William Windham
Encyclopedia
William Windham PC, PC (Ire)
(14 May 1750 O.S. – 4 June 1810 N.S.) was a British
Whig statesman.
family and a great-great-grandson of Sir John Wyndham
. He was the son of William Windham, Sr. of Felbrigg Hall
and his second wife, Sarah Lukin. Windham was educated at Eton College
from 1757 to 1766, the University of Glasgow
(1766) and University College, Oxford
from 1767 to 1771. He wrote three unpublished theses on mathematics. Windham was a Christian
. Before his balloon ride, he wrote to George James Cholmondeley on 4 May 1785 in a letter that was only to be delivered if he did not survive the trip. It contained Windham's confession of faith:
and his speeches against him on 1 June 1787 and 22 March 1787 were admired. During the Regency Crisis of 1788-89 he spoke in favour of giving George, Prince of Wales
full regal powers as Regent.
, Windham's opinion (increasingly influenced by fellow Whig MP Edmund Burke
) changed in late 1791. Windham supported the Royalist uprising in La Vendée
and wished that the British government would aid it with the aim of restoring the House of Bourbon
to the throne: "I would, from the beginning, have made this the principal object of the war". Windham supported Catholic Emancipation
and repeal of the Test Act
in Scotland. He was a consistent opposer of parliamentary reform, remarking on 4 March 1790 that no one would begin to repair a house in hurricane season.
. In the aftermath of the Irish Rebellion of 1798
, Windham supported the union of Ireland with Great Britain, believing that Catholic emancipation would follow. On 7 February 1801 Windham was among those who resigned in protest of the King's veto on Catholic emancipation.
was signed, the Prime Minister Henry Addington wrote to Windham on 1 October 1801: "I think when I see you which I hope I shall before you leave London I can satisfy you that it is not clear even upon your own Principles that we are wrong". Windham replied to Addington on the same day:
When the preliminaries of the Treaty were debated in the Commons on 3 November 1801, Windham gave a speech that "...was the sensation of the evening". He said Addington and Lord Hawkesbury "...in a moment of rashness and weakness, have fatally put their hands to this treaty, have signed the death-warrant of their country. They have given it a blow, under which it may languish for a few years, but from which I do not conceive how it is possible for it ever to recover". According to The Times Windham sat on "the same bench from which Mr. Burke always spoke after separating from Mr. Fox" and an observer said he spoke "like the ghost of Burke". One contemporary said Windham possessed Burke's insanity without his inspiration. When Charles James Fox
visited France during the Peace of Amiens he conversed with Napoleon Bonaparte
on 23 September 1802. Napoleon said he believed Windham's "talents were mediocre and that he was an unfeeling, unprincipled man". Fox immediately defended Windham but Napoleon countered: "It is easy for you who only know public debate. But for me, I detest him and that Pitt who together have attempted my life". Fox assured Napoleon that "Mr Pitt and Mr Windham, like every other Englishman, would shrink with horror from the idea of secret assassination".
William Wilberforce
wrote to Hannah More
on 15 November 1804: "I really think there scarcely ever were, or can be, two men more different from each other in all their ideas than Windham and myself". Windham said that Wilberforce would delight in sending aristocrats to the guillotine. He was opposed to the evangelical
movement: "Few subjects agitated...Windham...more than the puritanical and Wilberforcian assault on the traditional sports of Englishmen such as boxing and bull-baiting. Windham's speeches in parliament in defense of such practices seem among his most heart-felt". Windham wrote to a friend on 17 August 1809 on the subject of boxing
, in the aftermath of the British victory over the French at the Battle of Talavera:
William Hazlitt
apparently had it on a somewhat good authority that Pitt had hated Windham. Windham in turn did not attend Pitt's funeral at Westminster Abbey.
On 8 July 1809 Windham was returning to Pall Mall, London
from a friend's when he saw a house on fire in Conduit Street. His friend Frederick North lived a few doors away from the burning house and had a valuable library there. Therefore with the aid of two or three men, Windham succeeded in removing most of the books before the fire reaching North's house. However when removing some heavy books he fell and bruised his hip. After a tumour grew in the hip he received medical help but this was ineffectual. On 6 May 1810 the surgeon Henry Cline advised him that an operation was imperative, an opinion shared by four of the six physicians Windham consulted. Before the operation Windham went to some trouble to receive the Sacrament. Cline performed the operation on 17 May and though it was successful Windham did not recover from the shock. His last words were to Dr. Lynn, who moved him into a more comfortable position on the night of 3 June: "I thank you; this is the last trouble I shall give you. You fight the battle well, but it will not do". Not long after, he fell asleep and died in the presence of his wife. On 8 June Windham's body was transported to the family vault at Felbrigg, with a private funeral. In the church window Windham's widow installed a memorial brass with the inscription:
, describing Burke's words as "the source of all good". The Foxite Whig Lord Holland considered Burke "the great god of his idolatry".
Sir James Mackintosh
wrote to a friend after meeting Windham in March 1800: "His conversation is full of sense, knowledge and vivacity and his manners very gentle. We talked with equal enthusiasm of Burke and with equal abhorrence of Democrats and Philosophers". Upon hearing of Windham's death, Mackintosh said: "Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age". Henry Brougham
said of Windham:
The Whig historian Thomas Macaulay
, in his essay on Warren Hastings he wrote in 1841, praised Windham: "There, with eyes reverentially fixed on Burke, appeared the finest gentleman of the age, his form developed by every manly exercise, his face beaming with intelligence and spirit, the ingenious, the chivalrous, the high-souled Windham". Lord Rosebery
edited Windham's papers in 1913, and said Windham was:
F. P. Lock has described Windham as "a Norfolk squire of uncommon intellectual gifts and great personal charm. His great failing was chronic indecision". Boyd Hilton
said Windham "was the first in a line of brilliant but maverick right-wing politicians—Lyndhurst
, Randolph Churchill
, F. E. Smith
—who operated too far outside the consensus to be effective. He had a scintillating personality, and political convictions so strong that they belied his otherwise scholarly and discriminating characteristics, but he lacked judgement and had a streak of melancholic instability".
Privy Council of Ireland
The Privy Council of Ireland was an institution of the Kingdom of Ireland until 31 December 1800 and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801-1922...
(14 May 1750 O.S. – 4 June 1810 N.S.) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Whig statesman.
Early life
Windham was a member of an ancient NorfolkNorfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
family and a great-great-grandson of Sir John Wyndham
John Wyndham (1558-1645)
Sir John Wyndham JP was an aristocratic English landowner who played an important role in the establishment of defence organisation in the West Country against the threat of Spanish invasion....
. He was the son of William Windham, Sr. of Felbrigg Hall
Felbrigg Hall
Felbrigg Hall is a 17th-century country house located in Felbrigg, Norfolk, England. Part of a National Trust property, the unaltered 17th-century house is noted for its Jacobean architecture and fine Georgian interior...
and his second wife, Sarah Lukin. Windham was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
from 1757 to 1766, the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
(1766) and University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
from 1767 to 1771. He wrote three unpublished theses on mathematics. Windham was a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. Before his balloon ride, he wrote to George James Cholmondeley on 4 May 1785 in a letter that was only to be delivered if he did not survive the trip. It contained Windham's confession of faith:
The best, the greatest, the most solemn office I can render in a letter of this sort, is to extort you to a steady contemplation of divine truths, and a sincere endeavour to confirm in yourself that faith, which after various fluctuations I believe to be the true one, and which, independent of evidence, is supported by too great authorities ever to be rejected with confidence. Whatever may be the diversity of opinion as to the particular nature, I believe ChristJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
to be a person divinely commissioned, and that faith in him affords the fairest hope of propitiating the great author of the world. Cultivate in your mind this persuasion and dwell upon it till it grows into a principle of action. May it avail both to the purposes of final salvation.
Early political career: 1780–1789
Windham took part in the Impeachment of Warren HastingsImpeachment of Warren Hastings
The Impeachment of Warren Hastings was a failed attempt to impeach the former Governor-General of India Warren Hastings in the Parliament of Great Britain between 1788 and 1795. Hastings was accused of misconduct during his time in Calcutta particularly relating to mismanagement and personal...
and his speeches against him on 1 June 1787 and 22 March 1787 were admired. During the Regency Crisis of 1788-89 he spoke in favour of giving George, Prince of Wales
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
full regal powers as Regent.
French Revolution: 1789–1794
After initially sympathising with the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, Windham's opinion (increasingly influenced by fellow Whig MP Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
) changed in late 1791. Windham supported the Royalist uprising in La Vendée
Vendée
The Vendée is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department.-History:...
and wished that the British government would aid it with the aim of restoring the House of Bourbon
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
to the throne: "I would, from the beginning, have made this the principal object of the war". Windham supported Catholic Emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...
and repeal of the Test Act
Test Act
The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and Nonconformists...
in Scotland. He was a consistent opposer of parliamentary reform, remarking on 4 March 1790 that no one would begin to repair a house in hurricane season.
Secretary at War: 1794–1801
He was Secretary at War under William Pitt the YoungerWilliam Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
. In the aftermath of the Irish Rebellion of 1798
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...
, Windham supported the union of Ireland with Great Britain, believing that Catholic emancipation would follow. On 7 February 1801 Windham was among those who resigned in protest of the King's veto on Catholic emancipation.
Last years: 1801–1810
Immediately after the Peace of AmiensTreaty of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed in the city of Amiens on 25 March 1802 , by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace"...
was signed, the Prime Minister Henry Addington wrote to Windham on 1 October 1801: "I think when I see you which I hope I shall before you leave London I can satisfy you that it is not clear even upon your own Principles that we are wrong". Windham replied to Addington on the same day:
I can have no idea of the measure in question but as the commencement of a career which, by an easy descent, and step by step, but at no very distant period, will conduct the country to a situation where, when it looks at last for its independence, it will find that it is already gone. I have no idea how the effect of this measure is ever to be recover'd; Chance may do much, but, according to any conception I can form, the Country has received its death blow.
When the preliminaries of the Treaty were debated in the Commons on 3 November 1801, Windham gave a speech that "...was the sensation of the evening". He said Addington and Lord Hawkesbury "...in a moment of rashness and weakness, have fatally put their hands to this treaty, have signed the death-warrant of their country. They have given it a blow, under which it may languish for a few years, but from which I do not conceive how it is possible for it ever to recover". According to The Times Windham sat on "the same bench from which Mr. Burke always spoke after separating from Mr. Fox" and an observer said he spoke "like the ghost of Burke". One contemporary said Windham possessed Burke's insanity without his inspiration. When Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
visited France during the Peace of Amiens he conversed with Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
on 23 September 1802. Napoleon said he believed Windham's "talents were mediocre and that he was an unfeeling, unprincipled man". Fox immediately defended Windham but Napoleon countered: "It is easy for you who only know public debate. But for me, I detest him and that Pitt who together have attempted my life". Fox assured Napoleon that "Mr Pitt and Mr Windham, like every other Englishman, would shrink with horror from the idea of secret assassination".
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire...
wrote to Hannah More
Hannah More
Hannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...
on 15 November 1804: "I really think there scarcely ever were, or can be, two men more different from each other in all their ideas than Windham and myself". Windham said that Wilberforce would delight in sending aristocrats to the guillotine. He was opposed to the evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
movement: "Few subjects agitated...Windham...more than the puritanical and Wilberforcian assault on the traditional sports of Englishmen such as boxing and bull-baiting. Windham's speeches in parliament in defense of such practices seem among his most heart-felt". Windham wrote to a friend on 17 August 1809 on the subject of boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, in the aftermath of the British victory over the French at the Battle of Talavera:
Why are we to boast so much of the native valour of our troops, as shewn at Talavera, at VimeiraBattle of VimeiroIn the Battle of Vimeiro the British under General Arthur Wellesley defeated the French under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro , near Lisbon, Portugal during the Peninsular War...
, and at MaidaBattle of MaidaThe Battle of Maida on 4 July 1806 saw a British expeditionary force fight a First French Empire division outside the town of Maida in Calabria, Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. John Stuart led 5,200 British troops to victory over about 6,000 French soldiers under Jean Reynier, inflicting...
, yet to discourage all the practices and habits which tend to keep alive the same sentiments and feelings? The sentiments that filled the minds of the three thousand spectators who attended the two pugilists, were just the same in kind as those which inspired the higher combatants on the occasions before enumerated. It is the circumstance only in which they are displayed, that makes the difference. ... Bravery is found in all habits, classes, circumstances, and conditions. But have habits and institutions of one sort no tendency to form it, more than of another? Longevity is found in persons of habits the most opposite: but are not certain habits more favourable to it than others? The courage does not arise from mere boxing, from the mere beating or being beat:—but from the sentiments excited by the contemplation and cultivation of such practices. Will it make no difference in the mass of a people, whether their amusements are all of a pacific, pleasurable, and effeminate nature, or whether they are of a sort that calls forth a continued admiration of prowess and hardihood? But when I get on these topicks, I never know how to stop...
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt was an English writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, and as a grammarian and philosopher. He is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. Yet his work is...
apparently had it on a somewhat good authority that Pitt had hated Windham. Windham in turn did not attend Pitt's funeral at Westminster Abbey.
On 8 July 1809 Windham was returning to Pall Mall, London
Pall Mall, London
Pall Mall is a street in the City of Westminster, London, and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a section of the...
from a friend's when he saw a house on fire in Conduit Street. His friend Frederick North lived a few doors away from the burning house and had a valuable library there. Therefore with the aid of two or three men, Windham succeeded in removing most of the books before the fire reaching North's house. However when removing some heavy books he fell and bruised his hip. After a tumour grew in the hip he received medical help but this was ineffectual. On 6 May 1810 the surgeon Henry Cline advised him that an operation was imperative, an opinion shared by four of the six physicians Windham consulted. Before the operation Windham went to some trouble to receive the Sacrament. Cline performed the operation on 17 May and though it was successful Windham did not recover from the shock. His last words were to Dr. Lynn, who moved him into a more comfortable position on the night of 3 June: "I thank you; this is the last trouble I shall give you. You fight the battle well, but it will not do". Not long after, he fell asleep and died in the presence of his wife. On 8 June Windham's body was transported to the family vault at Felbrigg, with a private funeral. In the church window Windham's widow installed a memorial brass with the inscription:
Sacred to the Memory of the Right Honourable William Windham, of Felbrigge, in this County. Born the 14th of May, O.S. 1750, Died the 4th of June, N.S. 1810. He was the only son of William Windham, esqre., by Sarah, relict of Robert Lukin, esqre. He married in 1798 Cecilia, third daughter of the late Commodore Forrest; who erects this Monument in grateful and tender remembrance of him. During a period of twenty-six years he distinguished himself in Parliament by his eloquence and talents; and was repeatedly called to the highest offices of the State. His views and councils were directed more to raising the glory than increasing the wealth of his country. He was above all things anxious to preserve untainted the National Character, and even those National Manners which long habit had associated with that character. As a Statesman, he laboured to exalt the courage, to improve the comforts, and ennoble the profession of a Soldier: As an individual, he exhibited a model of those qualities which denote the most accomplished and enlightened mind. Frank, generous, unassuming, intrepid, compassionate, and pious, he was so highly respected, even by those from whom he most differed in opinion, that, tho' much of his life had passed in political contention, he was accompanied to the grave by the sincere and unqualified regret of his Sovereign and his Country.
Legacy
Windham was greatly influenced by Whig philosopher Edmund BurkeEdmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
, describing Burke's words as "the source of all good". The Foxite Whig Lord Holland considered Burke "the great god of his idolatry".
Sir James Mackintosh
James Mackintosh
Sir James Mackintosh was a Scottish jurist, politician and historian. His studies and sympathies embraced many interests. He was trained as a doctor and barrister, and worked also as a journalist, judge, administrator, professor, philosopher and politician.-Early life:Mackintosh was born at...
wrote to a friend after meeting Windham in March 1800: "His conversation is full of sense, knowledge and vivacity and his manners very gentle. We talked with equal enthusiasm of Burke and with equal abhorrence of Democrats and Philosophers". Upon hearing of Windham's death, Mackintosh said: "Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age". Henry Brougham
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux was a British statesman who became Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.As a young lawyer in Scotland Brougham helped to found the Edinburgh Review in 1802 and contributed many articles to it. He went to London, and was called to the English bar in...
said of Windham:
...a lively wit of the most pungent and yet abstruse description, a turn for subtle reasoning ... familiarity with men of letters and artists as well as politicians...a singularly expressive countenance—all fitted this remarkable person to shine ... [but] he was too often the dupe of his own ingenuity; which made him doubt and balance ... His nature ... was to be a follower, if not a worshipper, rather than an original thinker or actor ... Accordingly, first Johnson in private and afterwards Burke on political matters were the deities whom he adored.
The Whig historian Thomas Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC was a British poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history...
, in his essay on Warren Hastings he wrote in 1841, praised Windham: "There, with eyes reverentially fixed on Burke, appeared the finest gentleman of the age, his form developed by every manly exercise, his face beaming with intelligence and spirit, the ingenious, the chivalrous, the high-souled Windham". Lord Rosebery
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister. Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.Rosebery was a Liberal Imperialist who...
edited Windham's papers in 1913, and said Windham was:
...the finest English gentleman of his or perhaps of all time. Had he lived in the great days of Elizabeth, he would have been one of the heroes of her reign...He was a statesman, an orator, a mathematician, a scholar, and the most fascinating talker of his day...A noble gentleman in the highest sense of the word, full of light, intellect, and dignity, loved and lamented. His best qualities, no doubt, as is often the case, he carried almost to excess; for his cherished independence he led to a morbid craving for isolation. But to the charge of vacillation in public affairs he was not obnoxious; he was always true to his faith. But he chose his masters well, Johnson and Burke; the one gave him his religious, the other his political creed. In life he was brilliant and successful. In oratory, in parliament, in society, he was almost supreme. But he can scarcely be said to survive. He left no stamp, no school, no work. To those, however, who care to disinter his memory he displays character and qualities of excellence, rare at all times, rarest in these.
F. P. Lock has described Windham as "a Norfolk squire of uncommon intellectual gifts and great personal charm. His great failing was chronic indecision". Boyd Hilton
Boyd Hilton
Boyd Hilton is a British historian and a professor and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He specialises in modern British history, from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century.Hilton was elected a fellow of Trinity College in 1974...
said Windham "was the first in a line of brilliant but maverick right-wing politicians—Lyndhurst
John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst
John Singleton Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst PC KS FRS , was a British lawyer and politician. He was three times Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.-Background and education:...
, Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill MP was a British statesman. He was the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough and his wife Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane , daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry...
, F. E. Smith
F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead
Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead GCSI, PC, KC , best known to history as F. E. Smith , was a British Conservative statesman and lawyer of the early 20th century. He was a skilled orator, noted for his staunch opposition to Irish nationalism, his wit, pugnacious views, and hard living...
—who operated too far outside the consensus to be effective. He had a scintillating personality, and political convictions so strong that they belied his otherwise scholarly and discriminating characteristics, but he lacked judgement and had a streak of melancholic instability".