Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/222

 ships (13 July 1875) he hastened the withdrawal of the circular (5 Nov.). He ridiculed the royal titles bill of 1876, which made Queen Victoria Empress of India. He was foremost among the critics of the merchant shipping bill (May).

During the critical events in Eastern Europe (1876-8) Harcourt was in the forefront of the political battle at home, declaring the problem to be 'not how to maintain the Turkish government, but how safely to replace it' (speech at Oxford, 9 Jan. 1877). When Gladstone moved the vote of censure on the government for their support of Turkey on 7 May, Harcourt, speaking in support, declared that the Imell of the Turkish empire had sounded. In Jan. 1878 he denounced the government's warlike preparations when a conference for the settlement of peace between Turkey and Russia was in process of formation, and later in the year ridiculed the new treaty of Berlin as already 'moribund' (The Times, 2 Nov. 1878). To the government's conduct of affairs in Afghan and South Africa during 1878 and 1879 Harcourt brought the same trenchant powers of attack. In a long speech on 31 March he put the blame of the Zulu war on Sir Bartle Frere for carrying on, under the British flag, those very injustices from which the Zulus had so long suffered under the Boers. Nor was his activity in the House of Commons confined to external policy. In April 1877 he urgently pleaded for a widening of the scope of education at Oxford and Cambridge and for increased endowment of research. During the session of 1879 he was indefatigable in seeking to amend in committee the army discipline and regulation bill.

It was not only in the House of Commons or in letters to 'The Times' that Harcourt made his influence felt during this period. His speeches at public meetings through the country proved the finest rhetorical efforts of his career. For the most part carefully prepared, yet delivered so skilfully as to appear extempore, they were masterpieces of dignified eloquence and brilliant epigram. At liberal demonstrations at Oxford, Scarborough, Sheffield, Southport, Liverpool, and Birmingham (20 Jan. 1880, with John Bright and Mr. Chamberlain) he ridiculed the government's policy of 'bluster and bravado,' and his rhetorical energy conspicuously supplemented that of Gladstone.

In March 1880 Parliament was dissolved, and a general election immediately followed. The contest in Oxford was very keen ; the conservatives considerably reduced the liberal majorities, but Harcourt and his colleague (Sir) Joseph William Chitty [q. v. Suppl. I] were elected (3 April). The result of the general election was the return of 349 Hberals, 243 conservatives, and 60 home rulers. Lord Beaconsfield resigned on 22 April. Despite their pohtical differences, Harcourt's private relations with the conservative statesman remained friendly till Lord Beaconsfield's death on 19 April 1881, when Harcourt attended the funeral at Hughenden.

Delicate issues were involved in the choice in 1880 of a liberal prime minister. Gladstone had abandoned to Lord Hartington the leadership of the liberal party in 1875, and despite his active agitation in the country had not resumed his old post, Harcourt, while energetic in support and exposition of the liberal programme, inclined to whig doctrines. On 29 Dec. 1874 he had written to Goschen (Life, i. 152) 'I have been preaching whig doctrines pur et simple ; they are my principles, and I mean to stick to them coûte que coûte.' He had urged on Hartington in Jan. 1875 the acceptance of the leadership, chiefly to save the party from radical predominance. Although he worked loyally with Gladstone, he was often puzzled by his apparent casuistry (Life of Goschen, i. 153). Now he urged Hartington to become prime minister in virtue of his formal place of leader. He believed, he wrote to him (18 April 1880), that his sobriety would have more effect on moderate public opinion than 'all the oratory in the world' (, Life of Duke of Devonshire, i. 271). But events took another course. Gladstone declined to serve in any other situation save that of chief of the new government, and he again became prime minister. He at once formed a ministry. Harcourt was given the post of home secretary, and was sworn of the privy council (28 April). On seeking re-election as a minister Harcourt was again opposed at Oxford by his previous opponent, Alexander William Hall. The conservative organisation left no stone unturned to capture the seat, and Hall was returned by a majority of 54 (10 May). He was, however, shortly afterwards unseated on petition, and the borough was disfranchised for corruption for the whole of that parliament. Harcourt was not long absent from the House of Commons. Samuel Plimsoll [q. v. Suppl. I] generously resigned his seat at Derby in his favour, and he was elected without a contest on 26 May.