Bernard Henry Holland

“ In internal affairs during this period Hartington was the recognised leader of the whigs or moderate liberals, and came into frequent collision, both within and without the cabinet, with Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Charles Dilke [q. v. Suppl II] , who led the radical section. He acquiesced reluctantly in the great extension of the franchise carried out in 1884-5, especially with regard to Ireland, and with difficulty was persuaded to remain in the cabinet, when it was proposed to pass the extension at once, and a redistribution bill, separately, at a later indefinite date. ”

“ He was a frequent contributor to the 'Edinburgh Review' upon subjects connected with Indian history and philosophy, and with general literature. In recognition of his position as both a distinguished public servant and a man of letters and of philosophic intellect he received the D.C.L. degree from Oxford in 1889 and the LL.D. degree from Cambridge University in 1891; and he became an honorary fellow of King's College, Cambridge in 1893, a fellow of the British Academy in 1902, and a member of the Academic Committee of the Royal Society of Literature in 1910. ”

“ In 1881 Lyall was appointed lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces and Oudh, now called the United Provinces, and entered upon that office in April 1882. 'During nearly six years' (in the words of Sir William Hunter) 'he laboured with unflagging devotion for the welfare of the people. It fell to him to introduce Lord Ripon's scheme of local self-government in towns and districts. ”

“ Lyall was a strong advocate of the retention of Quetta and the Sibi and Pishin districts, a step which, after some delay, was sanctioned by the imperial government. On retiring from the foreign secretaryship in 1881 Lyall wrote a note strongly advocating the policy of a definite treaty with Russia with regard to the position of Afghanistan, a policy which eventually prevailed, and led up to the convention of 1907 between England and Russia, with results beneficial to both Asia and Europe. ”

“ Lyall represented the author to be 'an orthodox Brahmin, versed in the religion and philosophy of his own people, who is chiefly interested in the religious situation, and who surveys from that standpoint the moral and material changes that the English rule is producing in India.' This series also includes an interesting chapter on the relations between history and fable.
'Asiatic Studies' is mainly a masterly contribution to the comparative study of religions. History came next to that study in Lyall's intellectual interests. ”

“ Other books were the short life of Warren Hastings (1889) in the 'English Men of Action' series; a critical appreciation in the 'Men of Letters' series (1902) of Tennyson, of whom he had been a friend from 1881 until the poet's death; and the 'Life of the Marquis of Dufferin' (2 vols. 1905) . In 1908 he delivered the Ford lectures on Indian history at Oxford, and he gave an address at Oxford in the same year to the 'Congress of Religions' over which he presided. ”

“ He also addressed outside meetings, of which the most famous was that at the Opera House in the Haymarket (14 April) , when he appeared upon the same platform with Lord Salisbury [q. v. Suppl. II] , thus laying the foundation of the unionist alliance between the conservatives and dissentient liberals. The great difficulty urged by Lord Hartington his speeches was that there could be no guarantee that the supremacy of the imperial parliament over Ireland would be in practice maintained as Gladstone asserted. 'Mr. Gladstone and I,' he said, 'do not mean the same thing by the word "supremacy." ”

“ No man had a stronger sense of duty or of all that is implied in the maxim 'Noblesse oblige.' His chief recreation in earlier days was hunting, though he also liked shooting and fishing, and throughout life he was addicted to the turf. ”

“ During the twenty-three years between his return from India. and his death Lyall was one of the best-known and most distinguished men in English society. His many-sided character brought him into relation with statesmen, soldier, officials, philosophers, historians, and poets, and he was also the friend of many cultivated women ”

“ Mr. Chamberlain, then, in speeches, publicly declared his views in favour of duties for the sake of preference; his movement was supported by a majority of the unionist party and opposed by a minority. The government at first set on foot an inquiry into statistics, and the duke of Devonshire supported this course in a speech on 15 June 1903 in the House of Lords. It was, however, found to be impossible to stave off a schism later than September 1903. On 14 Sept. took place a cabinet meeting, the result of which was the resignation of three cabinet ministers, Mr. ”

“ Life of the Eighth Duke of Devonshire, by Bernard Holland, C.B., 1911; Election Speeches, 1879–80, by the Marquis of Hartington, M.P., 1880; see also Morley, Life of Gladstone; Lord (Edmond) Fitzmaurice, Life of Lord Granville, 1905, 2 vols.; Wemyss Reid, Life of W. E. Forster, 1888; Earl Selborne's Memorials, 1898, 2 vols.; B. Mallet, Life of Lord Northbrook, 1908; Hansard's Reports; Proc. Royal Soc. 82a, 1909, by Prof. G. D. Liveing ”

“ In the spring of 1904 he resigned, after a meeting held on 18 May 1904, his chairmanship of, and connection with, the Liberal Unionist Association, over which he had presided since its formation in 1886. The majority of its members followed Mr. ”