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BARON JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE BROUGHTON (17...

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 656 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARON JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE BROUGHTON (1786-1869)  ,
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English writer and politician, was the eldest son of
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Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, Bart., by his wife
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Charlotte, daughter of
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Samuel Cam of Chantry House, Bradford, Wiltshire . Born at Bristol on the 27th of
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June 1786, he was educated at Westminster school and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1808 . He took the Hulsean prize in 18o8 for his Essay on the Origin and Intention of Sacrifices . At Cambridge he founded the " Whig Club," and the " Amicable Society," and became very intimate with Byron, who accompanied him on a tour in Spain,
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Greece and
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Turkey in 1809 . Hobhouse was
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present at the
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battle of
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Dresden in August 1813, and, following the allied army into France, saw Louis XVIII. enter Paris in May 1814 . He was again in Paris after the return of
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Napoleon from Elba, and showed his dislike of the Bourbons and his sympathy with
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Bonaparte by writing in 1816 a pamphlet entitled The substance of some letter s written by an Englishman
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resident in Paris during the last reign of the emperor Napoleon . This caused some offence in England and more' in France, and the French
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translation was seized by the government and both translator and printer were imprisoned . A further period of travel with Byron followed, and at this time Hobhouse wrote some notes to the
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fourth canto of Childe Harold . This canto was afterwards dedicated to him, and a revised edition of a
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part of his notes entitled
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Historical illustrations of the fourth canto of " Childe Harold "containing
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dissertations on the ruins of Rome and an essay on
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Italian literature, was published in 1818 . In
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February 1819 Hobhouse was the Radical
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candidate at a by-election for the representation of the city of Westminster, but he failed to secure election . He had already gained some popularity by writing in favour of reform, and in 1819 he issued A defence of the
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People in reply to Lord Erskine's " Two Defences of the Whigs," followed by A trifling mistake in Thomas, Lord Erskine's
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recent preface . The House of
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Commons declared this latter pamphlet a breach of
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privilege; its author was arrested on the 14th of December 1819, and in spite of an
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appeal to the court of king's bench he remained in custody until the end of the following February .

But this proceeding only increased his' popularity, and at the

general election of 182o he was returned for Westminster . Hobhouse shared Byron's
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enthusiasm for the liberation of Greece; after the poet's
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death in 1824 he proved his will, and superintended the arrangements for his funeral . In parliament he proved a valuable recruit to the party of reform; and having succeeded his
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father as 2nd
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baronet in 1831, was appointed secretary at war in the
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ministry of
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Earl Grey in February 1832, and was made a privy councillor . He effected some reforms and economies during his tenure of this office, but, unable to carry out all his wishes, became chief secretary for Ireland in March 1833 . He had only held this
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post for a few weeks when, in consequence of his refusal to
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vote with the government against the abolition of the house and window tax, he resigned both his office and his seat in parliament . At the subsequent election he was defeated, but joined the
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cabinet as first
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commissioner of woods and forests when Lord Melbourne took office in
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July 1834, and about the same time was returned at a by-election as one of the members for Nottingham . In Melbourne's government of 1835 he was president of the board of control, in which position he strongly supported the
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Indian policy of Lord Auckland; he returned to the same office in July 1846 as a member of Lord John Russell's cabinet; and in February 1851 he went to the House of Lords as Baron Broughton of Broughton Gyfford . He
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left office when Russell resigned in February 1852, and took little part in
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political
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life, being mainly occupied in
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literary pursuits and in correspondence . He died in
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London on the 3rd of June 1869 . He had married in July 1828 Lady Julia Tomlinson Hay, daughter of George, 7th marquess of Tweeddale, by whom he had three daughters, but being without heir male the
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barony lapsed on his death, the baronetcy passing to his
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nephew, Charles Parry Hobhouse . Lord Broughton was a partner in Whitbread's brewery, a
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fellow of the Royal Society, and one of the founders of the Royal
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Geographical Society . He was responsible for the passing of the Vestry Act of 1831, and is said to have first used the phrase " his majesty's opposition." He was a good classical scholar, and although not eloquent, an able debater .

In addition to the

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works already enumerated he wrote A, journey through
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Albania and other provinces of Turkey in
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Europe and
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Asia to Constantinople during the years 'Sop and r8ro (London, 1813), revised edition (London, 1855); and Italy: Remarks made in Several Visits from the
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Year 181-6 to 1854 (London, 1859) . A collection of his diaries, correspondence and memoranda is in the
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British Museum . See T . Moore, Life of Lord Byron (London, 1837-1840) ; Greville
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Memoirs (London, 1896) ;
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Dictionary of
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National Biography, vol. tkvii . (London, 1891); The Times, June 4, 1869; Spencer Walpole,
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History of England (London, 1890) . Broughton also wrote Recollec-Rions of a Long Life, printed privately in 1865, and in 1909 published with additions in 2 vols. edited by his daughter, Lady Dorchester, with a preface by the earl of Rosebery .

End of Article: BARON JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE BROUGHTON (1786-1869)
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