John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, , known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a leading Whig and Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on two occasions during the early Victorian era.
Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, his great achievements, says A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his indefatigable battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist, so that:He was more concerned with the removal of obstacles to civil liberty than with the creation of a more reasonable and civilized society. His political theory centred in the revolution of 1688, and in the clique of aristocratic families to whom the country owed loyalty in return for something like the charte octroyée of the reform bill. Nevertheless, Russell led his Whig party into support for reform; he was the principal architect of the great Reform Act of 1832.
As Prime Minister he was less successful. He headed a government that failed to deal with the Irish Potato Famine, a disaster which saw the loss of a quarter of that country's population. It has been said that his ministry of 1846 to 1852 was the ruin of the Whig party: it never composed a Government again, and his ministry of 1865 to 1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party also.
“[A proverb is] one man's wit, and all men's wisdom.”
Remark to James Mackintosh on October 6, 1830, reported in his posthumous memoir, Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh, Vol. 2 (1836), p. 472 http://books.google.com/books?id=wHM4AAAAYAAJ&q=%22one+man's+wit+and+all+men's+wisdom%22&pg=PA472#v=onepage
Variant: [A proverb is] the wisdom of many and the wit of one.
“It is impossible that the whisper of a faction should prevail against the voice of a nation.”
Source: Letter to T. Attwood, October 1831, after the rejection in the House of Lords of the Reform Bill (7 October 1831).
From the introduction to Correspondence of John, Fourth Duke of Bedford, Vol. 3 (1847), p. lxii
1840s
“[H]is heart always beat for the honour of England.”
Source: Speaking of Viscount Palmerston at the Guildhall, London, 9 November 1865, as reported in The Times, 10 November 1865, p. 7
Source: Letter to Thomas Attwood, October 1831, after the rejection in the House of Lords of the Reform Bill, 7 October 1831
Source: Quoted in George W. E. Russell in Prime Ministers and Some Others, 1918, p. 23
“I rejoice heartily at the prospect of the negro vote.”
Source: Letter to British Ambassador to the United States Sir Frederick Bruce, 17 June 1863, quote in Paul Scherer, Lord John Russell, A Biography (1999), p287
“I am in my politics for reform and nothing but reform.”
Source: Letter to Lady Holland, January 1822
“I have seemed cold to my friends, but it was not in my heart.”
Source: Comment during final illness, as recalled by his nephew George W. E. Russell in Prime Ministers and Some Others, 1918, p. 24
“Who the devil will coalesce with people that don't coalesce with themselves.”
Source: Reply to a suggestion by Thomas Moore that George Canning might join with the Whigs to pass Catholic emancipation, quoted in Paul Scherer, Lord John Russell: A Biography (1999), p. 24
Source: Essays and Sketches of Life and Character (1820), p. 136
Source: 1806 journal entry on the acquittal of Lord Melville for misappropriation of public funds, as quoted in Stuart J. Reid, Lord John Russell (1895), p.9
1820s
Source: Speech to the House of Commons on Parliamentary reform, 25 April 1822
