Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/451

 in 1859. Many of his family attained distinction. His father's mother was sister of William, second Viscount Melbourne, and married Viscount Palmerston as her second husband. His uncle was William Francis Cowper (afterwards Cowper-Temple, Baron Mount-Temple) [q. v. Suppl. I]. His younger brother, Henry Frederick (1836-1887), well known for his humour and sagacity, was M.P. for Hertfordshire (1865-85). Three of his sisters married respectively Auberon Edward William Molyneux Herbert [q. v. Suppl. II] ; Julian Henry Charles Fane [q. v.] ; and Admiral Lord Walter Kerr.

From a preparatory school at Bembridge, Viscount Fordwich (as Lord Cowper was then called) was sent to Harrow in Sept. 1847. But the strenuous and somewhat inflexible life of a public school was not altogether suited to a boy who neither was very strong nor cared for games, and was, moreover, of a sensitive temperament ; and accordingly after one and a half years he was removed by his parents and placed in a private school kept by the rector of Silsoe just outside Wrest Park, which belonged to his maternal grandfather. There he read to Ms heart's content, and passed on to a happy university career at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1851. He did not row or play cricket at Oxford, but was addicted to riding and shooting, and such study as 'the House' encouraged any young nobleman at that date to pursue. Early in 1855 he paid a visit to Rome with Lord Mount Edgcumbe ; and, profiting by the solid historical reading which he managed to combine with social distractions there, he went in for honours on his return to the university, and obtained with ease a first class in law and history in December 1855.

He was destined for a parliamentary career ; but the death of his father in 1856 deprived him of the chance of entering the House of Commons, and diverted his attention for a number of years to the less showy but useful routine of county work. In this he rendered admirable service, whether as colonel of his volunteer regiment (in which movement he was, along with Lord Elcho, afterwards Earl Wemyss, one of the original pioneers), as chairman of quarter sessions, or as lord-lieutenant of Bedfordshire duties which he varied with sport in England and Scotland and the making of many friends. His numerous possessions also gave him wide territorial interests ; for while he had inherited from his father the fine domain of Panshanger in Hertfordshire, and many titles, in 1869 he succeeded, on the death of his grandmother, Lady Palmerston, to the adjoining park and property of Brocket and a large estate in Nottinghamshire. At a later date, in 1880, the death of his own mother brought him the barony of Lucas, the Craven property in North Lancashire, a fine house in St. James's Square, and the splendid 'chateau' of Wrest in Bedfordshire. In the comparative leisure of this part of his life he also developed the taste for reading which was his main recreation, and along with it a memory which came to be the admiration of his contemporaries. In October 1870 he married Katrine Cecilia, eldest daughter of William Compton, fourth marquis of Northampton, and of Eliza, third daughter of Admiral the Hon. Sir George Elliot, and entered upon a period of domestic and social happiness. Few men possessed greater social gifts or practised them with more unselfish enjoyment.

A liberal in politics, he was made K.G. by Lord Palmerston (5 Aug. 1865). In 1871 he accepted on the recommendation of Gladstone the household office of captain of the gentlemen-at-arms, coupled with the duty of answering for the board of trade in the House of Lords. These incongruous and rather unsatisfying responsibilities he fulfilled till the end of the session in 1873. In May 1880, on Gladstone's return to power, a larger horizon opened when he accepted the prime minister's offer of the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, with William Edward Forster [q. v.] as his chief secretary in the cabinet. Already the outlook in Ireland was clouded, and, when it was decided not to renew the Peace Preservation Act, which expired on 1 June, it speedily became worse, Parnell utilising the Land League for an agitation that speedily took effect in boycotting, in political terrorism, and presently in agrarian crime. Lord Cowper, who viewed {he situation throughout with an insight and courage that were to be painfully justified by the results, was strongly in favour of an autumn session and a renewal of the Coercion Act, and Forster went over to England to press upon the cabinet the calling of parliament and the grant of extra powers. These appeals were refused by the government, and Lord Cowper, who felt more strongly on the matter than his chief secretary, and hardly thought that the latter had done full justice to his case, was only deterred from resigning by the gravity of the crisis and the persuasion of his political allies. At the