the rest of your natural enemies, he has been so constantly kept in hot water that he is boiled down to the proportions in which you now behold him.' One of the main features of Russells long political career is the number of controversial issues with which he was concerned.
John Russell was born two months prematurely in London on 18 August 1792, the third son of John, sixth Duke of Bedford. For most of his life Russell held the courtesy title of Lord John; he was created first Earl Russell in 1861 on the death of his brother Francis. His family had been involved in the political life of the country for generations and was well known for its radicalism.
Because of ill-health as a child, Russell was primarily educated at home although he did attend Westminster School for a short time (1804-05). He went on to study at Edinburgh University (1809-12) but left without taking his degree.
In 1835 he married Lady Adelaide Ribblesdale, a widow, the daughter of Thomas Lister and Mary Grove. Although she was fifteen years his junior, she died in 1838. In 1841 Russell married the twenty-five year old Lady Frances Anna Maria Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of the second Earl of Minto. From his two marriages Russell had three daughters and three sons.
In 1813 Russell stood for election for the first time and continued as an MP until his elevation to the peerage. He represented a variety of constituencies: Tavistock (1813-20); Huntingdonshire (1820-26); Bandon (1826-30); Bedford (1830-31); Devonshire (1831-32); South Devon (1832-35); Stroud (1837-41); and City of London (1841-61). In all he participated in twenty-two parliamentary elections.
Russell served as Paymaster-General of the Forces (1830-34); Home Secretary (1835-39); Leader of the House of Commons (1835-41, 1846 - February 1852, December 1852 - January 1855); Colonial Secretary (1839-41 and a few months in 1855); First Lord of the Treasury (1846-52); Foreign Secretary (1852-53, 1859-65); Lord President of the Council (1854-55); and Leader of the House of Lords (1865-66).
In 1817 Russell attacked the suspension of habeas corpus and in December 1819 he espoused formally the traditional Whig cause of parliamentary reform when he advocated - unsuccessfully - a Reform Bill to the House of Commons. When the Whigs came to power in 1830 on a platform of peace, retrenchment and reform, Russell helped to draft the Reform Bill. On 31 March 1831 he presented it to the House of Commons; it took eighteen months for the bill, subsequently known as the Great Reform Act, to become law.
As the Paymaster-General in Grey's (q.v.) ministry, Russell championed the cause of religious freedom for Dissenters and Catholics alike. He attempted to divert some of the wealth of the Church of Ireland to the Irish Catholics, and, in so doing, frightened such leading Whigs as Lord Stanley into leaving the party.
Russell and Daniel O'Connell were the main agents in the Lichfield House Compact that removed Peel from office in 1835 and returned the Whigs to power under Melbourne (q.v.). As Home Secretary in Melbourne's second ministry, Russell was responsible for passing legislation such as the Municipal Corporations Act (1835), the Tithe Commutation Act, the Civil Marriages Act (1836), the Irish Poor Law Amendment Act (1838), and the Rural Constabularies Act (1839); he reduced stamp duty from fourpence to a penny in 1836 and instituted the penny post in 1840. He began the system of state inspection and support of public education. In 1833 the Whigs allocated £20,000 to be shared between the National Society and the British and Foreign Schools' Society for the provision of education in Great Britain. Russell increased the grant to £30,000 in 1839 and made further provision for an annual increase in the subsidy.
In 1845 Russell published the Edinburgh Letter supporting free trade. With Whig support, Peel repealed the Corn Laws in 1846, split the Conservative Party and resigned; Russell took office as Prime Minister. His administration passed legislation limiting working hours in factories and was responsible for the passing of the Public Health Act of 1848. It also ended restrictions on colonial trade by repealing the Navigation Acts in 1849. During the Irish famine of 1845-49 the government granted relief for soup kitchens and financed public works to create employment. However, since what was really needed was vast amounts of food, free of all conditions, its efforts to prevent widespread starvation were largely ineffective.
Russell's alternate support for and dissent from Aberdeen's (q.v.) policies during the Crimean War caused Aberdeen to lose the leadership of the Liberal Party. In 1855 Russell resigned from the Cabinet, feeling unable to defend the government against a motion criticising its conduct of the war. He retired temporarily from public life and lived on the continent from 1856-57, devoting much of his time to literature. Few English politicians wrote so extensively as Russell, who published a number of books, including The Life of William, Lord Russell (1819), Essays and Sketches of Life (1820), An Essay on the History of the English Government and Constitution (1822), The Nun of Arrouca (1822), The Life and Times of Charles James Fox (1859-66) and Recollections and Suggestions 1813-1873 (1875).
After his return home from Europe following the fall of Derby's ministry, Russell served as Foreign Secretary under Palmerston (q.v.) between 1859-65. He supported Italian unification and antagonised the United States during the American Civil War by actions that seemed to favour the Confederacy. He retired from political office after briefly heading a second ministry in 1865-66, but continued to sit in the House of Lords where he spoke on a variety of issues. He died at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, Surrey on 28 May 1878.
Russell's papers are in the Public Record Office. A two-volume biography by Spencer Walpole, The Life of Lord John Russell, first published in 1889, was reprinted in 1969. John Prest's Lord John Russell was published in 1972.
Marjie Bloy
Marjie Bloy is a history teacher. She graduated from London University in 1981 and was awarded a PhD by the University of Sheffield in 1986
