Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/230

 preparations on a contemptuous estimate of the character and resources of the Boers, but he expressed his confidence in the ultimate success of the British troops, whose valour he eulogised. Beyond some caustic criticisms of the government's financial proposals, he figured little in the House of Commons debates for the remainder of the first session of 1900, but during the general election in Sept. and Oct. he conducted a spirited campaign in his constituency of West Monmouthshire. He denoimced the government's 'audacious' attempt to confine the election to the issue of the war, and discussed social problems, emphasising the need of comprehensive educational reform, with the elimination of all sectarian influence, and of legislation in the cause of temperance. He was in his seventy-third year, but his energy and eloquence were unabated. He retained his seat by a large majority. 'I wish I could join you in retiring' he wrote on 18 Oct. 1900 to Goschen who was resigning his place in the unionist government. 'Your party can, with regret, afford it. Mine is too short-handed to spare a single man at the ropes.'

In the new parliament Harcourt watched narrowly the course of events in South Africa. He declared that the cost of the war would have to be borne by the British tax-payer and that it was idle for the government to expect a contribution from the Transvaal (Hansard, 13 Dec. 1900). When on 14 June 1901 he and Campbell-Bannerman were entertained by the National Reform Union, Harcourt denounced the war as 'unjust and engineered' and 'recommended upon all sorts of false pretences,' but was less vehement in condemnation than his colleague. On 16 Jan. 1902 he elaborately denounced as an unconstitutional violation of the statute laws the action of the governor of Cape Colony in suspending, on the advice of the Cape ministers, the constitution of the colony. Throughout 1903, in both speeches and letters to 'The Times' (5 and 16 Feb. and 1 April), he vigorously protested against the introduction of forced labour into South Africa. In a letter to Lord Carrington, which was read (10 Feb. 1904) at a large protest meeting in Queen's Hall, he described the project as 'throwing back the moral sense of the nation a whole century since the final emancipation of the slave.' Other questions which engaged Harcourt's energies at this period were Sir Michael Hicks Beach's budget proposals of 1902, when he resisted the proposed tax on imported corn. On 12 May he moved an amendment (defeated by 296 to 188) to the finance bill asking the house to 'decline to impose customs duties on grain, flour, or other articles of first necessity for the food of the people.' During the same session he opposed Mr. Balfour's education bill, which he declared did nothing for the cause of elementary education but threatened an educational civil war ; the bill not only destroyed the school boards but removed voluntary schools from popular control (cf. speeches to constituents, 8-9 Oct. 1902). Mr. Chamberlain's advocacy of a reform in the fiscal system in 1903 roused Harcourt to fresh activity. Again both in speeches in the country and in letters to 'The Times' (13 July, 7 and 19 Aug., and 17 Nov. 1903) he reiterated his faith in free trade. Always loyal to the Crown, Harcourt was on friendly terms with the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward VII. On 26 March 1901, at a public meeting at the Mansion House, he seconded the resolution, moved by Mr. Balfour, in favour of erecting a national monument to Queen Victoria in front of Buckingham Palace. At the coronation of Edward VII in 1902 he was offered a peerage, but this he respectfully but firmly declined. He was made honorary fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 14 Nov. 1902.- Early in 1904 his health showed signs of failing, and on 29 Feb. he announced to his constituents his intention of not seeking re-election, at the same time prophesying victory for the united party of progress. Even then his part in politics was not quite ended. In 'The Times' (14 March 1904), under the heading 'The Leader and the Led,' he wrote with his old incisiveness of the split in the tory ranks occasioned by the fiscal reform controversy. On 17 May he spoke in the House of Commons for nearly an hour on the finance bill. His last speech was delivered at the annual reception of the National Liberal Club on 27 July, when he protested against the growing want of consideration exhibited towards the House of Commons by the employment of the closure and the 'guillotine' as the 'daily dram,' By the death, on 23 March 1904, of his nephew, Aubrey Vernon Harcourt, the only son of his elder brother, Edward William Harcourt, Sir William succeeded to the family estates at Nuneham, Oxfordshire. There his last days were spent in full possession of his faculties and of health. The evening before his death he appeared in his usual health. He retired to rest at his accustomed hour on Friday, 30 Sept., and quietly passed away in his sleep.