Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (18 August 1792 - 28 May 1878) was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 - 1852 (preceded by Robert Peel and succeeded by Lord Derby), and then again from 1865 - 1866 (preceded by Lord Palmerston and succeeded by Lord Derby). He was one of the main architects of electoral reform in Britain, beginning Britain's transition away from rule by the landed gentry and towards democracy, and was an advocate of free trade and emancipation of Catholics and Jews.
Russell entered Parliament in 1813 as a member of the Whig party. He first rose to prominence in 1815 arguing against declaring war on Napoleon Bonaparte. He later introduced a Private Member's Bill repealing the law against Catholics and dissenting Protestants being elected to government. The bill gained the backing of then-Home Secretary Robert Peel and passed into law as the Sacramental Test Act 1828.
Russell served as Paymaster of the Forces in the government of Earl Grey when the Whigs came to power in 1830. Despite only being a junior minister, he was one of four ministers selected by Grey to draft an electoral reform act due to his vocal support for electoral reform. The result was the Reform Act 1832 which granted the vote to landowners, tenant farmers, shopkeepers and homeowners who payed a rent of at least £10 and abolished the infamously corrupt rotten and pocket boroughs (areas in which the electorate was tiny and controlled by one person). Russell was chosen to introduce the Reform Act in 1831 and over the following year successfully pushed it through Parliament. He gained the nickname "Finality Jack" for declaring the Reform Act the final measure in Parliamentary reform, although he later argued for further reform.
Following the dismissal of the Whig government by King William IV, Russell briefly served in opposition before another Whig government was formed under Viscount Melbourne, who appointed Russell Home Secretary. In this position Russell successfully secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs (six labourers sentenced to penal servitude for illegally forming a trade union) and pushed through both the Marriages Act 1836 legalizing civil partnerships and allowing Catholics and Protestant dissenters to marry in their own churches and the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841 abolishing the death penalty for rape, embezzlement, forgery, vandalism of churches and private property and returning to British territory after being deported.
Russell returned to opposition after the Conservatives won the election in 1841. During the Irish Potato Famine Russell urged Prime Minister Robert Peel to repeal the Corn Laws, which he felt were exacerbating the crisis by keeping the price of grain artificially high. Peel, already wishing to repeal the Corn Laws and seeing Russell's speech as an opportunity, introduced a bill to do so. With the support of Russell and the Whigs, it passed and the Corn Laws were repealed. This split the Conservatives and Peel was forced to resign, prompting Queen Victoria to ask Russell to form a minority government. Russell accepted her invitation and assumed the position of Prime Minister on 30 June 1846 with the support of Peel and the Conservatives, who wanted to keep the protectionist faction out of office.
As a minority government, Russell's ministry was often blocked from passing laws. However, Russell was able to introduce teacher's pensions and pass the Public Baths and Wash-Houses Acts 1847 and 1848 allowing local authorities to build sanitation facilities for the poor, the Factories Act 1847 restricting child labour and the Public Health Act 1848 giving the government a responsibility to ensure a proper sewage system, access to clean drinking water and regular street cleaning and refuse collection. Russell also introduced a Jewish Relief bill which would have allowed Jews to enter Parliament, but it failed to pass. A financial crisis known as "the week of terror" occurred in 1847 when the Bank of England's loss of gold (the British pound was gold-backed at the time) led to a run on the bank and the potential collapse of the banking system, but Russell rectified this by giving the bank permission to issue currency without gold backing. However, Russell's premiership was marred by the continued Irish Potato Famine and Russell's ill-advised decision to stop giving aid to Ireland, leading to the worsening of the famine, and by a dispute with Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston over his handling of the burning of the house of a British subject in Gibraltar. The latter incident led to Palmerston calling for a vote of no confidence which forced Russell out of office in 1852.
When Lord Derby's government resigned in December 1852, Russell, as leader of the Whigs, formed a coalition with the Peelites under Lord Aberdeen. Russell, who had by now become convinced of the necessity of further electoral reform, introduced a Reform Bill reducing the threshold needed to qualify for the vote under the previous Reform Act. He was forced to withdraw the bill due to the outbreak of the Crimean War with the prospect of re-introducing it at a later date. However, before he could do so an enquiry into Aberdeen's handling of the war was proposed and Russell resigned rather than vote against it. When the enquiry led to the fall of the government Russell attempted to form his own government but did not have the support to do so.
In 1859 Russell briefly served as Foreign Secretary in the Liberal government of Lord Palmerston. He issued a dispatch signalling the government's support for the unification of Italy and arranged the London Conference, a failed attempt to mediate between the two sides of the Second Schleswig War and establish a peace agreement. Upon Palmerston's death in 1865 Russell ascended to the position of Prime Minister and again attempted to introduce his Reform Bill, but it was defeated and Russell's government soon fell due to party disunity, with Lord Derby and Benjamin Disraeli's conservatives taking power. Russell never again held any office and died at his home in 1878.