"Melbourne's career was made possible only by his temperament. He possessed that acute intelligence which sees the good and bad on either side, and which naturally inclines to moderation. The great master of men, the leader of forlorn hopes, cannot succeed without a grain of stupidity. He cannot reach the pinnacle of courage or conviction if he understands the reason of his adversary's action as well as of his own. Melbourne's strength was his weakness also. He knew so much that he was too often reduced to a condition of stable equilibrium."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandActivists from EnglandPeople from LondonWhig (British political party) politicians
Original Language: English
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Sources
Charles Whibley, Political Portraits (1917), p. 232
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Lamb%2C_2nd_Viscount_Melbourne
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William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
1830 – 1834
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (15 March 1779 – 24 November 1848) was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary (1830–1834) and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834 and 1835–1841).
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