Henry Goulburn, 1784-1856: A Political Biography

David E. Smith is a professor of political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan and the author of Building a Province: A History of
Saskatchewan in Documents and The Invisible Crown.

Pity the biographer, who must both tell a story and faithfully re-create
a life. How much more demanding this already difficult task is when the
subject in question unfailingly exudes loyalty, rectitude, and
commitment to duty. And that is only part of the test here, for Brian
Jenkins is also engaged in a rescue mission—to resurrect his patrician
paragon from “unmerited obscurity.”

This ought not to be an impossible feat. Goulburn was twice chancellor
of the exchequer (under Wellington and Peel), chief secretary for
Ireland at the time of Catholic emancipation, and participant in debates
over the Great Reform Bill and the repeal of the Corn Laws. More than
that, he cut his political teeth as undersecretary for the colonies at
the time of the War of 1812–14 and oversaw its diplomatic conclusion
in the Treaty of Ghent. He was, says his biographer, “in everything
but name the minister of the empire.”

Yet despite the impressive scholarship that informs this study, its
subject remains an uninteresting, even inert, figure. Possessed of
insular prejudices about foreigners, Catholics, and the Irish, and
dependent on an income from slave-operated sugar estates over which he
exercised ineffectual control, Goulburn is at best an unattractive
character. While it is no doubt true that he stood at the centre of
events in the first half of the 19th century, it is equally true that he
was not central to them. This explains both his lack of prominence and
the challenge he presents to even the most scrupulous biographer.