Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich

Frederick John Robinson, 1st Earl of Ripon PC FRC (1 November 1782 – 28 January 1859), styled The Honourable F. J. Robinson until 1827 and known between 1827 and 1833 as The Viscount Goderich, the name by which he is best known to history, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 31 August 1827 until 8 January 1828.

He had made a sacrifice of many preconceived opinions, of many early predilections, and of many long-cherished notions.

Quotes

• They were not now in the situation of arguing, for the first time, whether they should act on the principle of restriction or not. For not only on the subject of corn, but on all great branches of trade in this country, they had, from time immemorial, proceeded on a system of restriction. And therefore, he contended, they were not now placed in a situation of discussing first principles. They were not now, for the first time, to inquire, whether they were to act on this principle or not. The system had been acted on for a long period, and we could not depart from it without encountering a frightful revulsion, which it would be dreadful to combat. It was not, therefore, a question between restriction and non-restriction—but how they were to apply principles, that had been long called into action, to the existing circumstances of the country. This was the only ground on which he would now recommend the measure he was about to submit to their consideration.
  • Speech in the House of Commons on the Corn Bill (17 February 1815), quoted in The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time, Vol. XXIX. Comprising the Period from the Eighth Day of November, 1814, to the Third Day of 'March, 1815 (1815), columns 800-801

• He had always given it as his opinion, that the restrictive system of commerce in this country was founded in error, and calculated to defeat the object for which it was adopted.
  • Speech in the House of Commons (8 May 1820), quoted in The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time, Vol. I. Comprising the Period from the Twenty-First Day of April to the Twenty-Sixth Day of June, 1820 (1820), columns 182-183

• We certainly do not want a Catholic Association to assist us. If they attempt to excite our fears, they will fail; for they will enlist our pride, at least as strong as any other feeling, against them. We shall betray our duty; we shall do mischief to Ireland; we shall render her incapable of enjoying the benefits which she has lately acquired, or which she may hereafter acquire, unless we make up our minds steadily and firmly to put an end to this Association, which I sincerely believe to be the bane and curse of the country.
  • Speech in the House of Commons (14 February 1825), quoted in The Parliamentary Debates, Vol. XII. Comprising the Period from the Third Day of February, to the Eighteenth Day of April, 1825 (1825), column 421

• The King has behaved admirably, and has shown his sincere desire to keep Canning's Government together upon the principles upon which it was formed. It is our duty to do our part to preserve it as long as we can, and to do all in our power not to disappoint his Majesty's expectations, or to thwart his genuine objects. We must forget all that is unpleasant in what has occurred, and act cordially and frankly together. If we do, and start well, depend upon it the country will support the King in his resolution to support us, particularly if we exert ourselves bonâ fide to get rid of, or at least to nullify, the odious distinctions of Whig and Tory, and to get the press, if possible, to support the Government, not so much on account of its individual composition, but because it is the King's Government and founded upon just and honourable principles.
  • Letter to John Charles Herries (1 September 1827), quoted in Edward Herries, Memoir of the Public Life of The Right Hon. John Charles Herries in the Reigns of George III., George IV., William IV. and Victoria, Vol. I (1880), p. 209

• He had made a sacrifice of many preconceived opinions, of many early predilections, and of many long-cherished notions.
  • Speech in the House of Lords in favour of the Reform Bill (5 October 1831), quoted in Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Vol. VII. Comprising the Period from the Fourteenth Day of September, to the Fifth Day of October, 1831 (1832), column 1377

• When I introduced, in 1815, the Corn Bill of that day, I did it...with the greatest reluctance. I was not a Member of the Government; that is to say, I only held a subordinate situation in it—and when the Earl of Liverpool sent to desire that I would move the measure, I took the liberty of expressing to him that I had a great objection to the principle of any Corn Law whatever. I thought then—I have thought ever since—that a Corn Law is in itself an evil to be justified solely by the establishment of some paramount necessity, sufficient to overcome the magnitude of the objection, and to sanction the imposition on the country of what is in itself an evil.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (25 May 1846)

• Indeed, it would have been impossible for me to have supported a Corn Law as a part of a great system of national policy intended to give uniform and universal protection to native industry, because over and over again I have laid down the opposite principle with reference to protection; and I have shared year after year in measures and arguments, the object of which was to break in the principle of what is called protection to British industry, and to get rid, as speedily as circumstances would permit, first of prohibition, and then of protection, which I have always held to be injurious not only to the country generally, but ultimately to the very interests which it is designed to serve.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (25 May 1846)

• The only ground on which I reconciled myself to the fitness of a Corn Law at all was my apprehension—an apprehension which I most sincerely entertained—that this country would become, or might become, more dependent than in prudence she ought to be upon supplies of corn from foreign countries.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (25 May 1846)

Quotes about Lord Goderich

• Mr. Robinson sat down amid demonstrations of applause more loud and more general than perhaps ever before greeted the opening of a ministerial statement of finance.
  • The Annual Register (1823), p. 180

• If adverse critics charged him with shallow reasoning and a diffuse diction, his clear and flowing style, and copiousness of illustration, with the art which he certainly possessed of enlivening even dry subjects of finance with classical allusions and pleasant humour, made his speeches always acceptable to a large majority of his hearers.
  • Denis Le Marchant, Memoir of John Charles, Viscount Althorp, Third Earl Spencer (1876), p. 44

• Let me not omit what gave me and all his friends sincere pleasure, that Frederick Robinson highly distinguished himself in the best young man's speech I ever heard in the Parliament. Peel, when he has spoken, has been more flowery, and with more classical allusion; but in readiness, in clear, forcible, and demonstrative language, and in the appearance of an old and able debater, Robinson beat him, and indeed all his contemporaries. Whitbread, who spoke after him, paid him very handsome compliments.
  • Robert Plumer Ward, diary entry (27 February 1812), quoted in Edmund Phipps, Memoirs of the Political and Literary Life of Robert Plumber Ward, Vol. I (1850), p. 438