Henry Goulburn

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Henry Goulburn (1784–1856) was an English Conservative statesman and a member of the Peelite faction after 1846.

[edit] Biography

He was born in London on 19 March 1784 and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1808 he became member of parliament for Horsham.

In 1810 he was appointed Under-Secretary for Home Affairs, and two and a half years later he was made Under-Secretary for War and the Colonies. It was in this capacity that James Meehan named Goulburn, New South Wales after him, a naming that was ratified by Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

Still retaining office in the Tory government he became a Privy Counsellor in 1821, and shortly afterwards was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, a position which he held until April 1827. Here, although frequently denounced as an Orangeman, his period of office was on the whole a successful one, and in 1823 he managed to pass the Irish Tithe Composition Bill. In January 1828 he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer under the Duke of Wellington; like his leader he disliked Roman Catholic emancipation, which he voted against in 1828.

In the domain of finance Goulburn's chief achievements were to reduce the rate of interest on part of the national debt, and to allow anyone to sell beer upon payment of a small annual fee, a complete change of policy with regard to the drink traffic. Leaving office with Wellington in November 1830, Goulburn was Home Secretary under Sir Robert Peel for four months in 1835, and when this statesman returned to office in September 1841 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer for the second time. Although Peel himself did some of the chancellor's work, Goulburn was responsible for a further reduction in the rate of interest on the national debt, and he aided his chief in the struggle which ended in the repeal of the Corn Laws. With his colleagues he left office in June 1846.

After representing Horsham in the House of Commons for over four years Goulburn was successively member for St Germans, for West Looe, and for the city of Armagh. In May 1831 he was elected for Cambridge University, and he retained this seat until his death on 12 January 1856.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Love Jones-Perry	Member of Parliament for Horsham 1808–1812	Succeeded by Sir Arthur Piggott Robert Hurst
Preceded by Matthew Montagu Charles Philip Yorke	Member of Parliament for St Germans 1812–1818	Succeeded by Seymour Bathurst Charles Arbuthnot
Preceded by Henry Fitzgerald-de Ros	Member of Parliament for West Looe 1818–1826	Succeeded by John Buller Charles Buller
Preceded by William Stuart	Member of Parliament for Armagh 1826–1831	Succeeded by Viscount Ingestre
Preceded by The Viscount Palmerston William Cavendish	Member of Parliament for Cambridge University 1831–1856	Succeeded by Spencer Horatio Walpole
Political offices
Preceded by Charles Grant	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1821–1827	Succeeded by William Lamb
Preceded by John Charles Herries	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1828–1830	Succeeded by Viscount Althorp
Preceded by Viscount Duncannon	Home Secretary 1834–1835	Succeeded by The Lord John Russell
Preceded by Francis Baring	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1841–1846	Succeeded by Sir Charles Wood, Bt