Henry Pelham
Henry Pelham was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 until his death in 1754. He was the younger brother of Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who served in Pelham's government and succeeded him as prime minister. Pelham is generally considered to have been Britain's third prime minister, after Robert Walpole and the Earl of Wilmington.
Pelham's premiership was relatively uneventful in terms of domestic affairs, although it was during his premiership that Great Britain experienced the tumult of the 1745 Jacobite uprising. In foreign affairs, Britain fought in several wars. Two of Pelham's final acts were the Jewish Naturalization Act 1753, which allowed Jews to become naturalized by application to Parliament, and the Marriage Act 1753, which enumerated the minimum age of consent for marriage. On Pelham's death, his brother Newcastle took full control of the British government.
Early life
Pelham, Newcastle's younger brother, was a younger son of Thomas Pelham, 1st Baron Pelham, and his wife, the former Grace Pelham, Baroness Pelham of Laughton, the daughter of Gilbert Holles, 3rd Earl of Clare, and Grace Pierrepont. Pelham's father, Thomas, died when he was 12 years of age. Pelham inherited £5,000 and small annuities for life while a large part of the estate went to his elder brother, the Duke Newcastle.He was educated at Westminster School, and matriculated at King's College, Cambridge at Easter 1709, then migrated to Hart Hall, Oxford, matriculating on 6 September 1710, upon the appointment of his tutor Richard Newton as Principal of Hart Hall.
Political career
Member of Parliament
As a volunteer he served in Dormer's regiment at the Battle of Preston in 1715 and spent some time on the Continent. He was returned as Member of Parliament for Seaford in Sussex by his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, at a by-election on 28 February 1717 and represented it until 1722.On 20 May 1720, Pelham made his first speech in the House of Commons. It was made during a time of union for the Whigs, which was achieved by a call for discharging the civil list debt, a motion supported by both Pelham and Walpole. On 15 March 1721, Pelham aided Walpole in getting the Earl of Sunderland's acquittal from charges of bribery.
The first position Pelham held was as Treasurer of the Chamber in 1720. The advancement came as a result of his brother's influence. Newcastle and Pelham lost £2,000 in the South Sea Bubble.
In government
Through strong family influence, and the recommendation of Robert Walpole, he was chosen in 1721 as Lord of the Treasury. At the 1722 general election he was returned as MP for Sussex county.In 1724, he entered the ministry as Secretary at War, a position he held for the next 6 years. Many of the problems that Pelham faced in that office was regarding legal affairs of the British Army, which concerned enlistments, courts-martial, mutiny, desertion, the jurisdiction of army officials and civil magistrates and the commutation powers of the King.
Pelham asserted his independent function in the ministry by voting against one of Walpole's measures to reduce interest on the national debt. In 1729, Pelham proposed placing 17,000 troops and later commanded the debate to continue paying the 12,000 Hessian troops for another year. He was criticised and denounced by William Shippen, a Jacobite member of Parliament, for the government's military policies. When Walpole introduced a bill in the Commons to increase revenue by placing excise tax on salt, it was met with fierce opposition and the sole responsibillity of defending the government fell on Pelham's shoulders. He continued to support the bill despite it being highly unpopular despite being rebuked in public.
But following the resignation of Townshend, he exchanged his then position, in 1730 for the more lucrative one of Paymaster of the Forces. He made himself conspicuous by his support of Walpole on the question of the excise. He, Newcastle, and the Prime Minister would often meet at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, where they would draw up much of the country's policy. These meetings became known as the Norfolk Congress. With Walpole, he served as a founding governor of the popular charity the Foundling Hospital when it opened its doors in 1739. Like his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, Pelham was an active freemason of the Premier Grand Lodge of England, active alongside John Theophilus Desaguliers.
In 1742 a union of parties resulted in the formation of an administration in which Pelham became Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury the following year, succeeding the Earl of Wilmington after his death.
Prime Minister
Appointment
The first year of Pelham's premiership is regarded as a continuation of the Carteret ministry, with Lord Carteret continuing as Secretary of State for the Northern Department with responsibility for foreign affairs; Carteret was close to King George II. Pelham served as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.In November 1744, the Pelhams forced Lord Carteret out of the ministry: Pelham bluntly told the king that either Carteret step down, or the Pelhamites would, leaving His Majesty without a government. Thereafter Pelham shared power with his brother, the Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne. Pelham was regarded as the leading figure, but rank and influence made his brother very powerful in the Cabinet. In spite of a genuine attachment, there were occasional disputes between them, which sometimes led to further difficulties.
"The Broad-Bottomed Administration"
Being strongly in favour of peace, Pelham carried on the War of the Austrian Succession with languor and indifferent success, but the country, wearied of the interminable struggle, was disposed to acquiesce in his foreign policy almost without a murmur. King George II, thwarted in his own favourite schemes, made overtures in February 1746 to Lord Bath, but his purpose was upset by the resignation of the two Pelhams, who, after a two-day hiatus in which Bath and Carteret proved unable to form a ministry, resumed office at the king's request. One of their terms was to insist that the king should have 'total confidence' in a ministry; rather than partial grudging acceptance of the Whigs.The Augustan era was essential to the development of prime ministerial power as being entirely dependent on a Commons majority, rather than royal prerogative interventions. While the king struggled with his headstrong son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, his son's uncertain constitutional position was high in the Leicester House party set. In 1748 Frederick, a Tory, planned to bring down the Pelhamites at a general election due the following year. The Prime Minister called an early poll in 1748 by asking the king to dissolve Parliament in 1747. The prince and his father, the king, grew to hate one another with unspeakable animosity. But one consequence was a closer relationship between Henry Pelham and the sovereign. When he finally died in 1754, the king remarked "Now I shall have no more peace." The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had been signed in 1748 leading inexorably to a number of cost-cutting budgetary measures.
Economic reform
The British Army and Royal Navy spending shrunk from £12 m to £7 million per annum. Pelham promised to reduce interest rates through introduction of a balancing act measure from 4% to 3% by 1757. He also assisted a fund to reduce the national debt. In 1749, the Navy Act 1748 was passed, reorganising the Royal Navy. On 20 March 1751, the British calendar was reorganised as well ; Britain would adopt the Gregorian calendar one year later. In 1752 he was able to reduce the land tax from 4 s to 2 s in the pound.One social consequence of the press gangs going to sea in an expansive navy fleet was the growth of industrial processes necessary for warfare. The distillation of gin reduced the price of alcohol, resulting in widespread drunkenness, demonstrated clearly by William Hogarth in "Gin Lane". Preaching in favour of temperance, and social problems caused by drunken soldiers and sailors, persuaded the administration to introduce the Gin Acts. The Gin Act 1751 was the last of four that had largely failed to prevent serious social unrest, including riots in London, reduced the number licensed dealers and sellers of liquor. By restricting supply the consumption dropped and price fell helping to manage the problem.