Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/192

 and administrator, was born at Florence on 21 June 1826. Vice-admiral Sir Henry Blackwood [q. v.] was his uncle. His father, Price Blackwood, fourth Baron Dufferin and Clandeboye in the Irish peerage, at one time captain R.N., married Helen Selina, one of the three famous daughters of Thomas (Tom) Sheridan [q. v.], her sisters being Jane Georgina, wife of Edward Adolphus Seymour, twelfth duke of Somerset, and Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton, the Hon. Mrs. Norton [q. v.]. Dying ; on 21 July 1841, he entrusted his son, then at Eton, to the guardianship of Sir James Graham. The boy's mother {see ] exercised a potent influence on him. After leaving Eton in April 1843 he spent eighteen months with her at home before he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, 1844-6. On finishing his residence at Oxford he spent the next ten years in managing his Irish estates, widening his circle of friends, and acquiring by travel a first-hand acquaintance with the near East. At the same time he identified himself with the liberal party, and being advanced to the English peerage took his seat as Baron Clandeboye, 31 Jan. 1850, in the House of Lords. He became lord-in-waiting to Queen Victoria during the ministry of Lord John Russell, 26 June 1849 to 1852, and again under Lord Aberdeen, 28 November 1854 to 1858. He also established his reputation as a speaker, supporting (18 April 1853) Lord Aberdeen's motion for an inquiry into the management of Maynooth College, and speaking to an attentive house at considerable length (28 Feb. 1854) on landlord and tenant right in Ireland. His favourite recreation was yachting, and the Foam, which carried him to the Baltic in August 1854, gave him an opportunity of proving not only his seamanship but his presence of mind and courage. He got on board H.M.S. Penelope and the Hecla during the siege of Bomarsund; and not satisfied with his experiences of a naval action he advanced on foot into the French trenches, where he displayed notable strength of nerve. In February 1855 he made his first start in the field of diplomacy as attache to Lord John Russell's mission at the conference convoked at Vienna for the purpose of bringing the Crimean war to an end. The conference proved abortive. At the end of seven weeks Lord Dufferin returned to his yacht and achieved reputation as a brilliant writer by his account in 'Letters from High Latitudes ' of his voyage in 1856 to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen. His only other publication was 'Mr. Mill's Plan for the Pacification of Ireland examined' (published in 1868). He otherwise reserved his marked literary powers for official use. Tours which followed to Egypt, Constantinople, and Syria added fresh knowledge and experience and prepared him for his official career.

On 30 July 1860, at the age of thirty-four, he was appointed British commissioner to assist Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, Lord Dalling [q. v.], the British ambassador at the Porte, in inquiring into the massacres in the Levant and other districts of Syria with a view to preventing their recurrence. Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, and Russia named representatives to assist the Sultan in establishing order. But when it came to devising practical measures, French ambitions, the Sultan's insistence on his sovereign powers, popular feeling in Russia, the implacable blood feuds between Christian Maronites and Mussalman Druses, and the attempts of guilty Turkish officials to make scapegoats of the Druses interposed difficulties which seemed interminable. Lord Dufferin by his tact, firmness, and political sagacity found a way out of the labyrinth. His proposal to appoint an independent governor selected by the Porte and approved by the Powers was finally adopted the Syrian population being brought under a Christian governor nominated by the Porte with administrative councils appointed by the several communities. French hopes were disappointed to an extent which Lord Dufferin had occasion to realise during the concluding part of his diplomatic career, but his government (May 1861) conveyed to him 'the Queen's gracious approval of all his conduct,' and other Powers warmly recognised his ability, judgment, and temper. He was made a civil K.C.B. on 18 June 1861.

For the next few years Lord Dufferin engaged in political work at home. On 6 Feb. 1862 he moved in the House of Lords the address in answer to the Queen's speech and referred to the death of the Prince Consort in terms which touched Queen Victoria's heart. He received the riband of St. Patrick on 17 June 1863, and in the following year was made lord-lieutenant of co. Down. On 16 Nov. 1864 he obtained in Lord Palmerston's administration his first ministerial appointment as under-secretary for India, and in 1866 was transferred to the war office in a like capacity. In 1868 Gladstone became prime minister, and Dufferin was included in the new liberal ministry as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster without a seat in the cabinet. 