Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/228

 Ripon's position as one of the official leaders of the liberal party was thus assured, and when Gladstone formed his first ministry on 9 Dec. 1868, Ripon became lord president of the council, being appointed K.G. next year. On Lord Salisbury's installation as chancellor of Oxford in 1870 Ripon was made hon. D.C.L. During 1870, as president of the coimcil, Ripon was technically responsible for the education bill which his deputy, W. E. Forster, carried with difficulty through the House of Commons. In 1871 a new and vaster responsibility was placed on him. The United States and the United Kingdom at length agreed to appoint a joint high commission for the settlement of American claims against Great Britain, in regard to the depredations of the Alabama and other privateering vessels, which had sailed from English ports to aid the South in the late American civil war. Ripon was appointed chairman, to the disappointment of Lord Houghton and others. His colleagues were Sir Statford Northcote, Sir Edward Thornton, British minister at Washington, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, representative of Canada, and Professor Mountague Bernard. On 8 March 1871 the American case was opened before the commission at Washington. The negotiations proceeded rapidly, and a satisfactory treaty, which among other things referred the American claims to an international tribunal, was signed at Washington on 8 May. Ripon had emphatically declined to discuss indirect losses (see Sir Stafford Northcote, ii. 9), and an ambiguous clause in the treaty led to subsequent controversy, but the end was a reaffirmation of Ripon's action. For his conduct of the negotiations nothing but praise was due. Northcote wrote enthusiastically of his 'excellent sense, tact, and temper' ( Life of Gladstone, bk, vi. ch. ix.). His services were rewarded by promotion to a marquisate on 23 Jan. 1871. On 19 March 1873 he was made lord-lieutenant of the North Riding.

In Aug. 1873 Ripon caused general surprise by resigning his cabinet office on the ground of 'urgent private affairs.' The 'private affairs' concerned his spiritual struggles, of which his intimate friends were kept in ignorance. Hitherto he had been a zealous freemason, and on 23 April 1870 had become Grand Master of the Freemasons of England. That office he resigned without explanation in Aug. 1874. Next month, on 7 Sept., he was received into the Roman catholic communion at the Brompton Oratory. The step, which caused widespread astonishment, was the fruit of anxious thought. During the conservative administration of 1874-80 Ripon lived much in retirement. But he was active in the affairs of the religious community which he had joined, and was thenceforth reckoned as authoritative a leader of the Roman catholic laity in England as the duke of Norfolk. Both men joined in 1878 in urging on Manning Newman's claims to the cardinal ate ( Life of Manning, ii. 554). John Hungerford Pollen [q. v. Suppl. II], who had gone through the same religious experiences, became Ripon's private secretary in 1876, and was on confidential terms with him.

On Gladstone's return to power in April 1880 Ripon fully re-entered public life and proved that his religious conversion had in no way impaired his devotion to public duty (cf., The Times, 12 July 1909). On 28 April he was appointed governor-general of India on the resignation of Lord Lytton. Ripon's health seemed hardly robust enough for the office, but he gained strength after settling in India. He took over charge at Simla on 8 June 1880.

A critical position in Afghanistan at once confronted him. Sir Donald Stewart, after recognising Wall Sher Ali as independent governor of Kandahar, had joined forces with General Roberts at Kabul, expecting to evacuate Afghanistan in the near future. The attitude of the Afghan nobles and people was one of sullen tranquillity, while Lepel Griffin [q. v. Suppl. II], chief political agent of the government of India, was waiting to complete negotiations with Abdur Rahman, who was secretly exciting the nobles to fresh hostilities and demanding assurances as to British intentions with regard both to Kandahar and to his own bearing towards his late allies the Russians. Lord Ripon acted with vigour. Under his orders Abdur Rahman was proclaimed Amir at Kabul on 22 July, after he had been informed (14 June) that he could have no political relations with any foreign power except the English, while if any such power interfered and 'such interference should lead to unprovoked aggression on the Kabul ruler,' he would receive aid in such a manner and at such a time as might be necessary to repel it, provided he followed British advice. This cautious intimation has stood the test of time, and was reaffirmed by Lord Curzon in the formal treaty of 21 March 1905, concluded with