Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/731

 the river Plenty on the ninety-first day after embarkation, and a fair proportion hatched out satisfactorily.

For several years afterwards Youl was engaged with others in sending out successful shipments of ova to Tasmania. He was also responsible for the first shipment of ova to Otago, New Zealand, in Jan. 1868, for which he received the thanks of the government of that colony and the special thanks and a piece of plate from the provincial council of Otago. In 1866 he was awarded the gold medal of the Société d'Acclimatation and in 1868 the medal of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria.

In 1874 he was made C.M.G. and K.C.M.G. in 1891. He died on 5 June 1904 at his residence, Waratah House, Clapham Park, and was buried in Norwood cemetery.

Youl married twice: (1) on 9 July 1839, at Clarendon, Tasmania, Eliza, daughter of William Cox, who served in the Peninsular war and went afterwards with the 46th regiment to Australia and settled at Hobartville, New South Wales; she died on 4 Jan. 1881, leaving four sons and eight daughters; (2) on 30 Sept. 1882, Charlotte, widow of William Robinson of Caldecott House, Clapham Park, and younger daughter of Richard Williams of Philipville, Belgium.

 YOUNG,. CHARLES. [See (1827–1902), actress.]

 YOUNG, GEORGE, (1819–1907), Scottish judge, born at Dumfries on 2 July 1819, was son of Alexander Young of Rosefield, Kirkcudbrightshire, procurator fiscal of Dumfriesshire, by his wife Marian, daughter of William Corsan of Dalwhat, Kirkcudbrightshire. After education at Dumfries Academy, he studied at Edinburgh University (where he was made LL.D. in 1871), joined the Scots Law Society on 21 Nov. 1838 (president 1842–3), and passed to the Scottish bar on 2 Dec. 1840. Successful from the first, he was soon one of the busiest juniors in the Parliament House. Appointed advocate depute in 1849, he became sheriff of Inverness in 1853. At the celebrated trial of Madeleine Smith for the murder of Emile L'Angelier (30 June–8 July 1857) he was junior counsel to John Inglis [q.v.], afterwards lord president, and the accused is said to have owed her acquittal largely to his skill in preparing the defence. In 1860 he was made sheriff of Haddington and Berwick, and in 1862 he succeeded Edward Maitland (raised to the bench as Lord Barcaple) as solicitor-general for Scotland in Lord Palmerston's government. His practice had now become enormous. He was retained as senior in almost every important case, frequently with James Moncreiff, first Baron Moncreiff, as his opponent. He particularly excelled in the severe cross-examination of hostile witnesses, and in addressing juries his cool logic was often more than a match for the eloquence of Moncreiff.

In politics Young was a liberal, and continued solicitor-general in Lord Russell's government which came in after the death of Palmerston (October 1865). At the general election of 1865 he was returned for the Wigtown district. Out of office in 1867 and 1868, during the governments of Lord Derby and Disraeli, he became again solicitor-general on the formation of the Gladstone administration of December 1868. In the following year he succeeded James Moncreiff (when he was made lord justice clerk) as lord advocate. He was called to the English bar on 24 Nov. 1869 by special resolution of the Middle Temple, of which he was elected an honorary bencher on 17 Nov. 1871. In 1872 he was sworn of the privy council.

Young's management, as lord advocate, of Scottish business in parliament has been described as ‘autocratic and masterful’ (Scotsman, 23 May 1907). He was as severe with deputations as with witnesses in cross-examination, and alarmed the legal profession in Scotland by far-reaching schemes of law reform. He prepared a bill for the abolition of feudal tenure, and it was rumoured that he contemplated the abolition of the Court of Session. Nevertheless his legislative work was useful. He was the author of a Public Health Act for Scotland passed in 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 38). He carried through parliament, in spite of considerable opposition from a party in Scotland which accused him of wishing to destroy religious teaching in elementary schools, the Scottish Education Act of 1872, which closed a long controversy by establishing elected school boards, and leaving it to each board to 