Lloyd Charles Sanders

“ Mount-Edgcumbe was a man of artistic tastes. Cyrus Redding, in his ‘Fifty Years' Recollections,’ harshly and unjustly describes him at p. 175 of vol. i. as ‘a mere fribble, exhibiting little above the calibre of an opera connoisseur, with something of the mimic.’ He seems, indeed, to have been in great request as an amateur actor (Leslie and Taylor, Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, ii. 76, 77, 508, and the Journal and Correspondence of Miss Berry, ii. 110, 114, who preserves a clever prologue written by him for the theatricals at Strawberry Hill in 1800) . ”

“ On the introduction of the Catholic Emancipation Bill he became one of the most vigorous of Wellington's opponents, and spoke frequently against the bill and its ‘wings.’ If the ultra-tories could have formed a government, the duke was to have been lord-lieutenant of Ireland or first lord of the treasury (Greville, i. 205, where Richmond is characterised as having ‘a certain measure of understanding,’ and as ‘prejudiced, narrow-minded, illiterate, and ignorant, good-looking, good-humoured and unaffected, tedious, prolix, unassuming, and a duke’) . ”

“ An audience at Brighton on 14 Nov., at which the king expressed alarm at the inquiry into the Irish church, and thought that Russell would make ‘a wretched figure’ as leader of the commons (Stockmar, i. 329) , was followed by a letter dismissing the ministry. Melbourne bore the summons to Wellington, and wrote that night to Grey: ‘I am not surprised at his (the king's) decision, nor do I know that I can entirely condemn it.’ Incensed by Brougham's communication to the ‘Times,’ the king insisted on the resignation of the ministry before their successors were appointed. ”

“ The trades unions of London got up a monster demonstration (21 April) , which presented itself at Whitehall as a deputation demanding the recall of the labourers. Melbourne calmly refused to receive it, and the unionists were persuaded to march on to Newington. As home secretary Melbourne was the cabinet minister responsible for the administration of Ireland. Though he was at first willing that O'Connell should be master of the rolls, he soon saw that no terms were to be made with him, and approved of the suppression of his meetings and of his arrest. ”

“ He was first sent to a private school at Southampton, and was then elected a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he became the intimate friend of Keble, Arnold, and Sir John Coleridge. To them he was ‘a great authority as to the world without and the statesmen whose speeches he sometimes heard,’ while his ‘remarkable love for historical and geographical research, and his proficiency in it, with his clear judgment, quiet humour, and mildness in communicating information made him particularly attractive to Arnold’ (Dean Stanley, Life of Dr. Arnold, ch. i. p. 13) . ”

“ As a statesman he has been thought wanting in purpose and firmness. But Lady Palmerston declared that earnestness was the essential element of his character, and he was certainly firm enough with Brougham and William IV. The truth seems to be that he was a genuine liberal on many points, notably that of religious equality, and a conscientious supporter of the programme bequeathed to him by Grey. ”

“ Melbourne was again summoned, together with Lansdowne, after Grey had declined to form a ministry, and once more refused to form a coalition government. The great seal was placed in commission in order to soothe Brougham's feelings, but Melbourne was unsuccessful in persuading Grey to accept, and Palmerston to relinquish, the foreign office. At the same time he had some difficulty in disposing of the king's objections, which embraced any attempt to meddle with the Irish church, or to alter the royal household. ”

“ Meanwhile, Melbourne's government had gained some credit by passing the Irish Poor-law Bill, in spite of O'Connell's denunciation of the measure (July 1838) , which was neutralised by the abandonment of the Irish Corporation Bill, and of the appropriation clauses of the Irish Tithe Bill, which had hitherto been the cardinal principle of the administration. At the beginning of the session Melbourne had intentionally set Brougham at defiance, and, in the opinion of Greville, came out of the ordeal with tolerable success. ”

“ On the formation of Grey's ministry, Lamb acquired much influence over his brother, Lord Melbourne, the home secretary, although Melbourne was rather jealous and perplexed by Frederick's severe strictures on the whigs. On 13 May 1831 he was appointed ambassador at the court of Vienna, where he remained until November 1841, his adroitness and social qualities enabling him to work well with Metternich, whose foreign policy was entirely congenial to him. He was very handsome, and made many friends. ”

“ Hutchinson's letters were, with one exception, written before his appointment as governor, but their tone was strongly anti-democratic; he urged the necessity of strengthening the executive by an increased military force, and the 'abridgement of what are called English liberties.' These letters Franklin sent to Thomas Gushing, the speaker of the assembly of Massachusetts, to be shown to the leading agitators on condition that they should not be printed or copied. ”

“ She was evidently an accomplished person, with a wide circle of well-connected relations and friends. Mary Frampton during the earlier part of her life went with her parents to London once every two years, and was present at the Gordon riots, the Warren Hastings trial, and the thanksgiving service for the recovery of George III in 1789. About two years after her father's death she and her mother settled at Dorchester, and formed a centre for the society of the county. Miss Frampton is said by all who have any recollection of her to have been a most agreeable person. ”

“ Hence he could only make a weak defence when Durham's conduct was attacked by Brougham in the House of Lords. The excuse he gave for his silence on one occasion to Russell was: ‘The fellow was in such a state of excitement that if I had said a word he would have gone stark, staring mad.’ Towards Durham after his resignation he was disposed to be more conciliatory (November 1838) than most of his colleagues. ”

“ He, however, reconsidered his determination, and his commission reached Boston in March 1771. He was soon involved in long disputes with the assembly about the right to convene the latter at Cambridge instead of at Boston, about the extent to which the salaries of crown officers should be exempted from taxation, and about his own salary, which, as he informed the assembly, was thenceforward to be paid him by the crown. He succeeded, however, in 1773 in getting the boundary between Massachusetts and New York settled by a commission to the satisfaction of his own colony. ”

“ Frisell was a man of considerable accomplishments. Chateaubriand called him ‘le Gréco-Anglais,’ and Count Marcellus, while styling him fantastic, testifies to his culture and knowledge. His manner is described as reserved and his conversation sarcastic, with an affectation of indifference which annoyed his friends, particularly Mme. de Chateaubriand; but he was generally beloved. The only work that he is known to have written is an ‘Étude sur la Constitution de l'Angleterre, avec des remarques sur l'ancienne Constitution de la France,’ 1820. ”

“ In Ireland the creation of the National Association by O'Connell aroused the protestants to a great indignation meeting at Dublin, and Melbourne with difficulty dissuaded Mulgrave from dismissing Lords Downshire and Donoughmore from their lieutenancies. ”

“ In July 1830 overtures to rejoin the government were made to Melbourne and the other Canningites, but they had thrown in their lot with the whigs.
In the Grey ministry Melbourne was appointed home secretary (19 Nov. 1830) . Greville's first opinion was ‘Melbourne too idle,’ but he soon became quite enthusiastic in his favour, and a similar view is to be found in Sydney Smith's second letter to Archdeacon Singleton (Sydney Smith, Works, p. 625) . In dealing with a country on the verge of revolution, he relied upon the ordinary law as administered by the magistrates, especially in the north. ”

“ In 1799 Goold wrote an ‘Address to the People of Ireland on the subject of the projected Union,’ and sat in the last session of the Irish parliament as a member of the opposition. In 1818 he gave evidence at the bar of the House of Commons upon the inquiry into the conduct of Windham Quin. Meanwhile his practice had been rapidly increasing. In 1824 W. H. Curran calls him one of the most prominent members of the Irish bar, and he had been appointed third serjeant in the previous year. Indeed it has been said that he was the best nisi prius lawyer who ever held a brief at the Irish bar. ”

“ Edgcumbe was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in December 1743, and in the following January lord-lieutenant and custos rotulorum of the county of Cornwall, and sworn of the privy council. On the outbreak of the rebellion of 1745 he was one of the twelve noblemen who were commissioned to raise a regiment of foot at the public expense. ”

“ Richmond was colonel of the Sussex militia from 1819, and besides other appointments held those of lord-lieutenant, custos rotulorum, and vice-admiral of Sussex from 1835, and was high steward of Chichester, chancellor of the Marischal College, Aberdeen, and hereditary constable of Inverness Castle. He was a liberal landlord, a zealous agriculturist, and improved the breed of Southdowns. In 1832 he was chosen vice-president of the Smithfield Club, which founded the Royal Agricultural Society in 1837 ”

“ He became an active politician, and in 1740 was sent to England to present petitions to the king in favour of restoring to Massachusetts a tract of land which had been added to New Hampshire. He failed, owing to the defective evidence supplied to him, and on his return was re-elected a member for Boston. From 1746 to 1748 he was speaker of the House of Representatives. Hutchinson became unpopular through carrying a bill for the restoration of a specie currency. ”

“ The English government helped to compose the dispute, and though Malmesbury was attacked in the House of Lords by Lord Wodehouse, the opposition gained little by the proceeding, and the vote of censure was withdrawn. The foreign secretary outwardly maintained what Count Vitzthum called a ‘pleasing but astonishing optimism’ about Italian affairs (St. Petersburg and London, vol. i. ch. xv.) ; but he recorded, as early as 16 Jan. 1859, his private opinion that war could not be avoided. ”

“ GODDARD, WILLIAM STANLEY, D.D. (1757–1845) , head-master of Winchester College, son of John Goddard, a merchant, was born at Stepney on 9 Oct. 1757. He was educated at Winchester, first as a chorister, afterwards as a scholar under Dr. Warton (1771–6) , and then went as a commoner to Merton (B.A. degree 1781, M.A. 1783, D.D. 1795) . In 1784 he was appointed hostiarius or second master of Winchester, and appears to have done what he could to counteract the lax discipline of Dr. Warton, which resulted in the famous ‘rebellion’ of 1793, during which Goddard's house was broken into. ”

“ Melbourne refused an earldom and the Garter, and retired to Melbourne House. At Derby he made two speeches in explanation of his position, the second of which was considered by Greville to be a retractation of the first, compelled by the menaces and reproaches of Duncannon (Greville, iii. 170) . But the speech does not bear out this conclusion. Before Christmas he was in the neighbourhood of London, and in correspondence with Grey and Holland. Holland was eager for an immediate attack on the Peel government. ”

“ In spite of the open mutiny of the radicals, the political state of affairs ended as it had begun. But the establishment of O'Connell's ‘Precursor Association,’ followed by the murder of Lord Norbury, produced the resignation of Mulgrave, and the reconstruction of the ministry did not add to its strength. In January 1839 Roden carried a motion for an inquiry into the Irish administration, in spite of Melbourne's declaration that he should consider the motion a pure censure on the government ”

“ DROMGOOLE, THOMAS, M.D. (1750?–1826?) , was born in Ireland somewhere about the middle of the eighteenth century, and took his medical degree at the university of Edinburgh. He settled as a physician in Dawson Street, Dublin, and became a prominent member of the catholic board, which met at the beginning of the century to further the cause of catholic emancipation. Dromgoole was an anti-vetoist, that is, he was opposed to the purchase of freedom for the catholics at the price of giving the government a veto in the appointment of their bishops. ”

“ His principal object was to sketch ‘the three administrations of the late Earl of Derby, whose colleague I was, and also some incidents respecting one of the most remarkable men of this century, namely, the Emperor Louis Napoleon.’ The book also gives us a good idea of Disraeli's earlier career as a conservative leader, and incidentally depicts Malmesbury himself as a man of considerable abilities and statecraft, of much urbanity and amiability in private life, and a devoted sportsman. ”

“ The chief characteristic of the duke—at least in his later days—was his intense family pride. He firmly believed that as the descendant of the regent Arran he was the true heir to the throne of Scotland. For the same reason he was buried with oriental pomp, after the body had been embalmed, in an Egyptian sarcophagus, which was deposited in a colossal mausoleum erected near Hamilton Palace. ”

“ An account of Hutchinson's miscellaneous publications, of which there are no copies in the British Museum, is to be found in 'A Bibliographical Essay on Governor Hutchinson's Historical Publications' by Charles Deane (Boston, privately printed, 1857) . They are few in number, and are chiefly concerned with currency and boundary questions. ”

“ He was probably the Councillor Lamb of Lincoln's Inn who in 1738 was appointed solicitor to the revenue of the post office (Gent. Mag. 1738) . Two years later he married Miss Charlotte Coke, who, on the unexpected death of her brother, George Lewis Coke, in 1751, inherited Melbourne Hall. He acquired Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, by purchase from the representatives of Sir Thomas Winnington in 1746. Lamb was already in parliament, having been returned for Stockbridge in 1741, and he was elected for Peterborough in 1747, which borough he represented until his death. ”

“ On leaving the service Fullarton entered the house of Alexander & Co., bankers of Calcutta, as a partner, acquired an immense fortune in a few years, and returned to England to live. Meantime he had travelled widely over India, and about 1820 made an extensive and systematic tour through the empire, which is believed to have been the first complete progress ever made through our eastern possessions. ”