Could John Stuart Mill ever have become Prime Minster or held any other high office.
I found out today he was briefly an MP, but I was wondering if it was possible for him to go any further, considering how radical he was for the time.
Not only an MP, but in that capacity, he became the first British politician in history to call for the introduction of proportional representation. Remarkable man.
Actually, I mentioned a few months ago in a thread that asked for people whom the reader found to have been more than capable Prime Ministers, but who never advanced to that office. I suggested John Stuart Mill, but the responses I got was that though a very intelligent and highly principled man, as something of an eccentric introvert he probably never would have been the best person for them to put up against, say, Benjamin Disraeli in a debate. Better then to keep him in the back as part of the Liberal Party's brain trust.
Of course, if you really want to be tricky, you could try to engineer Richard Cobden into 10 Downing Street first, and have him recognize Mill's talent and put him in some position of government, preferably President of the Board of Trade or Home Secretary. Mill then develops a close friendship with John Bright who teaches him the art of oratory, and soon enough, when Cobden retires, Mill rises to leader (and appoints John Bright as Chancellor of the Exchequer, of course)...