Constituency : Pontefract 1837-46 ( Conservative ) 1846-63
Richard was the son of a Yorkshire landowner and grandson of Viscount Galway. He was privately educated and went to Cambridge where he joined the literary Apostles Club rubbing shoulders with the likes of Tennyson. He went travelling in Europe before his election for Pontefract as a Conservative in 1837. He abandoned the Conservatives over the Corn Laws despite a personal antipathy towards Peel for persistently passing him over and attached himself to Lord Palmerston whose light hearted nature and moderate politics matched his own. However Palmerston never thought he was fit for office either.
Richard was very popular socially and not always taken seriously as a politician although George Russell said of him " As years advanced he became not ( as the manner of most men is ) less Liberal but more so ; keener in sympathy with all popular causes; livelier in his indignation against monopoly and injustice." Richard was particularly interested in issues of rehabilitation and redemption ; his sister is quoted as expressing satisfaction at a hanging as an acquittal would have resulted in meeting the man at her brother's breakfast table. Thomas Carlyle said the only office he was fit for was "Perpetual President of the Heaven and Hell Amalgamation Society". He supported franchise extension and women's suffrage but defended bribery at elections.
Richard was noted as a poor speaker in the House, one observer describing his style said "He makes bad speeches of exquisite felicity & joins in the laugh against himself"
Richard was perhaps more famous as a patron of literature who used his position to foster and promote the talents of his gifted associates. He secured a position for Tennyson , publicised the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Algernon Swinburne and found Coventry Patmore a job at the British Museum. His own work includes a travelogue, discussions on church matters, a biography of Keats and two volumes of verse which were popular in their day. He also amassed a huge collection of erotic literature ( with a particular interest in flagellation ) which is now in the British Library .
Richard was turned down by Florence Nightingale after a long pursuit but he remained her champion thereafter. He eventually married the daughter of Baron Crewe and their son Robert became an even more prominent politician and key ally of Asquith.
In 1863 Palmerston created Richard , Baron Houghton. He was President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1865 to 1867. Henry James met him in old age and described him as "A battered and world-wrinkled old mortal with a restless and fidgety vanity , but with an immense fund of real kindness and human feeling ".
He died in 1885 of angina pectoris in Vichy aged 76.
No comments:
Post a Comment