Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/708

 Granville as leader of the liberal party in the House of Lords, after he had lamented his old associate in feeling terms (Hansard, vol. cclii. cols. 464–5). He became secretary for India once more in Gladstone's fourth administration, formed in 1892, serving at the same time as lord president of the council. Kimberley reluctantly accepted the policy of the Indian government in closing the mints and restricting the sale of council bills with the object of checking the depreciation of silver. At the last cabinet council which Gladstone attended (1 March 1894), Kimberley and Harcourt spoke on the ministers' behalf words ‘of acknowledgment and farewell.’ In Lord Rosebery's ministry (3 March 1894) he realised his early ambition, and became foreign secretary, while surrendering the leadership in the House of Lords to the new prime minister. Kimberley's tenure of the foreign office was undistinguished. He was unable to prevent the revision of the treaty of peace between China and Japan under pressure of Russia, Germany, and France, by which the Japanese, in consideration of an addition to their indemnity, evacuated the Liaotung peninsula. On 3 May 1894 he concluded an unhappy agreement with the Congo Free State, which met with strong opposition from Germany; and on 22 June the third article, which granted to Great Britain on lease a strip of Congolese territory along the frontier of German East Africa, had to be withdrawn (Parl. Papers, 1894, vols. lxii. and xcvi.). But he refused to be hurried into diplomatic crusades by emotional outbursts against the iniquities of Abdul Hamid, Sultan of Turkey.

Relegated to opposition by the general election, Kimberley resumed the leadership of the liberals in the upper house, after Lord Rosebery's abandonment of party politics in October 1896. Though his following was small, he led it with spirit, and was a sober and effective critic of unionist measures. On 8 June 1899 he seconded the resolution for making a provision for Lord Kitchener after the overthrow of the Khalifa at Omdurman. During the South African war, unlike some of his party, he never swerved from support of the military operations; he declined to take any advantage of the ignorance of ministers as to the Boer preparations; and while justly dwelling on the miscalculations involved in the recrudescence of the war after it had been declared to be at an end, he urged that no means or money should be spared in sending out adequate reinforcements. His last appearance was on 14 Feb. 1901, when, though ill and distressed, he spoke on the address to King Edward VII, after the death of Queen Victoria. During the rest of his life Lord Spencer acted as deputy-leader of the liberals in the lords.

Kimberley died at his London residence, 35 Lowndes Square, on 8 April 1902, and was buried at Wymondham, Norfolk. When the lords reassembled, effective tributes were paid to his memory (Hansard, vol. cvi. cols. 259–266), Lord Salisbury eulogising his freedom from party bias, Lord Spencer his grasp of detail, and Lord Ripon his private worth. He earned the reputation of thoroughness in administration if he sometimes showed lack of foresight and resolve in dealing with large questions of policy. The House of Lords generally held him in high esteem, but he was little known to the general public and was unrecognised by popular opinion. ‘He is,’ wrote Lord Dufferin, ‘one of the ablest of our public men, but being utterly destitute of vanity, he has never cared to captivate public attention, and consequently has been never duly appreciated’ ( Dufferin, i. 22). He spoke fluently but not eloquently, and never used notes. Though he generally kept his temper under strict control, he was naturally impulsive, and to that failing, apart from the vacillation of his colleagues, may possibly be traced his nervous handling of affairs during the first Boer war. He took much interest in local business; was a deputy-lieutenant, county councillor and J.P. of Norfolk, and high steward of Norwich cathedral in succession to his father. He was a generous but critical landlord; and while in his youth a vigorous rider to hounds, he remained until late in life a capital shot. Kimberley was made hon. D.C.L., Oxford, in 1894, and chancellor of the University of London in 1899.

He married, on 16 Aug. 1847, Lady Florence (d. 4 May 1895), eldest daughter of Richard Fitzgibbon, third and last earl of Clare, and had three sons and two daughters. His successor, John, Baron Wodehouse, was born on 10 Dec. 1848; the third son, Armine (1860–1901), married in 1889 Eleanor Mary Caroline, daughter of Matthew Arnold; she re-married in 1909 the second Baron Sandhurst.

An excellent drawing by George Richmond was executed for Grillion's Club, and an oil painting (1866) by S. Catterson Smith is at Dublin Castle; replicas of both are at Kimberley. A cartoon portrait by ‘Ape’ appeared in ‘Vanity Fair’ in 1869.