Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/159

 and Addresses on Economic Questions.' This last consisted of contributions to the 'Edinburgh Review' and of addresses read to various bodies and institutions at different times, and of valuable comments by the author on the further light that the lapse of years had thrown upon the subjects treated. On the death of Lord Salisbury, Goschen was chosen chancellor of Oxford University (31 Oct. 1903), and devoted himself with energy to the interests of the university. He had been made hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in 1881, and hon. LL.D. of Aberdeen and Cambridge in 1888, and of Edinburgh in 1890.

Goschen's political life was by no means over. When in 1903 Mr. Chamberlain's fiscal policy was announced, causing rupture in the ministry and the unionist party, Goschen again came to the front as one of the foremost champions of free trade. He had, as he said, worked out these financial and commercial problems for himself; and accordingly he joined the Duke of Devonshire and other free-trade unionists in a vigorous effort to defeat a policy certain, in his opinion, to bring disaster on the nation. In the House of Lords and in the country, till the general election of January 1906 had made free trade safe, he threw himself into the conflict with much of his old energy and fire; and in the new parliament he once more solemnly warned conservative statesmen against the danger of identifying their party with the fiscal policy of Mr. Chamberlain. During the remainder of the session, he took part occasionally in the proceedings of the House of Lords, showing none of the infirmities of age excepting that his eye-sight, never good, had deteriorated. On 7 Feb. 1907 he died suddenly in his home at Seacox, and was buried at Flimwell. Goschen left two sons and four daughters. His elder son, George Joachim, succeeded to the viscountcy.

Goschen showed throughout the whole of his career a remarkable consistency of character as a statesman, notwithstanding the fact that part of his official life was passed under Gladstone's, part under Lord Salisbury's leadership. Always moderate in his opinions, which were the outcome of honest and deep investigation, he disliked the exaggerations of party protagonists, and was as vehement in support of moderation as were the extremists on either side in fighting for victory. At the head of great departments, his industry, his grasp of principles, his mastery of details, and his determination to secure efficiency were conspicuous. But in the pressure of administrative work he remembered that his responsibilities as cabinet minister were not limited to bis own department, and in all matters of general policy, especially as regards foreign affairs, of which he has exceptional knowledge, his counsels carried great weight. His courage and independence won him in a high degree the respect and confidence of his countrymen; and Queen Victoria placed much reliance on his judgment and his patriotism. Nature had not endowed him with the qualities that make an orator of the first rank. His voice was not good, nor his gestures and bearing graceful. Yet he proved again and again on public platforms that he possessed the power not only of interesting and leading men's minds but also of stirring their enthusiasm to a very high pitch. He never spoke down to his audience, or appealed to prejudice, but exerted himself to lead them to think and to feel as he himself thought and felt. His speeches very frequently contained some turn of expression or phrase which caught the public ear and for the time was in everyone's mouth. In 1885, 'He would not give a blank cheque to Lord Salisbury.' In his great fight against Irish nationalism, 'We would never surrender to crime or time.' In the fiscal controversy, 'He would be no party to a gamble with the food of the people.'

Goschen throughout his life did much useful public work outside the region of active politics. He had become an ecclesiastical commissioner in 1882. From its initiation in 1879 Goschen was a vigorous supporter of the movement for the extension of university teaching in London, and for many years he gave great assistance to the movement. With him the loss of office never meant the cessation of employment. In his private life his personal qualities and sympathetic nature won for him a large circle of real friends, whilst in society at large a strong sense of humour, his wide general knowledge of men and books, his power of conversation and of promoting good talk in others, made him highly valued. In his own house in the country and in London, where he delighted to gather round him friends and acquaintances, he carried the intenseness of interest characteristic of his working hours into the amusements of the day. It was not for the purposes of breadwinning alone that he set a high value on education. 'Livelihood is not a life,' he said to the Liverpool Institute (29 Nov. 1877, on Imagination). 'Education must deal with your lives as well as qualify you for your