Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Third Supplement.djvu/570

 hierarchy of heaven, from Athena and Apollo to Heracles and Dionysus, cut sorry figures, the keenest shafts being aimed at the Delphian god. The Bacchae, indeed, presents a peculiar problem; even here Verrall made out a good case for the poet's rationalism. The net result may be summed up thus: the gods and miracles of Greek anthropomorphic religion were assumed, for artistic purposes, to be real and true; on the other hand, the incidents and language of the plays pointed to the opposite conclusion; the inevitable consequence was to foster disbelief; the peculiar traditions of the tragic stage required this pretence, maintained throughout by a natural love of irony, ambiguity, and play of meaning.

Verrall's appointment to the new chair of English literature gave universal satisfaction. His Sidgwick lecture (1909) on The Prose of Scott and his Clark lectures (1909) on the Victorian poets had delighted crowded audiences. But the sands were running out. For fourteen years he had suffered increasingly from arthritis. He had to be carried to deliver his lectures on Dryden in the Michaelmas term of 1911. A course on Macaulay, a subject for which he was singularly well qualified, was to have come next; but, although prepared, it was never given. In his long illness his sufferings were borne with unflinching courage and without complaint; he would still talk to intimate friends with alertness and something like the old vivacity. He died at Cambridge on Waterloo day (18 June) or, as he himself called it, ‘Wellington College day’, 1912.

Verrall married in 1882 Margaret de G. Merrifield, daughter of Frederic Merrifield, barrister-at-law, by whom he had one daughter.  VILLIERS, JOHN HENRY DE, first Baron De Villiers (1842-1914), South African judge. [See De Villiers.]

VILLIERS, VICTOR ALBERT GEORGE CHILD-, seventh and tenth  (1845–1915), colonial governor, the eldest son of George Augustus Frederick Child-Villiers, sixth Earl, by his wife, Julia, elder daughter of Sir Robert Peel, second baronet [q.v.], was born 20 March 1845. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, and, while at school, succeeded his father in 1859. He was a lord-in-waiting to Queen Victoria from 1875 to 1877, and in 1889 was made paymaster-general. The following year he received the appointment of governor and commander-in-chief of New South Wales, and assumed office in January 1891.

The task before Lord Jersey was a difficult one, for Australia was passing through a critical period in her history. Although the burning question of Chinese immigration had been satisfactorily settled in 1888, other urgent problems had taken its place. Chief of these were the federation movement and the attitude of the working classes. Before 1889 New South Wales had stood aloof from the movement for Australasian federation, but in that year the premier of the colony, Sir Henry Parkes [q.v.], had given his adhesion to it, and New South Wales was represented at the first inter-colonial conference held at Melbourne early in 1890. A few weeks after Lord Jersey had taken up his appointment a convention to consider the question was held at Sydney; but federation was never so popular in New South Wales as in the other colonies, and no further progress was made during Lord Jersey's term of office. The attitude of labour presented a far more serious problem. The labour movement in Australia had been gaining ground for many years, especially in New South Wales, and in 1890 the differences between employers and men came to a head over the question of reduction of wages. A great strike, of which Sydney was the centre, had at one time threatened to paralyse the trade of the colony, and had only come to an end (November 1890) two months before Lord Jersey's arrival. The result was a decisive victory for the employers, but in the following year labour representatives were able to dominate the situation in the New South Wales parliament. To complicate the situation, rash land speculations were just then contributing to the financial difficulties of Australia, and some harsh criticism in the London financial press had been deeply resented in the colony. Lord Jersey, however, showed himself capable of dealing tactfully with the situation. He set himself to win the confidence of the people of New South Wales and to show them that he recognized that they were neither dishonest nor bankrupt. In this he proved eminently successful, and although he remained governor for less than two and a half years he made himself greatly beloved, and as ex-governor became a trusted unofficial ambassador of the Commonwealth in London.

In 1893 Lord Jersey returned to England. His sound abilities and his banking 544