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Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (June 7, 1770 – December 4, 1828) was an English politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The son of George III's close adviser Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool and his part-Indian first wife, Amelia Watts, Robert Jenkinson was educated at Charterhouse School and Christ Church, Oxford. He entered the House of Commons in 1790 for Rye, a seat he would hold until 1803, and rose quickly through the Tory ranks. He served as a member of the Board of Control for India (1793-1796), and as Master of the Mint (1799-1801). In Henry Addington's government Hawkesbury entered the cabinet as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in which capacity he negotiated the Treaty of Amiens with France. In 1803 he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title of Baron Hawkesbury. In later governments, Hawkesbury continued to serve in important cabinet positions - as Home Secretary in Pitt's second government and the Duke of Portland's second government, and then as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in Perceval's government. When Perceval was assassinated in May, 1812, Lord Liverpool succeeded him as prime minister. Liverpool's ministry was a long and eventful one - it saw Britain's victory in the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna, and the eventful early years of peace which followed. Liverpool, aware that his abilities were no more than moderate, generally stayed in the background, letting more brilliant subordinates like Lord Castlereagh, George Canning, the Duke of Wellington, Robert Peel, and William Huskisson, all of whom served under him, take leading parts. Nevertheless, Liverpool was himself a skilful politician, and held together the liberal and reactionary wings of the Tory party, which his successors, Canning, Goedrich and Wellington all failed to do. Although Lord Liverpool argued for the abolition of the slave trade at the Congress of Vienna, he was generally opposed to reform, often embracing repressive measures to ensure the status quo. He suspended Habeas Corpus in both Great Britain (1817) and Ireland (1822). Following the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, his government imposed the repressive Six Acts legislation which limited, among other things, free speech and the right to gather for peaceful demonstration. He did support the repeal of the Combination Laws banning workers from combining into trade unions in 1824, although the powers of these unions were restricted in 1835 following strikes. He was also virulently opposed to granting political equality to Roman Catholics. Liverpool retired on 9 April 1827 following a paralytic stroke on 17 February, and died in December the following year. He was succeeded in the Earldom of Liverpool by his younger half-brother Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, 3rd Earl of Liverpool. It is now generally accepted that Lord Liverpool was of Anglo-Indian descent. Lord Liverpool's legacy includes being known as a 'reconciler of men' and a 'blurrer sic of political differences'. Liverpool Street in London is named after Lord Liverpool.
Lord Liverpools Administration, June 1812 - April 1827 Changes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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