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Which team did Anthony Charteau play for in Jan, 2000?
|
January 01, 2000
|
{
"text": [
"Vendée U"
]
}
|
L2_Q529168_P54_0
|
Anthony Charteau plays for Movistar Team from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Anthony Charteau plays for Direct Énergie from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2013.
Anthony Charteau plays for Vendée U from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
Anthony Charteau plays for Crédit Agricole from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2007.
|
Anthony CharteauAnthony Charteau (born 4 June 1979 in Nantes) is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2001 and 2013. His biggest career victory was winning the Mountains classification in the Tour de France in the 2010 edition, which was his major breakthrough. He also won the Tropicale Amissa Bongo stage race in Gabon for three years in a row from 2010 to 2012.Charteau retired at the end of the 2013 season, after thirteen seasons as a professional.
|
[
"Movistar Team",
"Direct Énergie",
"Crédit Agricole"
] |
|
Which team did Anthony Charteau play for in Dec, 2006?
|
December 25, 2006
|
{
"text": [
"Crédit Agricole"
]
}
|
L2_Q529168_P54_1
|
Anthony Charteau plays for Movistar Team from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Anthony Charteau plays for Direct Énergie from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2013.
Anthony Charteau plays for Crédit Agricole from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2007.
Anthony Charteau plays for Vendée U from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
|
Anthony CharteauAnthony Charteau (born 4 June 1979 in Nantes) is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2001 and 2013. His biggest career victory was winning the Mountains classification in the Tour de France in the 2010 edition, which was his major breakthrough. He also won the Tropicale Amissa Bongo stage race in Gabon for three years in a row from 2010 to 2012.Charteau retired at the end of the 2013 season, after thirteen seasons as a professional.
|
[
"Movistar Team",
"Direct Énergie",
"Vendée U"
] |
|
Which team did Anthony Charteau play for in Feb, 2008?
|
February 15, 2008
|
{
"text": [
"Movistar Team"
]
}
|
L2_Q529168_P54_2
|
Anthony Charteau plays for Direct Énergie from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2013.
Anthony Charteau plays for Vendée U from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
Anthony Charteau plays for Crédit Agricole from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2007.
Anthony Charteau plays for Movistar Team from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
|
Anthony CharteauAnthony Charteau (born 4 June 1979 in Nantes) is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2001 and 2013. His biggest career victory was winning the Mountains classification in the Tour de France in the 2010 edition, which was his major breakthrough. He also won the Tropicale Amissa Bongo stage race in Gabon for three years in a row from 2010 to 2012.Charteau retired at the end of the 2013 season, after thirteen seasons as a professional.
|
[
"Direct Énergie",
"Crédit Agricole",
"Vendée U"
] |
|
Which team did Anthony Charteau play for in May, 2010?
|
May 25, 2010
|
{
"text": [
"Direct Énergie"
]
}
|
L2_Q529168_P54_3
|
Anthony Charteau plays for Movistar Team from Jan, 2008 to Jan, 2009.
Anthony Charteau plays for Crédit Agricole from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2007.
Anthony Charteau plays for Vendée U from Jan, 2000 to Jan, 2000.
Anthony Charteau plays for Direct Énergie from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2013.
|
Anthony CharteauAnthony Charteau (born 4 June 1979 in Nantes) is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2001 and 2013. His biggest career victory was winning the Mountains classification in the Tour de France in the 2010 edition, which was his major breakthrough. He also won the Tropicale Amissa Bongo stage race in Gabon for three years in a row from 2010 to 2012.Charteau retired at the end of the 2013 season, after thirteen seasons as a professional.
|
[
"Movistar Team",
"Crédit Agricole",
"Vendée U"
] |
|
Which employer did Juan Cuevas Perales work for in Dec, 1817?
|
December 07, 1817
|
{
"text": [
"Tortosa Cathedral"
]
}
|
L2_Q6299561_P108_0
|
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Valencia Cathedral from Jan, 1833 to Jan, 1855.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Toledo Cathedral from Jan, 1825 to Jan, 1826.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva from Jan, 1818 to Jan, 1825.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Tortosa Cathedral from Jan, 1817 to Jan, 1818.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Mezquita Catedral from Jan, 1826 to Jan, 1833.
|
Juan Cuevas PeralesJuan Cuevas Perales (8 February 1782 in Guadassuar – 1855) was a Valencian composer in the Classical style.He was a Chapel Cathedral choirboy in Valencia. His first known professional employment was as choirmaster at church of "" in Valencia in a post which he held from 1801 to 1804, when he came back to cathedral.He obtained the position of Chapel master in the cathedral of Tortosa in February 1817 and moved there, but days before he asked and won the same post at "" in Xàtiva.Later he was Chapel master in Málaga, Toledo and Córdoba, where he asked at 1832 to replace in Cathedral of Valencia, but he had no success until December 1833. He held this position until his death in 1855.
|
[
"Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva",
"Toledo Cathedral",
"Valencia Cathedral",
"Mezquita Catedral"
] |
|
Which employer did Juan Cuevas Perales work for in Aug, 1818?
|
August 24, 1818
|
{
"text": [
"Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva"
]
}
|
L2_Q6299561_P108_1
|
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Tortosa Cathedral from Jan, 1817 to Jan, 1818.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Valencia Cathedral from Jan, 1833 to Jan, 1855.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva from Jan, 1818 to Jan, 1825.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Toledo Cathedral from Jan, 1825 to Jan, 1826.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Mezquita Catedral from Jan, 1826 to Jan, 1833.
|
Juan Cuevas PeralesJuan Cuevas Perales (8 February 1782 in Guadassuar – 1855) was a Valencian composer in the Classical style.He was a Chapel Cathedral choirboy in Valencia. His first known professional employment was as choirmaster at church of "" in Valencia in a post which he held from 1801 to 1804, when he came back to cathedral.He obtained the position of Chapel master in the cathedral of Tortosa in February 1817 and moved there, but days before he asked and won the same post at "" in Xàtiva.Later he was Chapel master in Málaga, Toledo and Córdoba, where he asked at 1832 to replace in Cathedral of Valencia, but he had no success until December 1833. He held this position until his death in 1855.
|
[
"Valencia Cathedral",
"Toledo Cathedral",
"Tortosa Cathedral",
"Mezquita Catedral"
] |
|
Which employer did Juan Cuevas Perales work for in May, 1825?
|
May 29, 1825
|
{
"text": [
"Toledo Cathedral"
]
}
|
L2_Q6299561_P108_2
|
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Tortosa Cathedral from Jan, 1817 to Jan, 1818.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva from Jan, 1818 to Jan, 1825.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Toledo Cathedral from Jan, 1825 to Jan, 1826.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Mezquita Catedral from Jan, 1826 to Jan, 1833.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Valencia Cathedral from Jan, 1833 to Jan, 1855.
|
Juan Cuevas PeralesJuan Cuevas Perales (8 February 1782 in Guadassuar – 1855) was a Valencian composer in the Classical style.He was a Chapel Cathedral choirboy in Valencia. His first known professional employment was as choirmaster at church of "" in Valencia in a post which he held from 1801 to 1804, when he came back to cathedral.He obtained the position of Chapel master in the cathedral of Tortosa in February 1817 and moved there, but days before he asked and won the same post at "" in Xàtiva.Later he was Chapel master in Málaga, Toledo and Córdoba, where he asked at 1832 to replace in Cathedral of Valencia, but he had no success until December 1833. He held this position until his death in 1855.
|
[
"Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva",
"Valencia Cathedral",
"Tortosa Cathedral",
"Mezquita Catedral"
] |
|
Which employer did Juan Cuevas Perales work for in Apr, 1827?
|
April 22, 1827
|
{
"text": [
"Mezquita Catedral"
]
}
|
L2_Q6299561_P108_3
|
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Valencia Cathedral from Jan, 1833 to Jan, 1855.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva from Jan, 1818 to Jan, 1825.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Toledo Cathedral from Jan, 1825 to Jan, 1826.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Tortosa Cathedral from Jan, 1817 to Jan, 1818.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Mezquita Catedral from Jan, 1826 to Jan, 1833.
|
Juan Cuevas PeralesJuan Cuevas Perales (8 February 1782 in Guadassuar – 1855) was a Valencian composer in the Classical style.He was a Chapel Cathedral choirboy in Valencia. His first known professional employment was as choirmaster at church of "" in Valencia in a post which he held from 1801 to 1804, when he came back to cathedral.He obtained the position of Chapel master in the cathedral of Tortosa in February 1817 and moved there, but days before he asked and won the same post at "" in Xàtiva.Later he was Chapel master in Málaga, Toledo and Córdoba, where he asked at 1832 to replace in Cathedral of Valencia, but he had no success until December 1833. He held this position until his death in 1855.
|
[
"Valencia Cathedral",
"Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva",
"Toledo Cathedral",
"Tortosa Cathedral"
] |
|
Which employer did Juan Cuevas Perales work for in Sep, 1854?
|
September 07, 1854
|
{
"text": [
"Valencia Cathedral"
]
}
|
L2_Q6299561_P108_4
|
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Tortosa Cathedral from Jan, 1817 to Jan, 1818.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Valencia Cathedral from Jan, 1833 to Jan, 1855.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva from Jan, 1818 to Jan, 1825.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Mezquita Catedral from Jan, 1826 to Jan, 1833.
Juan Cuevas Perales works for Toledo Cathedral from Jan, 1825 to Jan, 1826.
|
Juan Cuevas PeralesJuan Cuevas Perales (8 February 1782 in Guadassuar – 1855) was a Valencian composer in the Classical style.He was a Chapel Cathedral choirboy in Valencia. His first known professional employment was as choirmaster at church of "" in Valencia in a post which he held from 1801 to 1804, when he came back to cathedral.He obtained the position of Chapel master in the cathedral of Tortosa in February 1817 and moved there, but days before he asked and won the same post at "" in Xàtiva.Later he was Chapel master in Málaga, Toledo and Córdoba, where he asked at 1832 to replace in Cathedral of Valencia, but he had no success until December 1833. He held this position until his death in 1855.
|
[
"Collegiate Basilica of Xàtiva",
"Toledo Cathedral",
"Tortosa Cathedral",
"Mezquita Catedral"
] |
|
Which employer did Perry T. Rathbone work for in Dec, 1934?
|
December 10, 1934
|
{
"text": [
"Detroit Institute of Arts"
]
}
|
L2_Q7169907_P108_0
|
Perry T. Rathbone works for Museum of Fine Arts from Jan, 1955 to Jan, 1972.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Saint Louis Art Museum from Jan, 1940 to Jan, 1955.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Russell A. Alger House Museum from Jan, 1937 to Jan, 1940.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Detroit Institute of Arts from Jan, 1934 to Jan, 1940.
|
Perry T. RathbonePerry Townsend Rathbone (July 3, 1911- January 22, 2000) was one of the leading American art museum directors of the 20th century. As director of the St. Louis Art Museum from 1940–1955, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1955–1972, he transformed these institutions from quiet repositories of art to vibrant cultural centers. Known for his sensitive installations as well as his bold publicity stunts, he increased the membership and attendance figures of both institutions exponentially, and also added significant works to their permanent collections across the board.Rathbone was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on July 3, 1911 and spent his early childhood in New York City where his father, Howard Betts Rathbone, worked as a salesman. His mother, Beatrice Connely Rathbone, was a school nurse. In 1917 the family moved to New Rochelle, New York where Perry and his older brother Westcott attended the local public schools. Perry entered Harvard College as a freshman in the fall of 1929 with the class of 1933. At Harvard he majored in art history and went on to take the graduate course with Professor Paul Sachs called "Museum Work and Museum Problems," which was responsible for training the first generation of museum professionals in America. Rathbone's classmates in the museum course included Henry McIlhenny, Charles Cunningham, John Newberry, and James Plaut.Upon completing the museum course in 1934, Rathbone's first job was as a lecturer in the education department of the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1936 he was appointed curator of Alger House, a branch museum in Grosse Point, Michigan, where he lived with DIA director William Valentiner. In 1939 he assisted Valentiner in organizing the Masterpieces of Art exhibition at the World's Fair in New York. In 1940 Rathbone was appointed director of the St. Louis Art Museum (then the City Art Museum). At age 29, he was the youngest museum director in America. From 1943-45 he served in the U.S. Navy in Washington D.C. as head of combat artists, and in New Caledonia as an officer. Upon returning from New Caledonia he married Euretta de Cosson, a British ski champion, on February 10, 1945. Three children were born to the Rathbones in St. Louis: Peter (1946), Eliza (1948), and Belinda (1950). Rathbone also was instrumental in helping the German artist Max Beckmann move to America after the war by securing him a teaching position at Washington University, and organized his first major retrospective in the USA at the St. Louis Museum. He was a champion of modern art, and along with Joseph Pulitzer Jr., and Morton May, stimulated many other collectors of modern art in St. Louis.Rathbone added key works to the permanent collection in St. Louis, including Winslow Homer's "The Country School", David Smith's "Cockfight", Montorsoli's "Reclining Pan," and a Sumerian bull's head. He was also responsible for many popular exhibitions, some of regional interest, such as "Mississippi Panorama" and "Westward the Way", others international, such as the 1949 blockbuster "Treasures from Berlin", which attracted an average of 12,634 visitors per day.In 1955 Rathbone left St. Louis to become director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). In Boston he formed the first "Ladies Committee" for the museum with Frances Weeks Hallowell, a successful strategy for increasing membership and broadening the MFA's base of support. Rathbone staged unprecedented loan exhibitions such as "European Art of Our Time" and "The Age of Rembrandt", renovated more than fifty galleries, and increased the annual sale of publications by 1000 per cent. As temporary head of the paintings department while also serving as the museum's director, he added notable works to the collection such as Rosso Fiorentino's "Dead Christ with Angels", Claude Monet's "La Japonaise", Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's "Time Unveiling Truth", and the anonymous fifteenth-century Flemish "Martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus". Arriving at the MFA in the mid-fifties, Rathbone was the first director to build their collection of modern and contemporary art, including the museum's first Picasso oil, "Standing Figure, 1908", first painting by Edvard Munch, "The Voice", and first Jackson Pollock, "Number 10", 1949. He attracted gifts from important collectors such as Maxim Karolik and Alvan Fuller, and the Forsyth Wickes collection of eighteenth-century French art. He also acquired, in 1969, a small portrait thought to be by Raphael, which was subsequently returned to Italy amidst a storm of controversy over its exportation and attribution to Raphael. This incident led to Rathbone's early retirement from the MFA.After resigning from the MFA in 1972 Rathbone was made head of the New York offices of Christie's, and in 1977 when the firm began to hold auctions in New York, was made Museums Liaison Officer. He retired in 1985.
|
[
"Saint Louis Art Museum",
"Museum of Fine Arts",
"Russell A. Alger House Museum"
] |
|
Which employer did Perry T. Rathbone work for in Apr, 1938?
|
April 17, 1938
|
{
"text": [
"Russell A. Alger House Museum",
"Detroit Institute of Arts"
]
}
|
L2_Q7169907_P108_1
|
Perry T. Rathbone works for Russell A. Alger House Museum from Jan, 1937 to Jan, 1940.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Detroit Institute of Arts from Jan, 1934 to Jan, 1940.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Museum of Fine Arts from Jan, 1955 to Jan, 1972.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Saint Louis Art Museum from Jan, 1940 to Jan, 1955.
|
Perry T. RathbonePerry Townsend Rathbone (July 3, 1911- January 22, 2000) was one of the leading American art museum directors of the 20th century. As director of the St. Louis Art Museum from 1940–1955, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1955–1972, he transformed these institutions from quiet repositories of art to vibrant cultural centers. Known for his sensitive installations as well as his bold publicity stunts, he increased the membership and attendance figures of both institutions exponentially, and also added significant works to their permanent collections across the board.Rathbone was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on July 3, 1911 and spent his early childhood in New York City where his father, Howard Betts Rathbone, worked as a salesman. His mother, Beatrice Connely Rathbone, was a school nurse. In 1917 the family moved to New Rochelle, New York where Perry and his older brother Westcott attended the local public schools. Perry entered Harvard College as a freshman in the fall of 1929 with the class of 1933. At Harvard he majored in art history and went on to take the graduate course with Professor Paul Sachs called "Museum Work and Museum Problems," which was responsible for training the first generation of museum professionals in America. Rathbone's classmates in the museum course included Henry McIlhenny, Charles Cunningham, John Newberry, and James Plaut.Upon completing the museum course in 1934, Rathbone's first job was as a lecturer in the education department of the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1936 he was appointed curator of Alger House, a branch museum in Grosse Point, Michigan, where he lived with DIA director William Valentiner. In 1939 he assisted Valentiner in organizing the Masterpieces of Art exhibition at the World's Fair in New York. In 1940 Rathbone was appointed director of the St. Louis Art Museum (then the City Art Museum). At age 29, he was the youngest museum director in America. From 1943-45 he served in the U.S. Navy in Washington D.C. as head of combat artists, and in New Caledonia as an officer. Upon returning from New Caledonia he married Euretta de Cosson, a British ski champion, on February 10, 1945. Three children were born to the Rathbones in St. Louis: Peter (1946), Eliza (1948), and Belinda (1950). Rathbone also was instrumental in helping the German artist Max Beckmann move to America after the war by securing him a teaching position at Washington University, and organized his first major retrospective in the USA at the St. Louis Museum. He was a champion of modern art, and along with Joseph Pulitzer Jr., and Morton May, stimulated many other collectors of modern art in St. Louis.Rathbone added key works to the permanent collection in St. Louis, including Winslow Homer's "The Country School", David Smith's "Cockfight", Montorsoli's "Reclining Pan," and a Sumerian bull's head. He was also responsible for many popular exhibitions, some of regional interest, such as "Mississippi Panorama" and "Westward the Way", others international, such as the 1949 blockbuster "Treasures from Berlin", which attracted an average of 12,634 visitors per day.In 1955 Rathbone left St. Louis to become director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). In Boston he formed the first "Ladies Committee" for the museum with Frances Weeks Hallowell, a successful strategy for increasing membership and broadening the MFA's base of support. Rathbone staged unprecedented loan exhibitions such as "European Art of Our Time" and "The Age of Rembrandt", renovated more than fifty galleries, and increased the annual sale of publications by 1000 per cent. As temporary head of the paintings department while also serving as the museum's director, he added notable works to the collection such as Rosso Fiorentino's "Dead Christ with Angels", Claude Monet's "La Japonaise", Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's "Time Unveiling Truth", and the anonymous fifteenth-century Flemish "Martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus". Arriving at the MFA in the mid-fifties, Rathbone was the first director to build their collection of modern and contemporary art, including the museum's first Picasso oil, "Standing Figure, 1908", first painting by Edvard Munch, "The Voice", and first Jackson Pollock, "Number 10", 1949. He attracted gifts from important collectors such as Maxim Karolik and Alvan Fuller, and the Forsyth Wickes collection of eighteenth-century French art. He also acquired, in 1969, a small portrait thought to be by Raphael, which was subsequently returned to Italy amidst a storm of controversy over its exportation and attribution to Raphael. This incident led to Rathbone's early retirement from the MFA.After resigning from the MFA in 1972 Rathbone was made head of the New York offices of Christie's, and in 1977 when the firm began to hold auctions in New York, was made Museums Liaison Officer. He retired in 1985.
|
[
"Saint Louis Art Museum",
"Museum of Fine Arts"
] |
|
Which employer did Perry T. Rathbone work for in Oct, 1945?
|
October 21, 1945
|
{
"text": [
"Saint Louis Art Museum"
]
}
|
L2_Q7169907_P108_2
|
Perry T. Rathbone works for Detroit Institute of Arts from Jan, 1934 to Jan, 1940.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Museum of Fine Arts from Jan, 1955 to Jan, 1972.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Russell A. Alger House Museum from Jan, 1937 to Jan, 1940.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Saint Louis Art Museum from Jan, 1940 to Jan, 1955.
|
Perry T. RathbonePerry Townsend Rathbone (July 3, 1911- January 22, 2000) was one of the leading American art museum directors of the 20th century. As director of the St. Louis Art Museum from 1940–1955, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1955–1972, he transformed these institutions from quiet repositories of art to vibrant cultural centers. Known for his sensitive installations as well as his bold publicity stunts, he increased the membership and attendance figures of both institutions exponentially, and also added significant works to their permanent collections across the board.Rathbone was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on July 3, 1911 and spent his early childhood in New York City where his father, Howard Betts Rathbone, worked as a salesman. His mother, Beatrice Connely Rathbone, was a school nurse. In 1917 the family moved to New Rochelle, New York where Perry and his older brother Westcott attended the local public schools. Perry entered Harvard College as a freshman in the fall of 1929 with the class of 1933. At Harvard he majored in art history and went on to take the graduate course with Professor Paul Sachs called "Museum Work and Museum Problems," which was responsible for training the first generation of museum professionals in America. Rathbone's classmates in the museum course included Henry McIlhenny, Charles Cunningham, John Newberry, and James Plaut.Upon completing the museum course in 1934, Rathbone's first job was as a lecturer in the education department of the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1936 he was appointed curator of Alger House, a branch museum in Grosse Point, Michigan, where he lived with DIA director William Valentiner. In 1939 he assisted Valentiner in organizing the Masterpieces of Art exhibition at the World's Fair in New York. In 1940 Rathbone was appointed director of the St. Louis Art Museum (then the City Art Museum). At age 29, he was the youngest museum director in America. From 1943-45 he served in the U.S. Navy in Washington D.C. as head of combat artists, and in New Caledonia as an officer. Upon returning from New Caledonia he married Euretta de Cosson, a British ski champion, on February 10, 1945. Three children were born to the Rathbones in St. Louis: Peter (1946), Eliza (1948), and Belinda (1950). Rathbone also was instrumental in helping the German artist Max Beckmann move to America after the war by securing him a teaching position at Washington University, and organized his first major retrospective in the USA at the St. Louis Museum. He was a champion of modern art, and along with Joseph Pulitzer Jr., and Morton May, stimulated many other collectors of modern art in St. Louis.Rathbone added key works to the permanent collection in St. Louis, including Winslow Homer's "The Country School", David Smith's "Cockfight", Montorsoli's "Reclining Pan," and a Sumerian bull's head. He was also responsible for many popular exhibitions, some of regional interest, such as "Mississippi Panorama" and "Westward the Way", others international, such as the 1949 blockbuster "Treasures from Berlin", which attracted an average of 12,634 visitors per day.In 1955 Rathbone left St. Louis to become director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). In Boston he formed the first "Ladies Committee" for the museum with Frances Weeks Hallowell, a successful strategy for increasing membership and broadening the MFA's base of support. Rathbone staged unprecedented loan exhibitions such as "European Art of Our Time" and "The Age of Rembrandt", renovated more than fifty galleries, and increased the annual sale of publications by 1000 per cent. As temporary head of the paintings department while also serving as the museum's director, he added notable works to the collection such as Rosso Fiorentino's "Dead Christ with Angels", Claude Monet's "La Japonaise", Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's "Time Unveiling Truth", and the anonymous fifteenth-century Flemish "Martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus". Arriving at the MFA in the mid-fifties, Rathbone was the first director to build their collection of modern and contemporary art, including the museum's first Picasso oil, "Standing Figure, 1908", first painting by Edvard Munch, "The Voice", and first Jackson Pollock, "Number 10", 1949. He attracted gifts from important collectors such as Maxim Karolik and Alvan Fuller, and the Forsyth Wickes collection of eighteenth-century French art. He also acquired, in 1969, a small portrait thought to be by Raphael, which was subsequently returned to Italy amidst a storm of controversy over its exportation and attribution to Raphael. This incident led to Rathbone's early retirement from the MFA.After resigning from the MFA in 1972 Rathbone was made head of the New York offices of Christie's, and in 1977 when the firm began to hold auctions in New York, was made Museums Liaison Officer. He retired in 1985.
|
[
"Museum of Fine Arts",
"Russell A. Alger House Museum",
"Detroit Institute of Arts"
] |
|
Which employer did Perry T. Rathbone work for in Aug, 1970?
|
August 29, 1970
|
{
"text": [
"Museum of Fine Arts"
]
}
|
L2_Q7169907_P108_3
|
Perry T. Rathbone works for Saint Louis Art Museum from Jan, 1940 to Jan, 1955.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Russell A. Alger House Museum from Jan, 1937 to Jan, 1940.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Detroit Institute of Arts from Jan, 1934 to Jan, 1940.
Perry T. Rathbone works for Museum of Fine Arts from Jan, 1955 to Jan, 1972.
|
Perry T. RathbonePerry Townsend Rathbone (July 3, 1911- January 22, 2000) was one of the leading American art museum directors of the 20th century. As director of the St. Louis Art Museum from 1940–1955, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1955–1972, he transformed these institutions from quiet repositories of art to vibrant cultural centers. Known for his sensitive installations as well as his bold publicity stunts, he increased the membership and attendance figures of both institutions exponentially, and also added significant works to their permanent collections across the board.Rathbone was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on July 3, 1911 and spent his early childhood in New York City where his father, Howard Betts Rathbone, worked as a salesman. His mother, Beatrice Connely Rathbone, was a school nurse. In 1917 the family moved to New Rochelle, New York where Perry and his older brother Westcott attended the local public schools. Perry entered Harvard College as a freshman in the fall of 1929 with the class of 1933. At Harvard he majored in art history and went on to take the graduate course with Professor Paul Sachs called "Museum Work and Museum Problems," which was responsible for training the first generation of museum professionals in America. Rathbone's classmates in the museum course included Henry McIlhenny, Charles Cunningham, John Newberry, and James Plaut.Upon completing the museum course in 1934, Rathbone's first job was as a lecturer in the education department of the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1936 he was appointed curator of Alger House, a branch museum in Grosse Point, Michigan, where he lived with DIA director William Valentiner. In 1939 he assisted Valentiner in organizing the Masterpieces of Art exhibition at the World's Fair in New York. In 1940 Rathbone was appointed director of the St. Louis Art Museum (then the City Art Museum). At age 29, he was the youngest museum director in America. From 1943-45 he served in the U.S. Navy in Washington D.C. as head of combat artists, and in New Caledonia as an officer. Upon returning from New Caledonia he married Euretta de Cosson, a British ski champion, on February 10, 1945. Three children were born to the Rathbones in St. Louis: Peter (1946), Eliza (1948), and Belinda (1950). Rathbone also was instrumental in helping the German artist Max Beckmann move to America after the war by securing him a teaching position at Washington University, and organized his first major retrospective in the USA at the St. Louis Museum. He was a champion of modern art, and along with Joseph Pulitzer Jr., and Morton May, stimulated many other collectors of modern art in St. Louis.Rathbone added key works to the permanent collection in St. Louis, including Winslow Homer's "The Country School", David Smith's "Cockfight", Montorsoli's "Reclining Pan," and a Sumerian bull's head. He was also responsible for many popular exhibitions, some of regional interest, such as "Mississippi Panorama" and "Westward the Way", others international, such as the 1949 blockbuster "Treasures from Berlin", which attracted an average of 12,634 visitors per day.In 1955 Rathbone left St. Louis to become director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). In Boston he formed the first "Ladies Committee" for the museum with Frances Weeks Hallowell, a successful strategy for increasing membership and broadening the MFA's base of support. Rathbone staged unprecedented loan exhibitions such as "European Art of Our Time" and "The Age of Rembrandt", renovated more than fifty galleries, and increased the annual sale of publications by 1000 per cent. As temporary head of the paintings department while also serving as the museum's director, he added notable works to the collection such as Rosso Fiorentino's "Dead Christ with Angels", Claude Monet's "La Japonaise", Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's "Time Unveiling Truth", and the anonymous fifteenth-century Flemish "Martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus". Arriving at the MFA in the mid-fifties, Rathbone was the first director to build their collection of modern and contemporary art, including the museum's first Picasso oil, "Standing Figure, 1908", first painting by Edvard Munch, "The Voice", and first Jackson Pollock, "Number 10", 1949. He attracted gifts from important collectors such as Maxim Karolik and Alvan Fuller, and the Forsyth Wickes collection of eighteenth-century French art. He also acquired, in 1969, a small portrait thought to be by Raphael, which was subsequently returned to Italy amidst a storm of controversy over its exportation and attribution to Raphael. This incident led to Rathbone's early retirement from the MFA.After resigning from the MFA in 1972 Rathbone was made head of the New York offices of Christie's, and in 1977 when the firm began to hold auctions in New York, was made Museums Liaison Officer. He retired in 1985.
|
[
"Saint Louis Art Museum",
"Russell A. Alger House Museum",
"Detroit Institute of Arts"
] |
|
Which position did Seán Flanagan hold in Jun, 1951?
|
June 26, 1951
|
{
"text": [
"Teachta Dála"
]
}
|
L2_Q466420_P39_0
|
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from May, 1952 to Jan, 1953.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 1979 to Jul, 1984.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Health from Jul, 1966 to Jul, 1969.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment from Jul, 1969 to Mar, 1973.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Teachta Dála from Jun, 1951 to Apr, 1954.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1965.
|
Seán FlanaganSeán Flanagan (26 January 1922 – 5 February 1993) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Health from 1966 to 1969, Minister for Lands from 1969 to 1973 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1965 to 1966. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Connacht–Ulster constituency from 1979 to 1989. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency from 1951 to 1969 and for the Mayo East constituency from 1969 to 1977.Flanagan was born in Coolnaha, Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo in 1922. He was educated locally, then later at St Jarlath's College in Tuam, County Galway, where he showed enthusiasm for sport. He won two Connacht championship medals with the college in 1939 and in 1940. He later studied at Clonliffe College in Dublin, and then enrolled in University College Dublin, where he studied law and qualified as a solicitor.Flanagan also played senior Gaelic football for Mayo. He captained the All-Ireland final-winning sides of 1950 and 1951, and won five Connacht senior championship medals in all. He also won two National Football League titles in 1949 and 1954. While still a footballer, Flanagan entered into a career in politics.In recognition of his skills and long-running contribution to the sport, Flanagan was awarded the 1992 All-time all-star award as no GAA All Stars Awards were being issued at the time of his playing career. In 1984, the Gaelic Athletic Association centenary year he was honoured by being named on their Football Team of the Century. In 1999, he was again honoured by the GAA by being named on their Gaelic Football Team of the Millennium.Flanagan came from a Fianna Fáil family, and was recruited into the party in east Mayo. He was elected a Fianna Fáil TD for Mayo South at the 1951 general election, and won a seat—first there, then from 1969 in Mayo East—at each subsequent election until he lost his seat at the 1977 general election.Flanagan rose rapidly through the party ranks, and was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary under Taoiseach Seán Lemass in 1959. In the Fianna Fáil leadership election in 1966 Flanagan supported Jack Lynch. When Lynch became Taoiseach, Flanagan was promoted to the Cabinet as Minister for Health. Three years later in 1969, he became Minister for Lands. Flanagan lost his seat at the 1977 general election, and effectively retired from domestic politics; however, he was elected to the European Parliament in the first direct elections in 1979. He was re-elected in 1984, and retired from politics in 1989.Flanagan died on 5 February 1993, at the age of 71.
|
[
"Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"Minister for Health",
"Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment",
"Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"member of the European Parliament"
] |
|
Which position did Seán Flanagan hold in Jun, 1952?
|
June 15, 1952
|
{
"text": [
"Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"Teachta Dála"
]
}
|
L2_Q466420_P39_1
|
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Health from Jul, 1966 to Jul, 1969.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 1979 to Jul, 1984.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from May, 1952 to Jan, 1953.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Teachta Dála from Jun, 1951 to Apr, 1954.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment from Jul, 1969 to Mar, 1973.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1965.
|
Seán FlanaganSeán Flanagan (26 January 1922 – 5 February 1993) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Health from 1966 to 1969, Minister for Lands from 1969 to 1973 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1965 to 1966. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Connacht–Ulster constituency from 1979 to 1989. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency from 1951 to 1969 and for the Mayo East constituency from 1969 to 1977.Flanagan was born in Coolnaha, Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo in 1922. He was educated locally, then later at St Jarlath's College in Tuam, County Galway, where he showed enthusiasm for sport. He won two Connacht championship medals with the college in 1939 and in 1940. He later studied at Clonliffe College in Dublin, and then enrolled in University College Dublin, where he studied law and qualified as a solicitor.Flanagan also played senior Gaelic football for Mayo. He captained the All-Ireland final-winning sides of 1950 and 1951, and won five Connacht senior championship medals in all. He also won two National Football League titles in 1949 and 1954. While still a footballer, Flanagan entered into a career in politics.In recognition of his skills and long-running contribution to the sport, Flanagan was awarded the 1992 All-time all-star award as no GAA All Stars Awards were being issued at the time of his playing career. In 1984, the Gaelic Athletic Association centenary year he was honoured by being named on their Football Team of the Century. In 1999, he was again honoured by the GAA by being named on their Gaelic Football Team of the Millennium.Flanagan came from a Fianna Fáil family, and was recruited into the party in east Mayo. He was elected a Fianna Fáil TD for Mayo South at the 1951 general election, and won a seat—first there, then from 1969 in Mayo East—at each subsequent election until he lost his seat at the 1977 general election.Flanagan rose rapidly through the party ranks, and was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary under Taoiseach Seán Lemass in 1959. In the Fianna Fáil leadership election in 1966 Flanagan supported Jack Lynch. When Lynch became Taoiseach, Flanagan was promoted to the Cabinet as Minister for Health. Three years later in 1969, he became Minister for Lands. Flanagan lost his seat at the 1977 general election, and effectively retired from domestic politics; however, he was elected to the European Parliament in the first direct elections in 1979. He was re-elected in 1984, and retired from politics in 1989.Flanagan died on 5 February 1993, at the age of 71.
|
[
"Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment",
"Minister for Health",
"member of the European Parliament"
] |
|
Which position did Seán Flanagan hold in Jan, 1965?
|
January 28, 1965
|
{
"text": [
"Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe"
]
}
|
L2_Q466420_P39_2
|
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment from Jul, 1969 to Mar, 1973.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 1979 to Jul, 1984.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from May, 1952 to Jan, 1953.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Health from Jul, 1966 to Jul, 1969.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1965.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Teachta Dála from Jun, 1951 to Apr, 1954.
|
Seán FlanaganSeán Flanagan (26 January 1922 – 5 February 1993) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Health from 1966 to 1969, Minister for Lands from 1969 to 1973 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1965 to 1966. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Connacht–Ulster constituency from 1979 to 1989. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency from 1951 to 1969 and for the Mayo East constituency from 1969 to 1977.Flanagan was born in Coolnaha, Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo in 1922. He was educated locally, then later at St Jarlath's College in Tuam, County Galway, where he showed enthusiasm for sport. He won two Connacht championship medals with the college in 1939 and in 1940. He later studied at Clonliffe College in Dublin, and then enrolled in University College Dublin, where he studied law and qualified as a solicitor.Flanagan also played senior Gaelic football for Mayo. He captained the All-Ireland final-winning sides of 1950 and 1951, and won five Connacht senior championship medals in all. He also won two National Football League titles in 1949 and 1954. While still a footballer, Flanagan entered into a career in politics.In recognition of his skills and long-running contribution to the sport, Flanagan was awarded the 1992 All-time all-star award as no GAA All Stars Awards were being issued at the time of his playing career. In 1984, the Gaelic Athletic Association centenary year he was honoured by being named on their Football Team of the Century. In 1999, he was again honoured by the GAA by being named on their Gaelic Football Team of the Millennium.Flanagan came from a Fianna Fáil family, and was recruited into the party in east Mayo. He was elected a Fianna Fáil TD for Mayo South at the 1951 general election, and won a seat—first there, then from 1969 in Mayo East—at each subsequent election until he lost his seat at the 1977 general election.Flanagan rose rapidly through the party ranks, and was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary under Taoiseach Seán Lemass in 1959. In the Fianna Fáil leadership election in 1966 Flanagan supported Jack Lynch. When Lynch became Taoiseach, Flanagan was promoted to the Cabinet as Minister for Health. Three years later in 1969, he became Minister for Lands. Flanagan lost his seat at the 1977 general election, and effectively retired from domestic politics; however, he was elected to the European Parliament in the first direct elections in 1979. He was re-elected in 1984, and retired from politics in 1989.Flanagan died on 5 February 1993, at the age of 71.
|
[
"Minister for Health",
"Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment",
"Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"member of the European Parliament",
"Teachta Dála"
] |
|
Which position did Seán Flanagan hold in Apr, 1968?
|
April 21, 1968
|
{
"text": [
"Minister for Health"
]
}
|
L2_Q466420_P39_3
|
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Health from Jul, 1966 to Jul, 1969.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Teachta Dála from Jun, 1951 to Apr, 1954.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1965.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from May, 1952 to Jan, 1953.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment from Jul, 1969 to Mar, 1973.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 1979 to Jul, 1984.
|
Seán FlanaganSeán Flanagan (26 January 1922 – 5 February 1993) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Health from 1966 to 1969, Minister for Lands from 1969 to 1973 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1965 to 1966. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Connacht–Ulster constituency from 1979 to 1989. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency from 1951 to 1969 and for the Mayo East constituency from 1969 to 1977.Flanagan was born in Coolnaha, Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo in 1922. He was educated locally, then later at St Jarlath's College in Tuam, County Galway, where he showed enthusiasm for sport. He won two Connacht championship medals with the college in 1939 and in 1940. He later studied at Clonliffe College in Dublin, and then enrolled in University College Dublin, where he studied law and qualified as a solicitor.Flanagan also played senior Gaelic football for Mayo. He captained the All-Ireland final-winning sides of 1950 and 1951, and won five Connacht senior championship medals in all. He also won two National Football League titles in 1949 and 1954. While still a footballer, Flanagan entered into a career in politics.In recognition of his skills and long-running contribution to the sport, Flanagan was awarded the 1992 All-time all-star award as no GAA All Stars Awards were being issued at the time of his playing career. In 1984, the Gaelic Athletic Association centenary year he was honoured by being named on their Football Team of the Century. In 1999, he was again honoured by the GAA by being named on their Gaelic Football Team of the Millennium.Flanagan came from a Fianna Fáil family, and was recruited into the party in east Mayo. He was elected a Fianna Fáil TD for Mayo South at the 1951 general election, and won a seat—first there, then from 1969 in Mayo East—at each subsequent election until he lost his seat at the 1977 general election.Flanagan rose rapidly through the party ranks, and was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary under Taoiseach Seán Lemass in 1959. In the Fianna Fáil leadership election in 1966 Flanagan supported Jack Lynch. When Lynch became Taoiseach, Flanagan was promoted to the Cabinet as Minister for Health. Three years later in 1969, he became Minister for Lands. Flanagan lost his seat at the 1977 general election, and effectively retired from domestic politics; however, he was elected to the European Parliament in the first direct elections in 1979. He was re-elected in 1984, and retired from politics in 1989.Flanagan died on 5 February 1993, at the age of 71.
|
[
"Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment",
"Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"member of the European Parliament",
"Teachta Dála"
] |
|
Which position did Seán Flanagan hold in Feb, 1972?
|
February 07, 1972
|
{
"text": [
"Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment"
]
}
|
L2_Q466420_P39_4
|
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1965.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 1979 to Jul, 1984.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from May, 1952 to Jan, 1953.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Teachta Dála from Jun, 1951 to Apr, 1954.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Health from Jul, 1966 to Jul, 1969.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment from Jul, 1969 to Mar, 1973.
|
Seán FlanaganSeán Flanagan (26 January 1922 – 5 February 1993) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Health from 1966 to 1969, Minister for Lands from 1969 to 1973 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1965 to 1966. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Connacht–Ulster constituency from 1979 to 1989. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency from 1951 to 1969 and for the Mayo East constituency from 1969 to 1977.Flanagan was born in Coolnaha, Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo in 1922. He was educated locally, then later at St Jarlath's College in Tuam, County Galway, where he showed enthusiasm for sport. He won two Connacht championship medals with the college in 1939 and in 1940. He later studied at Clonliffe College in Dublin, and then enrolled in University College Dublin, where he studied law and qualified as a solicitor.Flanagan also played senior Gaelic football for Mayo. He captained the All-Ireland final-winning sides of 1950 and 1951, and won five Connacht senior championship medals in all. He also won two National Football League titles in 1949 and 1954. While still a footballer, Flanagan entered into a career in politics.In recognition of his skills and long-running contribution to the sport, Flanagan was awarded the 1992 All-time all-star award as no GAA All Stars Awards were being issued at the time of his playing career. In 1984, the Gaelic Athletic Association centenary year he was honoured by being named on their Football Team of the Century. In 1999, he was again honoured by the GAA by being named on their Gaelic Football Team of the Millennium.Flanagan came from a Fianna Fáil family, and was recruited into the party in east Mayo. He was elected a Fianna Fáil TD for Mayo South at the 1951 general election, and won a seat—first there, then from 1969 in Mayo East—at each subsequent election until he lost his seat at the 1977 general election.Flanagan rose rapidly through the party ranks, and was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary under Taoiseach Seán Lemass in 1959. In the Fianna Fáil leadership election in 1966 Flanagan supported Jack Lynch. When Lynch became Taoiseach, Flanagan was promoted to the Cabinet as Minister for Health. Three years later in 1969, he became Minister for Lands. Flanagan lost his seat at the 1977 general election, and effectively retired from domestic politics; however, he was elected to the European Parliament in the first direct elections in 1979. He was re-elected in 1984, and retired from politics in 1989.Flanagan died on 5 February 1993, at the age of 71.
|
[
"Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"Minister for Health",
"Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"member of the European Parliament",
"Teachta Dála"
] |
|
Which position did Seán Flanagan hold in Sep, 1981?
|
September 20, 1981
|
{
"text": [
"member of the European Parliament"
]
}
|
L2_Q466420_P39_5
|
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment from Jul, 1969 to Mar, 1973.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from Jan, 1965 to Jan, 1965.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Minister for Health from Jul, 1966 to Jul, 1969.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of member of the European Parliament from Jul, 1979 to Jul, 1984.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Teachta Dála from Jun, 1951 to Apr, 1954.
Seán Flanagan holds the position of Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from May, 1952 to Jan, 1953.
|
Seán FlanaganSeán Flanagan (26 January 1922 – 5 February 1993) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Health from 1966 to 1969, Minister for Lands from 1969 to 1973 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1965 to 1966. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Connacht–Ulster constituency from 1979 to 1989. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency from 1951 to 1969 and for the Mayo East constituency from 1969 to 1977.Flanagan was born in Coolnaha, Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo in 1922. He was educated locally, then later at St Jarlath's College in Tuam, County Galway, where he showed enthusiasm for sport. He won two Connacht championship medals with the college in 1939 and in 1940. He later studied at Clonliffe College in Dublin, and then enrolled in University College Dublin, where he studied law and qualified as a solicitor.Flanagan also played senior Gaelic football for Mayo. He captained the All-Ireland final-winning sides of 1950 and 1951, and won five Connacht senior championship medals in all. He also won two National Football League titles in 1949 and 1954. While still a footballer, Flanagan entered into a career in politics.In recognition of his skills and long-running contribution to the sport, Flanagan was awarded the 1992 All-time all-star award as no GAA All Stars Awards were being issued at the time of his playing career. In 1984, the Gaelic Athletic Association centenary year he was honoured by being named on their Football Team of the Century. In 1999, he was again honoured by the GAA by being named on their Gaelic Football Team of the Millennium.Flanagan came from a Fianna Fáil family, and was recruited into the party in east Mayo. He was elected a Fianna Fáil TD for Mayo South at the 1951 general election, and won a seat—first there, then from 1969 in Mayo East—at each subsequent election until he lost his seat at the 1977 general election.Flanagan rose rapidly through the party ranks, and was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary under Taoiseach Seán Lemass in 1959. In the Fianna Fáil leadership election in 1966 Flanagan supported Jack Lynch. When Lynch became Taoiseach, Flanagan was promoted to the Cabinet as Minister for Health. Three years later in 1969, he became Minister for Lands. Flanagan lost his seat at the 1977 general election, and effectively retired from domestic politics; however, he was elected to the European Parliament in the first direct elections in 1979. He was re-elected in 1984, and retired from politics in 1989.Flanagan died on 5 February 1993, at the age of 71.
|
[
"Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"Minister for Health",
"Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment",
"Substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe",
"Teachta Dála"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party in Jul, 1998?
|
July 30, 1998
|
{
"text": [
"Miloš Zeman"
]
}
|
L2_Q341148_P488_0
|
Vladimír Špidla is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2004.
Stanislav Gross is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
Jan Hamáček is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2018 to Jan, 2021.
Michal Šmarda is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Miloš Zeman is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2001.
Jiří Paroubek is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2010.
Bohuslav Sobotka is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2017.
|
Czech Social Democratic PartyThe Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. It holds 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies following the 2017 legislative election in which the party lost 35 seats. The party has been led by Jan Hamáček since 2018. It has been a junior coalition party within a minority cabinet since June 2018, and was a senior coalition party from 1998 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2017.The ČSSD is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance.The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria () was a political group founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary as a regional wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Founded in Břevnov atop earlier social democratic initiatives, such as the Ouls, it represented much of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament, and its significant role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that led to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Its members were split over whether to join the Comintern, which in 1921 resulted in the fracturing of the party, with a large part of its membership then forming the new Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organized resistance movements contrary to the laws of the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, both at home and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-war structure and became a member of the National Front which formed a new governing coalition. In 1948, after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gained a parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was incorporated into the Communist Party. At the time of the Prague Spring, a reformist movement in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a social democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which came into effect on 1 January 1993, the ČSSD has been one of the major political parties of the Czech Republic, and until October 2017 was always one of the two parties with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.At the 1998 parliamentary election, the party won the largest number of seats but failed to form a coalition government, so formed a minority government under its leader Miloš Zeman. With only 74 seats out of 200, the government had confidence and supply from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), under the so-called Opposition Agreement.At the elections of 2002, the party gained 70 of the 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. Its leader Vladimír Špidla became prime minister, heading a coalition with two small centre-right parties, the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) and the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) until he was forced to resign in 2004 after the ČSSD lost in the European Parliament elections of 2004The next leader was Stanislav Gross, serving as leader from 26 June 2004 to 26 April 2005 and as prime minister from 4 August 2004 to 25 April 2005. He resigned after a scandal when he was unable to explain the source of money used to buy his house.The successor of Gross as prime minister was Jiří Paroubek, while Bohuslav Sobotka became acting party leader from 26 April 2005 to 13 May 2006. Paroubek was then elected as the new party leader in the run-up to the June 2006 elections, at which the party won 32.3% of the vote and 74 out of 200 seats. The election at first caused a stalemate, since the centre-right parties plus the Green Party and the centre-left parties each had exactly 100 seats. The stalemate was broken when two ČSSD deputies, Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka, abstained during a vote of confidence, allowing a coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the KDU-ČSL, and the Green Party to form a government. Hence the ČSSD went into opposition.At the 2010 legislative elections on 28 and 29 May, the ČSSD gained 22.08% of the vote but remained the largest party, with 56 seats. Failing to form a governing coalition, it remained in opposition to a government coalition of the ODS, conservative TOP 09 and conservative-liberal Public Affairs parties. Paroubek resigned as leader on 7 June and was succeeded by Sobotka.The Party remained the largest Party even after the 2013 legislative election of 25 and 26 October 2013 and in December formed a governing coalition with the populist ANO 2011 and the centrist Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. The leader of ČSSD, Bohuslav Sobotka, became the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.The party suffered heavy losses in the 2017 legislative election and was reduced to only 15 seats, the worst result in its history. ČSSD suffered another defeat in the Prague Municipal, local and Senate elections in 2018. ČSSD lost 12 senators (only one managed to win re-election), all Prague deputies and more than half of their local councillors. In 2019 ČSSD lost all their representatives in the European Parliament. Some political commentators have interpreted the string of poor results as a sign of ČSSD losing their position in national politics. ČSSD suffered another defeat in 2020 Regional Elections and Senate elections, when they lost 10 senators (none re-elected) and 97 regional deputies.In economic matters, the ČSSD party platform is typical of Western European social democratic parties. It supports a mixed economy, a strong welfare state, and progressive taxation.In foreign policy it supports European integration, including joining the eurozone, and is critical of US foreign policy, especially when in opposition—though it does not oppose membership of the Czech Republic in NATO.Czech lands as part of Austria-Hungary:Czechoslovakia:Czech Republic:1996 whole Senate elected (81 seats), in next elections only one third of seats to be contestedČSSD has following members of the government (since 2018):
|
[
"Bohuslav Sobotka",
"Michal Šmarda",
"Stanislav Gross",
"Vladimír Špidla",
"Jiří Paroubek",
"Jan Hamáček"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party in Sep, 2001?
|
September 15, 2001
|
{
"text": [
"Vladimír Špidla"
]
}
|
L2_Q341148_P488_1
|
Michal Šmarda is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Bohuslav Sobotka is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2017.
Stanislav Gross is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
Miloš Zeman is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2001.
Jan Hamáček is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2018 to Jan, 2021.
Jiří Paroubek is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2010.
Vladimír Špidla is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2004.
|
Czech Social Democratic PartyThe Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. It holds 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies following the 2017 legislative election in which the party lost 35 seats. The party has been led by Jan Hamáček since 2018. It has been a junior coalition party within a minority cabinet since June 2018, and was a senior coalition party from 1998 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2017.The ČSSD is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance.The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria () was a political group founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary as a regional wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Founded in Břevnov atop earlier social democratic initiatives, such as the Ouls, it represented much of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament, and its significant role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that led to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Its members were split over whether to join the Comintern, which in 1921 resulted in the fracturing of the party, with a large part of its membership then forming the new Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organized resistance movements contrary to the laws of the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, both at home and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-war structure and became a member of the National Front which formed a new governing coalition. In 1948, after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gained a parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was incorporated into the Communist Party. At the time of the Prague Spring, a reformist movement in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a social democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which came into effect on 1 January 1993, the ČSSD has been one of the major political parties of the Czech Republic, and until October 2017 was always one of the two parties with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.At the 1998 parliamentary election, the party won the largest number of seats but failed to form a coalition government, so formed a minority government under its leader Miloš Zeman. With only 74 seats out of 200, the government had confidence and supply from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), under the so-called Opposition Agreement.At the elections of 2002, the party gained 70 of the 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. Its leader Vladimír Špidla became prime minister, heading a coalition with two small centre-right parties, the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) and the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) until he was forced to resign in 2004 after the ČSSD lost in the European Parliament elections of 2004The next leader was Stanislav Gross, serving as leader from 26 June 2004 to 26 April 2005 and as prime minister from 4 August 2004 to 25 April 2005. He resigned after a scandal when he was unable to explain the source of money used to buy his house.The successor of Gross as prime minister was Jiří Paroubek, while Bohuslav Sobotka became acting party leader from 26 April 2005 to 13 May 2006. Paroubek was then elected as the new party leader in the run-up to the June 2006 elections, at which the party won 32.3% of the vote and 74 out of 200 seats. The election at first caused a stalemate, since the centre-right parties plus the Green Party and the centre-left parties each had exactly 100 seats. The stalemate was broken when two ČSSD deputies, Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka, abstained during a vote of confidence, allowing a coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the KDU-ČSL, and the Green Party to form a government. Hence the ČSSD went into opposition.At the 2010 legislative elections on 28 and 29 May, the ČSSD gained 22.08% of the vote but remained the largest party, with 56 seats. Failing to form a governing coalition, it remained in opposition to a government coalition of the ODS, conservative TOP 09 and conservative-liberal Public Affairs parties. Paroubek resigned as leader on 7 June and was succeeded by Sobotka.The Party remained the largest Party even after the 2013 legislative election of 25 and 26 October 2013 and in December formed a governing coalition with the populist ANO 2011 and the centrist Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. The leader of ČSSD, Bohuslav Sobotka, became the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.The party suffered heavy losses in the 2017 legislative election and was reduced to only 15 seats, the worst result in its history. ČSSD suffered another defeat in the Prague Municipal, local and Senate elections in 2018. ČSSD lost 12 senators (only one managed to win re-election), all Prague deputies and more than half of their local councillors. In 2019 ČSSD lost all their representatives in the European Parliament. Some political commentators have interpreted the string of poor results as a sign of ČSSD losing their position in national politics. ČSSD suffered another defeat in 2020 Regional Elections and Senate elections, when they lost 10 senators (none re-elected) and 97 regional deputies.In economic matters, the ČSSD party platform is typical of Western European social democratic parties. It supports a mixed economy, a strong welfare state, and progressive taxation.In foreign policy it supports European integration, including joining the eurozone, and is critical of US foreign policy, especially when in opposition—though it does not oppose membership of the Czech Republic in NATO.Czech lands as part of Austria-Hungary:Czechoslovakia:Czech Republic:1996 whole Senate elected (81 seats), in next elections only one third of seats to be contestedČSSD has following members of the government (since 2018):
|
[
"Bohuslav Sobotka",
"Michal Šmarda",
"Stanislav Gross",
"Jiří Paroubek",
"Jan Hamáček",
"Miloš Zeman"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party in Aug, 2004?
|
August 22, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"Stanislav Gross"
]
}
|
L2_Q341148_P488_2
|
Michal Šmarda is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Bohuslav Sobotka is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2017.
Jiří Paroubek is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2010.
Jan Hamáček is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2018 to Jan, 2021.
Miloš Zeman is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2001.
Vladimír Špidla is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2004.
Stanislav Gross is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
|
Czech Social Democratic PartyThe Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. It holds 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies following the 2017 legislative election in which the party lost 35 seats. The party has been led by Jan Hamáček since 2018. It has been a junior coalition party within a minority cabinet since June 2018, and was a senior coalition party from 1998 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2017.The ČSSD is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance.The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria () was a political group founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary as a regional wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Founded in Břevnov atop earlier social democratic initiatives, such as the Ouls, it represented much of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament, and its significant role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that led to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Its members were split over whether to join the Comintern, which in 1921 resulted in the fracturing of the party, with a large part of its membership then forming the new Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organized resistance movements contrary to the laws of the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, both at home and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-war structure and became a member of the National Front which formed a new governing coalition. In 1948, after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gained a parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was incorporated into the Communist Party. At the time of the Prague Spring, a reformist movement in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a social democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which came into effect on 1 January 1993, the ČSSD has been one of the major political parties of the Czech Republic, and until October 2017 was always one of the two parties with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.At the 1998 parliamentary election, the party won the largest number of seats but failed to form a coalition government, so formed a minority government under its leader Miloš Zeman. With only 74 seats out of 200, the government had confidence and supply from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), under the so-called Opposition Agreement.At the elections of 2002, the party gained 70 of the 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. Its leader Vladimír Špidla became prime minister, heading a coalition with two small centre-right parties, the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) and the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) until he was forced to resign in 2004 after the ČSSD lost in the European Parliament elections of 2004The next leader was Stanislav Gross, serving as leader from 26 June 2004 to 26 April 2005 and as prime minister from 4 August 2004 to 25 April 2005. He resigned after a scandal when he was unable to explain the source of money used to buy his house.The successor of Gross as prime minister was Jiří Paroubek, while Bohuslav Sobotka became acting party leader from 26 April 2005 to 13 May 2006. Paroubek was then elected as the new party leader in the run-up to the June 2006 elections, at which the party won 32.3% of the vote and 74 out of 200 seats. The election at first caused a stalemate, since the centre-right parties plus the Green Party and the centre-left parties each had exactly 100 seats. The stalemate was broken when two ČSSD deputies, Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka, abstained during a vote of confidence, allowing a coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the KDU-ČSL, and the Green Party to form a government. Hence the ČSSD went into opposition.At the 2010 legislative elections on 28 and 29 May, the ČSSD gained 22.08% of the vote but remained the largest party, with 56 seats. Failing to form a governing coalition, it remained in opposition to a government coalition of the ODS, conservative TOP 09 and conservative-liberal Public Affairs parties. Paroubek resigned as leader on 7 June and was succeeded by Sobotka.The Party remained the largest Party even after the 2013 legislative election of 25 and 26 October 2013 and in December formed a governing coalition with the populist ANO 2011 and the centrist Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. The leader of ČSSD, Bohuslav Sobotka, became the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.The party suffered heavy losses in the 2017 legislative election and was reduced to only 15 seats, the worst result in its history. ČSSD suffered another defeat in the Prague Municipal, local and Senate elections in 2018. ČSSD lost 12 senators (only one managed to win re-election), all Prague deputies and more than half of their local councillors. In 2019 ČSSD lost all their representatives in the European Parliament. Some political commentators have interpreted the string of poor results as a sign of ČSSD losing their position in national politics. ČSSD suffered another defeat in 2020 Regional Elections and Senate elections, when they lost 10 senators (none re-elected) and 97 regional deputies.In economic matters, the ČSSD party platform is typical of Western European social democratic parties. It supports a mixed economy, a strong welfare state, and progressive taxation.In foreign policy it supports European integration, including joining the eurozone, and is critical of US foreign policy, especially when in opposition—though it does not oppose membership of the Czech Republic in NATO.Czech lands as part of Austria-Hungary:Czechoslovakia:Czech Republic:1996 whole Senate elected (81 seats), in next elections only one third of seats to be contestedČSSD has following members of the government (since 2018):
|
[
"Bohuslav Sobotka",
"Michal Šmarda",
"Vladimír Špidla",
"Jiří Paroubek",
"Jan Hamáček",
"Miloš Zeman"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party in Apr, 2009?
|
April 21, 2009
|
{
"text": [
"Jiří Paroubek"
]
}
|
L2_Q341148_P488_3
|
Miloš Zeman is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2001.
Stanislav Gross is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
Vladimír Špidla is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2004.
Jan Hamáček is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2018 to Jan, 2021.
Michal Šmarda is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Jiří Paroubek is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2010.
Bohuslav Sobotka is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2017.
|
Czech Social Democratic PartyThe Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. It holds 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies following the 2017 legislative election in which the party lost 35 seats. The party has been led by Jan Hamáček since 2018. It has been a junior coalition party within a minority cabinet since June 2018, and was a senior coalition party from 1998 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2017.The ČSSD is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance.The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria () was a political group founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary as a regional wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Founded in Břevnov atop earlier social democratic initiatives, such as the Ouls, it represented much of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament, and its significant role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that led to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Its members were split over whether to join the Comintern, which in 1921 resulted in the fracturing of the party, with a large part of its membership then forming the new Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organized resistance movements contrary to the laws of the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, both at home and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-war structure and became a member of the National Front which formed a new governing coalition. In 1948, after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gained a parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was incorporated into the Communist Party. At the time of the Prague Spring, a reformist movement in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a social democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which came into effect on 1 January 1993, the ČSSD has been one of the major political parties of the Czech Republic, and until October 2017 was always one of the two parties with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.At the 1998 parliamentary election, the party won the largest number of seats but failed to form a coalition government, so formed a minority government under its leader Miloš Zeman. With only 74 seats out of 200, the government had confidence and supply from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), under the so-called Opposition Agreement.At the elections of 2002, the party gained 70 of the 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. Its leader Vladimír Špidla became prime minister, heading a coalition with two small centre-right parties, the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) and the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) until he was forced to resign in 2004 after the ČSSD lost in the European Parliament elections of 2004The next leader was Stanislav Gross, serving as leader from 26 June 2004 to 26 April 2005 and as prime minister from 4 August 2004 to 25 April 2005. He resigned after a scandal when he was unable to explain the source of money used to buy his house.The successor of Gross as prime minister was Jiří Paroubek, while Bohuslav Sobotka became acting party leader from 26 April 2005 to 13 May 2006. Paroubek was then elected as the new party leader in the run-up to the June 2006 elections, at which the party won 32.3% of the vote and 74 out of 200 seats. The election at first caused a stalemate, since the centre-right parties plus the Green Party and the centre-left parties each had exactly 100 seats. The stalemate was broken when two ČSSD deputies, Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka, abstained during a vote of confidence, allowing a coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the KDU-ČSL, and the Green Party to form a government. Hence the ČSSD went into opposition.At the 2010 legislative elections on 28 and 29 May, the ČSSD gained 22.08% of the vote but remained the largest party, with 56 seats. Failing to form a governing coalition, it remained in opposition to a government coalition of the ODS, conservative TOP 09 and conservative-liberal Public Affairs parties. Paroubek resigned as leader on 7 June and was succeeded by Sobotka.The Party remained the largest Party even after the 2013 legislative election of 25 and 26 October 2013 and in December formed a governing coalition with the populist ANO 2011 and the centrist Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. The leader of ČSSD, Bohuslav Sobotka, became the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.The party suffered heavy losses in the 2017 legislative election and was reduced to only 15 seats, the worst result in its history. ČSSD suffered another defeat in the Prague Municipal, local and Senate elections in 2018. ČSSD lost 12 senators (only one managed to win re-election), all Prague deputies and more than half of their local councillors. In 2019 ČSSD lost all their representatives in the European Parliament. Some political commentators have interpreted the string of poor results as a sign of ČSSD losing their position in national politics. ČSSD suffered another defeat in 2020 Regional Elections and Senate elections, when they lost 10 senators (none re-elected) and 97 regional deputies.In economic matters, the ČSSD party platform is typical of Western European social democratic parties. It supports a mixed economy, a strong welfare state, and progressive taxation.In foreign policy it supports European integration, including joining the eurozone, and is critical of US foreign policy, especially when in opposition—though it does not oppose membership of the Czech Republic in NATO.Czech lands as part of Austria-Hungary:Czechoslovakia:Czech Republic:1996 whole Senate elected (81 seats), in next elections only one third of seats to be contestedČSSD has following members of the government (since 2018):
|
[
"Bohuslav Sobotka",
"Michal Šmarda",
"Stanislav Gross",
"Vladimír Špidla",
"Jan Hamáček",
"Miloš Zeman"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party in May, 2016?
|
May 14, 2016
|
{
"text": [
"Bohuslav Sobotka"
]
}
|
L2_Q341148_P488_4
|
Jan Hamáček is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2018 to Jan, 2021.
Miloš Zeman is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2001.
Michal Šmarda is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Vladimír Špidla is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2004.
Bohuslav Sobotka is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2017.
Stanislav Gross is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
Jiří Paroubek is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2010.
|
Czech Social Democratic PartyThe Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. It holds 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies following the 2017 legislative election in which the party lost 35 seats. The party has been led by Jan Hamáček since 2018. It has been a junior coalition party within a minority cabinet since June 2018, and was a senior coalition party from 1998 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2017.The ČSSD is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance.The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria () was a political group founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary as a regional wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Founded in Břevnov atop earlier social democratic initiatives, such as the Ouls, it represented much of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament, and its significant role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that led to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Its members were split over whether to join the Comintern, which in 1921 resulted in the fracturing of the party, with a large part of its membership then forming the new Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organized resistance movements contrary to the laws of the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, both at home and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-war structure and became a member of the National Front which formed a new governing coalition. In 1948, after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gained a parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was incorporated into the Communist Party. At the time of the Prague Spring, a reformist movement in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a social democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which came into effect on 1 January 1993, the ČSSD has been one of the major political parties of the Czech Republic, and until October 2017 was always one of the two parties with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.At the 1998 parliamentary election, the party won the largest number of seats but failed to form a coalition government, so formed a minority government under its leader Miloš Zeman. With only 74 seats out of 200, the government had confidence and supply from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), under the so-called Opposition Agreement.At the elections of 2002, the party gained 70 of the 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. Its leader Vladimír Špidla became prime minister, heading a coalition with two small centre-right parties, the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) and the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) until he was forced to resign in 2004 after the ČSSD lost in the European Parliament elections of 2004The next leader was Stanislav Gross, serving as leader from 26 June 2004 to 26 April 2005 and as prime minister from 4 August 2004 to 25 April 2005. He resigned after a scandal when he was unable to explain the source of money used to buy his house.The successor of Gross as prime minister was Jiří Paroubek, while Bohuslav Sobotka became acting party leader from 26 April 2005 to 13 May 2006. Paroubek was then elected as the new party leader in the run-up to the June 2006 elections, at which the party won 32.3% of the vote and 74 out of 200 seats. The election at first caused a stalemate, since the centre-right parties plus the Green Party and the centre-left parties each had exactly 100 seats. The stalemate was broken when two ČSSD deputies, Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka, abstained during a vote of confidence, allowing a coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the KDU-ČSL, and the Green Party to form a government. Hence the ČSSD went into opposition.At the 2010 legislative elections on 28 and 29 May, the ČSSD gained 22.08% of the vote but remained the largest party, with 56 seats. Failing to form a governing coalition, it remained in opposition to a government coalition of the ODS, conservative TOP 09 and conservative-liberal Public Affairs parties. Paroubek resigned as leader on 7 June and was succeeded by Sobotka.The Party remained the largest Party even after the 2013 legislative election of 25 and 26 October 2013 and in December formed a governing coalition with the populist ANO 2011 and the centrist Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. The leader of ČSSD, Bohuslav Sobotka, became the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.The party suffered heavy losses in the 2017 legislative election and was reduced to only 15 seats, the worst result in its history. ČSSD suffered another defeat in the Prague Municipal, local and Senate elections in 2018. ČSSD lost 12 senators (only one managed to win re-election), all Prague deputies and more than half of their local councillors. In 2019 ČSSD lost all their representatives in the European Parliament. Some political commentators have interpreted the string of poor results as a sign of ČSSD losing their position in national politics. ČSSD suffered another defeat in 2020 Regional Elections and Senate elections, when they lost 10 senators (none re-elected) and 97 regional deputies.In economic matters, the ČSSD party platform is typical of Western European social democratic parties. It supports a mixed economy, a strong welfare state, and progressive taxation.In foreign policy it supports European integration, including joining the eurozone, and is critical of US foreign policy, especially when in opposition—though it does not oppose membership of the Czech Republic in NATO.Czech lands as part of Austria-Hungary:Czechoslovakia:Czech Republic:1996 whole Senate elected (81 seats), in next elections only one third of seats to be contestedČSSD has following members of the government (since 2018):
|
[
"Michal Šmarda",
"Stanislav Gross",
"Vladimír Špidla",
"Jiří Paroubek",
"Jan Hamáček",
"Miloš Zeman"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party in Aug, 2018?
|
August 02, 2018
|
{
"text": [
"Jan Hamáček"
]
}
|
L2_Q341148_P488_5
|
Jan Hamáček is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2018 to Jan, 2021.
Stanislav Gross is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
Bohuslav Sobotka is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2017.
Michal Šmarda is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Miloš Zeman is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2001.
Vladimír Špidla is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2004.
Jiří Paroubek is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2010.
|
Czech Social Democratic PartyThe Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. It holds 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies following the 2017 legislative election in which the party lost 35 seats. The party has been led by Jan Hamáček since 2018. It has been a junior coalition party within a minority cabinet since June 2018, and was a senior coalition party from 1998 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2017.The ČSSD is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance.The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria () was a political group founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary as a regional wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Founded in Břevnov atop earlier social democratic initiatives, such as the Ouls, it represented much of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament, and its significant role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that led to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Its members were split over whether to join the Comintern, which in 1921 resulted in the fracturing of the party, with a large part of its membership then forming the new Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organized resistance movements contrary to the laws of the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, both at home and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-war structure and became a member of the National Front which formed a new governing coalition. In 1948, after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gained a parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was incorporated into the Communist Party. At the time of the Prague Spring, a reformist movement in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a social democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which came into effect on 1 January 1993, the ČSSD has been one of the major political parties of the Czech Republic, and until October 2017 was always one of the two parties with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.At the 1998 parliamentary election, the party won the largest number of seats but failed to form a coalition government, so formed a minority government under its leader Miloš Zeman. With only 74 seats out of 200, the government had confidence and supply from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), under the so-called Opposition Agreement.At the elections of 2002, the party gained 70 of the 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. Its leader Vladimír Špidla became prime minister, heading a coalition with two small centre-right parties, the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) and the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) until he was forced to resign in 2004 after the ČSSD lost in the European Parliament elections of 2004The next leader was Stanislav Gross, serving as leader from 26 June 2004 to 26 April 2005 and as prime minister from 4 August 2004 to 25 April 2005. He resigned after a scandal when he was unable to explain the source of money used to buy his house.The successor of Gross as prime minister was Jiří Paroubek, while Bohuslav Sobotka became acting party leader from 26 April 2005 to 13 May 2006. Paroubek was then elected as the new party leader in the run-up to the June 2006 elections, at which the party won 32.3% of the vote and 74 out of 200 seats. The election at first caused a stalemate, since the centre-right parties plus the Green Party and the centre-left parties each had exactly 100 seats. The stalemate was broken when two ČSSD deputies, Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka, abstained during a vote of confidence, allowing a coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the KDU-ČSL, and the Green Party to form a government. Hence the ČSSD went into opposition.At the 2010 legislative elections on 28 and 29 May, the ČSSD gained 22.08% of the vote but remained the largest party, with 56 seats. Failing to form a governing coalition, it remained in opposition to a government coalition of the ODS, conservative TOP 09 and conservative-liberal Public Affairs parties. Paroubek resigned as leader on 7 June and was succeeded by Sobotka.The Party remained the largest Party even after the 2013 legislative election of 25 and 26 October 2013 and in December formed a governing coalition with the populist ANO 2011 and the centrist Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. The leader of ČSSD, Bohuslav Sobotka, became the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.The party suffered heavy losses in the 2017 legislative election and was reduced to only 15 seats, the worst result in its history. ČSSD suffered another defeat in the Prague Municipal, local and Senate elections in 2018. ČSSD lost 12 senators (only one managed to win re-election), all Prague deputies and more than half of their local councillors. In 2019 ČSSD lost all their representatives in the European Parliament. Some political commentators have interpreted the string of poor results as a sign of ČSSD losing their position in national politics. ČSSD suffered another defeat in 2020 Regional Elections and Senate elections, when they lost 10 senators (none re-elected) and 97 regional deputies.In economic matters, the ČSSD party platform is typical of Western European social democratic parties. It supports a mixed economy, a strong welfare state, and progressive taxation.In foreign policy it supports European integration, including joining the eurozone, and is critical of US foreign policy, especially when in opposition—though it does not oppose membership of the Czech Republic in NATO.Czech lands as part of Austria-Hungary:Czechoslovakia:Czech Republic:1996 whole Senate elected (81 seats), in next elections only one third of seats to be contestedČSSD has following members of the government (since 2018):
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[
"Bohuslav Sobotka",
"Michal Šmarda",
"Stanislav Gross",
"Vladimír Špidla",
"Jiří Paroubek",
"Miloš Zeman"
] |
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Who was the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party in Sep, 2021?
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September 26, 2021
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{
"text": [
"Michal Šmarda"
]
}
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L2_Q341148_P488_6
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Jan Hamáček is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2018 to Jan, 2021.
Jiří Paroubek is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2010.
Stanislav Gross is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2004 to Jan, 2005.
Bohuslav Sobotka is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2010 to Jan, 2017.
Vladimír Špidla is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2001 to Jan, 2004.
Miloš Zeman is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 2001.
Michal Šmarda is the chair of Czech Social Democratic Party from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
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Czech Social Democratic PartyThe Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. It holds 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies following the 2017 legislative election in which the party lost 35 seats. The party has been led by Jan Hamáček since 2018. It has been a junior coalition party within a minority cabinet since June 2018, and was a senior coalition party from 1998 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2017.The ČSSD is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance.The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria () was a political group founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary as a regional wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Founded in Břevnov atop earlier social democratic initiatives, such as the Ouls, it represented much of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament, and its significant role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that led to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Its members were split over whether to join the Comintern, which in 1921 resulted in the fracturing of the party, with a large part of its membership then forming the new Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organized resistance movements contrary to the laws of the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, both at home and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-war structure and became a member of the National Front which formed a new governing coalition. In 1948, after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gained a parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was incorporated into the Communist Party. At the time of the Prague Spring, a reformist movement in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a social democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which came into effect on 1 January 1993, the ČSSD has been one of the major political parties of the Czech Republic, and until October 2017 was always one of the two parties with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.At the 1998 parliamentary election, the party won the largest number of seats but failed to form a coalition government, so formed a minority government under its leader Miloš Zeman. With only 74 seats out of 200, the government had confidence and supply from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), under the so-called Opposition Agreement.At the elections of 2002, the party gained 70 of the 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. Its leader Vladimír Špidla became prime minister, heading a coalition with two small centre-right parties, the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) and the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) until he was forced to resign in 2004 after the ČSSD lost in the European Parliament elections of 2004The next leader was Stanislav Gross, serving as leader from 26 June 2004 to 26 April 2005 and as prime minister from 4 August 2004 to 25 April 2005. He resigned after a scandal when he was unable to explain the source of money used to buy his house.The successor of Gross as prime minister was Jiří Paroubek, while Bohuslav Sobotka became acting party leader from 26 April 2005 to 13 May 2006. Paroubek was then elected as the new party leader in the run-up to the June 2006 elections, at which the party won 32.3% of the vote and 74 out of 200 seats. The election at first caused a stalemate, since the centre-right parties plus the Green Party and the centre-left parties each had exactly 100 seats. The stalemate was broken when two ČSSD deputies, Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka, abstained during a vote of confidence, allowing a coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the KDU-ČSL, and the Green Party to form a government. Hence the ČSSD went into opposition.At the 2010 legislative elections on 28 and 29 May, the ČSSD gained 22.08% of the vote but remained the largest party, with 56 seats. Failing to form a governing coalition, it remained in opposition to a government coalition of the ODS, conservative TOP 09 and conservative-liberal Public Affairs parties. Paroubek resigned as leader on 7 June and was succeeded by Sobotka.The Party remained the largest Party even after the 2013 legislative election of 25 and 26 October 2013 and in December formed a governing coalition with the populist ANO 2011 and the centrist Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. The leader of ČSSD, Bohuslav Sobotka, became the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.The party suffered heavy losses in the 2017 legislative election and was reduced to only 15 seats, the worst result in its history. ČSSD suffered another defeat in the Prague Municipal, local and Senate elections in 2018. ČSSD lost 12 senators (only one managed to win re-election), all Prague deputies and more than half of their local councillors. In 2019 ČSSD lost all their representatives in the European Parliament. Some political commentators have interpreted the string of poor results as a sign of ČSSD losing their position in national politics. ČSSD suffered another defeat in 2020 Regional Elections and Senate elections, when they lost 10 senators (none re-elected) and 97 regional deputies.In economic matters, the ČSSD party platform is typical of Western European social democratic parties. It supports a mixed economy, a strong welfare state, and progressive taxation.In foreign policy it supports European integration, including joining the eurozone, and is critical of US foreign policy, especially when in opposition—though it does not oppose membership of the Czech Republic in NATO.Czech lands as part of Austria-Hungary:Czechoslovakia:Czech Republic:1996 whole Senate elected (81 seats), in next elections only one third of seats to be contestedČSSD has following members of the government (since 2018):
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[
"Bohuslav Sobotka",
"Stanislav Gross",
"Vladimír Špidla",
"Jiří Paroubek",
"Jan Hamáček",
"Miloš Zeman"
] |
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Who was the head coach of the team SFC Opava in Feb, 2017?
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February 03, 2017
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{
"text": [
"Roman Skuhravý"
]
}
|
L2_Q2093314_P286_0
|
Radoslav Kováč is the head coach of SFC Opava from Jun, 2020 to Jun, 2021.
Roman Skuhravý is the head coach of SFC Opava from Jul, 2016 to Sep, 2018.
Ivan Kopecký is the head coach of SFC Opava from Sep, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
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SFC OpavaSlezský FC Opava is a professional football club based in Opava, Czech Republic. The club plays in the Czech First League, the top tier of Czech football.The club was in the Czech First League at the top tier of Czech football from 1995 to 2000, getting relegated in 2000 but returning to the top flight the following season in 2001. After another relegation they returned again in 2003 and had a two-year spell in the top division, but internal issues led to a slow decline of the club and relegation to the regional division. The club celebrated a return to the Second Division in 2011, but after just two seasons, they were relegated back to the Moravian–Silesian Football League (MSFL) in 2013. The club won promotion back into the second level of football in their first season in the MSFL. They won the Czech National Football League in 2018, securing promotion to the top flight.The club has a group of fanatical fans called "Opaváci" who frequently produce tifos and displays, as well as travel to away games. They have a friendship with fellow Silesian team Śląsk Wrocław and have derby rivalries with FC Baník Ostrava and FC Hlučín, with the matches between them known as the Silesian Derby.Highlighted players are in the current squad.
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[
"Ivan Kopecký",
"Radoslav Kováč"
] |
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Who was the head coach of the team SFC Opava in Jun, 2019?
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June 03, 2019
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{
"text": [
"Ivan Kopecký"
]
}
|
L2_Q2093314_P286_1
|
Ivan Kopecký is the head coach of SFC Opava from Sep, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
Roman Skuhravý is the head coach of SFC Opava from Jul, 2016 to Sep, 2018.
Radoslav Kováč is the head coach of SFC Opava from Jun, 2020 to Jun, 2021.
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SFC OpavaSlezský FC Opava is a professional football club based in Opava, Czech Republic. The club plays in the Czech First League, the top tier of Czech football.The club was in the Czech First League at the top tier of Czech football from 1995 to 2000, getting relegated in 2000 but returning to the top flight the following season in 2001. After another relegation they returned again in 2003 and had a two-year spell in the top division, but internal issues led to a slow decline of the club and relegation to the regional division. The club celebrated a return to the Second Division in 2011, but after just two seasons, they were relegated back to the Moravian–Silesian Football League (MSFL) in 2013. The club won promotion back into the second level of football in their first season in the MSFL. They won the Czech National Football League in 2018, securing promotion to the top flight.The club has a group of fanatical fans called "Opaváci" who frequently produce tifos and displays, as well as travel to away games. They have a friendship with fellow Silesian team Śląsk Wrocław and have derby rivalries with FC Baník Ostrava and FC Hlučín, with the matches between them known as the Silesian Derby.Highlighted players are in the current squad.
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[
"Roman Skuhravý",
"Radoslav Kováč"
] |
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Who was the head coach of the team SFC Opava in Apr, 2021?
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April 19, 2021
|
{
"text": [
"Radoslav Kováč"
]
}
|
L2_Q2093314_P286_2
|
Roman Skuhravý is the head coach of SFC Opava from Jul, 2016 to Sep, 2018.
Ivan Kopecký is the head coach of SFC Opava from Sep, 2018 to Sep, 2019.
Radoslav Kováč is the head coach of SFC Opava from Jun, 2020 to Jun, 2021.
|
SFC OpavaSlezský FC Opava is a professional football club based in Opava, Czech Republic. The club plays in the Czech First League, the top tier of Czech football.The club was in the Czech First League at the top tier of Czech football from 1995 to 2000, getting relegated in 2000 but returning to the top flight the following season in 2001. After another relegation they returned again in 2003 and had a two-year spell in the top division, but internal issues led to a slow decline of the club and relegation to the regional division. The club celebrated a return to the Second Division in 2011, but after just two seasons, they were relegated back to the Moravian–Silesian Football League (MSFL) in 2013. The club won promotion back into the second level of football in their first season in the MSFL. They won the Czech National Football League in 2018, securing promotion to the top flight.The club has a group of fanatical fans called "Opaváci" who frequently produce tifos and displays, as well as travel to away games. They have a friendship with fellow Silesian team Śląsk Wrocław and have derby rivalries with FC Baník Ostrava and FC Hlučín, with the matches between them known as the Silesian Derby.Highlighted players are in the current squad.
|
[
"Roman Skuhravý",
"Ivan Kopecký"
] |
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Which employer did Ajit Pai work for in Dec, 1999?
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December 10, 1999
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{
"text": [
"United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division"
]
}
|
L2_Q4699790_P108_0
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Ajit Pai works for United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division from Jan, 1998 to Feb, 2001.
Ajit Pai works for American Enterprise Institute from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Searchlight Capital from Apr, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Office of Legal Policy from May, 2004 to Feb, 2005.
Ajit Pai works for Federal Communications Commission from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Jenner & Block from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2012.
Ajit Pai works for Verizon from Feb, 2001 to Apr, 2003.
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Ajit PaiAjit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 2021.The son of Indian immigrants to the United States, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas. He is a graduate of both Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School. He worked as a lawyer in various offices of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, with a two-year stint as an in-house lawyer for Verizon Communications. He joined the FCC as a lawyer in its Office of General Counsel in 2007. He was nominated to be a commissioner in 2011 by President Barack Obama, who followed tradition in preserving balance on the commission by accepting the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a five-year term.In January 2017, newly inaugurated president Donald Trump designated Pai as FCC chairman. He is the first Indian American to hold the office. In March 2017, Trump announced that he would renominate Pai to serve another five-year term (remaining Chairman of the FCC). Pai was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for an additional five-year term on October 2, 2017. Pai is a proponent of repealing net neutrality in the United States and, on December 14, 2017, voted with the majority of the FCC to reverse the decision to regulate the internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Pai resigned on January 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden's inauguration as President of the United States.Ajit Pai was born on January 10, 1973, in Buffalo, New York. His father, Varadaraj Pai, and his mother, Radha Pai, immigrated to the United States from India in 1971. His father was a urologist and his mother was an anesthesiologist.Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas, where his parents worked at the county hospital. He graduated from Parsons Senior High School in 1990, then went to Harvard University where he was a member of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society. Pai graduated from Harvard in 1994 with an A.B. in social studies with honors. He then went to the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the "University of Chicago Law Review" and won a Mulroy Prize for excellence in evidence law. He graduated with a J.D. in 1997.After law school, Pai clerked for Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1997 to 1998. Pai then worked for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an Honors Program trial attorney on the Telecommunications Task Force. There, he worked on proposed mergers and acquisitions and on novel requests for regulatory relief following the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.Pai left his Department of Justice post in February 2001 to serve as Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., where he handled competition matters, regulatory issues, and counseling of business units on broadband initiatives. Pai left Verizon in April 2003 and was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. He returned to the Department of Justice to serve as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy in May 2004. He held that position until February 2005, when he was hired as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.Between 2007 and 2011, Pai held several positions in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, serving most prominently as Deputy General Counsel. In this role, he had supervisory responsibility over several dozen lawyers in the Administrative Law Division and worked on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters involving the wireless, wireline, cable, Internet, media, and satellite industries. In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Pai returned to the private sector in April 2011, working in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Jenner & Block where he was a partner in the Communications Practice.In 2011, Pai was then nominated for a Republican Party position on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Minority leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a term that concluded on June 30, 2016. Then Pai was designated chairman of the FCC by President Donald Trump in January 2017 for a five-year term. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the additional five-year term on October 2, 2017.In 2019, he was named forty-seventh among the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by "Modern Healthcare".Pai was an advocate for less regulation during his tenure on the FCC. He is seen as a closer ally to broadcasters than to other members of the FCC. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on July 10, 2012, he warned about the dangers of regulatory uncertainty and the need for the FCC to keep pace with the dynamic communications sector. Pai also asserted that by reforming the way the commission works, the agency can facilitate the provision of new and better services at lower prices for American consumers.Pai gave his first major speech since taking office on July 18, 2012, at Carnegie Mellon University. He discussed how the FCC can help promote economic growth and enhance job creation in the information and communications technology field by adhering to three basic principles: (1) the FCC should be as nimble as the industry it oversees; (2) the FCC should prioritize the removal of regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment; and (3) the FCC should accelerate its efforts to allocate additional spectrum for mobile broadband. Pai called for a reinvigoration of Section 7 of the Communications Act, which gives the commission a one-year deadline to review proposals for new technologies and services. He introduced the idea of creating an IP Transition Task Force to expedite the country's transition to all-IP networks. He urged the commission to settle the nine-year-old contributions reform proceeding for the Universal Service Fund by the end of the year. Finally, he advocated for completing the rules for the AWS-4 spectrum band by September 2012 and conducting the broadcast spectrum incentive auctions by June 30, 2014.Pai wrote an op-ed for the "Wall Street Journal" in 2014 criticizing a proposed FCC study of the news-gathering practices of media organizations. In another 2014 letter, Pai criticized Netflix, writing that their Open Connect caching tools effectively secure fast lanes for its traffic.In October 2014, Pai wrote an op-ed in the "Washington Post" criticizing a government-funded research project named "Truthy" at Indiana University which was studying the spread of "false and misleading ideas, hate speech and subversive propaganda" online. Pai questioned the value of the project, writing, "should taxpayer money be used to monitor your speech and evaluate your 'partisanship?'" Truthy researchers defended the project, writing, "we do not monitor individual people. The tweets we analyze are public and accessible by anyone." Indiana University issued a press release which said "the Truthy project is a basic computing research project designed to provide analytical insight into the ways in which information is spread across social media networks such as Twitter." U.S. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sent a letter to the National Science Foundation announcing a review of the grant.In 2017, Pai removed from circulation a proposal introduced by Tom Wheeler which would have required cable providers to make their programming available on third-party devices.In June 2019, the FCC under Pai allowed telecommunications companies to automatically sign up their users in call-blocking services. The measure was proposed by Pai; he said that it would reduce "unwanted robocalls". In response, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel argued that the FCC should go further in mandating free call-blocking services.In July 2020, the FCC under Pai approved the creation of a new number 9-8-8, for the hotline for suicide prevention; the old hotline was numbered 1-800-273-8255, while the new hotline is mandated to be set up by July 2022.In a hearing on net neutrality in 2014, Pai said that he was committed to a free and open internet and that it was not the FCC's role to determine net neutrality. He testified that "a dispute this fundamental is not for us, five unelected individuals, to decide. Instead, it should be resolved by the people's elected representatives, those who choose the direction of government, and those whom the American people can hold accountable for that choice." Later, Pai voted against the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order, classifying internet service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which bars certain providers from "mak[ing] any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services." He said in December 2016 that he believed Title II net neutrality's "days were numbered," and was described by the "New York Times" as a stickler for strict application of telecommunications law and limits on the FCC's authority.In a speech two weeks before the FCC's scheduled December 2017 vote on net neutrality, Pai was critical of celebrities including Cher, Mark Ruffalo, and Alyssa Milano for boosting opposition to the planned repeal. In response to criticism from Ruffalo, Pai said "Getting rid of government authority over the Internet is the exact opposite of authoritarianism. Government control is the defining feature of authoritarians, including the one in North Korea." Pai said Twitter and other tech companies were hypocritical for arguing for a free and open internet while, according to Pai, such companies "routinely block or discriminate against content they don't like."The day before the FCC's scheduled vote on net neutrality, Pai appeared in a video entitled "Ajit Pai Wants The Internet To Know You Can Still Harlem Shake After Net Neutrality". The controversial video showed him dancing to the "Harlem Shake" and buying products online, including a toy lightsaber. In the video, Pai is shown dancing next to Martina Markota, a proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and a staff member at the Daily Caller, the media outlet that produced the video. In response to the video, "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill said Pai was "unworthy" of holding the Jedi weapon, as "a Jedi acts selflessly for the common man." Baauer, the creator of the song featured in the video, has threatened to take legal action against Pai alongside his record label for Pai's use of the song in his video.As chairman, he also closed an investigation into zero-rating practices by wireless providers T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. On May 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission took the first formal step toward dismantling the net neutrality rules, and on December 14, 2017, voted to reverse Title II regulations after a contentious public comment period.In February 2018, the National Rifle Association (NRA) awarded Pai with the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award for repealing net neutrality rules despite facing heavy public criticism. As part of the award, a handmade Kentucky long gun was gifted to Pai. This gift caused former White House ethics attorney Walter Shaub to question if Pai, a federal employee, had violated ethics rules by accepting gifts from lobbyists such as the NRA.When the U.S. Senate voted by 52–47 "to put the Federal Communications Commission's net-neutrality rules back in place" in May 2018, Pai was said to be "upset", stating having no net neutrality rules "will help promote digital opportunity" while making "high-speed Internet access available to every single American." Regarding "Democrats' effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet", Ajit Pai conceded it would fail in the House.During an investigation of fake comments in support and against net neutrality, Pai refused to hand over evidence or help New York's Attorney General in determining the scope of manipulation by ISPs of the public comment process.Pai argued against adoption of the FCC 2013 analysis and proposed rulemaking regarding the high cost of inmate telephone calls, referred to as Inmate Calling Service (ICS) by the FCC. He submitted his written dissent in which he argued that the nature of the exclusive single carrier contract between private ICS providers and prison administrators meant inmates cannot "count on market competition to keep prices for inmate calling services just and reasonable." (ICS has become a $1.2 billion telecommunications industry and the two largest providers in the United States were private equity-backed companies). Prior to the FCC's imposition of rate caps on interstate prison and jail phone calls in February 2014, the largest ICS provider Global Tel-Link (GTL) – which has been profitably bought and sold by private equity firms such as American Securities and Veritas Capital – charged some of the highest rates in the US – up to $17.30 for a 15-minute call. The 2013 FCC analysis, described how, in some cases, long-distance calls are charged six times the rate on the outside.Acting Chairwoman Clyburn concurred with her order and both Jessica Rosenworcel and Pai dissented and issued statements. Pai opposed the FCC imposition of "safe harbor" of 12 cents with a cap of 21 cents on private ICS providers like GTL and CenturyLink Public Communications, arguing instead for a "simple proposal to cap interstate rates, with one rate for jails and a lower rate for prisons" that are cost-based to protect providers and ensure "some return on investment." Pai also argued that the FCC was not well-equipped to micromanage rates at each and every prison.In 2015, Pai opposed rate caps on intrastate inmate calls over which courts have ruled the FCC has no jurisdiction, notwithstanding rates as high as $14 per minute. He raised concerns about the increased use of contraband cell phones in prisons.In November 2016, the ICS providers won a halt on the regulation rules. Pai criticized Democrats for appealing. Shortly after his January 23 confirmation as chairman, Pai withdrew support for the FCC case involving GTL and CenturyLink set for February 6, 2017, which had called for establishing FCC jurisdiction over rates set by states. In June 2017, the US Court of Appeals struck down a large part of the FCC's ICS order.In 2016, Pai called for an investigation of potential fraud among beneficiaries of the agency's Lifeline subsidy for telecommunication services, contending that "apparent duplicates" who had signed up for the program improperly received $476 million annually. He rescinded permissions for nine new broadband providers selected by the previous FCC to participate in the program (along with more than 900 others) after becoming agency chairman, stating the new providers had not followed FCC guidelines requiring them to coordinate with the National Tribal Telecommunications Association in order to participate in the Lifeline program. Pai argued the rules had been improperly circumvented by the previous Democratic chairman, former lobbyist Tom Wheeler.In November 2017, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Conyers (Mich.) and David Cicilline (R.I.), asked David L. Hunt, the inspector general of the FCC, to investigate whether Pai's legislative actions regarding the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules were biased in favor of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a large owner of broadcast television stations that, since the formation of its now-defunct "News Central" format in 2003, produces conservative news and commentary segments that the group requires its stations to insert into certain local newscasts. The FCC, under Pai, undertook a number of actions that the legislators believe would benefit Sinclair – which has lobbied for such changes for several years – including rolling back certain broadcast television station ownership limitations (including allowing exceptions to duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two television stations in the same market if both are among the four highest-rated or if such a combination would dilute independent media voices, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations repealed two years earlier by Wheeler and his Democratic-led majority, a requirement dating to the FCC's inception for broadcast outlets to maintain office operations within the community of their primary local coverage areas, and removing ownership attribution rules applying to joint sales and shared services agreements). A spokeswoman for Pai said "the request appears to be part of many Democrats' attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views... Any claim that Chairman Pai is modifying the rules now to benefit one particular company is completely baseless."From late 2017, the FCC inspector general's office investigated Pai regarding the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger; this was made publicly known in February 2018. The office concluded in August 2018 that it "found no evidence, nor even the suggestion, of impropriety, unscrupulous behavior, favoritism towards Sinclair, or lack of impartiality". The office also concluded that Pai's decisions regarding Sinclair were consistent with policy positions he had previously endorsed in public.In July 2018, the FCC under Pai ordered that the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger be subject to administrative law judge hearings, due to allegations that Sinclair was planning to illegally retain control of stations it was divesting from. For this action, the FCC was criticized by President Trump, who said he wanted a merged company providing a "conservative voice". In August 2018, Tribune broke off the merger.In May 2020, the FCC under Pai reached an agreement for Sinclair to pay a record FCC fine of $48 million for deceptive practices, in return for ending three FCC investigations into the company. FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks argued against the agreement, as they wanted the investigations to be fully completed and made public.On April 16, 2020, Pai asked the other FCC commissioners to approve an application to "deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band that would primarily support 5G and Internet of Things services", in spite of a report issued by the DoD raising concerns about the potential impact it could have on the operational capabilities of the US military, specifically with regard to GPS coverage.On October 15, 2020, Pai released an official statement pledging that he would clarify Section 230, a portion of the Communications Decency Act that provides immunity for website publishers of third-party content. President Donald Trump had previously threatened to punish Facebook and Twitter for alleged anti-conservative bias after the companies blocked a series of "New York Post" stories about the Hunter Biden email controversy"." Under Section 230, social media companies are granted First Amendment rights, but are legally distinct from press publications.In 2010, Pai married Janine Van Lancker, a physician and allergist. They have two children and live in Arlington, Virginia.In 2017, Pai publicly complained that net neutrality protesters had targeted his family. Messages directed at his children were put up near his suburban Virginia home saying that "They will come to know the truth. Dad murdered Democracy in cold blood" and "How will they ever look you in the eye again?". No group took responsibility for the provocative signs, though the advocacy organization Popular Resistance left flyers on Pai's neighbors' doors that included his picture, age, and weight as part of a campaign they called "Ajit-ation".
|
[
"Searchlight Capital",
"American Enterprise Institute",
"Jenner & Block",
"Federal Communications Commission",
"Verizon",
"Office of Legal Policy"
] |
|
Which employer did Ajit Pai work for in Feb, 2002?
|
February 26, 2002
|
{
"text": [
"Verizon"
]
}
|
L2_Q4699790_P108_1
|
Ajit Pai works for American Enterprise Institute from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Verizon from Feb, 2001 to Apr, 2003.
Ajit Pai works for Jenner & Block from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2012.
Ajit Pai works for Federal Communications Commission from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Searchlight Capital from Apr, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division from Jan, 1998 to Feb, 2001.
Ajit Pai works for Office of Legal Policy from May, 2004 to Feb, 2005.
|
Ajit PaiAjit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 2021.The son of Indian immigrants to the United States, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas. He is a graduate of both Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School. He worked as a lawyer in various offices of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, with a two-year stint as an in-house lawyer for Verizon Communications. He joined the FCC as a lawyer in its Office of General Counsel in 2007. He was nominated to be a commissioner in 2011 by President Barack Obama, who followed tradition in preserving balance on the commission by accepting the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a five-year term.In January 2017, newly inaugurated president Donald Trump designated Pai as FCC chairman. He is the first Indian American to hold the office. In March 2017, Trump announced that he would renominate Pai to serve another five-year term (remaining Chairman of the FCC). Pai was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for an additional five-year term on October 2, 2017. Pai is a proponent of repealing net neutrality in the United States and, on December 14, 2017, voted with the majority of the FCC to reverse the decision to regulate the internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Pai resigned on January 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden's inauguration as President of the United States.Ajit Pai was born on January 10, 1973, in Buffalo, New York. His father, Varadaraj Pai, and his mother, Radha Pai, immigrated to the United States from India in 1971. His father was a urologist and his mother was an anesthesiologist.Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas, where his parents worked at the county hospital. He graduated from Parsons Senior High School in 1990, then went to Harvard University where he was a member of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society. Pai graduated from Harvard in 1994 with an A.B. in social studies with honors. He then went to the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the "University of Chicago Law Review" and won a Mulroy Prize for excellence in evidence law. He graduated with a J.D. in 1997.After law school, Pai clerked for Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1997 to 1998. Pai then worked for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an Honors Program trial attorney on the Telecommunications Task Force. There, he worked on proposed mergers and acquisitions and on novel requests for regulatory relief following the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.Pai left his Department of Justice post in February 2001 to serve as Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., where he handled competition matters, regulatory issues, and counseling of business units on broadband initiatives. Pai left Verizon in April 2003 and was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. He returned to the Department of Justice to serve as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy in May 2004. He held that position until February 2005, when he was hired as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.Between 2007 and 2011, Pai held several positions in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, serving most prominently as Deputy General Counsel. In this role, he had supervisory responsibility over several dozen lawyers in the Administrative Law Division and worked on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters involving the wireless, wireline, cable, Internet, media, and satellite industries. In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Pai returned to the private sector in April 2011, working in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Jenner & Block where he was a partner in the Communications Practice.In 2011, Pai was then nominated for a Republican Party position on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Minority leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a term that concluded on June 30, 2016. Then Pai was designated chairman of the FCC by President Donald Trump in January 2017 for a five-year term. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the additional five-year term on October 2, 2017.In 2019, he was named forty-seventh among the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by "Modern Healthcare".Pai was an advocate for less regulation during his tenure on the FCC. He is seen as a closer ally to broadcasters than to other members of the FCC. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on July 10, 2012, he warned about the dangers of regulatory uncertainty and the need for the FCC to keep pace with the dynamic communications sector. Pai also asserted that by reforming the way the commission works, the agency can facilitate the provision of new and better services at lower prices for American consumers.Pai gave his first major speech since taking office on July 18, 2012, at Carnegie Mellon University. He discussed how the FCC can help promote economic growth and enhance job creation in the information and communications technology field by adhering to three basic principles: (1) the FCC should be as nimble as the industry it oversees; (2) the FCC should prioritize the removal of regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment; and (3) the FCC should accelerate its efforts to allocate additional spectrum for mobile broadband. Pai called for a reinvigoration of Section 7 of the Communications Act, which gives the commission a one-year deadline to review proposals for new technologies and services. He introduced the idea of creating an IP Transition Task Force to expedite the country's transition to all-IP networks. He urged the commission to settle the nine-year-old contributions reform proceeding for the Universal Service Fund by the end of the year. Finally, he advocated for completing the rules for the AWS-4 spectrum band by September 2012 and conducting the broadcast spectrum incentive auctions by June 30, 2014.Pai wrote an op-ed for the "Wall Street Journal" in 2014 criticizing a proposed FCC study of the news-gathering practices of media organizations. In another 2014 letter, Pai criticized Netflix, writing that their Open Connect caching tools effectively secure fast lanes for its traffic.In October 2014, Pai wrote an op-ed in the "Washington Post" criticizing a government-funded research project named "Truthy" at Indiana University which was studying the spread of "false and misleading ideas, hate speech and subversive propaganda" online. Pai questioned the value of the project, writing, "should taxpayer money be used to monitor your speech and evaluate your 'partisanship?'" Truthy researchers defended the project, writing, "we do not monitor individual people. The tweets we analyze are public and accessible by anyone." Indiana University issued a press release which said "the Truthy project is a basic computing research project designed to provide analytical insight into the ways in which information is spread across social media networks such as Twitter." U.S. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sent a letter to the National Science Foundation announcing a review of the grant.In 2017, Pai removed from circulation a proposal introduced by Tom Wheeler which would have required cable providers to make their programming available on third-party devices.In June 2019, the FCC under Pai allowed telecommunications companies to automatically sign up their users in call-blocking services. The measure was proposed by Pai; he said that it would reduce "unwanted robocalls". In response, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel argued that the FCC should go further in mandating free call-blocking services.In July 2020, the FCC under Pai approved the creation of a new number 9-8-8, for the hotline for suicide prevention; the old hotline was numbered 1-800-273-8255, while the new hotline is mandated to be set up by July 2022.In a hearing on net neutrality in 2014, Pai said that he was committed to a free and open internet and that it was not the FCC's role to determine net neutrality. He testified that "a dispute this fundamental is not for us, five unelected individuals, to decide. Instead, it should be resolved by the people's elected representatives, those who choose the direction of government, and those whom the American people can hold accountable for that choice." Later, Pai voted against the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order, classifying internet service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which bars certain providers from "mak[ing] any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services." He said in December 2016 that he believed Title II net neutrality's "days were numbered," and was described by the "New York Times" as a stickler for strict application of telecommunications law and limits on the FCC's authority.In a speech two weeks before the FCC's scheduled December 2017 vote on net neutrality, Pai was critical of celebrities including Cher, Mark Ruffalo, and Alyssa Milano for boosting opposition to the planned repeal. In response to criticism from Ruffalo, Pai said "Getting rid of government authority over the Internet is the exact opposite of authoritarianism. Government control is the defining feature of authoritarians, including the one in North Korea." Pai said Twitter and other tech companies were hypocritical for arguing for a free and open internet while, according to Pai, such companies "routinely block or discriminate against content they don't like."The day before the FCC's scheduled vote on net neutrality, Pai appeared in a video entitled "Ajit Pai Wants The Internet To Know You Can Still Harlem Shake After Net Neutrality". The controversial video showed him dancing to the "Harlem Shake" and buying products online, including a toy lightsaber. In the video, Pai is shown dancing next to Martina Markota, a proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and a staff member at the Daily Caller, the media outlet that produced the video. In response to the video, "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill said Pai was "unworthy" of holding the Jedi weapon, as "a Jedi acts selflessly for the common man." Baauer, the creator of the song featured in the video, has threatened to take legal action against Pai alongside his record label for Pai's use of the song in his video.As chairman, he also closed an investigation into zero-rating practices by wireless providers T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. On May 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission took the first formal step toward dismantling the net neutrality rules, and on December 14, 2017, voted to reverse Title II regulations after a contentious public comment period.In February 2018, the National Rifle Association (NRA) awarded Pai with the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award for repealing net neutrality rules despite facing heavy public criticism. As part of the award, a handmade Kentucky long gun was gifted to Pai. This gift caused former White House ethics attorney Walter Shaub to question if Pai, a federal employee, had violated ethics rules by accepting gifts from lobbyists such as the NRA.When the U.S. Senate voted by 52–47 "to put the Federal Communications Commission's net-neutrality rules back in place" in May 2018, Pai was said to be "upset", stating having no net neutrality rules "will help promote digital opportunity" while making "high-speed Internet access available to every single American." Regarding "Democrats' effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet", Ajit Pai conceded it would fail in the House.During an investigation of fake comments in support and against net neutrality, Pai refused to hand over evidence or help New York's Attorney General in determining the scope of manipulation by ISPs of the public comment process.Pai argued against adoption of the FCC 2013 analysis and proposed rulemaking regarding the high cost of inmate telephone calls, referred to as Inmate Calling Service (ICS) by the FCC. He submitted his written dissent in which he argued that the nature of the exclusive single carrier contract between private ICS providers and prison administrators meant inmates cannot "count on market competition to keep prices for inmate calling services just and reasonable." (ICS has become a $1.2 billion telecommunications industry and the two largest providers in the United States were private equity-backed companies). Prior to the FCC's imposition of rate caps on interstate prison and jail phone calls in February 2014, the largest ICS provider Global Tel-Link (GTL) – which has been profitably bought and sold by private equity firms such as American Securities and Veritas Capital – charged some of the highest rates in the US – up to $17.30 for a 15-minute call. The 2013 FCC analysis, described how, in some cases, long-distance calls are charged six times the rate on the outside.Acting Chairwoman Clyburn concurred with her order and both Jessica Rosenworcel and Pai dissented and issued statements. Pai opposed the FCC imposition of "safe harbor" of 12 cents with a cap of 21 cents on private ICS providers like GTL and CenturyLink Public Communications, arguing instead for a "simple proposal to cap interstate rates, with one rate for jails and a lower rate for prisons" that are cost-based to protect providers and ensure "some return on investment." Pai also argued that the FCC was not well-equipped to micromanage rates at each and every prison.In 2015, Pai opposed rate caps on intrastate inmate calls over which courts have ruled the FCC has no jurisdiction, notwithstanding rates as high as $14 per minute. He raised concerns about the increased use of contraband cell phones in prisons.In November 2016, the ICS providers won a halt on the regulation rules. Pai criticized Democrats for appealing. Shortly after his January 23 confirmation as chairman, Pai withdrew support for the FCC case involving GTL and CenturyLink set for February 6, 2017, which had called for establishing FCC jurisdiction over rates set by states. In June 2017, the US Court of Appeals struck down a large part of the FCC's ICS order.In 2016, Pai called for an investigation of potential fraud among beneficiaries of the agency's Lifeline subsidy for telecommunication services, contending that "apparent duplicates" who had signed up for the program improperly received $476 million annually. He rescinded permissions for nine new broadband providers selected by the previous FCC to participate in the program (along with more than 900 others) after becoming agency chairman, stating the new providers had not followed FCC guidelines requiring them to coordinate with the National Tribal Telecommunications Association in order to participate in the Lifeline program. Pai argued the rules had been improperly circumvented by the previous Democratic chairman, former lobbyist Tom Wheeler.In November 2017, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Conyers (Mich.) and David Cicilline (R.I.), asked David L. Hunt, the inspector general of the FCC, to investigate whether Pai's legislative actions regarding the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules were biased in favor of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a large owner of broadcast television stations that, since the formation of its now-defunct "News Central" format in 2003, produces conservative news and commentary segments that the group requires its stations to insert into certain local newscasts. The FCC, under Pai, undertook a number of actions that the legislators believe would benefit Sinclair – which has lobbied for such changes for several years – including rolling back certain broadcast television station ownership limitations (including allowing exceptions to duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two television stations in the same market if both are among the four highest-rated or if such a combination would dilute independent media voices, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations repealed two years earlier by Wheeler and his Democratic-led majority, a requirement dating to the FCC's inception for broadcast outlets to maintain office operations within the community of their primary local coverage areas, and removing ownership attribution rules applying to joint sales and shared services agreements). A spokeswoman for Pai said "the request appears to be part of many Democrats' attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views... Any claim that Chairman Pai is modifying the rules now to benefit one particular company is completely baseless."From late 2017, the FCC inspector general's office investigated Pai regarding the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger; this was made publicly known in February 2018. The office concluded in August 2018 that it "found no evidence, nor even the suggestion, of impropriety, unscrupulous behavior, favoritism towards Sinclair, or lack of impartiality". The office also concluded that Pai's decisions regarding Sinclair were consistent with policy positions he had previously endorsed in public.In July 2018, the FCC under Pai ordered that the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger be subject to administrative law judge hearings, due to allegations that Sinclair was planning to illegally retain control of stations it was divesting from. For this action, the FCC was criticized by President Trump, who said he wanted a merged company providing a "conservative voice". In August 2018, Tribune broke off the merger.In May 2020, the FCC under Pai reached an agreement for Sinclair to pay a record FCC fine of $48 million for deceptive practices, in return for ending three FCC investigations into the company. FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks argued against the agreement, as they wanted the investigations to be fully completed and made public.On April 16, 2020, Pai asked the other FCC commissioners to approve an application to "deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band that would primarily support 5G and Internet of Things services", in spite of a report issued by the DoD raising concerns about the potential impact it could have on the operational capabilities of the US military, specifically with regard to GPS coverage.On October 15, 2020, Pai released an official statement pledging that he would clarify Section 230, a portion of the Communications Decency Act that provides immunity for website publishers of third-party content. President Donald Trump had previously threatened to punish Facebook and Twitter for alleged anti-conservative bias after the companies blocked a series of "New York Post" stories about the Hunter Biden email controversy"." Under Section 230, social media companies are granted First Amendment rights, but are legally distinct from press publications.In 2010, Pai married Janine Van Lancker, a physician and allergist. They have two children and live in Arlington, Virginia.In 2017, Pai publicly complained that net neutrality protesters had targeted his family. Messages directed at his children were put up near his suburban Virginia home saying that "They will come to know the truth. Dad murdered Democracy in cold blood" and "How will they ever look you in the eye again?". No group took responsibility for the provocative signs, though the advocacy organization Popular Resistance left flyers on Pai's neighbors' doors that included his picture, age, and weight as part of a campaign they called "Ajit-ation".
|
[
"Searchlight Capital",
"American Enterprise Institute",
"Jenner & Block",
"United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division",
"Federal Communications Commission",
"Office of Legal Policy"
] |
|
Which employer did Ajit Pai work for in Jun, 2004?
|
June 29, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"Office of Legal Policy"
]
}
|
L2_Q4699790_P108_2
|
Ajit Pai works for Federal Communications Commission from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for American Enterprise Institute from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Jenner & Block from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2012.
Ajit Pai works for Office of Legal Policy from May, 2004 to Feb, 2005.
Ajit Pai works for United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division from Jan, 1998 to Feb, 2001.
Ajit Pai works for Searchlight Capital from Apr, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Verizon from Feb, 2001 to Apr, 2003.
|
Ajit PaiAjit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 2021.The son of Indian immigrants to the United States, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas. He is a graduate of both Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School. He worked as a lawyer in various offices of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, with a two-year stint as an in-house lawyer for Verizon Communications. He joined the FCC as a lawyer in its Office of General Counsel in 2007. He was nominated to be a commissioner in 2011 by President Barack Obama, who followed tradition in preserving balance on the commission by accepting the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a five-year term.In January 2017, newly inaugurated president Donald Trump designated Pai as FCC chairman. He is the first Indian American to hold the office. In March 2017, Trump announced that he would renominate Pai to serve another five-year term (remaining Chairman of the FCC). Pai was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for an additional five-year term on October 2, 2017. Pai is a proponent of repealing net neutrality in the United States and, on December 14, 2017, voted with the majority of the FCC to reverse the decision to regulate the internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Pai resigned on January 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden's inauguration as President of the United States.Ajit Pai was born on January 10, 1973, in Buffalo, New York. His father, Varadaraj Pai, and his mother, Radha Pai, immigrated to the United States from India in 1971. His father was a urologist and his mother was an anesthesiologist.Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas, where his parents worked at the county hospital. He graduated from Parsons Senior High School in 1990, then went to Harvard University where he was a member of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society. Pai graduated from Harvard in 1994 with an A.B. in social studies with honors. He then went to the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the "University of Chicago Law Review" and won a Mulroy Prize for excellence in evidence law. He graduated with a J.D. in 1997.After law school, Pai clerked for Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1997 to 1998. Pai then worked for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an Honors Program trial attorney on the Telecommunications Task Force. There, he worked on proposed mergers and acquisitions and on novel requests for regulatory relief following the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.Pai left his Department of Justice post in February 2001 to serve as Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., where he handled competition matters, regulatory issues, and counseling of business units on broadband initiatives. Pai left Verizon in April 2003 and was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. He returned to the Department of Justice to serve as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy in May 2004. He held that position until February 2005, when he was hired as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.Between 2007 and 2011, Pai held several positions in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, serving most prominently as Deputy General Counsel. In this role, he had supervisory responsibility over several dozen lawyers in the Administrative Law Division and worked on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters involving the wireless, wireline, cable, Internet, media, and satellite industries. In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Pai returned to the private sector in April 2011, working in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Jenner & Block where he was a partner in the Communications Practice.In 2011, Pai was then nominated for a Republican Party position on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Minority leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a term that concluded on June 30, 2016. Then Pai was designated chairman of the FCC by President Donald Trump in January 2017 for a five-year term. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the additional five-year term on October 2, 2017.In 2019, he was named forty-seventh among the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by "Modern Healthcare".Pai was an advocate for less regulation during his tenure on the FCC. He is seen as a closer ally to broadcasters than to other members of the FCC. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on July 10, 2012, he warned about the dangers of regulatory uncertainty and the need for the FCC to keep pace with the dynamic communications sector. Pai also asserted that by reforming the way the commission works, the agency can facilitate the provision of new and better services at lower prices for American consumers.Pai gave his first major speech since taking office on July 18, 2012, at Carnegie Mellon University. He discussed how the FCC can help promote economic growth and enhance job creation in the information and communications technology field by adhering to three basic principles: (1) the FCC should be as nimble as the industry it oversees; (2) the FCC should prioritize the removal of regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment; and (3) the FCC should accelerate its efforts to allocate additional spectrum for mobile broadband. Pai called for a reinvigoration of Section 7 of the Communications Act, which gives the commission a one-year deadline to review proposals for new technologies and services. He introduced the idea of creating an IP Transition Task Force to expedite the country's transition to all-IP networks. He urged the commission to settle the nine-year-old contributions reform proceeding for the Universal Service Fund by the end of the year. Finally, he advocated for completing the rules for the AWS-4 spectrum band by September 2012 and conducting the broadcast spectrum incentive auctions by June 30, 2014.Pai wrote an op-ed for the "Wall Street Journal" in 2014 criticizing a proposed FCC study of the news-gathering practices of media organizations. In another 2014 letter, Pai criticized Netflix, writing that their Open Connect caching tools effectively secure fast lanes for its traffic.In October 2014, Pai wrote an op-ed in the "Washington Post" criticizing a government-funded research project named "Truthy" at Indiana University which was studying the spread of "false and misleading ideas, hate speech and subversive propaganda" online. Pai questioned the value of the project, writing, "should taxpayer money be used to monitor your speech and evaluate your 'partisanship?'" Truthy researchers defended the project, writing, "we do not monitor individual people. The tweets we analyze are public and accessible by anyone." Indiana University issued a press release which said "the Truthy project is a basic computing research project designed to provide analytical insight into the ways in which information is spread across social media networks such as Twitter." U.S. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sent a letter to the National Science Foundation announcing a review of the grant.In 2017, Pai removed from circulation a proposal introduced by Tom Wheeler which would have required cable providers to make their programming available on third-party devices.In June 2019, the FCC under Pai allowed telecommunications companies to automatically sign up their users in call-blocking services. The measure was proposed by Pai; he said that it would reduce "unwanted robocalls". In response, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel argued that the FCC should go further in mandating free call-blocking services.In July 2020, the FCC under Pai approved the creation of a new number 9-8-8, for the hotline for suicide prevention; the old hotline was numbered 1-800-273-8255, while the new hotline is mandated to be set up by July 2022.In a hearing on net neutrality in 2014, Pai said that he was committed to a free and open internet and that it was not the FCC's role to determine net neutrality. He testified that "a dispute this fundamental is not for us, five unelected individuals, to decide. Instead, it should be resolved by the people's elected representatives, those who choose the direction of government, and those whom the American people can hold accountable for that choice." Later, Pai voted against the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order, classifying internet service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which bars certain providers from "mak[ing] any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services." He said in December 2016 that he believed Title II net neutrality's "days were numbered," and was described by the "New York Times" as a stickler for strict application of telecommunications law and limits on the FCC's authority.In a speech two weeks before the FCC's scheduled December 2017 vote on net neutrality, Pai was critical of celebrities including Cher, Mark Ruffalo, and Alyssa Milano for boosting opposition to the planned repeal. In response to criticism from Ruffalo, Pai said "Getting rid of government authority over the Internet is the exact opposite of authoritarianism. Government control is the defining feature of authoritarians, including the one in North Korea." Pai said Twitter and other tech companies were hypocritical for arguing for a free and open internet while, according to Pai, such companies "routinely block or discriminate against content they don't like."The day before the FCC's scheduled vote on net neutrality, Pai appeared in a video entitled "Ajit Pai Wants The Internet To Know You Can Still Harlem Shake After Net Neutrality". The controversial video showed him dancing to the "Harlem Shake" and buying products online, including a toy lightsaber. In the video, Pai is shown dancing next to Martina Markota, a proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and a staff member at the Daily Caller, the media outlet that produced the video. In response to the video, "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill said Pai was "unworthy" of holding the Jedi weapon, as "a Jedi acts selflessly for the common man." Baauer, the creator of the song featured in the video, has threatened to take legal action against Pai alongside his record label for Pai's use of the song in his video.As chairman, he also closed an investigation into zero-rating practices by wireless providers T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. On May 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission took the first formal step toward dismantling the net neutrality rules, and on December 14, 2017, voted to reverse Title II regulations after a contentious public comment period.In February 2018, the National Rifle Association (NRA) awarded Pai with the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award for repealing net neutrality rules despite facing heavy public criticism. As part of the award, a handmade Kentucky long gun was gifted to Pai. This gift caused former White House ethics attorney Walter Shaub to question if Pai, a federal employee, had violated ethics rules by accepting gifts from lobbyists such as the NRA.When the U.S. Senate voted by 52–47 "to put the Federal Communications Commission's net-neutrality rules back in place" in May 2018, Pai was said to be "upset", stating having no net neutrality rules "will help promote digital opportunity" while making "high-speed Internet access available to every single American." Regarding "Democrats' effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet", Ajit Pai conceded it would fail in the House.During an investigation of fake comments in support and against net neutrality, Pai refused to hand over evidence or help New York's Attorney General in determining the scope of manipulation by ISPs of the public comment process.Pai argued against adoption of the FCC 2013 analysis and proposed rulemaking regarding the high cost of inmate telephone calls, referred to as Inmate Calling Service (ICS) by the FCC. He submitted his written dissent in which he argued that the nature of the exclusive single carrier contract between private ICS providers and prison administrators meant inmates cannot "count on market competition to keep prices for inmate calling services just and reasonable." (ICS has become a $1.2 billion telecommunications industry and the two largest providers in the United States were private equity-backed companies). Prior to the FCC's imposition of rate caps on interstate prison and jail phone calls in February 2014, the largest ICS provider Global Tel-Link (GTL) – which has been profitably bought and sold by private equity firms such as American Securities and Veritas Capital – charged some of the highest rates in the US – up to $17.30 for a 15-minute call. The 2013 FCC analysis, described how, in some cases, long-distance calls are charged six times the rate on the outside.Acting Chairwoman Clyburn concurred with her order and both Jessica Rosenworcel and Pai dissented and issued statements. Pai opposed the FCC imposition of "safe harbor" of 12 cents with a cap of 21 cents on private ICS providers like GTL and CenturyLink Public Communications, arguing instead for a "simple proposal to cap interstate rates, with one rate for jails and a lower rate for prisons" that are cost-based to protect providers and ensure "some return on investment." Pai also argued that the FCC was not well-equipped to micromanage rates at each and every prison.In 2015, Pai opposed rate caps on intrastate inmate calls over which courts have ruled the FCC has no jurisdiction, notwithstanding rates as high as $14 per minute. He raised concerns about the increased use of contraband cell phones in prisons.In November 2016, the ICS providers won a halt on the regulation rules. Pai criticized Democrats for appealing. Shortly after his January 23 confirmation as chairman, Pai withdrew support for the FCC case involving GTL and CenturyLink set for February 6, 2017, which had called for establishing FCC jurisdiction over rates set by states. In June 2017, the US Court of Appeals struck down a large part of the FCC's ICS order.In 2016, Pai called for an investigation of potential fraud among beneficiaries of the agency's Lifeline subsidy for telecommunication services, contending that "apparent duplicates" who had signed up for the program improperly received $476 million annually. He rescinded permissions for nine new broadband providers selected by the previous FCC to participate in the program (along with more than 900 others) after becoming agency chairman, stating the new providers had not followed FCC guidelines requiring them to coordinate with the National Tribal Telecommunications Association in order to participate in the Lifeline program. Pai argued the rules had been improperly circumvented by the previous Democratic chairman, former lobbyist Tom Wheeler.In November 2017, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Conyers (Mich.) and David Cicilline (R.I.), asked David L. Hunt, the inspector general of the FCC, to investigate whether Pai's legislative actions regarding the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules were biased in favor of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a large owner of broadcast television stations that, since the formation of its now-defunct "News Central" format in 2003, produces conservative news and commentary segments that the group requires its stations to insert into certain local newscasts. The FCC, under Pai, undertook a number of actions that the legislators believe would benefit Sinclair – which has lobbied for such changes for several years – including rolling back certain broadcast television station ownership limitations (including allowing exceptions to duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two television stations in the same market if both are among the four highest-rated or if such a combination would dilute independent media voices, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations repealed two years earlier by Wheeler and his Democratic-led majority, a requirement dating to the FCC's inception for broadcast outlets to maintain office operations within the community of their primary local coverage areas, and removing ownership attribution rules applying to joint sales and shared services agreements). A spokeswoman for Pai said "the request appears to be part of many Democrats' attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views... Any claim that Chairman Pai is modifying the rules now to benefit one particular company is completely baseless."From late 2017, the FCC inspector general's office investigated Pai regarding the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger; this was made publicly known in February 2018. The office concluded in August 2018 that it "found no evidence, nor even the suggestion, of impropriety, unscrupulous behavior, favoritism towards Sinclair, or lack of impartiality". The office also concluded that Pai's decisions regarding Sinclair were consistent with policy positions he had previously endorsed in public.In July 2018, the FCC under Pai ordered that the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger be subject to administrative law judge hearings, due to allegations that Sinclair was planning to illegally retain control of stations it was divesting from. For this action, the FCC was criticized by President Trump, who said he wanted a merged company providing a "conservative voice". In August 2018, Tribune broke off the merger.In May 2020, the FCC under Pai reached an agreement for Sinclair to pay a record FCC fine of $48 million for deceptive practices, in return for ending three FCC investigations into the company. FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks argued against the agreement, as they wanted the investigations to be fully completed and made public.On April 16, 2020, Pai asked the other FCC commissioners to approve an application to "deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band that would primarily support 5G and Internet of Things services", in spite of a report issued by the DoD raising concerns about the potential impact it could have on the operational capabilities of the US military, specifically with regard to GPS coverage.On October 15, 2020, Pai released an official statement pledging that he would clarify Section 230, a portion of the Communications Decency Act that provides immunity for website publishers of third-party content. President Donald Trump had previously threatened to punish Facebook and Twitter for alleged anti-conservative bias after the companies blocked a series of "New York Post" stories about the Hunter Biden email controversy"." Under Section 230, social media companies are granted First Amendment rights, but are legally distinct from press publications.In 2010, Pai married Janine Van Lancker, a physician and allergist. They have two children and live in Arlington, Virginia.In 2017, Pai publicly complained that net neutrality protesters had targeted his family. Messages directed at his children were put up near his suburban Virginia home saying that "They will come to know the truth. Dad murdered Democracy in cold blood" and "How will they ever look you in the eye again?". No group took responsibility for the provocative signs, though the advocacy organization Popular Resistance left flyers on Pai's neighbors' doors that included his picture, age, and weight as part of a campaign they called "Ajit-ation".
|
[
"Searchlight Capital",
"American Enterprise Institute",
"Jenner & Block",
"United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division",
"Federal Communications Commission",
"Verizon"
] |
|
Which employer did Ajit Pai work for in Mar, 2012?
|
March 12, 2012
|
{
"text": [
"Federal Communications Commission"
]
}
|
L2_Q4699790_P108_3
|
Ajit Pai works for Jenner & Block from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2012.
Ajit Pai works for Federal Communications Commission from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Office of Legal Policy from May, 2004 to Feb, 2005.
Ajit Pai works for United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division from Jan, 1998 to Feb, 2001.
Ajit Pai works for Verizon from Feb, 2001 to Apr, 2003.
Ajit Pai works for American Enterprise Institute from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Searchlight Capital from Apr, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
|
Ajit PaiAjit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 2021.The son of Indian immigrants to the United States, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas. He is a graduate of both Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School. He worked as a lawyer in various offices of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, with a two-year stint as an in-house lawyer for Verizon Communications. He joined the FCC as a lawyer in its Office of General Counsel in 2007. He was nominated to be a commissioner in 2011 by President Barack Obama, who followed tradition in preserving balance on the commission by accepting the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a five-year term.In January 2017, newly inaugurated president Donald Trump designated Pai as FCC chairman. He is the first Indian American to hold the office. In March 2017, Trump announced that he would renominate Pai to serve another five-year term (remaining Chairman of the FCC). Pai was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for an additional five-year term on October 2, 2017. Pai is a proponent of repealing net neutrality in the United States and, on December 14, 2017, voted with the majority of the FCC to reverse the decision to regulate the internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Pai resigned on January 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden's inauguration as President of the United States.Ajit Pai was born on January 10, 1973, in Buffalo, New York. His father, Varadaraj Pai, and his mother, Radha Pai, immigrated to the United States from India in 1971. His father was a urologist and his mother was an anesthesiologist.Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas, where his parents worked at the county hospital. He graduated from Parsons Senior High School in 1990, then went to Harvard University where he was a member of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society. Pai graduated from Harvard in 1994 with an A.B. in social studies with honors. He then went to the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the "University of Chicago Law Review" and won a Mulroy Prize for excellence in evidence law. He graduated with a J.D. in 1997.After law school, Pai clerked for Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1997 to 1998. Pai then worked for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an Honors Program trial attorney on the Telecommunications Task Force. There, he worked on proposed mergers and acquisitions and on novel requests for regulatory relief following the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.Pai left his Department of Justice post in February 2001 to serve as Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., where he handled competition matters, regulatory issues, and counseling of business units on broadband initiatives. Pai left Verizon in April 2003 and was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. He returned to the Department of Justice to serve as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy in May 2004. He held that position until February 2005, when he was hired as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.Between 2007 and 2011, Pai held several positions in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, serving most prominently as Deputy General Counsel. In this role, he had supervisory responsibility over several dozen lawyers in the Administrative Law Division and worked on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters involving the wireless, wireline, cable, Internet, media, and satellite industries. In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Pai returned to the private sector in April 2011, working in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Jenner & Block where he was a partner in the Communications Practice.In 2011, Pai was then nominated for a Republican Party position on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Minority leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a term that concluded on June 30, 2016. Then Pai was designated chairman of the FCC by President Donald Trump in January 2017 for a five-year term. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the additional five-year term on October 2, 2017.In 2019, he was named forty-seventh among the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by "Modern Healthcare".Pai was an advocate for less regulation during his tenure on the FCC. He is seen as a closer ally to broadcasters than to other members of the FCC. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on July 10, 2012, he warned about the dangers of regulatory uncertainty and the need for the FCC to keep pace with the dynamic communications sector. Pai also asserted that by reforming the way the commission works, the agency can facilitate the provision of new and better services at lower prices for American consumers.Pai gave his first major speech since taking office on July 18, 2012, at Carnegie Mellon University. He discussed how the FCC can help promote economic growth and enhance job creation in the information and communications technology field by adhering to three basic principles: (1) the FCC should be as nimble as the industry it oversees; (2) the FCC should prioritize the removal of regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment; and (3) the FCC should accelerate its efforts to allocate additional spectrum for mobile broadband. Pai called for a reinvigoration of Section 7 of the Communications Act, which gives the commission a one-year deadline to review proposals for new technologies and services. He introduced the idea of creating an IP Transition Task Force to expedite the country's transition to all-IP networks. He urged the commission to settle the nine-year-old contributions reform proceeding for the Universal Service Fund by the end of the year. Finally, he advocated for completing the rules for the AWS-4 spectrum band by September 2012 and conducting the broadcast spectrum incentive auctions by June 30, 2014.Pai wrote an op-ed for the "Wall Street Journal" in 2014 criticizing a proposed FCC study of the news-gathering practices of media organizations. In another 2014 letter, Pai criticized Netflix, writing that their Open Connect caching tools effectively secure fast lanes for its traffic.In October 2014, Pai wrote an op-ed in the "Washington Post" criticizing a government-funded research project named "Truthy" at Indiana University which was studying the spread of "false and misleading ideas, hate speech and subversive propaganda" online. Pai questioned the value of the project, writing, "should taxpayer money be used to monitor your speech and evaluate your 'partisanship?'" Truthy researchers defended the project, writing, "we do not monitor individual people. The tweets we analyze are public and accessible by anyone." Indiana University issued a press release which said "the Truthy project is a basic computing research project designed to provide analytical insight into the ways in which information is spread across social media networks such as Twitter." U.S. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sent a letter to the National Science Foundation announcing a review of the grant.In 2017, Pai removed from circulation a proposal introduced by Tom Wheeler which would have required cable providers to make their programming available on third-party devices.In June 2019, the FCC under Pai allowed telecommunications companies to automatically sign up their users in call-blocking services. The measure was proposed by Pai; he said that it would reduce "unwanted robocalls". In response, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel argued that the FCC should go further in mandating free call-blocking services.In July 2020, the FCC under Pai approved the creation of a new number 9-8-8, for the hotline for suicide prevention; the old hotline was numbered 1-800-273-8255, while the new hotline is mandated to be set up by July 2022.In a hearing on net neutrality in 2014, Pai said that he was committed to a free and open internet and that it was not the FCC's role to determine net neutrality. He testified that "a dispute this fundamental is not for us, five unelected individuals, to decide. Instead, it should be resolved by the people's elected representatives, those who choose the direction of government, and those whom the American people can hold accountable for that choice." Later, Pai voted against the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order, classifying internet service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which bars certain providers from "mak[ing] any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services." He said in December 2016 that he believed Title II net neutrality's "days were numbered," and was described by the "New York Times" as a stickler for strict application of telecommunications law and limits on the FCC's authority.In a speech two weeks before the FCC's scheduled December 2017 vote on net neutrality, Pai was critical of celebrities including Cher, Mark Ruffalo, and Alyssa Milano for boosting opposition to the planned repeal. In response to criticism from Ruffalo, Pai said "Getting rid of government authority over the Internet is the exact opposite of authoritarianism. Government control is the defining feature of authoritarians, including the one in North Korea." Pai said Twitter and other tech companies were hypocritical for arguing for a free and open internet while, according to Pai, such companies "routinely block or discriminate against content they don't like."The day before the FCC's scheduled vote on net neutrality, Pai appeared in a video entitled "Ajit Pai Wants The Internet To Know You Can Still Harlem Shake After Net Neutrality". The controversial video showed him dancing to the "Harlem Shake" and buying products online, including a toy lightsaber. In the video, Pai is shown dancing next to Martina Markota, a proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and a staff member at the Daily Caller, the media outlet that produced the video. In response to the video, "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill said Pai was "unworthy" of holding the Jedi weapon, as "a Jedi acts selflessly for the common man." Baauer, the creator of the song featured in the video, has threatened to take legal action against Pai alongside his record label for Pai's use of the song in his video.As chairman, he also closed an investigation into zero-rating practices by wireless providers T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. On May 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission took the first formal step toward dismantling the net neutrality rules, and on December 14, 2017, voted to reverse Title II regulations after a contentious public comment period.In February 2018, the National Rifle Association (NRA) awarded Pai with the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award for repealing net neutrality rules despite facing heavy public criticism. As part of the award, a handmade Kentucky long gun was gifted to Pai. This gift caused former White House ethics attorney Walter Shaub to question if Pai, a federal employee, had violated ethics rules by accepting gifts from lobbyists such as the NRA.When the U.S. Senate voted by 52–47 "to put the Federal Communications Commission's net-neutrality rules back in place" in May 2018, Pai was said to be "upset", stating having no net neutrality rules "will help promote digital opportunity" while making "high-speed Internet access available to every single American." Regarding "Democrats' effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet", Ajit Pai conceded it would fail in the House.During an investigation of fake comments in support and against net neutrality, Pai refused to hand over evidence or help New York's Attorney General in determining the scope of manipulation by ISPs of the public comment process.Pai argued against adoption of the FCC 2013 analysis and proposed rulemaking regarding the high cost of inmate telephone calls, referred to as Inmate Calling Service (ICS) by the FCC. He submitted his written dissent in which he argued that the nature of the exclusive single carrier contract between private ICS providers and prison administrators meant inmates cannot "count on market competition to keep prices for inmate calling services just and reasonable." (ICS has become a $1.2 billion telecommunications industry and the two largest providers in the United States were private equity-backed companies). Prior to the FCC's imposition of rate caps on interstate prison and jail phone calls in February 2014, the largest ICS provider Global Tel-Link (GTL) – which has been profitably bought and sold by private equity firms such as American Securities and Veritas Capital – charged some of the highest rates in the US – up to $17.30 for a 15-minute call. The 2013 FCC analysis, described how, in some cases, long-distance calls are charged six times the rate on the outside.Acting Chairwoman Clyburn concurred with her order and both Jessica Rosenworcel and Pai dissented and issued statements. Pai opposed the FCC imposition of "safe harbor" of 12 cents with a cap of 21 cents on private ICS providers like GTL and CenturyLink Public Communications, arguing instead for a "simple proposal to cap interstate rates, with one rate for jails and a lower rate for prisons" that are cost-based to protect providers and ensure "some return on investment." Pai also argued that the FCC was not well-equipped to micromanage rates at each and every prison.In 2015, Pai opposed rate caps on intrastate inmate calls over which courts have ruled the FCC has no jurisdiction, notwithstanding rates as high as $14 per minute. He raised concerns about the increased use of contraband cell phones in prisons.In November 2016, the ICS providers won a halt on the regulation rules. Pai criticized Democrats for appealing. Shortly after his January 23 confirmation as chairman, Pai withdrew support for the FCC case involving GTL and CenturyLink set for February 6, 2017, which had called for establishing FCC jurisdiction over rates set by states. In June 2017, the US Court of Appeals struck down a large part of the FCC's ICS order.In 2016, Pai called for an investigation of potential fraud among beneficiaries of the agency's Lifeline subsidy for telecommunication services, contending that "apparent duplicates" who had signed up for the program improperly received $476 million annually. He rescinded permissions for nine new broadband providers selected by the previous FCC to participate in the program (along with more than 900 others) after becoming agency chairman, stating the new providers had not followed FCC guidelines requiring them to coordinate with the National Tribal Telecommunications Association in order to participate in the Lifeline program. Pai argued the rules had been improperly circumvented by the previous Democratic chairman, former lobbyist Tom Wheeler.In November 2017, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Conyers (Mich.) and David Cicilline (R.I.), asked David L. Hunt, the inspector general of the FCC, to investigate whether Pai's legislative actions regarding the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules were biased in favor of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a large owner of broadcast television stations that, since the formation of its now-defunct "News Central" format in 2003, produces conservative news and commentary segments that the group requires its stations to insert into certain local newscasts. The FCC, under Pai, undertook a number of actions that the legislators believe would benefit Sinclair – which has lobbied for such changes for several years – including rolling back certain broadcast television station ownership limitations (including allowing exceptions to duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two television stations in the same market if both are among the four highest-rated or if such a combination would dilute independent media voices, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations repealed two years earlier by Wheeler and his Democratic-led majority, a requirement dating to the FCC's inception for broadcast outlets to maintain office operations within the community of their primary local coverage areas, and removing ownership attribution rules applying to joint sales and shared services agreements). A spokeswoman for Pai said "the request appears to be part of many Democrats' attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views... Any claim that Chairman Pai is modifying the rules now to benefit one particular company is completely baseless."From late 2017, the FCC inspector general's office investigated Pai regarding the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger; this was made publicly known in February 2018. The office concluded in August 2018 that it "found no evidence, nor even the suggestion, of impropriety, unscrupulous behavior, favoritism towards Sinclair, or lack of impartiality". The office also concluded that Pai's decisions regarding Sinclair were consistent with policy positions he had previously endorsed in public.In July 2018, the FCC under Pai ordered that the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger be subject to administrative law judge hearings, due to allegations that Sinclair was planning to illegally retain control of stations it was divesting from. For this action, the FCC was criticized by President Trump, who said he wanted a merged company providing a "conservative voice". In August 2018, Tribune broke off the merger.In May 2020, the FCC under Pai reached an agreement for Sinclair to pay a record FCC fine of $48 million for deceptive practices, in return for ending three FCC investigations into the company. FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks argued against the agreement, as they wanted the investigations to be fully completed and made public.On April 16, 2020, Pai asked the other FCC commissioners to approve an application to "deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band that would primarily support 5G and Internet of Things services", in spite of a report issued by the DoD raising concerns about the potential impact it could have on the operational capabilities of the US military, specifically with regard to GPS coverage.On October 15, 2020, Pai released an official statement pledging that he would clarify Section 230, a portion of the Communications Decency Act that provides immunity for website publishers of third-party content. President Donald Trump had previously threatened to punish Facebook and Twitter for alleged anti-conservative bias after the companies blocked a series of "New York Post" stories about the Hunter Biden email controversy"." Under Section 230, social media companies are granted First Amendment rights, but are legally distinct from press publications.In 2010, Pai married Janine Van Lancker, a physician and allergist. They have two children and live in Arlington, Virginia.In 2017, Pai publicly complained that net neutrality protesters had targeted his family. Messages directed at his children were put up near his suburban Virginia home saying that "They will come to know the truth. Dad murdered Democracy in cold blood" and "How will they ever look you in the eye again?". No group took responsibility for the provocative signs, though the advocacy organization Popular Resistance left flyers on Pai's neighbors' doors that included his picture, age, and weight as part of a campaign they called "Ajit-ation".
|
[
"Searchlight Capital",
"American Enterprise Institute",
"Jenner & Block",
"United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division",
"Verizon",
"Office of Legal Policy"
] |
|
Which employer did Ajit Pai work for in Mar, 2011?
|
March 12, 2011
|
{
"text": [
"Federal Communications Commission",
"Jenner & Block"
]
}
|
L2_Q4699790_P108_4
|
Ajit Pai works for American Enterprise Institute from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Verizon from Feb, 2001 to Apr, 2003.
Ajit Pai works for Searchlight Capital from Apr, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Federal Communications Commission from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Jenner & Block from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2012.
Ajit Pai works for United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division from Jan, 1998 to Feb, 2001.
Ajit Pai works for Office of Legal Policy from May, 2004 to Feb, 2005.
|
Ajit PaiAjit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 2021.The son of Indian immigrants to the United States, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas. He is a graduate of both Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School. He worked as a lawyer in various offices of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, with a two-year stint as an in-house lawyer for Verizon Communications. He joined the FCC as a lawyer in its Office of General Counsel in 2007. He was nominated to be a commissioner in 2011 by President Barack Obama, who followed tradition in preserving balance on the commission by accepting the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a five-year term.In January 2017, newly inaugurated president Donald Trump designated Pai as FCC chairman. He is the first Indian American to hold the office. In March 2017, Trump announced that he would renominate Pai to serve another five-year term (remaining Chairman of the FCC). Pai was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for an additional five-year term on October 2, 2017. Pai is a proponent of repealing net neutrality in the United States and, on December 14, 2017, voted with the majority of the FCC to reverse the decision to regulate the internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Pai resigned on January 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden's inauguration as President of the United States.Ajit Pai was born on January 10, 1973, in Buffalo, New York. His father, Varadaraj Pai, and his mother, Radha Pai, immigrated to the United States from India in 1971. His father was a urologist and his mother was an anesthesiologist.Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas, where his parents worked at the county hospital. He graduated from Parsons Senior High School in 1990, then went to Harvard University where he was a member of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society. Pai graduated from Harvard in 1994 with an A.B. in social studies with honors. He then went to the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the "University of Chicago Law Review" and won a Mulroy Prize for excellence in evidence law. He graduated with a J.D. in 1997.After law school, Pai clerked for Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1997 to 1998. Pai then worked for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an Honors Program trial attorney on the Telecommunications Task Force. There, he worked on proposed mergers and acquisitions and on novel requests for regulatory relief following the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.Pai left his Department of Justice post in February 2001 to serve as Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., where he handled competition matters, regulatory issues, and counseling of business units on broadband initiatives. Pai left Verizon in April 2003 and was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. He returned to the Department of Justice to serve as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy in May 2004. He held that position until February 2005, when he was hired as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.Between 2007 and 2011, Pai held several positions in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, serving most prominently as Deputy General Counsel. In this role, he had supervisory responsibility over several dozen lawyers in the Administrative Law Division and worked on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters involving the wireless, wireline, cable, Internet, media, and satellite industries. In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Pai returned to the private sector in April 2011, working in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Jenner & Block where he was a partner in the Communications Practice.In 2011, Pai was then nominated for a Republican Party position on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Minority leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a term that concluded on June 30, 2016. Then Pai was designated chairman of the FCC by President Donald Trump in January 2017 for a five-year term. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the additional five-year term on October 2, 2017.In 2019, he was named forty-seventh among the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by "Modern Healthcare".Pai was an advocate for less regulation during his tenure on the FCC. He is seen as a closer ally to broadcasters than to other members of the FCC. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on July 10, 2012, he warned about the dangers of regulatory uncertainty and the need for the FCC to keep pace with the dynamic communications sector. Pai also asserted that by reforming the way the commission works, the agency can facilitate the provision of new and better services at lower prices for American consumers.Pai gave his first major speech since taking office on July 18, 2012, at Carnegie Mellon University. He discussed how the FCC can help promote economic growth and enhance job creation in the information and communications technology field by adhering to three basic principles: (1) the FCC should be as nimble as the industry it oversees; (2) the FCC should prioritize the removal of regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment; and (3) the FCC should accelerate its efforts to allocate additional spectrum for mobile broadband. Pai called for a reinvigoration of Section 7 of the Communications Act, which gives the commission a one-year deadline to review proposals for new technologies and services. He introduced the idea of creating an IP Transition Task Force to expedite the country's transition to all-IP networks. He urged the commission to settle the nine-year-old contributions reform proceeding for the Universal Service Fund by the end of the year. Finally, he advocated for completing the rules for the AWS-4 spectrum band by September 2012 and conducting the broadcast spectrum incentive auctions by June 30, 2014.Pai wrote an op-ed for the "Wall Street Journal" in 2014 criticizing a proposed FCC study of the news-gathering practices of media organizations. In another 2014 letter, Pai criticized Netflix, writing that their Open Connect caching tools effectively secure fast lanes for its traffic.In October 2014, Pai wrote an op-ed in the "Washington Post" criticizing a government-funded research project named "Truthy" at Indiana University which was studying the spread of "false and misleading ideas, hate speech and subversive propaganda" online. Pai questioned the value of the project, writing, "should taxpayer money be used to monitor your speech and evaluate your 'partisanship?'" Truthy researchers defended the project, writing, "we do not monitor individual people. The tweets we analyze are public and accessible by anyone." Indiana University issued a press release which said "the Truthy project is a basic computing research project designed to provide analytical insight into the ways in which information is spread across social media networks such as Twitter." U.S. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sent a letter to the National Science Foundation announcing a review of the grant.In 2017, Pai removed from circulation a proposal introduced by Tom Wheeler which would have required cable providers to make their programming available on third-party devices.In June 2019, the FCC under Pai allowed telecommunications companies to automatically sign up their users in call-blocking services. The measure was proposed by Pai; he said that it would reduce "unwanted robocalls". In response, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel argued that the FCC should go further in mandating free call-blocking services.In July 2020, the FCC under Pai approved the creation of a new number 9-8-8, for the hotline for suicide prevention; the old hotline was numbered 1-800-273-8255, while the new hotline is mandated to be set up by July 2022.In a hearing on net neutrality in 2014, Pai said that he was committed to a free and open internet and that it was not the FCC's role to determine net neutrality. He testified that "a dispute this fundamental is not for us, five unelected individuals, to decide. Instead, it should be resolved by the people's elected representatives, those who choose the direction of government, and those whom the American people can hold accountable for that choice." Later, Pai voted against the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order, classifying internet service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which bars certain providers from "mak[ing] any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services." He said in December 2016 that he believed Title II net neutrality's "days were numbered," and was described by the "New York Times" as a stickler for strict application of telecommunications law and limits on the FCC's authority.In a speech two weeks before the FCC's scheduled December 2017 vote on net neutrality, Pai was critical of celebrities including Cher, Mark Ruffalo, and Alyssa Milano for boosting opposition to the planned repeal. In response to criticism from Ruffalo, Pai said "Getting rid of government authority over the Internet is the exact opposite of authoritarianism. Government control is the defining feature of authoritarians, including the one in North Korea." Pai said Twitter and other tech companies were hypocritical for arguing for a free and open internet while, according to Pai, such companies "routinely block or discriminate against content they don't like."The day before the FCC's scheduled vote on net neutrality, Pai appeared in a video entitled "Ajit Pai Wants The Internet To Know You Can Still Harlem Shake After Net Neutrality". The controversial video showed him dancing to the "Harlem Shake" and buying products online, including a toy lightsaber. In the video, Pai is shown dancing next to Martina Markota, a proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and a staff member at the Daily Caller, the media outlet that produced the video. In response to the video, "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill said Pai was "unworthy" of holding the Jedi weapon, as "a Jedi acts selflessly for the common man." Baauer, the creator of the song featured in the video, has threatened to take legal action against Pai alongside his record label for Pai's use of the song in his video.As chairman, he also closed an investigation into zero-rating practices by wireless providers T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. On May 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission took the first formal step toward dismantling the net neutrality rules, and on December 14, 2017, voted to reverse Title II regulations after a contentious public comment period.In February 2018, the National Rifle Association (NRA) awarded Pai with the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award for repealing net neutrality rules despite facing heavy public criticism. As part of the award, a handmade Kentucky long gun was gifted to Pai. This gift caused former White House ethics attorney Walter Shaub to question if Pai, a federal employee, had violated ethics rules by accepting gifts from lobbyists such as the NRA.When the U.S. Senate voted by 52–47 "to put the Federal Communications Commission's net-neutrality rules back in place" in May 2018, Pai was said to be "upset", stating having no net neutrality rules "will help promote digital opportunity" while making "high-speed Internet access available to every single American." Regarding "Democrats' effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet", Ajit Pai conceded it would fail in the House.During an investigation of fake comments in support and against net neutrality, Pai refused to hand over evidence or help New York's Attorney General in determining the scope of manipulation by ISPs of the public comment process.Pai argued against adoption of the FCC 2013 analysis and proposed rulemaking regarding the high cost of inmate telephone calls, referred to as Inmate Calling Service (ICS) by the FCC. He submitted his written dissent in which he argued that the nature of the exclusive single carrier contract between private ICS providers and prison administrators meant inmates cannot "count on market competition to keep prices for inmate calling services just and reasonable." (ICS has become a $1.2 billion telecommunications industry and the two largest providers in the United States were private equity-backed companies). Prior to the FCC's imposition of rate caps on interstate prison and jail phone calls in February 2014, the largest ICS provider Global Tel-Link (GTL) – which has been profitably bought and sold by private equity firms such as American Securities and Veritas Capital – charged some of the highest rates in the US – up to $17.30 for a 15-minute call. The 2013 FCC analysis, described how, in some cases, long-distance calls are charged six times the rate on the outside.Acting Chairwoman Clyburn concurred with her order and both Jessica Rosenworcel and Pai dissented and issued statements. Pai opposed the FCC imposition of "safe harbor" of 12 cents with a cap of 21 cents on private ICS providers like GTL and CenturyLink Public Communications, arguing instead for a "simple proposal to cap interstate rates, with one rate for jails and a lower rate for prisons" that are cost-based to protect providers and ensure "some return on investment." Pai also argued that the FCC was not well-equipped to micromanage rates at each and every prison.In 2015, Pai opposed rate caps on intrastate inmate calls over which courts have ruled the FCC has no jurisdiction, notwithstanding rates as high as $14 per minute. He raised concerns about the increased use of contraband cell phones in prisons.In November 2016, the ICS providers won a halt on the regulation rules. Pai criticized Democrats for appealing. Shortly after his January 23 confirmation as chairman, Pai withdrew support for the FCC case involving GTL and CenturyLink set for February 6, 2017, which had called for establishing FCC jurisdiction over rates set by states. In June 2017, the US Court of Appeals struck down a large part of the FCC's ICS order.In 2016, Pai called for an investigation of potential fraud among beneficiaries of the agency's Lifeline subsidy for telecommunication services, contending that "apparent duplicates" who had signed up for the program improperly received $476 million annually. He rescinded permissions for nine new broadband providers selected by the previous FCC to participate in the program (along with more than 900 others) after becoming agency chairman, stating the new providers had not followed FCC guidelines requiring them to coordinate with the National Tribal Telecommunications Association in order to participate in the Lifeline program. Pai argued the rules had been improperly circumvented by the previous Democratic chairman, former lobbyist Tom Wheeler.In November 2017, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Conyers (Mich.) and David Cicilline (R.I.), asked David L. Hunt, the inspector general of the FCC, to investigate whether Pai's legislative actions regarding the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules were biased in favor of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a large owner of broadcast television stations that, since the formation of its now-defunct "News Central" format in 2003, produces conservative news and commentary segments that the group requires its stations to insert into certain local newscasts. The FCC, under Pai, undertook a number of actions that the legislators believe would benefit Sinclair – which has lobbied for such changes for several years – including rolling back certain broadcast television station ownership limitations (including allowing exceptions to duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two television stations in the same market if both are among the four highest-rated or if such a combination would dilute independent media voices, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations repealed two years earlier by Wheeler and his Democratic-led majority, a requirement dating to the FCC's inception for broadcast outlets to maintain office operations within the community of their primary local coverage areas, and removing ownership attribution rules applying to joint sales and shared services agreements). A spokeswoman for Pai said "the request appears to be part of many Democrats' attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views... Any claim that Chairman Pai is modifying the rules now to benefit one particular company is completely baseless."From late 2017, the FCC inspector general's office investigated Pai regarding the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger; this was made publicly known in February 2018. The office concluded in August 2018 that it "found no evidence, nor even the suggestion, of impropriety, unscrupulous behavior, favoritism towards Sinclair, or lack of impartiality". The office also concluded that Pai's decisions regarding Sinclair were consistent with policy positions he had previously endorsed in public.In July 2018, the FCC under Pai ordered that the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger be subject to administrative law judge hearings, due to allegations that Sinclair was planning to illegally retain control of stations it was divesting from. For this action, the FCC was criticized by President Trump, who said he wanted a merged company providing a "conservative voice". In August 2018, Tribune broke off the merger.In May 2020, the FCC under Pai reached an agreement for Sinclair to pay a record FCC fine of $48 million for deceptive practices, in return for ending three FCC investigations into the company. FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks argued against the agreement, as they wanted the investigations to be fully completed and made public.On April 16, 2020, Pai asked the other FCC commissioners to approve an application to "deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band that would primarily support 5G and Internet of Things services", in spite of a report issued by the DoD raising concerns about the potential impact it could have on the operational capabilities of the US military, specifically with regard to GPS coverage.On October 15, 2020, Pai released an official statement pledging that he would clarify Section 230, a portion of the Communications Decency Act that provides immunity for website publishers of third-party content. President Donald Trump had previously threatened to punish Facebook and Twitter for alleged anti-conservative bias after the companies blocked a series of "New York Post" stories about the Hunter Biden email controversy"." Under Section 230, social media companies are granted First Amendment rights, but are legally distinct from press publications.In 2010, Pai married Janine Van Lancker, a physician and allergist. They have two children and live in Arlington, Virginia.In 2017, Pai publicly complained that net neutrality protesters had targeted his family. Messages directed at his children were put up near his suburban Virginia home saying that "They will come to know the truth. Dad murdered Democracy in cold blood" and "How will they ever look you in the eye again?". No group took responsibility for the provocative signs, though the advocacy organization Popular Resistance left flyers on Pai's neighbors' doors that included his picture, age, and weight as part of a campaign they called "Ajit-ation".
|
[
"Searchlight Capital",
"American Enterprise Institute",
"United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division",
"Verizon",
"Office of Legal Policy"
] |
|
Which employer did Ajit Pai work for in Aug, 2021?
|
August 13, 2021
|
{
"text": [
"Federal Communications Commission",
"Searchlight Capital",
"American Enterprise Institute"
]
}
|
L2_Q4699790_P108_5
|
Ajit Pai works for Federal Communications Commission from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Verizon from Feb, 2001 to Apr, 2003.
Ajit Pai works for Office of Legal Policy from May, 2004 to Feb, 2005.
Ajit Pai works for United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division from Jan, 1998 to Feb, 2001.
Ajit Pai works for American Enterprise Institute from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Jenner & Block from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2012.
Ajit Pai works for Searchlight Capital from Apr, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
|
Ajit PaiAjit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 2021.The son of Indian immigrants to the United States, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas. He is a graduate of both Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School. He worked as a lawyer in various offices of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, with a two-year stint as an in-house lawyer for Verizon Communications. He joined the FCC as a lawyer in its Office of General Counsel in 2007. He was nominated to be a commissioner in 2011 by President Barack Obama, who followed tradition in preserving balance on the commission by accepting the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a five-year term.In January 2017, newly inaugurated president Donald Trump designated Pai as FCC chairman. He is the first Indian American to hold the office. In March 2017, Trump announced that he would renominate Pai to serve another five-year term (remaining Chairman of the FCC). Pai was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for an additional five-year term on October 2, 2017. Pai is a proponent of repealing net neutrality in the United States and, on December 14, 2017, voted with the majority of the FCC to reverse the decision to regulate the internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Pai resigned on January 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden's inauguration as President of the United States.Ajit Pai was born on January 10, 1973, in Buffalo, New York. His father, Varadaraj Pai, and his mother, Radha Pai, immigrated to the United States from India in 1971. His father was a urologist and his mother was an anesthesiologist.Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas, where his parents worked at the county hospital. He graduated from Parsons Senior High School in 1990, then went to Harvard University where he was a member of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society. Pai graduated from Harvard in 1994 with an A.B. in social studies with honors. He then went to the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the "University of Chicago Law Review" and won a Mulroy Prize for excellence in evidence law. He graduated with a J.D. in 1997.After law school, Pai clerked for Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1997 to 1998. Pai then worked for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an Honors Program trial attorney on the Telecommunications Task Force. There, he worked on proposed mergers and acquisitions and on novel requests for regulatory relief following the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.Pai left his Department of Justice post in February 2001 to serve as Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., where he handled competition matters, regulatory issues, and counseling of business units on broadband initiatives. Pai left Verizon in April 2003 and was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. He returned to the Department of Justice to serve as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy in May 2004. He held that position until February 2005, when he was hired as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.Between 2007 and 2011, Pai held several positions in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, serving most prominently as Deputy General Counsel. In this role, he had supervisory responsibility over several dozen lawyers in the Administrative Law Division and worked on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters involving the wireless, wireline, cable, Internet, media, and satellite industries. In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Pai returned to the private sector in April 2011, working in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Jenner & Block where he was a partner in the Communications Practice.In 2011, Pai was then nominated for a Republican Party position on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Minority leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a term that concluded on June 30, 2016. Then Pai was designated chairman of the FCC by President Donald Trump in January 2017 for a five-year term. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the additional five-year term on October 2, 2017.In 2019, he was named forty-seventh among the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by "Modern Healthcare".Pai was an advocate for less regulation during his tenure on the FCC. He is seen as a closer ally to broadcasters than to other members of the FCC. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on July 10, 2012, he warned about the dangers of regulatory uncertainty and the need for the FCC to keep pace with the dynamic communications sector. Pai also asserted that by reforming the way the commission works, the agency can facilitate the provision of new and better services at lower prices for American consumers.Pai gave his first major speech since taking office on July 18, 2012, at Carnegie Mellon University. He discussed how the FCC can help promote economic growth and enhance job creation in the information and communications technology field by adhering to three basic principles: (1) the FCC should be as nimble as the industry it oversees; (2) the FCC should prioritize the removal of regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment; and (3) the FCC should accelerate its efforts to allocate additional spectrum for mobile broadband. Pai called for a reinvigoration of Section 7 of the Communications Act, which gives the commission a one-year deadline to review proposals for new technologies and services. He introduced the idea of creating an IP Transition Task Force to expedite the country's transition to all-IP networks. He urged the commission to settle the nine-year-old contributions reform proceeding for the Universal Service Fund by the end of the year. Finally, he advocated for completing the rules for the AWS-4 spectrum band by September 2012 and conducting the broadcast spectrum incentive auctions by June 30, 2014.Pai wrote an op-ed for the "Wall Street Journal" in 2014 criticizing a proposed FCC study of the news-gathering practices of media organizations. In another 2014 letter, Pai criticized Netflix, writing that their Open Connect caching tools effectively secure fast lanes for its traffic.In October 2014, Pai wrote an op-ed in the "Washington Post" criticizing a government-funded research project named "Truthy" at Indiana University which was studying the spread of "false and misleading ideas, hate speech and subversive propaganda" online. Pai questioned the value of the project, writing, "should taxpayer money be used to monitor your speech and evaluate your 'partisanship?'" Truthy researchers defended the project, writing, "we do not monitor individual people. The tweets we analyze are public and accessible by anyone." Indiana University issued a press release which said "the Truthy project is a basic computing research project designed to provide analytical insight into the ways in which information is spread across social media networks such as Twitter." U.S. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sent a letter to the National Science Foundation announcing a review of the grant.In 2017, Pai removed from circulation a proposal introduced by Tom Wheeler which would have required cable providers to make their programming available on third-party devices.In June 2019, the FCC under Pai allowed telecommunications companies to automatically sign up their users in call-blocking services. The measure was proposed by Pai; he said that it would reduce "unwanted robocalls". In response, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel argued that the FCC should go further in mandating free call-blocking services.In July 2020, the FCC under Pai approved the creation of a new number 9-8-8, for the hotline for suicide prevention; the old hotline was numbered 1-800-273-8255, while the new hotline is mandated to be set up by July 2022.In a hearing on net neutrality in 2014, Pai said that he was committed to a free and open internet and that it was not the FCC's role to determine net neutrality. He testified that "a dispute this fundamental is not for us, five unelected individuals, to decide. Instead, it should be resolved by the people's elected representatives, those who choose the direction of government, and those whom the American people can hold accountable for that choice." Later, Pai voted against the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order, classifying internet service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which bars certain providers from "mak[ing] any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services." He said in December 2016 that he believed Title II net neutrality's "days were numbered," and was described by the "New York Times" as a stickler for strict application of telecommunications law and limits on the FCC's authority.In a speech two weeks before the FCC's scheduled December 2017 vote on net neutrality, Pai was critical of celebrities including Cher, Mark Ruffalo, and Alyssa Milano for boosting opposition to the planned repeal. In response to criticism from Ruffalo, Pai said "Getting rid of government authority over the Internet is the exact opposite of authoritarianism. Government control is the defining feature of authoritarians, including the one in North Korea." Pai said Twitter and other tech companies were hypocritical for arguing for a free and open internet while, according to Pai, such companies "routinely block or discriminate against content they don't like."The day before the FCC's scheduled vote on net neutrality, Pai appeared in a video entitled "Ajit Pai Wants The Internet To Know You Can Still Harlem Shake After Net Neutrality". The controversial video showed him dancing to the "Harlem Shake" and buying products online, including a toy lightsaber. In the video, Pai is shown dancing next to Martina Markota, a proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and a staff member at the Daily Caller, the media outlet that produced the video. In response to the video, "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill said Pai was "unworthy" of holding the Jedi weapon, as "a Jedi acts selflessly for the common man." Baauer, the creator of the song featured in the video, has threatened to take legal action against Pai alongside his record label for Pai's use of the song in his video.As chairman, he also closed an investigation into zero-rating practices by wireless providers T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. On May 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission took the first formal step toward dismantling the net neutrality rules, and on December 14, 2017, voted to reverse Title II regulations after a contentious public comment period.In February 2018, the National Rifle Association (NRA) awarded Pai with the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award for repealing net neutrality rules despite facing heavy public criticism. As part of the award, a handmade Kentucky long gun was gifted to Pai. This gift caused former White House ethics attorney Walter Shaub to question if Pai, a federal employee, had violated ethics rules by accepting gifts from lobbyists such as the NRA.When the U.S. Senate voted by 52–47 "to put the Federal Communications Commission's net-neutrality rules back in place" in May 2018, Pai was said to be "upset", stating having no net neutrality rules "will help promote digital opportunity" while making "high-speed Internet access available to every single American." Regarding "Democrats' effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet", Ajit Pai conceded it would fail in the House.During an investigation of fake comments in support and against net neutrality, Pai refused to hand over evidence or help New York's Attorney General in determining the scope of manipulation by ISPs of the public comment process.Pai argued against adoption of the FCC 2013 analysis and proposed rulemaking regarding the high cost of inmate telephone calls, referred to as Inmate Calling Service (ICS) by the FCC. He submitted his written dissent in which he argued that the nature of the exclusive single carrier contract between private ICS providers and prison administrators meant inmates cannot "count on market competition to keep prices for inmate calling services just and reasonable." (ICS has become a $1.2 billion telecommunications industry and the two largest providers in the United States were private equity-backed companies). Prior to the FCC's imposition of rate caps on interstate prison and jail phone calls in February 2014, the largest ICS provider Global Tel-Link (GTL) – which has been profitably bought and sold by private equity firms such as American Securities and Veritas Capital – charged some of the highest rates in the US – up to $17.30 for a 15-minute call. The 2013 FCC analysis, described how, in some cases, long-distance calls are charged six times the rate on the outside.Acting Chairwoman Clyburn concurred with her order and both Jessica Rosenworcel and Pai dissented and issued statements. Pai opposed the FCC imposition of "safe harbor" of 12 cents with a cap of 21 cents on private ICS providers like GTL and CenturyLink Public Communications, arguing instead for a "simple proposal to cap interstate rates, with one rate for jails and a lower rate for prisons" that are cost-based to protect providers and ensure "some return on investment." Pai also argued that the FCC was not well-equipped to micromanage rates at each and every prison.In 2015, Pai opposed rate caps on intrastate inmate calls over which courts have ruled the FCC has no jurisdiction, notwithstanding rates as high as $14 per minute. He raised concerns about the increased use of contraband cell phones in prisons.In November 2016, the ICS providers won a halt on the regulation rules. Pai criticized Democrats for appealing. Shortly after his January 23 confirmation as chairman, Pai withdrew support for the FCC case involving GTL and CenturyLink set for February 6, 2017, which had called for establishing FCC jurisdiction over rates set by states. In June 2017, the US Court of Appeals struck down a large part of the FCC's ICS order.In 2016, Pai called for an investigation of potential fraud among beneficiaries of the agency's Lifeline subsidy for telecommunication services, contending that "apparent duplicates" who had signed up for the program improperly received $476 million annually. He rescinded permissions for nine new broadband providers selected by the previous FCC to participate in the program (along with more than 900 others) after becoming agency chairman, stating the new providers had not followed FCC guidelines requiring them to coordinate with the National Tribal Telecommunications Association in order to participate in the Lifeline program. Pai argued the rules had been improperly circumvented by the previous Democratic chairman, former lobbyist Tom Wheeler.In November 2017, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Conyers (Mich.) and David Cicilline (R.I.), asked David L. Hunt, the inspector general of the FCC, to investigate whether Pai's legislative actions regarding the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules were biased in favor of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a large owner of broadcast television stations that, since the formation of its now-defunct "News Central" format in 2003, produces conservative news and commentary segments that the group requires its stations to insert into certain local newscasts. The FCC, under Pai, undertook a number of actions that the legislators believe would benefit Sinclair – which has lobbied for such changes for several years – including rolling back certain broadcast television station ownership limitations (including allowing exceptions to duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two television stations in the same market if both are among the four highest-rated or if such a combination would dilute independent media voices, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations repealed two years earlier by Wheeler and his Democratic-led majority, a requirement dating to the FCC's inception for broadcast outlets to maintain office operations within the community of their primary local coverage areas, and removing ownership attribution rules applying to joint sales and shared services agreements). A spokeswoman for Pai said "the request appears to be part of many Democrats' attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views... Any claim that Chairman Pai is modifying the rules now to benefit one particular company is completely baseless."From late 2017, the FCC inspector general's office investigated Pai regarding the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger; this was made publicly known in February 2018. The office concluded in August 2018 that it "found no evidence, nor even the suggestion, of impropriety, unscrupulous behavior, favoritism towards Sinclair, or lack of impartiality". The office also concluded that Pai's decisions regarding Sinclair were consistent with policy positions he had previously endorsed in public.In July 2018, the FCC under Pai ordered that the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger be subject to administrative law judge hearings, due to allegations that Sinclair was planning to illegally retain control of stations it was divesting from. For this action, the FCC was criticized by President Trump, who said he wanted a merged company providing a "conservative voice". In August 2018, Tribune broke off the merger.In May 2020, the FCC under Pai reached an agreement for Sinclair to pay a record FCC fine of $48 million for deceptive practices, in return for ending three FCC investigations into the company. FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks argued against the agreement, as they wanted the investigations to be fully completed and made public.On April 16, 2020, Pai asked the other FCC commissioners to approve an application to "deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band that would primarily support 5G and Internet of Things services", in spite of a report issued by the DoD raising concerns about the potential impact it could have on the operational capabilities of the US military, specifically with regard to GPS coverage.On October 15, 2020, Pai released an official statement pledging that he would clarify Section 230, a portion of the Communications Decency Act that provides immunity for website publishers of third-party content. President Donald Trump had previously threatened to punish Facebook and Twitter for alleged anti-conservative bias after the companies blocked a series of "New York Post" stories about the Hunter Biden email controversy"." Under Section 230, social media companies are granted First Amendment rights, but are legally distinct from press publications.In 2010, Pai married Janine Van Lancker, a physician and allergist. They have two children and live in Arlington, Virginia.In 2017, Pai publicly complained that net neutrality protesters had targeted his family. Messages directed at his children were put up near his suburban Virginia home saying that "They will come to know the truth. Dad murdered Democracy in cold blood" and "How will they ever look you in the eye again?". No group took responsibility for the provocative signs, though the advocacy organization Popular Resistance left flyers on Pai's neighbors' doors that included his picture, age, and weight as part of a campaign they called "Ajit-ation".
|
[
"Verizon",
"United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division",
"Office of Legal Policy",
"Jenner & Block"
] |
|
Which employer did Ajit Pai work for in Sep, 2022?
|
September 12, 2022
|
{
"text": [
"Federal Communications Commission",
"Searchlight Capital",
"American Enterprise Institute"
]
}
|
L2_Q4699790_P108_6
|
Ajit Pai works for Office of Legal Policy from May, 2004 to Feb, 2005.
Ajit Pai works for Federal Communications Commission from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Searchlight Capital from Apr, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for American Enterprise Institute from Jan, 2021 to Dec, 2022.
Ajit Pai works for Verizon from Feb, 2001 to Apr, 2003.
Ajit Pai works for United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division from Jan, 1998 to Feb, 2001.
Ajit Pai works for Jenner & Block from Jan, 2011 to Jan, 2012.
|
Ajit PaiAjit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 2021.The son of Indian immigrants to the United States, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas. He is a graduate of both Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School. He worked as a lawyer in various offices of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, with a two-year stint as an in-house lawyer for Verizon Communications. He joined the FCC as a lawyer in its Office of General Counsel in 2007. He was nominated to be a commissioner in 2011 by President Barack Obama, who followed tradition in preserving balance on the commission by accepting the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a five-year term.In January 2017, newly inaugurated president Donald Trump designated Pai as FCC chairman. He is the first Indian American to hold the office. In March 2017, Trump announced that he would renominate Pai to serve another five-year term (remaining Chairman of the FCC). Pai was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for an additional five-year term on October 2, 2017. Pai is a proponent of repealing net neutrality in the United States and, on December 14, 2017, voted with the majority of the FCC to reverse the decision to regulate the internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Pai resigned on January 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden's inauguration as President of the United States.Ajit Pai was born on January 10, 1973, in Buffalo, New York. His father, Varadaraj Pai, and his mother, Radha Pai, immigrated to the United States from India in 1971. His father was a urologist and his mother was an anesthesiologist.Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas, where his parents worked at the county hospital. He graduated from Parsons Senior High School in 1990, then went to Harvard University where he was a member of the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society. Pai graduated from Harvard in 1994 with an A.B. in social studies with honors. He then went to the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the "University of Chicago Law Review" and won a Mulroy Prize for excellence in evidence law. He graduated with a J.D. in 1997.After law school, Pai clerked for Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1997 to 1998. Pai then worked for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an Honors Program trial attorney on the Telecommunications Task Force. There, he worked on proposed mergers and acquisitions and on novel requests for regulatory relief following the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.Pai left his Department of Justice post in February 2001 to serve as Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., where he handled competition matters, regulatory issues, and counseling of business units on broadband initiatives. Pai left Verizon in April 2003 and was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. He returned to the Department of Justice to serve as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy in May 2004. He held that position until February 2005, when he was hired as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.Between 2007 and 2011, Pai held several positions in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, serving most prominently as Deputy General Counsel. In this role, he had supervisory responsibility over several dozen lawyers in the Administrative Law Division and worked on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters involving the wireless, wireline, cable, Internet, media, and satellite industries. In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Pai returned to the private sector in April 2011, working in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Jenner & Block where he was a partner in the Communications Practice.In 2011, Pai was then nominated for a Republican Party position on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Minority leader Mitch McConnell. He was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012, and was sworn in on May 14, 2012, for a term that concluded on June 30, 2016. Then Pai was designated chairman of the FCC by President Donald Trump in January 2017 for a five-year term. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the additional five-year term on October 2, 2017.In 2019, he was named forty-seventh among the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by "Modern Healthcare".Pai was an advocate for less regulation during his tenure on the FCC. He is seen as a closer ally to broadcasters than to other members of the FCC. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on July 10, 2012, he warned about the dangers of regulatory uncertainty and the need for the FCC to keep pace with the dynamic communications sector. Pai also asserted that by reforming the way the commission works, the agency can facilitate the provision of new and better services at lower prices for American consumers.Pai gave his first major speech since taking office on July 18, 2012, at Carnegie Mellon University. He discussed how the FCC can help promote economic growth and enhance job creation in the information and communications technology field by adhering to three basic principles: (1) the FCC should be as nimble as the industry it oversees; (2) the FCC should prioritize the removal of regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment; and (3) the FCC should accelerate its efforts to allocate additional spectrum for mobile broadband. Pai called for a reinvigoration of Section 7 of the Communications Act, which gives the commission a one-year deadline to review proposals for new technologies and services. He introduced the idea of creating an IP Transition Task Force to expedite the country's transition to all-IP networks. He urged the commission to settle the nine-year-old contributions reform proceeding for the Universal Service Fund by the end of the year. Finally, he advocated for completing the rules for the AWS-4 spectrum band by September 2012 and conducting the broadcast spectrum incentive auctions by June 30, 2014.Pai wrote an op-ed for the "Wall Street Journal" in 2014 criticizing a proposed FCC study of the news-gathering practices of media organizations. In another 2014 letter, Pai criticized Netflix, writing that their Open Connect caching tools effectively secure fast lanes for its traffic.In October 2014, Pai wrote an op-ed in the "Washington Post" criticizing a government-funded research project named "Truthy" at Indiana University which was studying the spread of "false and misleading ideas, hate speech and subversive propaganda" online. Pai questioned the value of the project, writing, "should taxpayer money be used to monitor your speech and evaluate your 'partisanship?'" Truthy researchers defended the project, writing, "we do not monitor individual people. The tweets we analyze are public and accessible by anyone." Indiana University issued a press release which said "the Truthy project is a basic computing research project designed to provide analytical insight into the ways in which information is spread across social media networks such as Twitter." U.S. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sent a letter to the National Science Foundation announcing a review of the grant.In 2017, Pai removed from circulation a proposal introduced by Tom Wheeler which would have required cable providers to make their programming available on third-party devices.In June 2019, the FCC under Pai allowed telecommunications companies to automatically sign up their users in call-blocking services. The measure was proposed by Pai; he said that it would reduce "unwanted robocalls". In response, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel argued that the FCC should go further in mandating free call-blocking services.In July 2020, the FCC under Pai approved the creation of a new number 9-8-8, for the hotline for suicide prevention; the old hotline was numbered 1-800-273-8255, while the new hotline is mandated to be set up by July 2022.In a hearing on net neutrality in 2014, Pai said that he was committed to a free and open internet and that it was not the FCC's role to determine net neutrality. He testified that "a dispute this fundamental is not for us, five unelected individuals, to decide. Instead, it should be resolved by the people's elected representatives, those who choose the direction of government, and those whom the American people can hold accountable for that choice." Later, Pai voted against the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order, classifying internet service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which bars certain providers from "mak[ing] any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services." He said in December 2016 that he believed Title II net neutrality's "days were numbered," and was described by the "New York Times" as a stickler for strict application of telecommunications law and limits on the FCC's authority.In a speech two weeks before the FCC's scheduled December 2017 vote on net neutrality, Pai was critical of celebrities including Cher, Mark Ruffalo, and Alyssa Milano for boosting opposition to the planned repeal. In response to criticism from Ruffalo, Pai said "Getting rid of government authority over the Internet is the exact opposite of authoritarianism. Government control is the defining feature of authoritarians, including the one in North Korea." Pai said Twitter and other tech companies were hypocritical for arguing for a free and open internet while, according to Pai, such companies "routinely block or discriminate against content they don't like."The day before the FCC's scheduled vote on net neutrality, Pai appeared in a video entitled "Ajit Pai Wants The Internet To Know You Can Still Harlem Shake After Net Neutrality". The controversial video showed him dancing to the "Harlem Shake" and buying products online, including a toy lightsaber. In the video, Pai is shown dancing next to Martina Markota, a proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and a staff member at the Daily Caller, the media outlet that produced the video. In response to the video, "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill said Pai was "unworthy" of holding the Jedi weapon, as "a Jedi acts selflessly for the common man." Baauer, the creator of the song featured in the video, has threatened to take legal action against Pai alongside his record label for Pai's use of the song in his video.As chairman, he also closed an investigation into zero-rating practices by wireless providers T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. On May 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission took the first formal step toward dismantling the net neutrality rules, and on December 14, 2017, voted to reverse Title II regulations after a contentious public comment period.In February 2018, the National Rifle Association (NRA) awarded Pai with the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award for repealing net neutrality rules despite facing heavy public criticism. As part of the award, a handmade Kentucky long gun was gifted to Pai. This gift caused former White House ethics attorney Walter Shaub to question if Pai, a federal employee, had violated ethics rules by accepting gifts from lobbyists such as the NRA.When the U.S. Senate voted by 52–47 "to put the Federal Communications Commission's net-neutrality rules back in place" in May 2018, Pai was said to be "upset", stating having no net neutrality rules "will help promote digital opportunity" while making "high-speed Internet access available to every single American." Regarding "Democrats' effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet", Ajit Pai conceded it would fail in the House.During an investigation of fake comments in support and against net neutrality, Pai refused to hand over evidence or help New York's Attorney General in determining the scope of manipulation by ISPs of the public comment process.Pai argued against adoption of the FCC 2013 analysis and proposed rulemaking regarding the high cost of inmate telephone calls, referred to as Inmate Calling Service (ICS) by the FCC. He submitted his written dissent in which he argued that the nature of the exclusive single carrier contract between private ICS providers and prison administrators meant inmates cannot "count on market competition to keep prices for inmate calling services just and reasonable." (ICS has become a $1.2 billion telecommunications industry and the two largest providers in the United States were private equity-backed companies). Prior to the FCC's imposition of rate caps on interstate prison and jail phone calls in February 2014, the largest ICS provider Global Tel-Link (GTL) – which has been profitably bought and sold by private equity firms such as American Securities and Veritas Capital – charged some of the highest rates in the US – up to $17.30 for a 15-minute call. The 2013 FCC analysis, described how, in some cases, long-distance calls are charged six times the rate on the outside.Acting Chairwoman Clyburn concurred with her order and both Jessica Rosenworcel and Pai dissented and issued statements. Pai opposed the FCC imposition of "safe harbor" of 12 cents with a cap of 21 cents on private ICS providers like GTL and CenturyLink Public Communications, arguing instead for a "simple proposal to cap interstate rates, with one rate for jails and a lower rate for prisons" that are cost-based to protect providers and ensure "some return on investment." Pai also argued that the FCC was not well-equipped to micromanage rates at each and every prison.In 2015, Pai opposed rate caps on intrastate inmate calls over which courts have ruled the FCC has no jurisdiction, notwithstanding rates as high as $14 per minute. He raised concerns about the increased use of contraband cell phones in prisons.In November 2016, the ICS providers won a halt on the regulation rules. Pai criticized Democrats for appealing. Shortly after his January 23 confirmation as chairman, Pai withdrew support for the FCC case involving GTL and CenturyLink set for February 6, 2017, which had called for establishing FCC jurisdiction over rates set by states. In June 2017, the US Court of Appeals struck down a large part of the FCC's ICS order.In 2016, Pai called for an investigation of potential fraud among beneficiaries of the agency's Lifeline subsidy for telecommunication services, contending that "apparent duplicates" who had signed up for the program improperly received $476 million annually. He rescinded permissions for nine new broadband providers selected by the previous FCC to participate in the program (along with more than 900 others) after becoming agency chairman, stating the new providers had not followed FCC guidelines requiring them to coordinate with the National Tribal Telecommunications Association in order to participate in the Lifeline program. Pai argued the rules had been improperly circumvented by the previous Democratic chairman, former lobbyist Tom Wheeler.In November 2017, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Conyers (Mich.) and David Cicilline (R.I.), asked David L. Hunt, the inspector general of the FCC, to investigate whether Pai's legislative actions regarding the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules were biased in favor of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a large owner of broadcast television stations that, since the formation of its now-defunct "News Central" format in 2003, produces conservative news and commentary segments that the group requires its stations to insert into certain local newscasts. The FCC, under Pai, undertook a number of actions that the legislators believe would benefit Sinclair – which has lobbied for such changes for several years – including rolling back certain broadcast television station ownership limitations (including allowing exceptions to duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two television stations in the same market if both are among the four highest-rated or if such a combination would dilute independent media voices, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations repealed two years earlier by Wheeler and his Democratic-led majority, a requirement dating to the FCC's inception for broadcast outlets to maintain office operations within the community of their primary local coverage areas, and removing ownership attribution rules applying to joint sales and shared services agreements). A spokeswoman for Pai said "the request appears to be part of many Democrats' attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views... Any claim that Chairman Pai is modifying the rules now to benefit one particular company is completely baseless."From late 2017, the FCC inspector general's office investigated Pai regarding the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger; this was made publicly known in February 2018. The office concluded in August 2018 that it "found no evidence, nor even the suggestion, of impropriety, unscrupulous behavior, favoritism towards Sinclair, or lack of impartiality". The office also concluded that Pai's decisions regarding Sinclair were consistent with policy positions he had previously endorsed in public.In July 2018, the FCC under Pai ordered that the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger be subject to administrative law judge hearings, due to allegations that Sinclair was planning to illegally retain control of stations it was divesting from. For this action, the FCC was criticized by President Trump, who said he wanted a merged company providing a "conservative voice". In August 2018, Tribune broke off the merger.In May 2020, the FCC under Pai reached an agreement for Sinclair to pay a record FCC fine of $48 million for deceptive practices, in return for ending three FCC investigations into the company. FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks argued against the agreement, as they wanted the investigations to be fully completed and made public.On April 16, 2020, Pai asked the other FCC commissioners to approve an application to "deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band that would primarily support 5G and Internet of Things services", in spite of a report issued by the DoD raising concerns about the potential impact it could have on the operational capabilities of the US military, specifically with regard to GPS coverage.On October 15, 2020, Pai released an official statement pledging that he would clarify Section 230, a portion of the Communications Decency Act that provides immunity for website publishers of third-party content. President Donald Trump had previously threatened to punish Facebook and Twitter for alleged anti-conservative bias after the companies blocked a series of "New York Post" stories about the Hunter Biden email controversy"." Under Section 230, social media companies are granted First Amendment rights, but are legally distinct from press publications.In 2010, Pai married Janine Van Lancker, a physician and allergist. They have two children and live in Arlington, Virginia.In 2017, Pai publicly complained that net neutrality protesters had targeted his family. Messages directed at his children were put up near his suburban Virginia home saying that "They will come to know the truth. Dad murdered Democracy in cold blood" and "How will they ever look you in the eye again?". No group took responsibility for the provocative signs, though the advocacy organization Popular Resistance left flyers on Pai's neighbors' doors that included his picture, age, and weight as part of a campaign they called "Ajit-ation".
|
[
"Verizon",
"United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division",
"Office of Legal Policy",
"Jenner & Block"
] |
|
Which team did David Steven play for in Aug, 1896?
|
August 29, 1896
|
{
"text": [
"Bury F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q5240078_P54_0
|
David Steven plays for Dundee F.C. from Jan, 1899 to Jan, 1903.
David Steven plays for Southampton F.C. from Jan, 1897 to Jan, 1899.
David Steven plays for Bury F.C. from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1897.
|
David StevenDavid Steven (16 March 1878 – 28 April 1903) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as an inside-forward around the turn of the 20th century, spending most of his career with his hometown club, Dundee, before he died from a heart attack aged only 25.Steven was born in Dundee and after an early career with junior club, Dundee Violet, he joined Dundee as a teenager. He was spotted by Bury, of the English Football League First Division, and moved to Lancashire in August 1896, aged 18.In his short time with the "Shakers" he made only three first-team appearances, in the outside-left berth, but was unable to displace Jack Plant, who later went on to represent England. Steven fell out with Bury, who refused to release his Football League registration, and returned to Scotland. After briefly re-joining Dundee, he came back to England in the 1897 close season, signing for the Southern League champions, Southampton, who were not members of the Football League and were thus not affected by Bury's refusal to release his registration papers.At the "Saints", his ""fearless, dashing forward play"" made him popular with the fans. He made his debut in a 2–1 victory over Reading on 19 February 1898 replacing Robert Buchanan at inside-right, with Buchanan moving to centre-forward in place of the injured Jack Farrell. Steven retained his place for the rest of the season, scoring four goals, including two in a 5–1 victory over Gravesend United at the County Ground on 4 April. The Saints finished the 1897–98 season as champions, and moved to their new home at The Dell in the summer.In the 1898–99 season, Steven was in-and-out of the side, generally replacing England international Harry Wood at inside-right, with Wood switching to inside-left to replace Watty Keay. Steven made nine appearances, scoring twice, as the Saints took the league title for the third consecutive year.In the summer of 1899, Steven returned to Dundee to gain more regular first-team football.In April 1903, he suffered a fatal heart attack and died aged only 25.Southampton
|
[
"Southampton F.C.",
"Dundee F.C."
] |
|
Which team did David Steven play for in Jun, 1897?
|
June 18, 1897
|
{
"text": [
"Southampton F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q5240078_P54_1
|
David Steven plays for Bury F.C. from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1897.
David Steven plays for Dundee F.C. from Jan, 1899 to Jan, 1903.
David Steven plays for Southampton F.C. from Jan, 1897 to Jan, 1899.
|
David StevenDavid Steven (16 March 1878 – 28 April 1903) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as an inside-forward around the turn of the 20th century, spending most of his career with his hometown club, Dundee, before he died from a heart attack aged only 25.Steven was born in Dundee and after an early career with junior club, Dundee Violet, he joined Dundee as a teenager. He was spotted by Bury, of the English Football League First Division, and moved to Lancashire in August 1896, aged 18.In his short time with the "Shakers" he made only three first-team appearances, in the outside-left berth, but was unable to displace Jack Plant, who later went on to represent England. Steven fell out with Bury, who refused to release his Football League registration, and returned to Scotland. After briefly re-joining Dundee, he came back to England in the 1897 close season, signing for the Southern League champions, Southampton, who were not members of the Football League and were thus not affected by Bury's refusal to release his registration papers.At the "Saints", his ""fearless, dashing forward play"" made him popular with the fans. He made his debut in a 2–1 victory over Reading on 19 February 1898 replacing Robert Buchanan at inside-right, with Buchanan moving to centre-forward in place of the injured Jack Farrell. Steven retained his place for the rest of the season, scoring four goals, including two in a 5–1 victory over Gravesend United at the County Ground on 4 April. The Saints finished the 1897–98 season as champions, and moved to their new home at The Dell in the summer.In the 1898–99 season, Steven was in-and-out of the side, generally replacing England international Harry Wood at inside-right, with Wood switching to inside-left to replace Watty Keay. Steven made nine appearances, scoring twice, as the Saints took the league title for the third consecutive year.In the summer of 1899, Steven returned to Dundee to gain more regular first-team football.In April 1903, he suffered a fatal heart attack and died aged only 25.Southampton
|
[
"Dundee F.C.",
"Bury F.C."
] |
|
Which team did David Steven play for in Feb, 1901?
|
February 25, 1901
|
{
"text": [
"Dundee F.C."
]
}
|
L2_Q5240078_P54_2
|
David Steven plays for Bury F.C. from Jan, 1896 to Jan, 1897.
David Steven plays for Dundee F.C. from Jan, 1899 to Jan, 1903.
David Steven plays for Southampton F.C. from Jan, 1897 to Jan, 1899.
|
David StevenDavid Steven (16 March 1878 – 28 April 1903) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as an inside-forward around the turn of the 20th century, spending most of his career with his hometown club, Dundee, before he died from a heart attack aged only 25.Steven was born in Dundee and after an early career with junior club, Dundee Violet, he joined Dundee as a teenager. He was spotted by Bury, of the English Football League First Division, and moved to Lancashire in August 1896, aged 18.In his short time with the "Shakers" he made only three first-team appearances, in the outside-left berth, but was unable to displace Jack Plant, who later went on to represent England. Steven fell out with Bury, who refused to release his Football League registration, and returned to Scotland. After briefly re-joining Dundee, he came back to England in the 1897 close season, signing for the Southern League champions, Southampton, who were not members of the Football League and were thus not affected by Bury's refusal to release his registration papers.At the "Saints", his ""fearless, dashing forward play"" made him popular with the fans. He made his debut in a 2–1 victory over Reading on 19 February 1898 replacing Robert Buchanan at inside-right, with Buchanan moving to centre-forward in place of the injured Jack Farrell. Steven retained his place for the rest of the season, scoring four goals, including two in a 5–1 victory over Gravesend United at the County Ground on 4 April. The Saints finished the 1897–98 season as champions, and moved to their new home at The Dell in the summer.In the 1898–99 season, Steven was in-and-out of the side, generally replacing England international Harry Wood at inside-right, with Wood switching to inside-left to replace Watty Keay. Steven made nine appearances, scoring twice, as the Saints took the league title for the third consecutive year.In the summer of 1899, Steven returned to Dundee to gain more regular first-team football.In April 1903, he suffered a fatal heart attack and died aged only 25.Southampton
|
[
"Southampton F.C.",
"Bury F.C."
] |
|
Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Feb, 1815?
|
February 23, 1815
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_0
|
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
|
John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Apr, 1819?
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April 16, 1819
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_1
|
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Nov, 1820?
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November 01, 1820
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_2
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in May, 1828?
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May 04, 1828
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_3
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Apr, 1831?
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April 03, 1831
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_4
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
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"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
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] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in May, 1831?
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May 01, 1831
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_5
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Dec, 1832?
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December 25, 1832
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_6
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Apr, 1835?
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April 18, 1835
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{
"text": [
"Home Secretary"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_7
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Nov, 1836?
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November 17, 1836
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Home Secretary"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_8
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Jun, 1841?
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June 10, 1841
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_9
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
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"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
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] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Sep, 1839?
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September 23, 1839
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_10
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Jul, 1841?
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July 29, 1841
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{
"text": [
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_11
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
|
[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Mar, 1848?
|
March 13, 1848
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_12
|
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Nov, 1855?
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November 30, 1855
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_13
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Aug, 1853?
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August 25, 1853
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{
"text": [
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_14
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Sep, 1854?
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September 07, 1854
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{
"text": [
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Lord President of the Council"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_15
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in May, 1855?
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May 14, 1855
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_16
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Jul, 1857?
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July 05, 1857
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_17
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Apr, 1859?
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April 04, 1859
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{
"text": [
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_18
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
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] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in May, 1860?
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May 20, 1860
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_19
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Jun, 1861?
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June 05, 1861
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{
"text": [
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_20
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Mar, 1866?
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March 03, 1866
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{
"text": [
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the House of Lords"
]
}
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L2_Q157259_P39_21
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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[
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
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Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Jun, 1866?
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June 26, 1866
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{
"text": [
"Prime Minister of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the House of Lords",
"Leader of the Opposition"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_22
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
|
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"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
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"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
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"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
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"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Leader of the Opposition",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
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"Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"president of the Royal Statistical Society",
"Lord President of the Council",
"Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs",
"Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for War and the Colonies",
"Home Secretary",
"Leader of the House of Commons",
"Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Secretary of State for the Colonies",
"Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did John Russell, 1st Earl Russell hold in Dec, 1867?
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December 08, 1867
|
{
"text": [
"Leader of the Opposition"
]
}
|
L2_Q157259_P39_23
|
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1820 to Jun, 1826.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of president of the Royal Statistical Society from Jan, 1859 to Jan, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1852 to Mar, 1857.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1847 to Jul, 1852.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the Opposition from Jun, 1866 to Dec, 1868.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from Sep, 1839 to Sep, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from Jun, 1859 to Nov, 1865.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1859 to Jul, 1861.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 8th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1826 to Jul, 1830.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Dec, 1852 to Jan, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Secretary of State for the Colonies from May, 1855 to Jul, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1841 to Jul, 1847.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 1857 to Apr, 1859.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jul, 1837 to Jun, 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 6th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1818 to Feb, 1820.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1813 to Feb, 1817.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1835 to Jul, 1837.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Lord President of the Council from Jun, 1854 to Feb, 1855.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 9th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Nov, 1830 to Apr, 1831.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Leader of the House of Lords from Oct, 1865 to Jun, 1866.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Home Secretary from Apr, 1835 to Aug, 1839.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Dec, 1832 to Dec, 1834.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell holds the position of Member of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1831 to May, 1831.
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John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.The third son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminster School and Edinburgh University before entering Parliament in 1813. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test Acts which discriminated against Catholics and Protestant dissenters. He was one of the principal architects of the Reform Act 1832, which was the first major reform of Parliament since the Restoration, and a significant early step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured expanding the right to vote to the middle classes and enfranchising Britain's growing industrial towns and cities but he never advocated universal suffrage and he opposed the secret ballot. Russell was outspoken on many issues over the course of his career, advocating Catholic emancipation in the 1820s, calling for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, denouncing Pope Pius IX's revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, and supporting Italian unification during the 1860s.Russell's ministerial career spanned four decades. In addition to his two terms as prime minister, between 1831 and 1865 he served in the cabinets of Earl Grey, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. Russell's relationship with Palmerston was often stormy and contributed to bringing down Russell's first government in 1852 and Palmerston's first government in 1858. However, their renewed alliance from 1859 was one of the foundations of the united Liberal Party, which would go on to dominate British politics in the following decades. While Russell was an energetic and effective minister during the 1830s and helped to commit the Whigs to a reform agenda, he proved less successful as prime minister. During his two periods as prime minister he often suffered from a disunited cabinet and weak support in the House of Commons, meaning he was unable to carry out much of his agenda. During his first premiership, his government failed to deal effectively with the Irish Famine, a disaster that saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population through death and emigration. During his second premiership, he split his party by pressing for further parliamentary reform and was forced from office only to watch Derby and Disraeli carry a more ambitious Reform Bill. It has been said that Russell's ministry of 1846–1852 was the ruin of the old Whig party and that his ministry of 1865–1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party that took its place.Russell was born on 18 August 1792 into the highest echelons of the British aristocracy, being the third son of John Russell, later 6th Duke of Bedford, and Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington. The Russell family had been one of the principal Whig dynasties in England since the 17th century, and were among the richest handful of aristocratic landowning families in the country, but as a younger son of the 6th Duke of Bedford, he was not expected to inherit the family estates. As a younger son of a duke, he bore the courtesy title "Lord John Russell", but he was not a peer in his own right. He was, therefore, able to sit in the House of Commons until he was made an earl in 1861 and was elevated to the House of Lords.Russell was born two months premature and was small and sickly as a child (even in adulthood he remained under 5 feet 5 inches tall, and his small stature was frequently the butt of jokes by political opponents and caricaturists). In 1801 at the age of nine he was sent away to school. Shortly thereafter his mother died. After being withdrawn from Westminster School in 1804 due to ill health, Russell was educated by tutors, including Edmund Cartwright. In 1806 Russell's father was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the short-live Ministry of All the Talents and it was during this time that the young Russell met Charles James Fox. Fox was Russell's formative political hero and would remain an inspiration throughout his life. Russell attended the University of Edinburgh from 1809 to 1812, lodging with Professor John Playfair, who oversaw his studies. He did not take a degree. Although often in poor health, he travelled widely in Britain and on the continent, and held commission as Captain in the Bedfordshire Militia in 1810. During his continental travels Russell visited Spain where his brother was serving as aide-de-camp to Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War. The following year he had a 90-minute meeting with Napoleon in December 1814 during the former emperor's exile at Elba.Russell entered the House of Commons as a Whig in 1813 at the age of 20. The future reformer gained his seat by virtue of his father, the Duke of Bedford, instructing the 30 or so electors of Tavistock to return him as an MP even though at the time Russell was abroad and under age. Russell entered Parliament more out of a sense of duty and family tradition than out of serious political ambition. With the exception the 1806-1807 coalition government in which Russell's father had served, the Whigs had been out of power since 1783, and Russell could have had had no certain expectation of a ministerial career. In June 1815 Russell denounced the Bourbon Restoration and Britain's declaration of war against the recently-returned Napoleon by arguing in the House of Commons that foreign powers had no right to dictate France's form of government. In 1817, tired of the prospect of perpetual opposition, Russell resigned from Parliament. After spending a year out of politics and travelling on the continent, he changed his mind and re-entered Parliament for Tavistock at the 1818 general election. In 1819 Russell embraced the cause of parliamentary reform and he led the more reformist wing of the Whigs throughout the 1820s. In 1828, while still an opposition backbencher, Russell introduced a Sacramental Test bill with the aim of abolishing the prohibitions on Catholics and Protestant dissenters being elected to local government and from holding civil and military offices. The bill gained the backing of the Tory Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel and was passed into law.When the Whigs came to power in 1830, Russell entered Earl Grey's government as Paymaster of the Forces. Despite being a relatively junior minister, as a vocal advocate for Parliamentary reform for over a decade, Russell became a principal leader in the fight for the Reform Act 1832. He was one of the committee of four tasked by Grey with drafting the reform bill, alongside cabinet ministers Lord Durham, Lord Duncannon and Sir James Graham. Despite not yet being in the Cabinet, Russell was chosen to introduce the bill in March 1831 and over the following year he successfully steered the Reform Act's difficult progress through the Commons. Russell earned the nickname "Finality Jack" from his pronouncing the Act a final measure but in later years he would go on to push for further reform of Parliament. In May 1834 Russell made a speech on the Irish Tithes bill, in which he argued that the revenue generated by tithes was more than was justified by the size of the established Protestant church in Ireland. Russell argued that a proportion the tithe revenue should instead be appropriated for the education of the Irish poor, regardless of denomination. The speech was seen by its opponents as an attack on the established church in Ireland and it cemented a split within Grey's government over the issue of Irish tithes. The following month four members of the Cabinet resigned over the issue, weakening the government's hold on Parliament. Sensing that his position was now hopeless, Grey offered his resignation to the King in July, and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government.In November 1834, when the leader of the Commons, Lord Althorp, succeeded to the peerage as Earl Spencer, Russell became the leader of the Whigs in the Commons. Russell's appointment prompted King William IV to terminate Melbourne's government, in part because the King objected to Russell's views on the Irish Church. This remains the last time in British history that a monarch has dismissed a government. The subsequent minority Conservative government lasted less than five months before resigning in April 1835. Russell then returned to office as Home Secretary in Melbourne's second government, before serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1839 to 1841. Through this period Russell continued to lead the more reformist wing of the Whig party.As Home Secretary Russell recommended and secured royal pardons for the Tolpuddle Martyrs and partial commutation of their sentences. In 1836 he introduced the Marriages Act, which introduced civil marriages in England and Wales and allowed Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to marry in their own churches. In 1837 he steered a series of seven Acts through Parliament, which together reduced the number of offences carrying a sentence of death from thirty-seven to sixteen. This number was reduced further by the Substitution of Punishments of Death Act 1841. After these reforms the death penalty was rarely used in the United Kingdom for crimes other than murder. As Home Secretary Russell also introduced the public registration for births, marriages and deaths and played a large role in democratising the government of cities outside of London.In 1841 the Whigs lost the general election to the Conservatives and Russell and his colleagues returned to opposition. In November 1845, following the failure of that year's potato harvest across Britain and Ireland, Russell came out in favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws and called upon the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel to take urgent action to alleviate the emerging food crisis. Peel had by this time already become convinced of the need for repeal but he was opposed in this by the majority of his own cabinet and party. On 11 December 1845, frustrated by his party's unwillingness to support him on repeal, Peel resigned as Prime Minister and Queen Victoria invited Russell to form a new government. With the Whigs a minority in the Commons however, Russell struggled to assemble the necessary support. When Lord Grey declared that he would not serve in cabinet if Lord Palmerston was made Foreign Secretary it became clear to Russell that he could not form a viable government. Russell declined the Queen's invitation on 21 December and Peel agreed to stay on as Prime Minister. In June the following year Peel repealed the Corn Laws with Whig support, bitterly dividing the Conservative Party in the process. Later that same night Peel's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated after vengeful anti-repeal Tories voted with the opposition and Peel, taking this as a vote of no confidence, resigned as Prime Minister. Russell accepted the Queen's offer to form a government, this time Grey not objecting to Palmerston's appointment.Russell took office as Prime Minister with the Whigs only a minority in the House of Commons. It was the bitter split in the Conservative Party over the Corn Laws that allowed Russell's government to remain in power in spite of this, with Sir Robert Peel and his supporters offering tentative support to the new ministry in order to keep the protectionist Conservatives under Lord Stanley in opposition. At the general election of August 1847 the Whigs made gains at the expense of the Conservatives, but remained a minority, with Russell's government still dependent on the votes of Peelite and Irish Repealer MPs to win divisions in the Commons. Russell's political agenda was frequently frustrated by his lack of a reliable Commons majority. However, his government was able to secure a number of notable social reforms. Russell introduced teachers' pensions and used Orders in Council to make grants for teacher training. The Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts of 1847 and 1848 enabled local authorities to build municipal baths and washing facilities for the growing urban working classes. Russell lent his support to the passage of the Factories Act 1847, which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (aged 13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. 1848 saw the introduction of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and the Public Health Act 1848, by which the state assumed responsibility for sewerage, clean water supply, refuse collection and other aspects of public health across much of England and Wales.Following the election of Lionel de Rothschild in the 1847 general election, Russell introduced a Jewish Relief bill, which would have allowed Rothschild and other Jews to sit in the House of Commons without their having to take the explicitly Christian oath of allegiance. In 1848, the bill was passed by the House of Commons, receiving support from the Whigs and a minority of Conservatives (including future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli). However, it was twice rejected by the Tory dominated House of Lords, as was a new bill in 1851. Rothschild was re-elected in the 1852 general election following the fall of the Russell government but was unable to take his seat until the Jews Relief Act was finally passed in 1858.Russell's government led the calamitous response to the Irish Famine. During the course of the famine, an estimated 1 million people died from a combination of malnutrition, disease and starvation and well over 1 million more were left with little choice but to emigrate from Ireland. After taking office in 1846 Russell's ministry introduced a programme of public works that by the end of that year employed some half-a-million but proved impossible to administer. In January 1847, the government abandoned this policy, realising that it had failed, and turned to a mixture of "indoor" and "outdoor" direct relief; the former administered in workhouses through the Irish Poor Laws, the latter through soup kitchens. The costs of the Poor Law fell primarily on the local landlords, some of whom in turn attempted to reduce their liability by evicting their tenants. In June 1847 the Poor Law Extension Act was passed, which embodied the principle, popular in Britain, that Irish property should support Irish poverty. Irish landlords were believed in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine, a view which Russell shared.In 1847 Russell's government was confronted by a financial crisis. Sir Robert Peel's 1844 Bank Charter Act required that all bank notes issued by the Bank of England be fully backed by gold. However, the failure of harvests in Britain and Ireland during 1846 had led to large outflows of gold in order to pay for imported grain, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Bank's gold reserves over the course of 1847. Faced with the prospect of running out of gold and being unable to issue money, the Bank of England repeatedly raised the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks, leading to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributing to the collapse of numerous businesses. This in turn led to a loss of public confidence in the creditworthiness of the banks, culminated in the "week of terror" of 17-23 October when multiple banks were forced to close their doors as frightened depositors attempted to withdraw their funds. Faced with the potential collapse of the banking system, on Monday 25 October Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood wrote a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England authorising him to break the terms of the Bank Charter Act and issue new notes without gold backing to facilitate lending to other banks. This move restored depositor confidence in the banks, and the crisis abated.In the first half of his premiership Russell aimed to improve the British government's relations with the Papacy and the Catholic clergy in Ireland, which he saw as one of the keys to making Ireland a more willing part of the United Kingdom. Russell proposed to make an annual grant of £340,000 to the Catholic Church in Ireland, with the aim of ameliorating Irish Catholic opinion towards the Union. In 1847 Russell's father-in-law the Earl of Minto was dispatched on a confidential mission to Rome to seek the Pope's support for the grants plan. In the end, the idea had to be abandoned due to Catholic objections to what they saw as an attempt to control their clergy. However, Russell pressed ahead with plans to re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the Court of St James's and the Holy See, which had been severed when James II was deposed in 1688. Russell managed to pass an Act to authorise an exchange of ambassadors with Rome, but not before the bill was amended by Parliament to stipulate that the Pope's ambassador must be a layman. The Pope refused to accept such a restriction on his choice of representative and so the exchange of ambassadors did not take place. It would not be until 1914 that formal UK-Vatican diplomatic relations were finally established.Relations with the Papacy soured badly in late 1850 after Pope Pius IX issued the bull Universalis Ecclesiae. By this bull Pius unilaterally reintroduced Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the Reformation. Anti-Catholic feelings ran high with many protestants incensed at what they saw as impertinent foreign interference in the prerogative of the established Church of England to appoint bishops. Russell, not withstanding his long record of advocating civil liberties for Catholics, shared the traditional Whig suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, and was angered at what he saw as a Papal imposition. On 4 November 1850, in a letter to the Bishop of Durham published in "The Times" the same day, Russell wrote that the Pope's actions suggested a "pretension to supremacy" and declared that "No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious." Russell's "Durham letter" won him popular support in England but in Ireland it was viewed as an unwarranted insult to the Pope. It lost Russell the confidence of Irish Repealer MPs and the cabinet were angered that he had made such an incendiary statement without having consulting them. The following year Russell passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 with Tory support, which made it a criminal offence carrying a fine of £100 for anyone outside of the Church of England to assume an episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district...in the United Kingdom." The Act was widely ignored without consequences and only served to further alienate Irish MPs, thereby weakening the government's position in the Commons.Russell frequently clashed with his headstrong Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, whose belligerence and support for continental revolution he found embarrassing. In 1847 Palmerston provoked a confrontation with the French government by undermining the plans of the Spanish court to marry the young Spanish Queen and her sister into the French royal family.He subsequently clashed with Russell over plans to increase the size of the army and the navy to defend against the perceived threat of French invasion, which subsided after the overthrow of the French king in 1848.In 1850 further tension arose between the two over Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy in the Don Pacifico affair in which Palmerston sought compensation from the Greek government for the ransacking and the burning of the house of David Pacifico, a Gibraltarian holder of a British passport. Russell considered the matter "hardly worth the interposition of the British lion," and when Palmerston ignored some of his instructions, the Prime Minister wrote to Palmerston telling him he had informed the Queen that he "thought the interests of the country required that a change should take place at the Foreign Department." However, less than a month later Lord Stanley successfully led the House of Lords into passing a motion of censure of the Government over its handling of the affair and Russell realised that he needed to align with Palmerston in order to prevent a similar motion being passed by the House of Commons, which would have obliged the Government to resign. The Government prevailed, but Palmerston came out of the affair with his popularity at new heights since he was seen as the champion of defending British subjects anywhere in the world.Russell forced Palmerston to resign as Foreign Secretary after Palmerston recognised Napoleon III's coup of 2 December 1851 without first consulting the Queen or Cabinet. Russell tried to strengthen his government by recruiting leading Peelites such as Sir James Graham and the Duke of Newcastle to his administration, but they declined. Out of office, Palmerston sought revenge by turning a vote on a militia bill into a vote of confidence in the Government. A majority vote in favour of an amendment proposed by Palmerston caused the downfall of Russell's ministry on 21 February 1852. This was Palmerston's famous "tit for tat with Johnny Russell."Following Russell's resignation, on the 23 February 1852 the Earl of Derby accepted the Queen's invitation to form a government. The new Conservative ministry were a minority in the Commons due to the continuing rift with the Peelites. Derby called a general election for July but failed to secure a majority. After the election Derby's Conservatives held 292 out of the 662 seats in the Commons but were able to carry on in office due to divisions among the opposition. Negotiations over a Whig-Peelite coalition stalled over the question of who would lead it. Russell's authority and popularity within the Whigs had been dented by his falling out with Palmerston, who flatly refused to serve under him again. Moreover he had alienated many in the Peelites and the Irish Brigade, who held the balance of power in the Commons, leaving them unwilling to support another Russell-led government. Palmerston proposed Lord Lansdowne as a compromise candidate. This was acceptable to Russell but Lansdowne was reluctant to take on the burdens of leading a government. The defeat of Disraeli's Budget in December 1852 forced the issue. Derby's government resigned and the Queen sent for Lansdowne and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen. Lansdowne declined the Queen's invitation, pleading ill-health and so Aberdeen was tasked with forming a government.Russell, as the leader of the Whigs, agreed to bring his party into a coalition with the Peelites, headed by Aberdeen. As the leader of the largest party in the coalition, Russell was reluctant to serve under Aberdeen in a subordinate position, but agreed to take on the role of Foreign Secretary on a temporary basis, to lend stability to the fledgling government. He resigned the role in February 1853 in favour of Clarendon, but continued to lead for the government in the Commons and attended cabinet without ministerial responsibilities. Russell was unhappy that half of Aberdeen's cabinet was made up of Peelites, despite the fact that the Whigs contributed hundreds of MPs to the Government's support in the Commons, and the Peelites only around 40. However, he came to admire some of his Peelite colleagues, particularly the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, who would go on to become an important political ally in later years. With Aberdeen's agreement, Russell used his position as Leader of the House of Commons to push for a new Reform Act. Although Russell had promoted the 1832 Reform Act as a one-off measure to re-balance the constitution, after twenty years he had become convinced of the need for further electoral reform. In February 1854 Russell introduced his bill to the House. The property qualification was to be reduced from £10 to £6 in boroughs, and from £50 to £10 in the counties. Additionally 66 seats would be removed from undersized constituencies and redistributed. The second reading of the bill was set for March 1854, but the prospect of imminent war with Russia led to it being postponed until April. After the outbreak of war on 28 March Russell came under pressure from the cabinet to withdraw the bill entirely. Russell threatened to resign if the cabinet abandoned the reform bill but he was convinced to stay on by Aberdeen, who promised that he would support the reform bill if Russell reintroduced it in a future session. However, with the fall of the Aberdeen government the following year, it would be 12 years before Russell had another chance to introduce a reform bill. Together with Palmerston, Russell supported the government taking a hard line against Russian territorial ambitions in the Ottoman Empire, a policy which ultimately resulted in Britain's entry into the Crimean War in March 1854, an outcome which the more cautious Aberdeen had hoped to avoid. In the following months Russell grew frustrated by what he saw as a lack of effective war leadership by Aberdeen and the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle. Dispatches from the front reported that the army was suffering from supply shortages and a lack of adequate accommodation and medical facilities. In November 1854 Russell urged Aberdeen to replace Newcastle with the Palmerston, who he believed would get a firmer grip on the organisation of the war, but these suggestions came to nothing. In January 1855, after a series of military setbacks, a Commons motion was brought by the radical MP John Roebuck to appoint a select committee to investigate the management of the war. Russell, not wishing to vote against an inquiry he believed was badly needed, resigned from the cabinet in order to abstain. Aberdeen viewed the Roebuck motion as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and, accordingly, when it passed by 305-148, he resigned. In the eyes of many, including the Queen and Aberdeen, Russell's temperamental behaviour and personal ambition had undermined the stability of the coalition. On visiting Windsor Castle to resign, Aberdeen told the Queen "Had it not been for the incessant attempts of Lord John Russell to keep up party differences, it must be acknowledged that the experiment of a coalition had succeeded admirably," an assessment with which the Queen agreed. Russell accepted an invitation from the Queen to form a new government but found that he could not assemble the necessary support, with many of his colleagues having been angered by his abandonment of Aberdeen over the Roebuck motion. Palmerston became Prime Minister, and Russell reluctantly accepted the role of Colonial Secretary in his cabinet. Russell was sent to Vienna to negotiate peace terms with Russia, but his proposals were rejected and he resigned from the cabinet and returned to the backbenches in July 1855.Following his resignation Russell wrote to his father-in-law that he would not serve again under Palmerston or any other Prime Minister. For a time it appeared as if his career in frontbench politics might be over. Russell continued to speak out from the backbenches on the issues he most cared about - lobbying for increased government grants for education and for reduction in the property qualification for Parliamentary elections. In early 1857 Russell became a vocal critic of Palmerston's government over the Anglo-Persian War and the Second Opium War. Russell spoke in support of a motion tabled by Richard Cobden, which criticised British military action in China and calling for a select committee inquiry. When the motion passed on 3 March, Palmerston dissolved Parliament and went to the country. In the subsequent general election Palmerston was swept back into power on a tide of patriotic feeling with an increased majority. Many of Palmerston's critics lost their seats but Russell hung on in the City of London, after fighting off an attempt to deselect him and replace him with a pro-Palmerston Whig candidate. Palmerston's triumph was short-lived. In February 1858 the Government rushed through a Conspiracy to Murder bill, following the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini - an attack planned in Britain using British-made explosives. Russell attacked the bill, which he saw as undermined traditional British political liberties to appease a foreign government. On 19 February Russell voted in favour of Thomas Milner Gibson's motion, which criticised the government for bowing to French demands. When the motion passed by 19 votes Palmerston's government resigned.In 1859, following another short-lived Conservative government, Palmerston and Russell made up their differences, and Russell consented to serve as Foreign Secretary in a new Palmerston cabinet, usually considered the first true Liberal cabinet. This period was a particularly eventful one in the world outside Britain, seeing the Unification of Italy (the change of British government to one sympathetic to Italian nationalism had a marked part in this process), the American Civil War, and the 1864 war over Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and the German states. Russell arranged the London Conference of 1864, but failed to establish peace in the war. His tenure of the Foreign Office was noteworthy for the famous dispatch in which he defended Italian unification: "Her Majesty's Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people building up the edifice of their liberties, and consolidating the work of their independence, amid the sympathies and good wishes of Europe" (27 October 1860).In 1861 Russell was elevated to the peerage as Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, and as Viscount Amberley, of Amberley in the County of Gloucester, and of Ardsalla in the County of Meathin the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Henceforth, as a suo jure peer, rather than merely being known as 'Lord' because he was the son of a Duke, he sat in the House of Lords for the remainder of his career.When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government. Russell never again held any office. His last contribution to the House of Lords was on 3 August 1875.Russell married Adelaide Lister (widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale, who had died in 1832.) on 11 April 1835. Together they had two daughters:Adelaide came down with a fever following the birth of their second child and died a few days later on 1 November 1838. Following her death, Russell continued to raise his late wife's four children from her first marriage, as well their two daughters.On 20 July 1841 Russell remarried, to Lady Frances ("Fanny") Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, daughter of Russell's cabinet colleague Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto. Together they had four children:In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park to Lord and Lady John. It remained their family home for the rest of their lives.Russell was religious in a simple non-dogmatic way and supported the "Broad church" element in the Church of England. He opposed the "Oxford Movement" because its "Tractarian" members were too dogmatic and too close to Roman Catholicism. He supported Broad Churchmen or Latitudinarians by several appointments of liberal churchmen as bishops. In 1859 he reversed himself and decided to free non-Anglicans of the duty of paying rates (taxes) to the local Anglican parish. His political clumsiness and opposition to Church finance made him a target of attack and ridicule in many Church circles.Following the death of their daughter-in-law Viscountess Amberley in 1874 and their son Viscount Amberley in 1876, Earl Russell and Countess Russell brought up their orphaned grandchildren, John ("Frank") Russell, who became 2nd Earl Russell on his grandfather's death, and Bertrand Russell who would go on to become a noted philosopher and who in later life recalled his elderly grandfather as "a kindly old man in a wheelchair."Earl Russell died at home at Pembroke Lodge on 28 May 1878. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Beaconsfield, offered a public funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey for Russell but this was declined by Countess Russell in accordance with her late husband's wish to be buried among his family and ancestors. He is buried at the 'Bedford Chapel' at St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire.Scion of one of the most powerful aristocratic families, Russell was a leading reformer who weakened the power of the aristocracy. His great achievements, wrote A. J. P. Taylor, were based on his persistent battles in Parliament over the years on behalf of the expansion of liberty; after each loss he tried again and again, until finally, his efforts were largely successful. E. L. Woodward, however, argued that he was too much the abstract theorist:He was succeeded as Liberal leader by former Peelite William Gladstone, and was thus the last true Whig to serve as Prime Minister. Generally taken as the model for Anthony Trollope's Mr Mildmay, aspects of his character may also have suggested those of Plantagenet Palliser. An ideal statesman, said Trollope, should have "unblemished, unextinguishable, inexhaustible love of country... But he should also be scrupulous, and, as being scrupulous, weak."The 1832 Reform Act and extension of the franchise to British cities are partly attributed to his efforts. He also worked for emancipation, leading the attack on the Test and Corporation acts, which were repealed in 1828, as well as towards legislation limiting working hours in factories in the 1847 Factory Act, and the Public Health Act of 1848.His government's approach to dealing with the Great Irish Famine is now widely condemned as counterproductive, ill-informed and disastrous. Russell himself was sympathetic to the plight of the Irish poor, and many of his relief proposals were blocked by his cabinet or by the British Parliament.Queen Victoria's attitude toward Russell was coloured by his role in the Aberdeen administration. On his death in 1878 her journal records that he was "a man of much talent, who leaves a name behind him, kind, & good, with a great knowledge of the constitution, who behaved very well, on many trying occasions; but he was impulsive, very selfish (as shown on many occasions, especially during Ld Aberdeen's administration) vain, & often reckless & imprudent."A public house in Bloomsbury, large parts of which are still owned by the Bedford Estate, is named after Russell, located on Marchmont Street.Russell published numerous books and essays over the course of his life, especially during periods out of office. He principally wrote on politics and history, but also turned his hand to a variety of other topics and genres. His published works include: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens was dedicated to Lord John Russell, "In remembrance of many public services and private kindnesses." In speech given in 1869, Dickens remarked of Russell that "there is no man in England whom I respect more in his public capacity, whom I love more in his private capacity."
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"Member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 7th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did Ann Winterton hold in Nov, 1986?
|
November 27, 1986
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q337529_P39_0
|
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 2004 to Apr, 2005.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1992 to Apr, 1997.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 2005 to Apr, 2010.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1997 to May, 2001.
|
Ann WintertonJane Ann, Lady Winterton ("née" Hodgson; born 6 March 1941 in Sutton Coldfield) is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Congleton from 1983 to 2010. She is married to Sir Nicholas Winterton, also a former Conservative MP.Winterton was educated at Erdington Grammar School for Girls. Following her election to represent Congleton in 1983, she was a member of several select committees, including Agriculture (1987–1997), the chairman's panel (1992–1998) and the National Drug Strategy (1998–2001), Social Security (2000–2001) and the Unopposed Bills Panel since 1997. She is a representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and a patron of Cheshire National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She is also president of the Congleton Pantomime Society.Winterton became Shadow Rural Affairs Minister in 2001, and in May 2002 told the club dinner:In February 2004 she had the Conservative whip removed for telling the following joke (which alluded to the recent death of twenty-three illegal immigrant Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay) at a Whitehall private dinner party to improve Denmark–United Kingdom relations and declining to apologise:A month later, Winterton apologised for the joke, and had the whip restored. Lord Taylor of Warwick, the only black Conservative peer in the House of Lords, criticised the decision to restore the whip and said she was not fit to be an MP.Nick Palmer, then Labour MP for Broxtowe, who was at the dinner, criticised the joke and told BBC Radio 4's "Today", "People were a bit stunned really. It was a very low-key friendly dinner. I was very sorry for the host – it was just a group of people discussing Danish issues."Michael Howard, leader of the Conservatives, said, "Ann Winterton's remarks about the tragic deaths in Morecambe Bay were completely unacceptable. Such sentiments have no place in the Conservative Party. I deplore them and I apologise for them on behalf of my party."In September 2005 (following the May general election), Winterton said she felt that Britain is a country where:Along with her husband, she managed to ask questions at Tony Blair's last Prime minister's questions in 2007.Together with Nicholas Winterton, Ann Winterton was investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who concluded that they had misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. The Wintertons transferred the ownership of the flat into a family trust to avoid the inheritance tax threshold. Since 2002, they had paid the rent for living in the flat from their MPs' expenditure. The Wintertons had declared their intentions to the Commons' Fees Office. On 25 May 2009, it was announced that both the Wintertons would stand down as MPs at the following general election. Winterton was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs expense details secret.
|
[
"Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did Ann Winterton hold in Jun, 1990?
|
June 28, 1990
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q337529_P39_1
|
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1997 to May, 2001.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 2005 to Apr, 2010.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 2004 to Apr, 2005.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1992 to Apr, 1997.
|
Ann WintertonJane Ann, Lady Winterton ("née" Hodgson; born 6 March 1941 in Sutton Coldfield) is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Congleton from 1983 to 2010. She is married to Sir Nicholas Winterton, also a former Conservative MP.Winterton was educated at Erdington Grammar School for Girls. Following her election to represent Congleton in 1983, she was a member of several select committees, including Agriculture (1987–1997), the chairman's panel (1992–1998) and the National Drug Strategy (1998–2001), Social Security (2000–2001) and the Unopposed Bills Panel since 1997. She is a representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and a patron of Cheshire National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She is also president of the Congleton Pantomime Society.Winterton became Shadow Rural Affairs Minister in 2001, and in May 2002 told the club dinner:In February 2004 she had the Conservative whip removed for telling the following joke (which alluded to the recent death of twenty-three illegal immigrant Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay) at a Whitehall private dinner party to improve Denmark–United Kingdom relations and declining to apologise:A month later, Winterton apologised for the joke, and had the whip restored. Lord Taylor of Warwick, the only black Conservative peer in the House of Lords, criticised the decision to restore the whip and said she was not fit to be an MP.Nick Palmer, then Labour MP for Broxtowe, who was at the dinner, criticised the joke and told BBC Radio 4's "Today", "People were a bit stunned really. It was a very low-key friendly dinner. I was very sorry for the host – it was just a group of people discussing Danish issues."Michael Howard, leader of the Conservatives, said, "Ann Winterton's remarks about the tragic deaths in Morecambe Bay were completely unacceptable. Such sentiments have no place in the Conservative Party. I deplore them and I apologise for them on behalf of my party."In September 2005 (following the May general election), Winterton said she felt that Britain is a country where:Along with her husband, she managed to ask questions at Tony Blair's last Prime minister's questions in 2007.Together with Nicholas Winterton, Ann Winterton was investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who concluded that they had misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. The Wintertons transferred the ownership of the flat into a family trust to avoid the inheritance tax threshold. Since 2002, they had paid the rent for living in the flat from their MPs' expenditure. The Wintertons had declared their intentions to the Commons' Fees Office. On 25 May 2009, it was announced that both the Wintertons would stand down as MPs at the following general election. Winterton was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs expense details secret.
|
[
"Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did Ann Winterton hold in Apr, 1994?
|
April 11, 1994
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q337529_P39_2
|
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 2004 to Apr, 2005.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 2005 to Apr, 2010.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1992 to Apr, 1997.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1997 to May, 2001.
|
Ann WintertonJane Ann, Lady Winterton ("née" Hodgson; born 6 March 1941 in Sutton Coldfield) is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Congleton from 1983 to 2010. She is married to Sir Nicholas Winterton, also a former Conservative MP.Winterton was educated at Erdington Grammar School for Girls. Following her election to represent Congleton in 1983, she was a member of several select committees, including Agriculture (1987–1997), the chairman's panel (1992–1998) and the National Drug Strategy (1998–2001), Social Security (2000–2001) and the Unopposed Bills Panel since 1997. She is a representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and a patron of Cheshire National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She is also president of the Congleton Pantomime Society.Winterton became Shadow Rural Affairs Minister in 2001, and in May 2002 told the club dinner:In February 2004 she had the Conservative whip removed for telling the following joke (which alluded to the recent death of twenty-three illegal immigrant Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay) at a Whitehall private dinner party to improve Denmark–United Kingdom relations and declining to apologise:A month later, Winterton apologised for the joke, and had the whip restored. Lord Taylor of Warwick, the only black Conservative peer in the House of Lords, criticised the decision to restore the whip and said she was not fit to be an MP.Nick Palmer, then Labour MP for Broxtowe, who was at the dinner, criticised the joke and told BBC Radio 4's "Today", "People were a bit stunned really. It was a very low-key friendly dinner. I was very sorry for the host – it was just a group of people discussing Danish issues."Michael Howard, leader of the Conservatives, said, "Ann Winterton's remarks about the tragic deaths in Morecambe Bay were completely unacceptable. Such sentiments have no place in the Conservative Party. I deplore them and I apologise for them on behalf of my party."In September 2005 (following the May general election), Winterton said she felt that Britain is a country where:Along with her husband, she managed to ask questions at Tony Blair's last Prime minister's questions in 2007.Together with Nicholas Winterton, Ann Winterton was investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who concluded that they had misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. The Wintertons transferred the ownership of the flat into a family trust to avoid the inheritance tax threshold. Since 2002, they had paid the rent for living in the flat from their MPs' expenditure. The Wintertons had declared their intentions to the Commons' Fees Office. On 25 May 2009, it was announced that both the Wintertons would stand down as MPs at the following general election. Winterton was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs expense details secret.
|
[
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did Ann Winterton hold in Nov, 2000?
|
November 08, 2000
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q337529_P39_3
|
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 2005 to Apr, 2010.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1997 to May, 2001.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1992 to Apr, 1997.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 2004 to Apr, 2005.
|
Ann WintertonJane Ann, Lady Winterton ("née" Hodgson; born 6 March 1941 in Sutton Coldfield) is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Congleton from 1983 to 2010. She is married to Sir Nicholas Winterton, also a former Conservative MP.Winterton was educated at Erdington Grammar School for Girls. Following her election to represent Congleton in 1983, she was a member of several select committees, including Agriculture (1987–1997), the chairman's panel (1992–1998) and the National Drug Strategy (1998–2001), Social Security (2000–2001) and the Unopposed Bills Panel since 1997. She is a representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and a patron of Cheshire National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She is also president of the Congleton Pantomime Society.Winterton became Shadow Rural Affairs Minister in 2001, and in May 2002 told the club dinner:In February 2004 she had the Conservative whip removed for telling the following joke (which alluded to the recent death of twenty-three illegal immigrant Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay) at a Whitehall private dinner party to improve Denmark–United Kingdom relations and declining to apologise:A month later, Winterton apologised for the joke, and had the whip restored. Lord Taylor of Warwick, the only black Conservative peer in the House of Lords, criticised the decision to restore the whip and said she was not fit to be an MP.Nick Palmer, then Labour MP for Broxtowe, who was at the dinner, criticised the joke and told BBC Radio 4's "Today", "People were a bit stunned really. It was a very low-key friendly dinner. I was very sorry for the host – it was just a group of people discussing Danish issues."Michael Howard, leader of the Conservatives, said, "Ann Winterton's remarks about the tragic deaths in Morecambe Bay were completely unacceptable. Such sentiments have no place in the Conservative Party. I deplore them and I apologise for them on behalf of my party."In September 2005 (following the May general election), Winterton said she felt that Britain is a country where:Along with her husband, she managed to ask questions at Tony Blair's last Prime minister's questions in 2007.Together with Nicholas Winterton, Ann Winterton was investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who concluded that they had misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. The Wintertons transferred the ownership of the flat into a family trust to avoid the inheritance tax threshold. Since 2002, they had paid the rent for living in the flat from their MPs' expenditure. The Wintertons had declared their intentions to the Commons' Fees Office. On 25 May 2009, it was announced that both the Wintertons would stand down as MPs at the following general election. Winterton was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs expense details secret.
|
[
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did Ann Winterton hold in Apr, 2004?
|
April 07, 2004
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q337529_P39_4
|
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1997 to May, 2001.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 2004 to Apr, 2005.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 2005 to Apr, 2010.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1992 to Apr, 1997.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
|
Ann WintertonJane Ann, Lady Winterton ("née" Hodgson; born 6 March 1941 in Sutton Coldfield) is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Congleton from 1983 to 2010. She is married to Sir Nicholas Winterton, also a former Conservative MP.Winterton was educated at Erdington Grammar School for Girls. Following her election to represent Congleton in 1983, she was a member of several select committees, including Agriculture (1987–1997), the chairman's panel (1992–1998) and the National Drug Strategy (1998–2001), Social Security (2000–2001) and the Unopposed Bills Panel since 1997. She is a representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and a patron of Cheshire National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She is also president of the Congleton Pantomime Society.Winterton became Shadow Rural Affairs Minister in 2001, and in May 2002 told the club dinner:In February 2004 she had the Conservative whip removed for telling the following joke (which alluded to the recent death of twenty-three illegal immigrant Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay) at a Whitehall private dinner party to improve Denmark–United Kingdom relations and declining to apologise:A month later, Winterton apologised for the joke, and had the whip restored. Lord Taylor of Warwick, the only black Conservative peer in the House of Lords, criticised the decision to restore the whip and said she was not fit to be an MP.Nick Palmer, then Labour MP for Broxtowe, who was at the dinner, criticised the joke and told BBC Radio 4's "Today", "People were a bit stunned really. It was a very low-key friendly dinner. I was very sorry for the host – it was just a group of people discussing Danish issues."Michael Howard, leader of the Conservatives, said, "Ann Winterton's remarks about the tragic deaths in Morecambe Bay were completely unacceptable. Such sentiments have no place in the Conservative Party. I deplore them and I apologise for them on behalf of my party."In September 2005 (following the May general election), Winterton said she felt that Britain is a country where:Along with her husband, she managed to ask questions at Tony Blair's last Prime minister's questions in 2007.Together with Nicholas Winterton, Ann Winterton was investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who concluded that they had misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. The Wintertons transferred the ownership of the flat into a family trust to avoid the inheritance tax threshold. Since 2002, they had paid the rent for living in the flat from their MPs' expenditure. The Wintertons had declared their intentions to the Commons' Fees Office. On 25 May 2009, it was announced that both the Wintertons would stand down as MPs at the following general election. Winterton was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs expense details secret.
|
[
"Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Which position did Ann Winterton hold in Jul, 2006?
|
July 20, 2006
|
{
"text": [
"Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom"
]
}
|
L2_Q337529_P39_5
|
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom from Mar, 2004 to Apr, 2005.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom from Apr, 1992 to Apr, 1997.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 1997 to May, 2001.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1987 to Mar, 1992.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom from May, 2005 to Apr, 2010.
Ann Winterton holds the position of Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom from Jun, 1983 to May, 1987.
|
Ann WintertonJane Ann, Lady Winterton ("née" Hodgson; born 6 March 1941 in Sutton Coldfield) is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Congleton from 1983 to 2010. She is married to Sir Nicholas Winterton, also a former Conservative MP.Winterton was educated at Erdington Grammar School for Girls. Following her election to represent Congleton in 1983, she was a member of several select committees, including Agriculture (1987–1997), the chairman's panel (1992–1998) and the National Drug Strategy (1998–2001), Social Security (2000–2001) and the Unopposed Bills Panel since 1997. She is a representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and a patron of Cheshire National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She is also president of the Congleton Pantomime Society.Winterton became Shadow Rural Affairs Minister in 2001, and in May 2002 told the club dinner:In February 2004 she had the Conservative whip removed for telling the following joke (which alluded to the recent death of twenty-three illegal immigrant Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay) at a Whitehall private dinner party to improve Denmark–United Kingdom relations and declining to apologise:A month later, Winterton apologised for the joke, and had the whip restored. Lord Taylor of Warwick, the only black Conservative peer in the House of Lords, criticised the decision to restore the whip and said she was not fit to be an MP.Nick Palmer, then Labour MP for Broxtowe, who was at the dinner, criticised the joke and told BBC Radio 4's "Today", "People were a bit stunned really. It was a very low-key friendly dinner. I was very sorry for the host – it was just a group of people discussing Danish issues."Michael Howard, leader of the Conservatives, said, "Ann Winterton's remarks about the tragic deaths in Morecambe Bay were completely unacceptable. Such sentiments have no place in the Conservative Party. I deplore them and I apologise for them on behalf of my party."In September 2005 (following the May general election), Winterton said she felt that Britain is a country where:Along with her husband, she managed to ask questions at Tony Blair's last Prime minister's questions in 2007.Together with Nicholas Winterton, Ann Winterton was investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who concluded that they had misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. The Wintertons transferred the ownership of the flat into a family trust to avoid the inheritance tax threshold. Since 2002, they had paid the rent for living in the flat from their MPs' expenditure. The Wintertons had declared their intentions to the Commons' Fees Office. On 25 May 2009, it was announced that both the Wintertons would stand down as MPs at the following general election. Winterton was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs expense details secret.
|
[
"Member of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 50th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 53rd Parliament of the United Kingdom",
"Member of the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto in Jun, 1970?
|
June 11, 1970
|
{
"text": [
"Giuseppe Saragat"
]
}
|
L2_Q1959587_P488_0
|
Giorgio Napolitano is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2015.
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Giovanni Leone is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1978.
Sergio Mattarella is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Sandro Pertini is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1978 to Jan, 1985.
Francesco Cossiga is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1992.
Giuseppe Saragat is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1968 to Jan, 1971.
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2006.
|
Order of Vittorio VenetoThe military Order of Vittorio Veneto was founded as national order by the fifth President of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragat, in 1968, "to express the gratitude of the nation" to those decorated with the Medal and the War Cross of Military Valor ("Medaglia e Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare") who had fought for at least six months in World War I and earlier conflicts.The Order is awarded in the single degree of Knight.Being awarded more than 50 years after the War, most of the recipients were retired from employment. For the Knights who did not enjoy an income above their tax allowance, a small annuity was granted in favor of those recipients, payable to the widow or minor children on death. The allowance was also granted to those that fought in the former Austro-Hungarian armed forces who became Italian citizens after annexation.The order was bestowed by decree of the President of the Italian Republic, its head, on the recommendation of the Minister of Defence.A Lieutenant General chaired the council, which investigated applications made by eligible parties to the municipality of residence. With the death of the last surviving Knights of Vittorio Veneto in 2008, the order fell into abeyance and, in 2008, it was formally wound-up by repeal of the original legislation.It was revived anyway on 15 March 2010 in spite of being still abeyant.
|
[
"Giorgio Napolitano",
"Oscar Luigi Scalfaro",
"Giovanni Leone",
"Sandro Pertini",
"Francesco Cossiga",
"Sergio Mattarella",
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto in Sep, 1973?
|
September 23, 1973
|
{
"text": [
"Giovanni Leone"
]
}
|
L2_Q1959587_P488_1
|
Giorgio Napolitano is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2015.
Francesco Cossiga is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1992.
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2006.
Giuseppe Saragat is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1968 to Jan, 1971.
Giovanni Leone is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1978.
Sandro Pertini is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1978 to Jan, 1985.
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Sergio Mattarella is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
|
Order of Vittorio VenetoThe military Order of Vittorio Veneto was founded as national order by the fifth President of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragat, in 1968, "to express the gratitude of the nation" to those decorated with the Medal and the War Cross of Military Valor ("Medaglia e Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare") who had fought for at least six months in World War I and earlier conflicts.The Order is awarded in the single degree of Knight.Being awarded more than 50 years after the War, most of the recipients were retired from employment. For the Knights who did not enjoy an income above their tax allowance, a small annuity was granted in favor of those recipients, payable to the widow or minor children on death. The allowance was also granted to those that fought in the former Austro-Hungarian armed forces who became Italian citizens after annexation.The order was bestowed by decree of the President of the Italian Republic, its head, on the recommendation of the Minister of Defence.A Lieutenant General chaired the council, which investigated applications made by eligible parties to the municipality of residence. With the death of the last surviving Knights of Vittorio Veneto in 2008, the order fell into abeyance and, in 2008, it was formally wound-up by repeal of the original legislation.It was revived anyway on 15 March 2010 in spite of being still abeyant.
|
[
"Giorgio Napolitano",
"Oscar Luigi Scalfaro",
"Sandro Pertini",
"Francesco Cossiga",
"Sergio Mattarella",
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi",
"Giuseppe Saragat"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto in Apr, 1978?
|
April 05, 1978
|
{
"text": [
"Sandro Pertini"
]
}
|
L2_Q1959587_P488_2
|
Francesco Cossiga is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1992.
Sergio Mattarella is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2006.
Giuseppe Saragat is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1968 to Jan, 1971.
Giorgio Napolitano is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2015.
Giovanni Leone is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1978.
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Sandro Pertini is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1978 to Jan, 1985.
|
Order of Vittorio VenetoThe military Order of Vittorio Veneto was founded as national order by the fifth President of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragat, in 1968, "to express the gratitude of the nation" to those decorated with the Medal and the War Cross of Military Valor ("Medaglia e Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare") who had fought for at least six months in World War I and earlier conflicts.The Order is awarded in the single degree of Knight.Being awarded more than 50 years after the War, most of the recipients were retired from employment. For the Knights who did not enjoy an income above their tax allowance, a small annuity was granted in favor of those recipients, payable to the widow or minor children on death. The allowance was also granted to those that fought in the former Austro-Hungarian armed forces who became Italian citizens after annexation.The order was bestowed by decree of the President of the Italian Republic, its head, on the recommendation of the Minister of Defence.A Lieutenant General chaired the council, which investigated applications made by eligible parties to the municipality of residence. With the death of the last surviving Knights of Vittorio Veneto in 2008, the order fell into abeyance and, in 2008, it was formally wound-up by repeal of the original legislation.It was revived anyway on 15 March 2010 in spite of being still abeyant.
|
[
"Giorgio Napolitano",
"Oscar Luigi Scalfaro",
"Giovanni Leone",
"Francesco Cossiga",
"Sergio Mattarella",
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi",
"Giuseppe Saragat"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto in Jan, 1989?
|
January 04, 1989
|
{
"text": [
"Francesco Cossiga"
]
}
|
L2_Q1959587_P488_3
|
Giorgio Napolitano is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2015.
Giovanni Leone is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1978.
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Giuseppe Saragat is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1968 to Jan, 1971.
Sandro Pertini is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1978 to Jan, 1985.
Francesco Cossiga is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1992.
Sergio Mattarella is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2006.
|
Order of Vittorio VenetoThe military Order of Vittorio Veneto was founded as national order by the fifth President of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragat, in 1968, "to express the gratitude of the nation" to those decorated with the Medal and the War Cross of Military Valor ("Medaglia e Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare") who had fought for at least six months in World War I and earlier conflicts.The Order is awarded in the single degree of Knight.Being awarded more than 50 years after the War, most of the recipients were retired from employment. For the Knights who did not enjoy an income above their tax allowance, a small annuity was granted in favor of those recipients, payable to the widow or minor children on death. The allowance was also granted to those that fought in the former Austro-Hungarian armed forces who became Italian citizens after annexation.The order was bestowed by decree of the President of the Italian Republic, its head, on the recommendation of the Minister of Defence.A Lieutenant General chaired the council, which investigated applications made by eligible parties to the municipality of residence. With the death of the last surviving Knights of Vittorio Veneto in 2008, the order fell into abeyance and, in 2008, it was formally wound-up by repeal of the original legislation.It was revived anyway on 15 March 2010 in spite of being still abeyant.
|
[
"Giorgio Napolitano",
"Oscar Luigi Scalfaro",
"Giovanni Leone",
"Sandro Pertini",
"Sergio Mattarella",
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi",
"Giuseppe Saragat"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto in Mar, 1993?
|
March 18, 1993
|
{
"text": [
"Oscar Luigi Scalfaro"
]
}
|
L2_Q1959587_P488_4
|
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Giuseppe Saragat is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1968 to Jan, 1971.
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2006.
Francesco Cossiga is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1992.
Sergio Mattarella is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Giorgio Napolitano is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2015.
Giovanni Leone is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1978.
Sandro Pertini is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1978 to Jan, 1985.
|
Order of Vittorio VenetoThe military Order of Vittorio Veneto was founded as national order by the fifth President of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragat, in 1968, "to express the gratitude of the nation" to those decorated with the Medal and the War Cross of Military Valor ("Medaglia e Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare") who had fought for at least six months in World War I and earlier conflicts.The Order is awarded in the single degree of Knight.Being awarded more than 50 years after the War, most of the recipients were retired from employment. For the Knights who did not enjoy an income above their tax allowance, a small annuity was granted in favor of those recipients, payable to the widow or minor children on death. The allowance was also granted to those that fought in the former Austro-Hungarian armed forces who became Italian citizens after annexation.The order was bestowed by decree of the President of the Italian Republic, its head, on the recommendation of the Minister of Defence.A Lieutenant General chaired the council, which investigated applications made by eligible parties to the municipality of residence. With the death of the last surviving Knights of Vittorio Veneto in 2008, the order fell into abeyance and, in 2008, it was formally wound-up by repeal of the original legislation.It was revived anyway on 15 March 2010 in spite of being still abeyant.
|
[
"Giorgio Napolitano",
"Giovanni Leone",
"Sandro Pertini",
"Francesco Cossiga",
"Sergio Mattarella",
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi",
"Giuseppe Saragat"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto in Aug, 1999?
|
August 22, 1999
|
{
"text": [
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi"
]
}
|
L2_Q1959587_P488_5
|
Giovanni Leone is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1978.
Sergio Mattarella is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Francesco Cossiga is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1992.
Sandro Pertini is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1978 to Jan, 1985.
Giuseppe Saragat is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1968 to Jan, 1971.
Giorgio Napolitano is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2015.
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2006.
|
Order of Vittorio VenetoThe military Order of Vittorio Veneto was founded as national order by the fifth President of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragat, in 1968, "to express the gratitude of the nation" to those decorated with the Medal and the War Cross of Military Valor ("Medaglia e Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare") who had fought for at least six months in World War I and earlier conflicts.The Order is awarded in the single degree of Knight.Being awarded more than 50 years after the War, most of the recipients were retired from employment. For the Knights who did not enjoy an income above their tax allowance, a small annuity was granted in favor of those recipients, payable to the widow or minor children on death. The allowance was also granted to those that fought in the former Austro-Hungarian armed forces who became Italian citizens after annexation.The order was bestowed by decree of the President of the Italian Republic, its head, on the recommendation of the Minister of Defence.A Lieutenant General chaired the council, which investigated applications made by eligible parties to the municipality of residence. With the death of the last surviving Knights of Vittorio Veneto in 2008, the order fell into abeyance and, in 2008, it was formally wound-up by repeal of the original legislation.It was revived anyway on 15 March 2010 in spite of being still abeyant.
|
[
"Giorgio Napolitano",
"Oscar Luigi Scalfaro",
"Giovanni Leone",
"Sandro Pertini",
"Francesco Cossiga",
"Sergio Mattarella",
"Giuseppe Saragat"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto in Mar, 2009?
|
March 17, 2009
|
{
"text": [
"Giorgio Napolitano"
]
}
|
L2_Q1959587_P488_6
|
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2006.
Sandro Pertini is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1978 to Jan, 1985.
Sergio Mattarella is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
Giuseppe Saragat is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1968 to Jan, 1971.
Giorgio Napolitano is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2015.
Giovanni Leone is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1978.
Francesco Cossiga is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1992.
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
|
Order of Vittorio VenetoThe military Order of Vittorio Veneto was founded as national order by the fifth President of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragat, in 1968, "to express the gratitude of the nation" to those decorated with the Medal and the War Cross of Military Valor ("Medaglia e Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare") who had fought for at least six months in World War I and earlier conflicts.The Order is awarded in the single degree of Knight.Being awarded more than 50 years after the War, most of the recipients were retired from employment. For the Knights who did not enjoy an income above their tax allowance, a small annuity was granted in favor of those recipients, payable to the widow or minor children on death. The allowance was also granted to those that fought in the former Austro-Hungarian armed forces who became Italian citizens after annexation.The order was bestowed by decree of the President of the Italian Republic, its head, on the recommendation of the Minister of Defence.A Lieutenant General chaired the council, which investigated applications made by eligible parties to the municipality of residence. With the death of the last surviving Knights of Vittorio Veneto in 2008, the order fell into abeyance and, in 2008, it was formally wound-up by repeal of the original legislation.It was revived anyway on 15 March 2010 in spite of being still abeyant.
|
[
"Oscar Luigi Scalfaro",
"Giovanni Leone",
"Sandro Pertini",
"Francesco Cossiga",
"Sergio Mattarella",
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi",
"Giuseppe Saragat"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto in Jan, 2016?
|
January 22, 2016
|
{
"text": [
"Sergio Mattarella"
]
}
|
L2_Q1959587_P488_7
|
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 2006.
Giuseppe Saragat is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1968 to Jan, 1971.
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1999.
Francesco Cossiga is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1985 to Jan, 1992.
Giorgio Napolitano is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2006 to Jan, 2015.
Giovanni Leone is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1971 to Jan, 1978.
Sandro Pertini is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 1978 to Jan, 1985.
Sergio Mattarella is the chair of Order of Vittorio Veneto from Jan, 2015 to Dec, 2022.
|
Order of Vittorio VenetoThe military Order of Vittorio Veneto was founded as national order by the fifth President of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragat, in 1968, "to express the gratitude of the nation" to those decorated with the Medal and the War Cross of Military Valor ("Medaglia e Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare") who had fought for at least six months in World War I and earlier conflicts.The Order is awarded in the single degree of Knight.Being awarded more than 50 years after the War, most of the recipients were retired from employment. For the Knights who did not enjoy an income above their tax allowance, a small annuity was granted in favor of those recipients, payable to the widow or minor children on death. The allowance was also granted to those that fought in the former Austro-Hungarian armed forces who became Italian citizens after annexation.The order was bestowed by decree of the President of the Italian Republic, its head, on the recommendation of the Minister of Defence.A Lieutenant General chaired the council, which investigated applications made by eligible parties to the municipality of residence. With the death of the last surviving Knights of Vittorio Veneto in 2008, the order fell into abeyance and, in 2008, it was formally wound-up by repeal of the original legislation.It was revived anyway on 15 March 2010 in spite of being still abeyant.
|
[
"Giorgio Napolitano",
"Oscar Luigi Scalfaro",
"Giovanni Leone",
"Sandro Pertini",
"Francesco Cossiga",
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi",
"Giuseppe Saragat"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Jun, 1975?
|
June 11, 1975
|
{
"text": [
"Yakubu Gowon"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_0
|
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Feb, 1978?
|
February 24, 1978
|
{
"text": [
"Olusegun Obasanjo"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_1
|
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in May, 1980?
|
May 06, 1980
|
{
"text": [
"Léopold Sédar Senghor"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_2
|
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Aug, 1981?
|
August 12, 1981
|
{
"text": [
"Siaka Probyn Stevens"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_3
|
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Feb, 1982?
|
February 15, 1982
|
{
"text": [
"Mathieu Kérékou"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_4
|
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Feb, 1983?
|
February 12, 1983
|
{
"text": [
"Ahmed Sékou Touré"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_5
|
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Apr, 1984?
|
April 10, 1984
|
{
"text": [
"Lansana Conté"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_6
|
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Dec, 1992?
|
December 18, 1992
|
{
"text": [
"Abdou Diouf"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_7
|
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Oct, 1993?
|
October 15, 1993
|
{
"text": [
"Nicéphore Soglo"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_8
|
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Feb, 1995?
|
February 05, 1995
|
{
"text": [
"Jerry Rawlings"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_9
|
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Nov, 1997?
|
November 15, 1997
|
{
"text": [
"Sani Abacha"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_10
|
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
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Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Jun, 1998?
|
June 20, 1998
|
{
"text": [
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Sani Abacha"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_11
|
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade",
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Jan, 1999?
|
January 01, 1999
|
{
"text": [
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_12
|
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade",
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade",
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Jan, 1999?
|
January 11, 1999
|
{
"text": [
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_13
|
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade",
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade",
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Aug, 2002?
|
August 24, 2002
|
{
"text": [
"Abdoulaye Wade"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_14
|
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in May, 2003?
|
May 28, 2003
|
{
"text": [
"John Kufuor"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_15
|
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in May, 2005?
|
May 27, 2005
|
{
"text": [
"Mamadou Tandja"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_16
|
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in May, 2007?
|
May 09, 2007
|
{
"text": [
"Blaise Compaoré"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_17
|
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Feb, 2009?
|
February 07, 2009
|
{
"text": [
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_18
|
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Aug, 2011?
|
August 03, 2011
|
{
"text": [
"Goodluck Jonathan"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_19
|
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Aug, 2012?
|
August 05, 2012
|
{
"text": [
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_20
|
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in Mar, 2015?
|
March 26, 2015
|
{
"text": [
"John Mahama"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_21
|
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Macky Sall",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
|
Who was the chair of Economic Community of West African States in May, 2016?
|
May 31, 2016
|
{
"text": [
"Macky Sall"
]
}
|
L2_Q193272_P488_22
|
Mahamadou Issoufou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2019 to Jun, 2020.
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2017 to Jul, 2018.
Mamadou Tandja is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2005 to Jan, 2007.
Lansana Conté is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1984 to Jan, 1985.
Jerry Rawlings is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1994 to Jul, 1996.
Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Jan, 1999.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2016 to Jun, 2017.
Abdulsalami Abubakar is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 1998 to Jan, 1999.
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2012 to Feb, 2013.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2008 to Feb, 2010.
Siaka Probyn Stevens is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1981 to Jan, 1982.
Goodluck Jonathan is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2010 to Feb, 2012.
Nana Akufo-Addo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jun, 2020 to Dec, 2022.
Abdoulaye Wade is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Dec, 2001 to Jan, 2003.
Blaise Compaoré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2007 to Dec, 2008.
Nicéphore Soglo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1993 to Jan, 1994.
Léopold Sédar Senghor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1979 to Dec, 1980.
Yakubu Gowon is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 1975 to Jul, 1975.
Mathieu Kérékou is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1982 to Jan, 1983.
Ahmed Sékou Touré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1983 to Jan, 1984.
Macky Sall is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from May, 2015 to Jun, 2016.
John Kufuor is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 2003 to Jan, 2005.
John Mahama is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Feb, 2013 to May, 2015.
Sani Abacha is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 1996 to Jun, 1998.
Abdou Diouf is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1992 to Jan, 1993.
Alpha Oumar Konaré is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jan, 1999 to Dec, 2001.
Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Jul, 2018 to Jun, 2019.
Olusegun Obasanjo is the chair of Economic Community of West African States from Sep, 1977 to Sep, 1979.
|
Economic Community of West African StatesThe Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), also known as ( in French), is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2015 had an estimated population of over 349 million.The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.The ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, and The Gambia in 2017.ECOWAS includes two sub-regional blocs:In addition, ECOWAS includes the following institutions: ECOWAS Commission, Community Court of Justice, Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).The ECOWAS operates in three co-official languages—French, English, and Portuguese, and consists of two institutions to implement policies: the ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), formerly known as the Fund for Cooperation until it was renamed in 2001. In 1976, Cape Verde joined the ECOWAS, while Mauritania withdrew in December 2000, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.In 2011, the ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the next decade, "Vision 2020", and, to accompany it, a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST).As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017.Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled.Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchasing power parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, published in December 2016. Area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division.The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, that provided for the establishment of an Allied Armed Force of the Community.The Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General.For the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993; the second was in 2007 when the Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. As of July 2013, ECOWAS now has six new departments (Human Resources Management; Education, Science and Culture; Energy and Mines; Telecommunications and IT; Industry and Private Sector Promotion. Finance and Administration to Sierra Leone has been decoupled, to give the incoming Ghana Commissioner the new portfolio of Administration and Conferences).The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice was created by a protocol signed in 1991 and was later included in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of the Community in 1993. However, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and allows rulings on disputes between states over interpretations of the Revised Treaty. It also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues (Article 10). Like its companion courts, the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches.ECOWAS nations organise a broad array of cultural and sports events under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games and the Miss CEDEAO beauty pageant.The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, also known as UEMOA from its name in French, "Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine") is an organisation of eight, mainly francophone West African states within the ECOWAS, that were dominated otherwise by anglophone heavyweights like Nigeria and Ghana. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. On 2 May 1997, Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, became the organisation's eighth (and only non-francophone) member state.UEMOA is a customs union and currency union between the members of ECOWAS. Its objectives include:Among its achievements, the UEMOA has successfully implemented macro-economic convergence criteria and an effective surveillance mechanism. It has adopted a customs union and common external tariff and has combined indirect taxation regulations, in addition to initiating regional structural and sectoral policies. A September 2002 IMF survey cited the UEMOA as "the furthest along the path toward integration" of all the regional groupings in Africa.ECOWAS and UEMOA have developed a common plan of action on trade liberalisation and macroeconomic policy convergence. The organizations have also agreed on common rules of origin to enhance trade, and ECOWAS has agreed to adopt UEMOA's customs declaration forms and compensation mechanisms.Formed in 2000, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is a group of six countries within ECOWAS that plan to introduce a common currency called the Eco. The six member states of WAMZ are Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who founded the organisation together in 2000 and Liberia who joined on 16 February 2010. Apart from Guinea, which is francophone, they are all English-speaking countries. Along with Mauritania, Guinea opted out of the CFA franc currency shared by all other former French colonies in West and Central Africa.The WAMZ attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and eco to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.A Trans-ECOWAS project, established in 2007, plans to upgrade railways in this zone.In 2019, ECOWAS unveiled its Ecotour Action Plan 2019 – 2029. It focuses on tourism heritage protection and development, and on the development of standards, regulations and control systems.
|
[
"Yakubu Gowon",
"Jerry Rawlings",
"Alpha Oumar Konaré",
"Abdulsalami Abubakar",
"Nana Akufo-Addo",
"Muhammadu Buhari",
"Goodluck Jonathan",
"John Kufuor",
"Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Mathieu Kérékou",
"Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma",
"Ahmed Sékou Touré",
"Abdou Diouf",
"Olusegun Obasanjo",
"Sani Abacha",
"Umaru Musa Yar'Adua",
"Mahamadou Issoufou",
"Mamadou Tandja",
"Siaka Probyn Stevens",
"Alassane Dramane Ouattara",
"Nicéphore Soglo",
"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf",
"Lansana Conté",
"Blaise Compaoré",
"Léopold Sédar Senghor",
"John Mahama",
"Abdoulaye Wade"
] |
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