Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/448

 1823 at Ardencaple Castle, Dumbartonshire. It was here that he was brought up and privately educated. As a youth he read widely, and deeply interested himself in natural science. In May 1837 he became Marquis of Lorne and heir to the dukedom by the death of his elder brother, John Henry (b. 11 Jan. 1821). His first contribution to public questions was a 'Letter to the Peers from a Peer's Son,' a work which, though published in 1842 anonymously, was soon known to be by him. The subject was the struggle in the church of Scotland, which resulted in 1843 in the secession of Dr. Chalmers and the foundation of the Free Church. In 1848 he followed this work by another, entitled 'Presbytery Examined: an Essay on the Ecclesiastical History of Scotland since the Reformation.' His view was to some extent favourable to that which had been held by Chalmers, but not to the point of secession, his ultimate conclusion being that the claim of the Free Church to exclusive jurisdiction in matters spiritual was a dogma not authorised by scripture. He had already, on the death of his father in 1847, taken his place in the House of Lords among the Peelites, for he was a convinced free-trader and gave an independent support to the Russell ministry, then engaged in carrying out the doctrines of 1846, the legacy of the government of Sir Robert Peel. His maiden speech was delivered in May 1848, in favour of a bill for the removal of Jewish disabilities, and later in the session he took occasion to declare that he was 'no protectionist.' His abilities began to attract attention; he made a reputation as a writer on scientific subjects, and on 19 Jan. 1851 he was elected F.R.S. In the same year the university of St. Andrews elected him its chancellor, and in his address he spoke regretfully of having never enjoyed at public school or university the training which produced 'a wise tolerance of the idiosyncrasies of others and broad catholicity of sentiment.' In 1854 Glasgow University also elected him lord rector, in the following year he presided over the British Association at Glasgow, and later, in 1861, he became president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Meanwhile Lord Derby's brief-lived ministry had come and gone in 1852, and in January 1853 the duke became privy seal in the coalition ministry of whigs and Peelites formed by Lord Aberdeen, though he was not yet thirty years of age. The Crimean war began, and in February 1854, the month when France and England sent their ultimatum to St. Petersburg, the duke came forward as a supporter of the government, asserting that 'the real question is whether you are to allow a weaker nation to be trodden under foot by a stronger,' i.e. Russia (Hansard, 14 Feb. 1854). In January 1855 the Roebuck motion for inquiry into the war was carried in the House of Commons, and Lord Aberdeen at once resigned; but the 'Radical Duke,' as he was sometimes called, retained his office under the new whig prime minister, Lord Palmerston. In the course of the same year he exchanged his office for that of postmaster-general in succession to Lord Canning, remaining in that position until February 1858, when Lord Palmerston's government fell, and was succeeded by that of Lord Derby. At the end of June 1859, however, Palmerston returned to office, and with him the duke, who reverted to the post of privy seal.

In 1860 he took charge of the post office for a few months during the absence of Lord Elgin, but resumed the privy seal in the same year. Palmerston died in October 1865, but the duke retained office under his successor. Earl Russell, retiring with his chief on his defeat in June 1866. Meanwhile he had performed considerable service to the government in the House of Lords, where the conservatives were not only formidable in numbers, but also, under the leadership of Lord Derby, formidable in debate. Thus, for instance, in 1857, when a resolution was debated condemning the policy of the government in China and their conduct in the affair of the Arrow, the duke defended Palmerston on an occasion when many of the party broke away, causing a defeat both in the Lords and the Commons. Again, he and Russell were the only members of the cabinet in 1862 who advocated, in vain, though how wisely was proved later, the detention of the Alabama. In respect of the American civil war then commencing the duke was strongly favourable to the cause of the north and of the union, gaining from Bright approval of the 'fair and friendly' utterances of 'one of the best and most liberal of his order.' The duke defended his opinions in characteristic language: 'There is a curious animal in Loch Fyne which I have sometimes dredged up from the bottom of the sea, and which performs the most extraordinary and unaccountable acts of suicide and self-destruction. It is a peculiar kind of star-fish, which, when brought up from the bottom of the water, immediately throws off all its arms; its very centre breaks up, and nothing remains of one of the most beautiful forms in nature but a thousand wriggling fragments. Such undoubtedly would have been the fate of the