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  to Madrid in 1802 and Berlin 1805, and in 1807 became secretary of embassy at Constantinople, and witnessed the discomfiture of Mr. Arbuthnot and Admiral Duckworth. In 1808 he returned to Spain as secretary of embassy, and acted as minister plenipotentiary ad interim at Seville from November 1809 to January 1810, and at Cadiz from 29 Jan. to 2 March. Gazetted secretary of embassy at Constantinople in March 1811, he and his chief, Robert Liston, did not proceed to their post till the following year, when in June they relieved Stratford Canning [q. v.] from his responsibility as minister plenipotentiary. From 1815 to 1817, and again from 1820 to 1821, Frere took charge of the embassy at the Porte as minister plenipotentiary ad interim, but in August 1821 he finally retired on a pension, which he enjoyed for thirty years, till his death in Old Burlington Street, London, 29 May 1851, aged 74. He was a useful public servant of ordinary abilities.



FRERE, HENRY BARTLE EDWARD, commonly called  (1815–1884), statesman, belonged to a family associated for centuries with the eastern counties of England. His grandfather, [q. v.], was second wrangler in Paley's year (1763), was elected M.P. for Norwich, and at his death left seven sons, of whom [q. v.] was the eldest. Edward, the second son, was father of Henry Bartle Edward Frere. Edward Frere (1770–1844) married, 28 July 1800, Mary Anne, eldest daughter and coheiress of James Greene, esq., M.P. for Arundel in 1759, and had by her nine sons and five daughters. Henry Bartle was the sixth son. Born at Clydach, Brecknockshire, on 29 March 1815, he was sent at an early age to the grammar school at Bath. In the narrow range of subjects there taught Frere gained distinction, and he entered Haileybury in 1832. In this college he showed capacity for a wider scope of study. At the end of the first term he stood second on the list of scholars, and during the following term he gained the highest place, which he retained until the end of his course. In 1834 he received his appointment to a writership in the Bombay civil service. At this time the normal length of the voyage to India was from four to five months. But Lieutenant Waghorn's successful journey by Egypt having shown that the bowstring is shorter than the bow, Frere applied to the court of directors for permission to find his way to India by the same road. After some hesitation the directors granted the request, having learned that Lord William Bentinck proposed to send a steamer to Suez, which on its return voyage was to meet at Socotra a vessel carrying the mails to Bombay. In May 1834 the young civilian sailed from Falmouth, but on arriving at Malta found that the steamer was not expected at Suez until August. He was thus enabled to spend a month with his uncle Hookham Frere, then living in Malta on account of his wife's health. There he studied Arabic under the guidance of the well-known Dr. Wolfe, who on his departure vouched for him that he knew enough Arabic ‘to scold his way through Egypt.’

Frere finally left Malta in a Greek brigantine for Alexandria, where he joined four other travellers who were taking the same route. He journeyed with them laboriously to Cairo, and thence to Thebes and Carnac, whence they struck across the desert on camels to Kosseir, on the Red Sea. Here, following the example of Waghorn, they embarked in open boats and reached Mocha, viâ Yambo and Jeddah. At Mocha they engaged passages for Bombay in an Arab dhow laden with pilgrims. After many dangers and a narrow escape from starvation they landed at Bombay on 23 Sept. The very unorthodox manner of arrival on Indian soil placed Frere under the necessity of proving his identity. He quickly settled down to the study of Hindustani, Marathi, and Gujarati, and, having in 1835 passed in all these languages, was appointed assistant to the collector at Poona. He devoted himself with characteristic zeal to his duties, and showed the same enthusiasm when subsequently detached to assist [q. v.] in investigating the system of land assessment of Indapore. Thoroughly to carry out the work it was necessary to investigate the extent and nature of each holding, and the result of this minute investigation was to prove that the assessments were much too high, and to convict the native collectors of extortion and oppression in collecting the land taxes.

In those days native officials were still frequently imbued with the traditions of oriental misgovernment. Many of their victims instead of complaining threw up their holdings and drifted elsewhere. Large tracts in the district were thus left uncultivated, and other farms were only imperfectly cropped. Frere and his companions proposed thoroughgoing remedies. They recommended that the rate of the land assessment should be reduced to sums easily payable by the cultivators, that security of tenure should be granted to every holder of land, and that more strenuous efforts should be made to check corruption