Portland was elected to sit in the
Parliament of Great Britain for
Weobley in 1761 before he entered the
House of Lords after he succeeded his father as
Duke of Portland the next year. He was associated with the aristocratic Whig Party of
Lord Rockingham and served as
Lord Chamberlain of the Household in Rockingham's first government (1765–1766). Portland resolved to make concessions and, overcoming the resistance of
Lord Shelburne, the Home Secretary to whom he reported, convinced Parliament to repeal the
Declaratory Act and to modify
Poynings' Law. Following Rockingham's death, Portland resigned from Lord Shelburne's ministry along with other supporters of
Charles James Fox.
Prime Minister: 1783 In April 1783, Portland was selected as the titular head of a coalition government as
Prime Minister, whose real leaders were Charles James Fox and
Lord North. He served as
First Lord of the Treasury in the ministry until its fall in December that same year. During his tenure, the
Treaty of Paris was signed, which formally ended the American Revolutionary War. The government was brought down after it had lost a vote in the House of Lords on its proposed reform of the
East India Company after
George III had let it be known that any peer voting for the measure would be considered his personal enemy. In 1789, Portland became one of several vice presidents of
London's
Foundling Hospital. The charity had become one of the most fashionable of the time, with several notables serving on its board. At its creation, 50 years earlier, Portland's father,
William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland, had been one of the founding governors, as listed on the charity's
royal charter granted by
George II. The hospital had a mission to care for the abandoned children in London, and it achieved rapid fame through its poignant mission, its art collection donated from supporting artists and the popular benefit concerts by
George Frideric Handel. In 1793, Portland took over the presidency of the charity from Lord North.
Home Secretary Along with many other conservative Whigs such as
Edmund Burke, Portland was deeply uncomfortable with the
French Revolution; he broke with Fox over that issue and joined Pitt's government as
Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1794. When the British fleets at
Spithead and the Nore mutinied between April and June 1797, Portland sent magistrates to investigate and report on any connections to seditious societies, though none were found. As Home Secretary, Portland oversaw the administration of patronage and financial inducements, which were often secret, to secure the passage of the
Act of Union 1800. He continued to serve in the cabinet until Pitt's death in 1806, from 1801 to 1805 as
Lord President of the Council and then as a
Minister without Portfolio.
Prime Minister: 1807–1809 In March 1807, after the collapse of the
Ministry of all the Talents, Pitt's former supporters returned to power, and Portland was once again an acceptable figurehead for a fractious group of ministers that included
George Canning,
Lord Castlereagh,
Lord Hawkesbury and
Spencer Perceval. Portland's second government saw the United Kingdom's complete isolation on the continent but also the beginning of its recovery with the start of the
Peninsular War. In late 1809, with Portland's health poor and the ministry rocked by the
scandalous duel between Canning and Castlereagh, Portland resigned and died shortly thereafter. He was
Recorder of Nottingham until his death. ==Death and burial==