Lord Liverpool: A Private View

Norman Gash on the personal life of the man who was Prime Minister at the time of Waterloo and for nearly twelve years afterwards, who has hitherto excited little attention.

Robert Banks Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool, whose 1812-27 administration was the longest and among the most important of the century, is one of the least known British statesmen. This was true even in his own day; he had a gift for blending with his political background. The radical pamphleteers of the Regency period, who savagely lampooned Sidmouth, Eldon and Castlereagh, rarely troubled themselves with the Prime Minister. To the contemporary British public he was little more than a name. Even today we have difficulty in detaching the man from his administration. He seemed to have no existence outside his official life.

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