Sir James Graham, 2nd Baronet
The Viscount Palmerston | |
---|---|
Preceded by | The Duke of Northumberland |
Succeeded by | Sir Charles Wood |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Spouse | Frances Callander (d. 1857) |
Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
Sir James Robert George Graham, 2nd Baronet
In 1819, he married Fanny Callander, youngest daughter of
Background and education
Graham was born at
Early political career
Whig beginnings
Back in London, Graham immersed himself in political affairs. Although his father was a staunch
Agricultural improver
Graham returned to Cumberland and began a programme of improving the family estate at Netherby, with the intention that such improvements would benefit both the landowner and the tenant. He began with a one-off gesture, wiping out the arrears of his tenants debts. He reduced the number of small uneconomic farms on the estate; he rebuilt the cottages and farm-buildings, introduced tile drains whereby much marshy land was reclaimed, and improved the breed of stock on the estate, spending in excess of £100,000 over a twenty-year period. He eventually studied the Corn Laws and their effects upon the community, publishing his conclusions in a pamphlet of 114 pages entitled "Corn and Currency", which brought him into prominence as a man of advanced Liberal opinions. He argued that liberal economics rather than protection would best serve the interests of the landowners. High duties on foreign corn had failed to help British agriculture and should be cut to a level where they simply balanced the landowner's taxes and rates. Whereas high prices increased rents to the benefit of the landowners they conferred no advantage to the labourer and were an injury to the productive and a tax on the unproductive classes of the community. His general conclusions were in favour of free trade and free banking.[9] He was also a founder member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later RSPCA).[10]
On 8 July 1819, Graham married Frances ("Fanny") Callander, of Craigforth and Ardkinglas, a famous society beauty. In 1824 he succeeded to the baronetcy.
In Parliament
Representative for Cumberland
At the general election of 1826, Graham, who stood upon principles identical to those advocated when contesting Hull, became the senior member for the city of Carlisle. It was a remarkable contest. When Sir Philip Musgrave, 8th Baronet (1794–1827), the Tory candidate, ventured into one of the poorest districts of the city, he was confronted by a group of non-electors seeking his opinions relating to the Corn Laws. When his views failed to meet with their approval he received a storm of abuse followed by a shower of stones, and a general disturbance ensued. Members of the corporation and the constabulary were man-handled and thrown into the Milldam. In the course of the afternoon a detachment of the 55th regiment of Foot appeared to quell the disturbance. The mob received the troops with a volley of stones, the troops reacted with a hail of ball cartridges and when the smoke cleared two young women lay dead and numerous others lay wounded.[11] In 1828, the death of John Christian Curwen caused a vacancy in the representation of the county of Cumberland. As a result, Graham resigned his seat and entered parliament in an uncontested election on their behalf.[12] In 1830 the celebrated "Dalston Dinner" took place, a public dinner given to Graham by a number of the freeholders of the county in testimony of their approbation of his conduct in parliament. During the proceedings Graham declared himself a "party man" under the Blue flag of freedom; declaring.
I became a Blue, Blue I am, Blue I have always been, and Blue I trust I shall ever continue to be; I am not ashamed to own it, and God forbid the Blues shall ever have cause to be ashamed of me ... The Tories are a "Court Party" aiming at the advancement of kingly power, while the Whigs, the "Country Party", fought to uphold popular rights, defend popular feelings, and forward the happiness of the people.[13]
At the end of July, following the dissolution of parliament, Graham and
First Lord of the Admiralty
Break with Whiggism
By the summer of 1834, Graham had become a successful minister, the navy was reformed, apart from
Cumberland rejection
Graham's conduct in Parliament alienated many of his traditional Whig supporters. In 1837, upon the death of
Home Secretary
Entry to government
In 1838, Sir John Owen, 1st Baronet ordered his son Hugh Owen, MP for Pembroke in Wales, to resign and make way for Graham. Graham won the resulting by-election unopposed and so re-entered Parliament. In 1838 he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow, an award quickly followed with the Freedom of the same city.[18]
However, Graham's tenure in Pembroke was short-lived. In the 1841 general election, Sir John Owen chose to reclaim Pembroke; Graham felt honour-bound to comply and did not stand. Instead, Robert Williams, MP for Dorchester, stood down in favor of Graham, who was elected unopposed there. Sir Robert Peel became Prime Minister and appointed Graham Home Secretary in his cabinet.
In 1842 Graham tried to improve
As Home Secretary he incurred considerable odium in Scotland, by his unconciliating policy on the church question prior to the Disruption of 1843.
Mazzini letters
In June 1844,
Free trade
Notwithstanding his apparent support for a degree of relaxation in the Corn Law legislation as stated 'Corn and Currency', Graham remained hostile to major reform. In 1839, he argued that repeal would ruin British agriculture; he supported protection and defended a fixed duty. He supported
Peelite
In the 1847 general election, the
In 1857, Graham opposed
On 25 October 1861, Graham died, exactly four years after the death of his wife.
Orator
Graham was as a speaker exceedingly polished, but tended to pomposity, and carried the habit of quotation to inordinate lengths. His speeches were enlivened by
Retrospective
At the time of his death the Oxford dandy, the amateur diplomat, and the glamorous parliamentarian had served in many fields, and become an important force in the creation of Victorian Britain. But what did Graham think of his own achievements? In 1852, he reminded the Carlisle electorate of his past achievements:
I helped, when out of office, to secure for a large body of my fellow subjects in the United Kingdom a perfect equality of civil rights without regard to religious
County Courts Bills, and gave it to my successor, and almost without any change that bill became the law of the land. The other day, when out of office, unbought, and without any personal object, I devoted almost the whole of my time to a commission to inquire into the abuse of the Court of Chancery, from which has emanated that measure of Chancery reform for which Lord Derby's Government takes so much credit.[11]
His nephew offered a fitting tribute:
It seemed to me that Sir James Graham's actions, often wrong no doubt, were ever actuated by a deesire for his country's and not for his own, advancement, and what higher credit can there be for a statesman? I believe he was the principal factor (after Cobden and Bright in converting Sir Robert Peel to Free Trade, the only great political reform which in my day has been an absolute and complete success. I have heard Mr Bright say that he was one of the cleverest men whom he ever met.[21]
Family
Graham married Frances ("Fanny") Callander, of Craigforth and Ardkinglas, a famous society beauty, on 8 July 1819. She died in October 1857. Graham died at
He was godfather to James Graham Goodenough (who was named after him).[32]
References
- ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Horncastle to Hythe[usurped]
- ^ a b c leighrayment.com House of Commons: Cornwall to Cynon Valley[usurped]
- ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Paddington to Platting[usurped]
- ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Devizes to Dorset West[usurped]
- ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Radcliffe-cum-Farnworth to Rochdale[usurped]
- ^ Torrens pages 77-78
- ^ Ward page 25
- ^ Ward pages 24-45
- ^ Corn and Currency
- ^ Arthur W. Moss, Valiant Crusade: The History of the RSPCA (London: Cassell, 1961), p 23. Kathryn Shevelow, For the Love of Animals: The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement (New York: Henry Holt, 2008) p 269.
- ^ a b c d Carlisle Journal, 26 October 1861
- ^ Carlisle Journal, 17 January 1829
- ^ Carlisle Journal, 6 August 1830
- ^ "No. 18748". The London Gazette. 23 November 1830. p. 2449.
- ^ Ward pages 97-105
- ^ Ward page 136
- ^ Carlisle Patriot, 17 January 1835
- ^ Ward, pages 165-166
- ^ Hansard, 7 March 1843 vol67 cols 422–424
- ^ Hansard 14 June 1844 vol 75 cols 892–906
- ^ a b Russell, page 24
- ^ Ward pages 172-189
- ^ Hirst, p. 35.
- ^ Coleman, p. 135–136.
- ^ Hansard 15 May 1846 vol 86 cols 616-727
- ^ Hansard, 25 June 1846 vol 87 cols 966-1027
- ^ Carlisle Journal, 8 July 1852
- ^ Wood, p. 257
- ^ Wood, p. 276
- ^ Hansard 29 January 1855 vol 136 cols 1121-233
- ^ Mandell Creighton (1890). . In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 22. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Wikisource:Goodenough, James Graham (DNB00)
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Graham, Sir James Robert George". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 318. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Coleman, B. (1996) "1841–1846", in: Seldon, A. (ed.), How Tory Governments Fall. The Tory Party in Power since 1783, London: Fontana, ISBN 0-00-686366-3
- Erickson, Arvel B. The Public Career of Sir James Graham (Greenwood Press, 1974)
- Hamilton, Charles Iain. "Sir James Graham, the Baltic Campaign and War-Planning at the Admiralty in 1854." Historical Journal (1976) 19#1 pp: 89-112. in JSTOR
- Hirst, F. W. (1925) From Adam Smith to Philip Snowden. A history of free trade in Great Britain, London: T. Fisher Unwin.
- Lambert, A.D. The Crimean War: British grand strategy, 1853–56 (1990)
- Parry, Jonathan. "Graham, Sir James Robert George, second baronet (1792–1861)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004; online ed, May 2009 accessed 1 Sept 2014 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11204
- Spring, David. "A great agricultural estate: Netherby under Sir James Graham, 1820–1845," Agricultural History 29 (1955), 73–81 in JSTOR
- Ward, J. T. (1967). Sir James Graham. New York: Macmillan.
- Henry Lonsdale (1868). The Worthies of Cumberland Vol. 2 The Right Honourable Sir J.R.G. Graham. London: Routledge.
- T. M. Torrens (1863). The Life and Times of the Right Honourable Sir James R. G. Graham. London: Saunders Otley.
- Sir J. R. C. Graham (1827). Corn and Currency : In an Address to the Landowners. London: Ridgway.
- C. S. Parker (1907). Life and Letters of Sir James Graham. London: John Murray.
- Edited by G W Russell (1909). Sir Wilfrid Lawson A Memoir. London: Smith Elder & Co.
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