Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/590

 sentiment of the party gave him due weight in the inner counsels of the ministry. When the government of Lord Rosebery fell in 1895 and a general election converted the liberal party into a divided, distracted, and enfeebled opposition, Tweedmouth earnestly devoted himself to the up-hill task of restoring its fallen fortunes. He was prominent in society, and entertained largely both in London at Brook House and at his beautiful home in Scotland, Guisachan in Inverness-shire. He had married on 9 June 1873 Lady Fanny Octavia Louisa, third daughter of John Winston Spencer-Churchill, seventh duke of Marlborough, and sister of Lord Randolph Churchill. Lady Tweedmouth was endowed with a native gift for society, and shared her husband's labour in bringing together liberal politicians of all shades of opinion. She initiated the Liberal Social Council and did as much as social agencies can to restore courage, confidence, and concord to the party. Her death on 5 Aug. 1904 dealt her husband a blow from which he never completely recovered. At the same time financial losses, due to a crisis in the affairs of Meux's brewery, which he bore with cheery fortitude, compelled Tweedmouth to part with Brook House and Guisachan and to sell many of the art treasures which his father had collected.

When a liberal government was formed in Dec. 1905 with Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman [q. v. Suppl. II] as prime minister, Tweedmouth became first lord of the admiralty. He took office at a critical moment, for the expansion of the German navy was then in full swing and yet there was a section of the liberal party which was disposed to insist on a large reduction of naval expenditure. Some slight and temporary reductions were made at the outset, but on the whole Tweedmouth stood firm to the policy of maintaining England's naval supremacy, and he gave a cordial support to the many and drastic measures of reform initiated by Lord Selborne and steadfastly pursued by Lord Cawdor [q. v. Suppl. II], his two immediate predecessors, both acting on the vigorous inspiration of the first sea lord. Sir John (now Lord) Fisher. He represented the admiralty in the House of Lords with becoming dignity and discretion, and he displayed a firm grasp of the business of his department. His term of office was not eventful until March 1908, when it was bruited abroad that the German Emperor had written to Tweedmouth on matters connected with naval policy and that in the course of a reply Tweedmouth had communicated to the Kaiser many details of the forthcoming navy estimates before these had been presented to the House of Commons. Tweedmouth was on these grounds popularly credited with something like an act of treason. A private and unpublished correspondence with the German Emperor had taken place, and the public knowledge of that fact may have been due to a conversational indiscretion on Tweedmouth's part. In other respects the circumstances were misrepresented and Tweedmouth was unjustly censured by public opinion. No one can blame a minister for receiving a private letter from a foreign sovereign. Nor can he in common courtesy refrain from answering the letter. All that is required of him is to frame his answer with the full knowledge and sanction of his colleagues. This condition was scrupulously fulfilled by Tweedmouth, though the fact was not fully disclosed at the time. There was no premature disclosure of the estimates to the Kaiser. Tweedmouth sent in his reply no information except what was also given to Parliament at the same time. An indispensable act of courtesy was controlled throughout by ministerial authority higher than Tweedmouth's own. The first insidious assaults of cerebral malady may account for Tweedmouth's sole fault in talking too unreservedly about the correspondence.

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's resignation followed soon after this misunderstanding (5 April 1908), one of his last official acts being to nominate Tweedmouth for a knighthood of the Thistle. On Mr. Asquith's succession as prime minister and some reconstruction of the government, Tweedmouth relinquished the admiralty and became lord president of the council. But his ministerial career was practically at an end. Within a few weeks he was stricken down by a cerebral attack from when he never recovered sufficiently to resume any kind of public work. He finally resigned his office in Sept. 1908. During the last few months of his life he resided at the chief secretary's lodge in the Phoenix Park at Dublin, which had been lent by his colleague Mr. Birrell in order that he might be under the care of his sister, the Countess of Aberdeen, the wife of the viceroy. There he died on 15 Sept. 1909. He was buried in the family burying-ground in Chirnside churchyard, Berwickshire, where his wife had previously been buried. In her memory he had restored and greatly beautified this church,