Aberdeen, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th earl of definition of Aberdeen, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th earl of in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Aberdeen, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th earl of (ăb'ədēn`), 1784–1860, British statesman. He served (1813) as ambassador extraordinary at Vienna and helped arrange (1814) the peace terms at Paris after Napoleon I's initial defeat. He was foreign secretary (1828–30) in the duke of Wellington's cabinet and secretary for war and the colonies (1834–35) under Sir Robert Peel Peel, Sir Robert, 1788–1850, British statesman. The son of a rich cotton manufacturer, whose baronetcy he inherited in 1830, Peel entered Parliament as a Tory in 1809.
..... Click the link for more information. . As foreign secretary (1841–46) in Peel's second government, he settled two boundary disputes with the United States, the Northeast Boundary Dispute by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842), and the Oregon controversy by the treaty of 1846. He also improved relations with France. He supported Peel in repealing the corn laws (1846) and resigned with him. As prime minister (1852–55), Aberdeen headed a brilliant coalition ministry and was quite successful in home affairs. He was, however, unable to prevent Viscount Palmerston Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 3d Viscount, 1784–1865, British statesman. His viscountcy, to which he succeeded in 1802, was in the Irish peerage and therefore did not prevent him from entering the
..... Click the link for more information. and others in his cabinet from involving England on the side of the Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War. Bad management of the campaigns and unpopularity of the war forced his resignation in 1855.

Bibliography

See biography by Muriel Chamberlain (1983); study by W. D. Jones (1958).