Lord Melbourne (b. William Lamb) | 1779-1848 Victoria's first Prime Minister, a Whig whom she idealized and relied on profoundly as her mentor until she married William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, was fifty-eight years of age, and had been for the last three years Prime Minister of England. In every outward respect he was one of the most fortunate of mankind. He had been born into the midst of riches, brilliance, and power. His mother, fascinating and intelligent, had been a great Whig hostess, and he had been bred up as a member of that radiant society which, during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, concentrated within itself the ultimate perfections of a hundred years of triumphant aristocracy. Nature had given him beauty and brains; the unexpected death of an elder brother brought him wealth, a peerage, and the possibility of high advancement. Within that charmed circle, whatever one's personal disabilities, it was difficult to fail; and to him, with all his advantages, success was well-nigh unavoidable. With little effort, he attained political eminence. On the triumph of the Whigs he became one of the leading members of the Government; and when Lord Grey retired from the premiership he quietly stepped into the vacant place. Nor was it only in the visible signs of fortune that Fate had been kind to him. Bound to succeed, and to succeed easily, he was gifted with so fine a nature that his success became him.... Whatever else he might be, Lord Melbourne was always human, supremely human -- too human, perhaps. And now, with old age upon him, his life took a sudden, new, extraordinary turn. He became in the twinkling of an eye, the intimate advisor and the daily companion of a young girl who had stepped all at once from a nursery to a throne. His manner towards the young queen mingled, with perfect facility, the watchfulness and the respect of a statesman and a courtier with a tender solicitude of a parent. He was at once reverential and affectionate, at once the servant and the guide.... On her side, Victoria was instantaneously fascinated by Lord Melbourne. She found him perfect; and perfect in her sight he remained. Her absolute and unconcealed adoration was very natural; what innocent young creature could have resisted, in any circumstances, the charm and the devotion of such a man?... -Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria She lived through an age of profound social change, but neither public health, nor housing, nor the education of her people engaged much of her attention.... Some part of what was lacking must be attributed to the influence of Melbourne. At an impressionable period, made doubly impressionable by the depravations of her earlier life, it was unfortunate that she should have come under the influence of a man with so much charm and so little belief in human nature, with such a touching capacity for tenderness allied to dislike of reform, and such want of sympathy with the struggling mass of the workers that he was capable of callousness.... -Cecil Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times, Volume 1, 1819-1861