Constituency : City of London 1863-80, Ripon 1880-5, Edinburgh East 1885-6, St George Hanover 1887-93 ( Liberal Unionist ), 1893-1900 ( Conservative )
George came in at City of London in June 1863 following the death of Western Wood. He was unopposed.
George was the son of a London merchant of German extraction. He was educated at Rugby and Oxford before joining his father's firm. In 1856 he became a director of the Bank of England.
George attracted attention straight away and in 1864 was asked to second the Address to the Queen's Speech. He had a meeting with Palmerston at which he queried the lack of domestic reform proposals. Palmerston gaily replied that they could not go on legislating for ever. He helped organise Garibaldi's reception in the City. He also published Theory of the Foreign Exchanges in 1864.
George had some Radical attitudes on church , administration and finance. He wanted to abolish religious tests and was a champion of university expansion. He loathed Bright's class consciousness but eschewed association with the Whigs as implying a connection with traditionalism and privilege
George was appointed Paymaster -General by Russell in 1865 then a few months later promoted to the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. This was expected to go to Hartington and many of the Whigs were upset.
George became President of the Poor Law Board in 1868 then First Lord of the Admiralty in 1871.
In 1874 George was narrowly re-elected when all the other Liberal MPs went down in City of London. In 1876 he went to Cairo as a representative of those holding Egyptian bonds and negotiated a deal with the Khedive. Around this time The Manchester Guardian reported a rumour that he was trying to organise a Palmerstonian third party.
George opposed the plans for equalising the county and borough franchises and for this reason turned down Gladstone's offer of office in 1880. He also declined to become Viceroy of India but he did accept a diplomatic mission to Turkey working out the Greek and Montenegrin frontiers. He declined the Speakership in succession to Henry Brand in 1884 and voted for the motion of censure over Gordon's death. He was appalled by Chamberlain's Unauthorised Programme ( a term he devised ) which he denounced as socialism.
George switched to Edinburgh East in 1885 where he described himself as an independent Liberal and saw off one of Chamberlain's henchmen B Costelloe in the contest thanks to the absence of a Conservative candidate. He saw the election result as a vindication of moderate Liberalism except in Ireland where the Liberals had been wiped out. He was approached by the queen about forming a coalition of moderates to keep Gladstone out. He sided with Hartington over Home Rule which he thought would show "that we were no longer able to cope with resistance if resistance were offered ".
In December 1886 George broke with the Liberal Unionist policy of not taking office under Salisbury when he accepted the offer to replace Randolph Churchill as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Churchill famously remarked that he had forgotten about George. He now needed a seat . He was defeated by 7 votes at Liverpool Exchange but got in at Tory stronghold St Georges Hanover. He converted the National Debt in 1888 and introduced the first road tax.
When Joseph Chamberlain became leader of the Liberal Unionists in 1893 George became a Conservative and in 1895 returned to the post of First lord of the Admiralty.
In 1900 George retired and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Goschen. He became a leading Free Trade Unionist when Chamberlain launched his Tariff Reform movement in 1903.
He died in 1907 aged 75.
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