In the House of Commons, he rose through junior ministerial ranks, achieving cabinet office in 1818 as President of the Board of Trade.

[4] William Pitt the Younger was Member of Parliament for Cambridge University, to which, as The Times said, "accordingly most of the budding Tory statesmen of the day resorted".

[6] Against the background of the Napoleonic Wars, Robinson did part-time military service at home as captain (1803), ultimately major (1814–1817) in the Northern Regiment of West Riding Yeomanry.

[10] In his first years in Parliament Robinson declined offers of junior ministerial posts, out of deference to his patron Hardwicke, who was an opponent of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Portland.

[11] The mission was unsuccessful, but Robinson's reputation was not damaged, and, as his biographer E Royston Pike puts it, "as a good Tory [he was] given several small appointments in successive ministries.

[7] He was made a Privy Counsellor in August 1812,[13] In 1814 Robinson married Lady Sarah Hobart (1793–1867), daughter of the 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, and first cousin to Castlereagh's wife.

There were three children of the marriage, only one of whom survived to adulthood:[4] Robinson served under Lord Liverpool as Vice-President of the Board of Trade between 1812 and 1818,[14] and as joint-Paymaster of the Forces between 1813 and 1817, from which position he sponsored the Corn Laws of 1815.

[15] The historian Gregor Dallas writes: Robinson's Bill began a debate on free trade and protection that would last for thirty years and would change the political landscape of Britain.

[18] While describing the incident to the House of Commons, Robinson was moved to tears,[19] showing, as the biographer P. J. Jupp put it, "a propensity under stress which was to earn him the first of several nicknames, in this case the Blubberer".

[4] In 1818 Robinson entered the cabinet as President of the Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy, under the premiership of Lord Liverpool.

His very lack of strong partisan convictions enabled him to serve, almost as a neutral civil servant, a long succession of political leaders.

[21] He cut taxes and made grants to house the King's Library in the British Museum and to buy the Angerstein Collection for the National Gallery.

Jupp writes, "These achievements, together with his support for Catholic relief and the abolition of slavery, led to his being regarded as one of the most liberal members of the government and to two more nicknames – 'Prosperity Robinson' and 'Goody'.

In January 1827 he was given a peerage as Viscount Goderich,[n 3] but Liverpool had no time to reshuffle his cabinet, being taken ill in February 1827 and resigning the premiership.

"[27] The King, however, though he had long inclined to favour Tories over Whigs, was still angry at the refusal of Wellington and Peel to serve in Canning's cabinet.

They believe so much in the integrity of his character that they do not suspect him of any duplicity in what has passed, but his conduct has been marked by such deplorable weakness as shows how unfit he is for the situation he occupies.

"[27] There was further discontent in the coalition cabinet at Goderich's vacillation over the appointment of a Chancellor of the Exchequer, once again caught between the demands of the King and those of his Whig allies.

Both on moral and on economic grounds he was strongly opposed to slavery throughout his career, and he worked hard in the 1830s for the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire.

[34] He had not sought the advancement in the peerage, but wished to accept the King's offer of the Garter, for which, at that time, a viscountcy was considered an insufficient rank.

[4] He was succeeded by his only son, George who became a noted Liberal statesman and cabinet minister and was created Marquess of Ripon.