| |
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Lord John Russell
|
|
|
(1792–1878, Earl Russell 1861)
Prime minister 1846–52 and 1865–6. Born into a great *Whig family, he became an MP as soon as he was of age, in 1813; for most of his career he was known as Lord John Russell (his title as a son of the duke of Bedford), until he was himself created Earl Russell. He argued passionately in favour of the *Emancipation Act of 1829 and was the most active member of Lord *Grey's team in securing the *Reform Act of 1832. During *Melbourne's Whig administrations of the later 1830s he led the party in the House of Commons, and it was he who began to refer to it as the *Liberal party.
|
|
|
|
|
Russell formed an administration in 1846, after *Peel's repeal of the *Corn Laws had split the Conservatives. One of the most significant measures of his government was the Ten Hours Act of 1847, an important step in the series of *Factory Acts; but Russell's violent opposition to the restoring of *Roman Catholic bishoprics in Britain in 1850 was in marked contrast to his earlier record on emancipation. From the mid-1850s he was eclipsed on the Liberal side of politics by *Palmerston, but he served as foreign secretary throughout Palmerston's second administration (1859–65) and was prime minister again for a few months after Palmerston's death in 1865.
|
|
|
|