Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/315

 through so many years of heroic speculative industry, was to state the problem anew; and that his whole exposition of the movement of thought in the great philosophers, and of the movement of the world as caught up in their thought, was only the illustration and exemplification of an hypothesis rather than philosophic proof. If there is one sense in which he could not admit that the rationality of the Universe, or what to him was the same thing, the omnipresence and utter sovereignty of the Divine, was not a debatable question, there was another sense in which it was a 'Grand Perhaps.' 'It is involved in the very idea of a developing consciousness such as ours,' he wrote late in life, 'that while, as an intelligence, it presupposes the idea of the whole, and, both in thought and action, must continually strive to realise that idea, yet what it deals with is necessarily a partial and limited experience, and its actual attainments can never, either in theory or practice, be more than provisional. ... If in one sense we must call this idea a faith, we must remember that it is in no sense an arbitrary assumption; rather it is the essential faith of reason, the presupposition and bases of all that reason has achieved or can achieve.' A portrait painted by the Hon. John Collier hangs in the hall of Balliol College, and a tablet is designed for the College chapel. In 1886, after Caird had been twenty years professor at Glasgow, his pupils presented to the university his portrait by Sir George Reid; a bronze medallion by David MacGill was placed in the moral philosophy class room there in 1910. There is a caricature portrait by Spy' in 'Vanity Fair' (1895).

 CAIRNES, WILLIAM ELLIOT (1862–1902), captain, military writer, born at Galway on 18 Sept. 1862, was son of John Elliot Cairnes [q. v.], the economist, by Eliza Charlotte, daughter of George Henry Minto Alexander. After education at Blackheath proprietary school, University College school, and the International College, Isleworth, he was commissioned as lieutenant in the militia (royal Irish rifles) on 16 Sept. 1882. From the militia he obtained a commission as lieutenant in the 3rd dragoon guards on 14 May 1884, was transferred to the South Staffordshire regiment a week later, and to the royal Irish fusiliers on 16 July 1884. He served with the second battalion of that regiment at several home stations. Promoted captain on 21 May 1890, he became on 31 March 1897 adjutant of the 1st volunteer battalion of the Yorkshire light infantry. This appointment prevented his going to South Africa with his regiment, both battalions of which served in the Boer war. He found scope however for his abilities and military knowledge at home, by writing on military subjects. Though stationed at Wakefield, he joined the staff of the 'Westminster Gazette' in November 1899, and till April 1901 he wrote a daily article on the war in progress as 'military correspondent.' His articles were among the best of their kind. In 1900 he published anonymously 'An Absent-minded War,' which was widely read for its pungent and well-informed criticism. Its sarcasm, if not always just, fell in with the public mood; and the epigrams were often happy. Other books by Cairnes, dealing with military questions in a more constructive way, did not find so much favour, though they showed more solid qualities. In April 1901 a committee was appointed to consider the education and training of officers of the army, with Mr. Akers-Douglas as chairman, and Cairnes as secretary. In their report, in March 1902, the committee stated that Cairnes's knowledge, tact and ability had greatly facilitated their inquiry. He was also secretary to the military court of inquiry into the remount department. These duties and his literary activity taxed his strength. He died of pneumonia in London on 19 April 1902. He married in June 1884 Mamie, daughter of M. McClelland of Glendarragh, co. Londonderry. She survived him, with one daughter.

In addition to 'An Absent-minded War' he published anonymously 'The Army from within' (1901) and 'A Commonsense Army' (1901); also under his own name, 'The Coming Waterloo' (1901) and 'Lord Roberts as a Soldier in Peace and War' (1901). He wrote in the 'National' and 'Contemporary' Reviews, in 'Harper's Magazine,' and occasionally in 'The Times.' He was a clever draughtsman, able to 