richmond saves the king--10/6/26
Today's selection-- from Radical Duke by Danielle Allen. The pro-American sympathies and reform-minded efforts of the Earl of Shelburne and the Duke of Richmond were decisive in bringing the American Revolution to an end and addressing British government corruption:
“[William Petty Earl of] Shelburne’s premiership would be brief–nine months. If ever any political phenomenon could count as a riptide sucking someone back out to sea, it was Charles James Fox–whose exuberant, combative, fiery oratory won him an unmatched following in the House of Commons. Shelburne could not resist its force, and both the King and Richmond would also suffer losses from the conflict between those two Whigs–each brilliant, each egotistical.
“The turbulence would sink Shelburne's ministry; leave the nation adrift without a government for a second time, this time for an excruciating six weeks; drive the King once more to consider abdication; and push Richmond out of office, thwarted and demoralized.
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| Sir William Petty |
“Yet, as ever, [Charles Lennox, Duke of] Richmond and the King stood out from the crowd. Both had their eye on Britain's future–not on personal gain. Deftly harmonizing after years of adversarial distance, together they spotted a means of charting a course: They both bet all on the rising talent of William Pitt the Younger, the King for the sake of his crown and Richmond for reform–seeing in the young leader's moderation but a steppingstone to a fuller program. With Richmond's help, the King would soon make Pitt prime minister at the age of twenty-four, the youngest prime minister in British history. In so doing, the two men laid the foundation block of modern Britain. To get there they had months of dangerous politics to navigate.
Once in office, in July 1782, Shelburne moved quickly to advance an initial reform agenda–rooting out corruption in government offices. He also immediately drafted preliminary articles of peace with the Americans–essentially a rough draft for the full treaty. Their ethos was pragmatism and conciliation to restore relationships and spur a commercial alliance. These preliminary articles were ratified in Britain on November 30, 1782.
“Richmond would have been largely pleased with the start of the administration. His contributions to the debates over the treaty also had the backing of the Americans. Thomas Paine, for one, wrote to Shelburne from Philadelphia, with a copy of his 1782 Letter Addressed to the Abbé de Raynal, which he intended-as he explained in his cover letter-as a defense of views expressed by Richmond. Shelburne passed the pamphlet on to Richmond, and it remains at Goodwood to this day.
“The anti-corruption work also advanced, thanks especially to the partnership with Richmond. Shelburne sought to stamp out a practice of bureaucrats' accepting fees for every little transaction they touched. He wanted to replace this essentially corrupt habit with regular salaries for civil servants. Richmond had already undertaken just such measures on his own authority at the ordnance. As Shelburne said in his memoirs, the Duke of Richmond was the ‘one man in Administration or Opposition [who] was in earnest in the support of any reform."
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