Melbourne, WILLIAM LAMB, VISCOUNT, statesman, was second son of Penistone Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne, and was born in London, 15th March 1779. His education he received at Eton, at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Glasgow. He entered the House of Commons for Leominster in 1805 as a Whig, a follower of Charles James Fox. But, having become a convert to Canning's views, he accepted in 1827 the chief-secretaryship of Ireland in his government, and continued to hold the post under Lord Goderich and the Duke of Wellington. In 1828 the death of his father transferred him to the Upper House. Returning to his allegiance to the Whigs, in 1830 he took the seals of the Home Office in the government of Earl Grey, and in July 1834 succeeded his chief as prime-minister, but only remained at the head of affairs until the following November. Peel, however, gave way to Melbourne again in 1835; and he continued in office when Victoria ascended the throne (1837). He succeeded by his uncommon tact in introducing her pleasantly to the various duties of a constitutional monarch. In 1841 he once more passed the seals of office to Sir Robert Peel, and thenceforward took little part in public affairs. He was ineffective as a speaker, but displayed aptitude for affairs and common sense in the ordering of them. His easy cheerful temper and cordial frankness of manner gained him many friends. Sydney Smith, in his second letter to Archdeacon Singleton, has described his character with an exquisite mixture of sarcasm and compliment. Melbourne died November 24, 1848. He married (1805) a daughter of the Earl of Bessborough, who, under the title of Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828), attained some celebrity as a novel-writer, besides notoriety from her relations with Lord Byron. The charge brought against him by the husband in 1836 of seducing the famous Mrs Norton was thrown out by the jury without leaving the box.
See Memoirs by Torrens (2 vols. 1878); Lord Melbourne's Papers, edited by L. C. Sanders (1889); The Greville Memoirs (parts i. and ii. 1875-85); and Life by Dunckley (1890).