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William Beckford: First Prime Minister of the London Empire, by Perry Gauci

2015; Oxford University Press; Volume: 130; Issue: 545 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ehr/cev197

1477-4534

Trevor Burnard,

Australian History and Society

Plenty of rich foreigners have forced themselves into British society and politics, using wealth as a lever. Recent examples might include Mohammed Al-Fayed, Roman Abramovich, and, perhaps most tellingly as a comparison for this enthralling account of an eighteenth-century arriviste, Rupert Murdoch. Like Murdoch, William Beckford was only sort of a foreigner, coming as he did from Jamaica, Britain’s most important eighteenth century colony. And, like Murdoch, Beckford was intensely aware both of the power of the press and the need to cultivate important British politicians. In Beckford’s case, the politician cultivated was William Pitt, earl of Chatham. The standard view of Beckford’s role in eighteenth-century British and London politics was that he was little more than Chatham’s mouthpiece, except for a brief period near the end of his life when he championed the liberties of the urban middling class against aristocratic corruption. Beckford championed such liberties even in a bold address to George III, much to his monarch’s displeasure.