William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne Quotes (8 quotes)

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne: 8 quotes2 likes

Famous William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne Quotes

“…the possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility.”

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1817/jun/27/habeas-corpus-suspension-bill#column_1227 in the House of Commons (27 June 1817)

“My principles are, as I believe, the Whig principles of the revolution. The main foundation of them is the irresponsibility of the crown, the consequent responsibility of ministers, and the preservation of the power and dignity of parliament as constituted by law and custom. With a heap of modern additions, interpolations, facts and fictions, I have nothing to do.”

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

Letter to Lord Holland (10 December 1815), quoted in Philip Ziegler, Melbourne. A Biography of William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (London: Collins, 1976), p. 70

“In Torrens, Life of Lord Melbourne, Volume I, p. 320, and in Walpole's History of England from Conclusion of the Great War, Volume III, p. 143.”

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

W. M. Torrens Memoirs of William Lamb, Second Viscount Melbourne (1890), p. 234
Attributed

“I wish I were as cocksure of anything as Tom Macaulay is of everything.”

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

Lloyd C. Sanders (ed.), Lord Melbourne's Papers (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889), p. xii
Attributed

“I say, Archbishop, all this reforming gives a deuced deal of trouble, eh? eh? I wish they'd let it all alone…I say, Archbishop, what do you think I'd have done about this slavery business, if I'd had my own way? I'd have done nothing at all! I'd have left it all alone. It's all a pack of nonsense! Always have been slaves in all the most civilised countries; the Greeks and Romans had slaves; however, they would have their fancy, and so we've abolished slavery; but it's a great folly.”

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

E. Jane Whately (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Richard Whately, D.D. Late Archbishop of Dublin. Volume II (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1866), pp. 451-452
Attributed

“It is…in my humble opinion, not a desirable thing for us to be dependent for our nourishment on foreign supplies, and I think it would be wise even to sacrifice something of commercial prosperity to the national safety and independence. This…is my strong feeling, and I have great doubt whether our commerce has not been increased by our agricultural prosperity. I entirely agree…that any change in the present system would be an evil.”

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1839/mar/14/corn-laws in the House of Lords (14 March 1839) in favour of the Corn Laws.

“I now, my Lords, frankly declare that I resume office unequivocally and solely for this reason—that I will not abandon my Sovereign in a situation of difficulty and distress, and especially when a demand is made upon her Majesty, with which I think she ought not to comply—a demand, in my opinion, my Lords, inconsistent with her personal honour, and which, if acquiesced in, would make her reign liable to all the changes and variations of political parties, and render her domestic life one constant scene of unhappiness and discomfort.”

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1839/may/14/ministerial-explanations#column_1015 in the House of Lords (14 May 1839) during the Bedchamber Crisis