The Viscount Goschen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Goschenc. 1883 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First Lord of the Admiralty | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 29 June 1895 – 12 November 1900 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | The Earl Spencer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Selborne | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 14 January 1887 – 11 August 1892 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Lord Randolph Churchill | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Sir William Vernon Harcourt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1831-08-10)10 August 1831 London, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 7 February 1907(1907-02-07) (aged 75) London, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Liberal Liberal Unionist Conservative | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Rugby School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Oriel College, Oxford | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen (10 August 1831 – 7 February 1907), was a British statesman and businessman best remembered for being "forgotten" byLord Randolph Churchill. He was initially aLiberal, then aLiberal Unionist before joining theConservative Party in 1893.
WhileChancellor of the Exchequer, in 1888, he introduced theGoschen formula to allocate funding for Scotland and Ireland.
He was born in London, the son of Wilhelm Heinrich (William Henry) Goschen, who emigrated fromLeipzig. His grandfather was the prominent German printerGeorg Joachim Göschen. He was educated atRugby underTait, and atOriel College, Oxford, where he took a first inLiterae Humaniores and served asPresident of theOxford Union.[1] He entered his father's firm of "Frühling & Göschen", of Austin Friars, in 1853, and three years later became a director of theBank of England.[2] From 1874 to 1880, Goschen was Governor (Company chairman) of theHudson's Bay Company, North America's oldest company (established byEnglishroyal charter in 1670).
In 1863 he was returned without opposition as one of the fourMPs for theCity of London in theLiberal interest, and he was reelected in 1865. In November of the same year he was appointedVice-President of the Board of Trade andPaymaster General, and in January 1866 he was madeChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the cabinet. WhenGladstone becameprime minister in December 1868, Goschen joined the cabinet asPresident of the Poor Law Board, until March 1871, when he succeededChilders asFirst Lord of the Admiralty. In the1874 general election he was the only Liberal returned for the City of London, and by a narrowmajority. Being sent toCairo in 1876 as delegate for the British holders of Egyptianbonds in 1876,[1]: 50 he concluded an agreement with theKhedive to arrange for the conversion of the debt.[2]
In 1878 his views on the countyfranchise question prevented him from voting consistently with his party. With the City of London becoming more Conservative, Goschen did not stand there at the1880 general election, but was instead returned forRipon in Yorkshire,[1]: 82 which he represented until 1885, when he was returned forEdinburgh East. He declined to join Gladstone's government in 1880 and refused the post ofViceroy of India, but he became special ambassador to thePorte, where he settled theMontenegrin and Greek frontier questions in 1880 and 1881. He was made anEcclesiastical Commissioner in 1882. WhenSir Henry Brand was raised to thepeerage in 1884, Goschen was offered the role ofSpeaker of the House of Commons, but he declined. During the parliament of 1880–1885 he frequently found himself at odds with his party, especially over franchise extension and questions offoreign policy. When Gladstone adoptedHome Rule for Ireland, Goschen followedLord Hartington (afterwards 8th Duke of Devonshire) and became one of the most active of theLiberal Unionists. He failed to retain his seat for Edinburgh at the election in July of that year.[1]: 127 [2]
| National Debt (Conversion) Act 1888 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for reducing the Rate of Interest on the National Debt. |
| Citation | 51 & 52 Vict. c. 2 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 27 March 1888 |
Status: Partially repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the National Debt (Conversion) Act 1888 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, fromlegislation.gov.uk. | |
On the resignation ofLord Randolph Churchill in December 1886, Goschen, though a Liberal Unionist, acceptedLord Salisbury's invitation to join hisministry asChancellor of the Exchequer.[2] Churchill had assumed he could not be replaced and famously commented that he had "forgotten Goschen" was a potential alternative.[1]: 131 Goschen needed a seat in Parliament and so stood in a by-election in theLiverpool Exchange constituency but was defeated by seven votes inJanuary 1887. He was then elected for the strongly-ConservativeSt George's, Hanover Square, in February. His chancellorship was memorable for his successful conversion of theNational Debt in 1888.[3] He also introduced the first UK road tax, implemented in the form of two vehicle duties, on locomotives and carts.[4][5][6]
According toRoy Jenkins, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, "Whether Goschen was a good Chancellor is more problematical. His main and real achievement was the conversion in 1888 of the core of the national debt from a 3 percent to a 2.75 percent and ultimately 2.5 percent basis. For the rest he was a stolid and uninnovating Chancellor." Professor Thomas Skinner wrote, "Yet there remains a feeling that he failed to accomplish much of what needed to be done".[7]
TheUniversity of Aberdeen again conferred upon him the honour of the rectorship in 1888, he received an honoraryLL.D from theUniversity of Cambridge in the same year,[8] and he received a similar honour from theUniversity of Edinburgh in 1890.[2]
Following the defeat of Salisbury's government in 1892, Goschen moved into opposition. Though he had been a leading Liberal Unionist as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Goschen did not stand againstJoseph Chamberlain for the leadership of the party in the House of Commons 1892, following the departure of Hartington to the House of Lords as the Duke of Devonshire. Unable to work with Chamberlain, Goschen left the Liberal Unionists and joined the Conservatives in 1893. One obvious sign of his change of allegiance within the Unionist alliance was when he joined the exclusively ConservativeCarlton Club in the same year.
From 1895 to 1900 Goschen wasFirst Lord of the Admiralty. He retired in 1900 and was raised to thepeerage asViscount Goschen of Hawkhurst, Kent. Though retired from active politics he continued to take a great interest in public affairs, and whenChamberlain started histariff reform movement in 1903, Lord Goschen was one of the weightiest champions offree trade on the Unionist side.[2]
In educational subjects Goschen had always taken the greatest interest, his best known, but by no means his only, contribution to popular culture being his participation in theUniversity Extension Movement. His first efforts in parliament were devoted to advocating the abolition of religious tests and the admission ofDissenters to the universities. His published works indicate how ably he combined the wise study of economics with a practical instinct for business-like progress, without neglecting the more ideal aspects of human life. In addition to his well-known work onThe Theory of Foreign Exchanges, he published several financial and political pamphlets and addresses on educational and social subjects, among them being,The Cultivation of the Imagination, Liverpool, 1877, and that onIntellectual Interest, Aberdeen, 1888.[9] He wasPresident of the Royal Statistical Society, 1886–88.
He also wrote a biography of his grandfather,The Life and Times of George Joachim Goschen, publisher and printer of Leipzig (1903). This culminated a long-standing project to refute allegations of Jewish ancestry,[1]: 1 giving his earliest ascertainable ancestor as aLutheran pastor named Joachimus Gosenius, recorded in 1609.[10] However, it did not prevent his family from being erroneously classed as of Jewish origin in the German genealogical work known asThe Semi Gotha, first published 1913.[11]
Goschen died on 7 February 1907. He had married, in 1857, Lucy, the daughter of John Dalley, and had 6 children.[12] He was succeeded by his eldest sonGeorge (1866–1952), who was also a Conservative politician, served as Governor of Madras and married the daughter ofLord Cranbrook.[2]
I want to leave behind me all rancid emotion.
I want to be alone. I want to forget Goschen.[13]
July.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh (1911). "Goschen, George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 263–264.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCity of London 1863–1880 With:Robert Wigram Crawford 1863–1874 Sir James Duke, Bt 1863–1865 Baron Lionel de Rothschild 1863–1868 William Lawrence 1865–1874 Charles Bell 1868–1869 Baron Lionel de Rothschild 1869–1874 William Cotton 1874–1880 Philip Twells 1874–1880 John Hubbard 1874–1880 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forRipon 1880–1885 | Succeeded by |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forEdinburgh East 1885–1886 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSt George, Hanover Square 1887–1900 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Paymaster General 1865–1866 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1866 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Poor Law Board 1868–1871 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | First Lord of the Admiralty 1871–1874 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1887–1892 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | First Lord of the Admiralty 1895–1900 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Rector of the University of Edinburgh 1890–1893 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1903–1907 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Viscount Goschen 1900–1907 | Succeeded by |
