GOSCHEN, GEORGE JOACHIM GOSCHEN, Ist VISCOUNT (1831-1907), British statesman, son of William Henry Goschen, a London merchant of German extraction, was born in London on Aug. I o, 1831. He was educated at Rugby under Dr. Tait, and at Oriel college, Oxford, where he took a first-class in classics. He entered his father's firm of Fruhling and Goschen, of Austin Friars, in 1853, and three years later became a director of the Bank of England. In 1863 he was returned without oppo sition as member for the city of London in the Liberal interest, and this was followed by his re-election, at the head of the poll, in the general election of 1865. In November he was appointed vice-president of the Board of Trade and paymaster-general, and in Jan. 1866 he was made chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the cabinet. Goschen joined Gladstone's cabinet in 1868 as president of the Poor Law Board, and continued to hold that office until Marsh 1871, when he succeeded Childers as first lord of the admiralty. In 1874 he was elected lord rector of the University of Aberdeen. Sent to Cairo in 1876 as delegate for the British holders of Egyptian bonds, to arrange for the con version of the debt, he effected an agreement with the Khedive.
In 188o he was elected for Ripon, and continued to represent that constituency until the general election of 1885, when he was returned for the eastern division of Edinburgh. Being opposed to the extension of the franchise, he was unable to join Glad stone's Government in 188o ; declining the post of viceroy of India, he accepted that of special ambassador to the Porte, and was suc cessful in settling the Montenegrin and Greek frontier questions in 188o and 1881. In 1884 he declined the speakership of the House of Commons. During the parliament of 1880-85 he fre quently found himself at variance with his party ; and when Gladstone adopted the policy of Home Rule for Ireland, Goschen followed Hartington and became one of the most active of the Liberal Unionists. He lost his seat in the election of July 1886. On the resignation of Randolph Churchill in Dec. 1886, Goschen though a Liberal Unionist, became chancellor of the exchequer. Being defeated at Liverpool (Jan. 26, 1887), by seven votes, he was elected for St. George's, Hanover Square (Feb. 9).
His chancellorship of the exchequer (1886-92) was rendered memorable by his successful conversion of the National Debt in 1888 (see NATIONAL DEBT). With that financial operation, under which the new 2i% Consols became known as "Goschens," his name will long be connected. From 1895 to 1900 Goschen was first lord of the admiralty. He retired in 1900, and was raised to the peerage by the title of Viscount Goschen of Hawkhurst, Kent. He continued to take a great interest in public affairs; and when Mr. Chamberlain started his tariff reform movement in 1903, Lord Goschen was one of the weightiest champions of free trade on the Unionist side. He died on Feb. 7, 1907, being succeeded in the title by his son George Joachim (b. 1866), who was Conservative M.P. for East Grinstead from 1895 to 1900, and married a daughter of the 1st earl of Cranbrook.
In educational subjects Goschen had always taken the greatest interest. He was a pioneer of the University Extension move ment ; and his first efforts in parliament were devoted to advocat ing the abolition of religious tests and the admission of Dissenters to the universities. In addition to his well-known work on The Theory of the Foreign Exchanges (1861, 5th ed. 1864) he pub lished several financial and political pamphlets and addresses on educational and social subjects, among them being that on Culti vation of the Imagination (Liverpool, 1877), and that on Intellec tual Interest (Aberdeen, 1888). He also wrote The Life and Times of Georg Joachim Goschen, publisher and printer of Leipzig See A. D. Elliot, Life of Lord Goschen (2 vols. 1911).