Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/323

 versity (1851-3), where in 1853, the same year in which Edward Caird [q. v. Suppl. II], afterwards Master of Balliol, won the Latin medal, he won, among other things, the Cowan gold medal for the best examination in Greek. In 1883 his university, on the installation of John Bright as lord rector, conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D., and at the time of his death in 1908 he was liberal nominee for the lord rectorship. From Glasgow he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where, taking a double degree as twenty-second senior optime in the mathematical tripos, with a third class in the classical tripos he graduated B.A. in 1858 and M.A. in 1861. He took no part in the debates at the union. After leaving Cambridge he joined his father and uncle's prosperous business in Glasgow, in which he became and remained a partner until 1868. He was one of the original members of the first Lanarkshire rifle volunteers, and commanded his company (M company, known as 'Campbell's Corps,' the members being drawn exclusively from the employees of Messrs. J. & W. Campbell & Co.) at the royal review at Edinburgh on 7 Feb. 1860.

In April 1868 he contested the Stirling Burghs against John Ramsay of Kildalton. Both candidates were liberal, Campbell the more advanced of the two. He declared himself 'a warm adherent of the party of progress,' advocating national education, the repeal of university tests, administrative reform of the army and navy, Irish church disestablishment, and land reform. Ramsay defeated him by 565 to 494 votes. He fought Ramsay again at the general election which followed the 1868 Reform Act, and won the seat on 19 November, polling 2192 votes against Ramsay's 1670. He sat for the Stirling Burghs uninterruptedly until his death. His opponent subsequently sat for the Falkirk Burghs from 1874 to 1886.

In the new parliament of 1868 Campbell soon identified himself with the more independent and advanced supporters of Gladstone's first administration, advocating the reform of endowed schools in Scotland, compulsory attendance at parochial schools, the abolition of university tests, the application of the representative principle to county government, the infusion of new blood into Oxford and Cambridge, the abolition of hypothec, and the cause of the tenant farmer. His political ability was recognised by his appointment, in November 1871, as financial secretary to the war office, of which Cardwell was then the head. He retained the post until the fall of the administration in February 1874.

During the years of liberal opposition, from 1874 to 1880, Campbell-Bannerman took little part in general debate, but intervened regularly in the discussion of army votes and the affairs of Scotland. He characterised the bill for the abolition of patronage (1875) as a political device to strengthen the established church at the cost of the other presbyterian churches.

In March 1880 parliament was dissolved, Lord Beaconsfield's government was defeated, and in April Gladstone formed his second administration. Campbell-Bannerman returned to his former post at the war office, of which Childers was then the chief, and he held the office till May 1882. Then, in succession to Sir George Trevelyan, who was transferred to the Irish chief secretaryship on the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish, he became secretary to the admiralty. Lord Northbrook, the first lord, was in the House of Lords, and Campbell-Bannerman represented the department in the House of Commons. In October 1884, again in succession to Sir George Trevelyan, he was appointed chief secretary for Ireland (without a seat in the cabinet), while Lord Spencer was still lord-lieutenant. The office was one of danger and difficulty, and Campbell-Bannerman was held at the time to be the only man who ever actually enhanced his political reputation by its tenure. He discharged his duties with imperturbability and good-humour, and Ireland grew more peaceful. Parnell wrote of him 'as an Irish secretary he left things alone a sensible thing for an Irish secretary' (see Life of Parnell). According to Mr. Tim Healy he 'governed Ireland with Scoteh jokes' ; Mr. T. P. O'Connor likened him to a 'sandbag.' During his short tenure of the Irish secretaryship it was announced that some provisions of the Crimes Act would be re-enacted, and an Irish land purchase bill was promised ; but the life of the government came to an end in June 1885, and Campbell-Bannerman retired from his Irish office after holding it for only eight months.

In February 1886, on the fall of Lord Salisbury's first administration, Campbell-Bannerman became secretary of state for war in Gladstone's third government, entering the cabinet for the first time, together with Lord Herschell, Mr. John Morley, Sir William Harcourt, and Mr. Mundella. Home rule for Ireland, which