Francis Horner was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

 MP for St. Ives

St Ives (UK Parliament constituency)

St. Ives is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History:...

 in 1806, Wendover

Wendover (UK Parliament constituency)

Wendover was a borough constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832...

 in 1807, and St. Mawes

St Mawes (UK Parliament constituency)

St Mawes was a rotten borough in Cornwall. It returned two Members of Parliament ) to the House of Commons of England from 1562 to 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom until it was abolished by the Great Reform Act in...

 in 1812 (in the patronage of the Marquis of Buckingham

George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham

George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham, KG, PC was a British statesman. He was the second son of George Grenville and a brother of the 1st Baron Grenville.-Career:...

).

He was born in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 and studied at its university

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

 until being called to the bar in Scotland in 1800 and for England in 1807. He translated Leonhard Euler

Leonhard Euler

Leonhard Euler was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion...

's Elements of Algebra

Elements of Algebra

Elements of Algebra is a mathematics textbook by mathematician Leonhard Euler, originally published circa 1765. His Elements of Algebra is one of the first books to set out algebra in the modern form we would recognize today. However, it is sufficiently different from most modern approaches to the...

in 1797 and published Short Account of a late Short Administration in 1807. In 1810 he was chairman of the Bullion Committee

Bullion Committee

The Bullion committee was set up in order to research the possibility of putting Britain onto the gold standard and how to carry it out. Sir Robert Peel was the chairman of the Bullion committee. He managed to place Britain on the gold standard two years earlier than planned. Another member was...

, where he "extended and confirmed his fame as a political economist by his share in the famous Bullion Report".

In 1802, Horner was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Review

Edinburgh Review

The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. It ceased publication in 1929. The magazine took its Latin motto judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur from Publilius Syrus.In 1984, the Scottish cultural magazine New Edinburgh Review,...

.

Horner was offered a Treasury

HM Treasury

HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...

 secretaryship

Secretary to the Treasury

In the United Kingdom, there are several Secretaries to the Treasury, who are junior Treasury ministers nominally acting as secretaries to HM Treasury. The origins of the office are unclear, although it probably originated during Lord Burghley's tenure as Lord Treasurer in the 16th century. The...

 in 1811 when Lord Grenville was attempting to form a ministry, which he refused as he would not accept office until he was wealthy enough to survive out of office. A believer in political economy

Political economy

Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...

, he took part in the parliamentary debates on the Corn Laws

Corn Laws

The Corn Laws were trade barriers designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The barriers were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...

 and slavery in 1813-15.

He struggled to earn a living and in October 1816 his physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

s advised him to visit Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 due to ill health. However he died at Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

 a few months later. He is buried in the English Cemetery

Old English Cemetery, Livorno

The Old English Cemetery is a cemetery in Livorno, central Italy, located in a plot of land near the Via Verdi, close to the Waldensian Church and to the formerly Anglican church of St. George...

 at Livorno

Livorno

Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...

 and has a statue in Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

.

Further reading

• Leonard Horner
  Leonard Horner
  Leonard Horner , Scottish geologist, brother of Francis Horner, was born in Edinburgh.Horner was a 'radical educational reformer' who was involved in the establishment of University College School....
  
   (ed.), Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, M.P..

External links