William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne KG PC (2 May 1737 – 7 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Anglo-Irish Whig statesman who was the first home secretary in 1782 and then prime minister from 1782 to 1783 during the final months of the American War of Independence, in which he negotiated the Treaty of Paris with the United States. He succeeded in securing peaceful United Kingdom–United States relations and this feat remains his most notable legacy.

He condemned, in general, the madness, injustice, and infatuation of coercing the Americans into a blind and servile submission.

Quotes

1760s

• I felt attaching the name of rebellion hastily, and traitors, to the Americans, and comparing them to the Scots at Derby—which was the language used—dangerous, and perhaps both imprudent and unjust.
  • Letter to William Pitt (21 December 1765), quoted in Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, Vol. II, eds. William Stanhope Taylor and John Henry Pringle (1838), p. 354

• I endeavoured to distinguish the real ties by which America might be supposed to hold to this country, in order to obviate objections arising from a thousand false lights thrown out on the subject; acknowledging the power of parliament to be supreme, but referring the expediency of the act to be considered in a commercial view, regard being to be had to the abilities of the Americans to pay this tax, and likewise to the consequences likely to proceed, in any event, from the late violences. The prejudice against the Americans on the whole seemed very great.
  • Letter to William Pitt (21 December 1765), quoted in Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, Vol. II, eds. William Stanhope Taylor and John Henry Pringle (1838), p. 355

• 'Tis you, Sir, alone, in everybody's opinion, can put an end to this anarchy, if any thing can. I am satisfied your own judgment will best point out the time when you can do it with most effect. You will excuse me, I am sure, when I hazard my thoughts to you, as it depends greatly upon you, whether they become opinions; but, by all I find from some authentic letters from America, nothing can be more serious than its present state, and though it is my private opinion, it would be well for this country to be back where it was a year ago, I even despair of a repeal effecting that; if it is not accompanied with some circumstances of a firm conduct, and some system immediately following such a concession.
  • Letter to William Pitt (21 December 1765), quoted in Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, Vol. II, eds. William Stanhope Taylor and John Henry Pringle (1838), p. 357

1770s

• After the dismission of the present worthy chancellor, the seals would go a begging; but he hoped there would not be found in the kingdom a wretch so base and mean spirited, as to accept of them on the conditions on which they must be offered.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (9 January 1770), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XVI. A.D. 1765–1771 (1806), column 665

• My lords; it is extremely evident, whether we commence a war with Spain, or tamely crouch under the insults of that haughty kingdom; it is extremely evident, whether we spiritedly draw the sword, or purchase an inglorious security by the sacrifice of our national honour, that we shall neither be united at home, nor respected abroad, till the reins of government are lodged with men who have some little pretensions to common sense and common honesty.
  • Speech in the House of Lords on the Falklands Crisis (22 November 1770), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XVI. A.D. 1765–1771 (1806), columns 1113-1114

• He condemned, in general, the madness, injustice, and infatuation of coercing the Americans into a blind and servile submission.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (20 January 1775), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XVIII. A.D. 1774–1777 (1813), column 163

• He considered the earl of Chatham yet as the greatest ornament of the two Houses, in which he had shone with such unrivalled lustre; the most efficient servant of the crown, and while he had life in him, the nerve of Great Britain. A plan from such a man, that had been mentioned with approbation by one of our most ancient and respectable colonies, Virginia; that contained the real substantial points, without subtlety or refinement, which this country ought to aim at, was, in his opinion, the most eligible.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (10 November 1775), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XVIII. A.D. 1774–1777 (1813), columns 923-924

• He would never, consent that America should be independent. The idea he ever entertained of the connection between both countries was, that they should have one friend, one enemy, one purse, and one sword; and that Great Britain should superintend the interests of the whole, as the great controuling power. That both countries should have but one will, though the means of expressing that will might be different, distinct, and varied. He contended, that all this might have, been procured not long since; and he still retained strong hopes that it could be effected, and that, too, without measures of blood. It was once optional, and still possible; and he would never adopt any scheme which would go to dissever our colonies from us; for as soon as that event should take place, then, added his lordship emphatically, "the sun of Great Britain is set, and we shall no longer be a powerful or respectable people, the moment that the independency of America is agreed to by our government!"
  • Speech in the House of Lords (5 March 1778), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XIX. Comprising the Period from the Twenty-Ninth of January 1777, to the Fourth of December 1778 (1814), columns 850-851

• The conduct, temper, and apparent disposition of the present ministers, were so strongly marked with infamy, weakness, and wickedness, that he would cheerfully co-operate with any set of men, to drag them from their present situations, and render them the objects of example, by punishing them in a manner suited to their crimes and notorious demerits.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (26 November 1778), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XIX. Comprising the Period from the Twenty-Ninth of January 1777, to the Fourth of December 1778 (1814), columns 1318-1319

• He would tell him what he meant by carrying the English constitution to America, and establishing it there, was the recovering the dependency of that country upon this. Not a corrupt or slavish dependency, calculated to enlarge the influence of the crown, already grown much too formidable for the honest purposes of a limited government, or procuring for ministers new sources of corruption, for dividing the prince and people from each other, and separating their interests, which can never be wisely or safely done, so long as even the forms of the constitution remain; but a fair, honest, wise, and honourable connection, in which the constitutional prerogatives of the crown, the claims of parliament, and the liberties, properties, and lives of all the subjects of the British empire, would be equally secured. Such an union, and no other than this, he would ever endeavour to bring about. Such an union he would ever contend for; and without such an union, he was of opinion, that this country could never exist, as an independent state, in respect of the other powers of Europe, nor as a free one, in respect of its own internal polity.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (7 December 1778), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XX. Comprising the Period from the Seventh of December 1778, to the Tenth of February 1780 (1814), column 40

• Deprived of America, we must sink into a petty state, when compared to some of the great powers on the continent. Holding America in a state of unconstitutional subjection, we would shortly become slaves, or at least hold the mere shadow of our former liberties, at the will and pleasure of the crown, and its subordinate instruments. Having thus explained his present opinions and future apprehensions, he said, he would sit down with this open declaration, that he never would serve with any man, be his abilities what they might, who would either maintain it was right, or consent to acknowledge the independency of America.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (7 December 1778), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XX. Comprising the Period from the Seventh of December 1778, to the Tenth of February 1780 (1814), column 40

1780s

• His lordship confessed, in respect to the recovery of North America, he had been a very Quixote, and expected, because he most anxiously wished, that our colonies might be prevailed upon to return to their former state of connection with this country. He had indeed pushed his expectations further and longer, he believed, than any impartial person, informed of all the circumstances both here and in America, the present administration excepted, ever had: but his hopes had long since vanished. He had waked from those dreams of British dominion, and every important consequence which he flattered himself might be derived from them.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (25 January 1781), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXI. Comprising the Period from the Eleventh of February 1780, to the Twenty-Fifth of March 1781 (1814), column 1035

• Much as he valued America; necessary as the possession of the colonies might be to the power, glory, dignity, and independence of Great Britain; fatal as her final separation would prove, whenever that event might take place; as a friend to liberty, as a reverer of the English constitution, as a lover of natural and political justice—he would be much better pleased to see America for ever severed from Great Britain, than restored to our possession by force of arms, or conquest. He loved his country; he admired its political institutions; but if her future greatness, power, and extent of dominion were only to be established and maintained on the ruins of the constitution, he would be infinitely better pleased to see this country a free one, though curtailed in power and wealth, than possessing every thing the most sanguine expectation could picture to itself, if her greatness was to be purchased at the expence of her constitution and liberties.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (25 January 1781), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXI. Comprising the Period from the Eleventh of February 1780, to the Twenty-Fifth of March 1781 (1814), columns 1035-1036

• His principles on the subject were well known; he had repeated them from year to year in their lordships' hearing, that he never would consent, under any possible given circumstances, to acknowledge the independency of America. He knew those ideas, both within and without doors, were in some measure unpopular, but he preferred the performance of his duty, and the discharge of his conscience, to every other consideration.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (7 February 1782), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXII. Comprising the Period from the Twenty-Sixth of March 1781, to the Seventh of May 1782 (1814), column 987

• What, then, is the result of this part of the treaty, so wisely, and with so much sincere love on the part of England clamoured against by noble lords? Why this. You have generously given America, with whom every call under Heaven urges you to stand on the footing of brethren, a share in a trade, the monopoly of which you sordidly preserved to yourselves, at the loss of the enormous sum of 750,000l. Monopolies, some way or other, are ever justly punished. They forbid rivalry, and rivalry is of the very essence of the well-being of trade.
  • Speech in the House of Lords on the Treaty of Paris (17 February 1783), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXIII. Comprising the Period from the Tenth of May 1782, to the First of December 1783 (1814), column 409

• This seems to be the æra of protestantism in trade. All Europe appear enlightened, and eager to throw off the vile shackles of oppressive ignorant monopoly; that unmanly and illiberal principle, which is at once ungenerous and deceitful. A few interested Canadian merchants might complain; for merchants would always love monopoly, without taking a moment's time to think whether it was for their interest or not. I avow that monopoly is always unwise; but if there is any nation under heaven, who ought to be the first to reject monopoly, it is the English.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (17 February 1783), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXIII. Comprising the Period from the Tenth of May 1782, to the First of December 1783 (1814), column 409

• Situated as we are between the old world and the new, and between the southern and northern Europe, all that we ought to covet upon earth is free trade, and fair equality. With more industry, with more enterprize, with more capital than any trading nation upon earth, it ought to be our constant cry, let every market be open, let us meet our rivals fairly, and we ask no more.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (17 February 1783), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXIII. Comprising the Period from the Tenth of May 1782, to the First of December 1783 (1814), columns 409-410

1790s

• Great moments have always produced great men, and great actions. The time of conflict is the time in which nature seems to delight in her grandest productions. From the Grecian republics, down even to our modern history, the most resplendent powers of man have been shown in the times of the greatest danger. The present, therefore, is a school for Frenchmen; every youth devotes himself to the cause of liberty, and thus actively engaged on the grand scene, all the powers of his soul take a warlike direction; it becomes a fashion, and the whole of the rising generation are educated in the military art; not, my lords, as our youth are educated to the military art, as one only of the professions in which they may rise to eminence or distinction, but the enthusiasm of war enters into the heart only from the enthusiasm of liberty; and the whole country is taught to feel that their only occupation, their only passion, ought to be arms, because their only good, their only blessing, is independence.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (17 February 1793), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXX. Comprising the Period from the Thirteenth of December 1792, to the Tenth of March 1794 (1817), column 1395

• He was of opinion that some precaution was necessary, and these admissions, he trusted, would at least be sufficient to exempt him from the charge of Jacobinism.—But the present bills appeared to him greatly to overshoot the mark. The circumstances did not warrant such an inroad on the constitution.
  • Speech in the House of Lords on the Seditious Meetings Bill (9 December 1795), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXXII. Comprising the Period from the Twenty-Seventh Day of May 1795, to the Second Day of March 1797 (1818), columns 534-535

• Noble lords would do him the justice to recollect, that not one session had passed over since 1793, in which he had not, to use a vulgar but a strong expression, bored their lordships with his prophetic admonitions.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (28 February 1797), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXXII. Comprising the Period from the Twenty-Seventh Day of May 1795, to the Second Day of March 1797 (1818), column 1564

• The Marquis denied having recommended a change of Government; he only desired the present system should be changed for a constitutional system; and he would contend for a constitutional Government, even though it was the fashion for Ministers to insinuate, that those who recommended any change were Jacobins. He denied having any Jacobin principles about him, and asserted, he had always advised Ministers against Jacobin principles, because he was convinced they went to a community of goods, and other absurd and pernicious doctrines.
  • Speech in the House of Lords (20 March 1797), quoted in The Parliamentary Register; Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Lords...During the First Session of the Eighteenth Parliament of Great Britain, Vol. III (1797), p. 140

Quotes about Lord Shelburne

• Goldsmith the other day put a paragraph into the newspapers, in praise of Lord Mayor Townshend. The same night we happened to sit next to Lord Shelburne, at Drury Lane; I mentioned the circumstance of the paragraph to him; he said to Goldsmith, that he hoped that he had mentioned nothing about Malagrida in it. "Do you know," answered Goldsmith, "that I never could conceive the reason why they call you Malagrida, for Malagrida was a very good sort of man." You see plainly, what he meant to say, but that happy turn of expression is peculiar to himself.
  • Topham Beauclerk to Lord Charlemont (20 November 1773), quoted in Francis Hardy, Memoirs of the Political and Private Life of James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont (1810), pp. 176-177

• He raised me from the bottomless pit of humiliation—he made me feel I was something.
  • Jeremy Bentham, quoted in The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Vol. X (1843), p. 115

• His manner was very imposing, very dignified, and he talked his vague generalities in the House of Lords in a very emphatic way, as if something grand were at the bottom, when, in fact, there was nothing at all.
  • Jeremy Bentham, quoted in The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Vol. X (1843), p. 116

• He was the only minister he ever heard of who did not fear the people.
  • Jeremy Bentham, quoted in Lord Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Party During My Time, Vol. I, ed. Henry Edward Lord Holland (1852), p. 41, n.

• If lord Shelburne was not a Catiline, or a Borgia in morals, it must not be ascribed to any thing but his understanding.
  • Edmund Burke, speech in the House of Commons (9 July 1782), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXIII. Comprising the Period from the Tenth of May 1782, to the First of December 1783 (1814), column 183

• Lord Shelburne was the first great minister who comprehended the rising importance of the middle class; and foresaw in its future power a bulwark for the throne against "the Great Revolution families." Of his qualities in council we have no record; there is reason to believe that his administrative ability was conspicuous; his speeches prove that, if not supreme, he was eminent, in the art of parliamentary disputation, while they show on all the questions discussed a richness and variety of information, with which the speeches of no statesman of that age except Mr. Burke can compare.
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil; Or, The Two Nations, Vol. I (1845), pp. 37-38

• In regard to what you say about any intimate connexion between Lansdowne and me, I agree almost entirely with you, except perhaps that I do not give him the credit for sincerity in any system which you seem to do. I never can have a good opinion of him, and still less a great one. However, we are upon terms of the greatest civility, and it must be confessed that his conduct for these last three years has had an openness and consistency, which entitles him to every outward mark of respect, from those who think as we do.
  • Charles James Fox, letter (16 June 1795), quoted in Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox, Volume III, ed. Lord John Russell (1854), pp. 112-113

• The Jesuit in Berkeley Square.
  • George III to Lord North (22 February 1779), quoted in The Correspondence of King George the Third with Lord North From 1768 to 1783, Vol. II, ed. W. Bodham Donne (1867), p. 234

• His observations on publick life were often original and just, and on individual character shrewd, sagacious, and happy. Though he had studied nothing methodically, he had felt strongly, and thought deeply and intensely on many things. I have known few men whose maxims recur more frequently to my recollection, or are more applicable to the events of the world, and to the characters of those who rule it. Though there was, perhaps, not much candour or justice, there was yet elevation in his character, and I have observed traits of real magnanimity in his conduct.
  • Lord Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Party During My Time, Vol. I, ed. Henry Edward Lord Holland (1852), p. 40

• Indeed, he was, from conviction, sincerely averse to all commercial restraints and all religious intolerance. In his publick speeches he wanted method and perspicuity, and was deficient in justness of reasoning, in judgment, and in taste; but he had some imagination, some wit, great animation, and both in sarcasm and invective not unfrequently rose to eloquence.
  • Lord Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Party During My Time, Vol. I, ed. Henry Edward Lord Holland (1852), p. 41

• He was a great master of irony, and no man ever expressed bitter scorn for his opponents with more art or effect. His speeches were not only animated and entertaining, but embittered the contest, and enlivened the whole debate.
  • Lord Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Party During My Time, Vol. I, ed. Henry Edward Lord Holland (1852), p. 42

• His chief merits were courage, decision of character, and discernment in discovering the talents of inferiors. Want of judgment was his great defect. An imperious temper and suspicion, with its consequences, his ruling vices.
  • Lord Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Party During My Time, Vol. I, ed. Henry Edward Lord Holland (1852), p. 42

• The conversation held to you was perfectly in the character of the man [Shelburne], and I fancy your firmness and indifference would disconcert him not a little. The affected slight with which he mentioned Lord Carlisle, reminds me of an observation I had long ago made upon him, that his art had a strong twang of a boarding-school education. It resembles much more a cunning woman's than an able man's address.
  • Lord Loughborough to William Eden (4 August 1782), quoted in The Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord Auckland, Vol. I (1861), p. 19

• A man remarkable for duplicity will be always suspected whether deserving suspicion or no. Gainsborough drew Lord Shelburne's portrait: my Lord complained it was not like. The painter said "he did not approve it, and begged to try again." Failing this time, however, he flung away his pencil saying, "D— it, I never could see through varnish, and there's an end."
  • Hester Thrale, Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs. Piozzi (Thrale), Vol. II, ed. A. Hayward (1861), p. 100

• His falsehood was so constant and notorious, that it was rather his profession than his instrument. It was like a fictitious violin, which is hung out of a music shop to indicate in what goods the tradesman deals; not to be of service, nor to be depended on for playing a true note. He was so well known that he could only deceive by speaking truth. His plausibility was less an artifice than a habit; and his smiles were so excited that, like the rattle of the snake, they warned before he had time to bite. Both his heart and his face were brave; he feared neither danger nor detection. He was so fond of insincerity as if he had been the inventor, and practised it with as little caution as if he thought nobody else had discovered the secret.
  • Horace Walpole, Journal of the Reign of King George the Third, From the Year 1771 to 1783, Vol. II (1859), pp. 566-567

• He not only had no principles, but was ready for any crime that suited his plans, which seemed drawn from histories of the worst ages—for he was rather a pedant in villany, than a politician who adapted himself to the times in which he lived. Thus a Catiline or a Borgia were his models in an age when half their wickedness would have suited his purpose better.
  • Horace Walpole, Journal of the Reign of King George the Third, From the Year 1771 to 1783, Vol. II (1859), p. 567