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 years, and it was not; until 1812 that he was able to turn his attention to his wife's vast territory in Sutherlandshire. (See, however, evidence of his interest in these estates as early as 1806, in the letter of the Marchioness of Stafford in that year to C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe.) Till 1811 no mail coach had run beyond Aberdeen, but in that year parliament granted half the expense of making roads in the northern counties of Scotland, upon condition of landed proprietors finding the remainder. The Marquis of Stafford at once and largely took advantage of this provision. In all the county of Sutherland there was not a road in 1812, and but one bridge. Twenty years afterwards he had completed 450 miles of good roads, 134 bridges, several of great size, and one, an iron bridge, of 150 feet span, uniting Sutherlandshire and Ross-shire at Bonar. In 1818 he obtained the extension of the mail from Inverness to Thurso, and contributed large sums towards the cost. By the purchase of West Sutherlandshire, in addition to his wife's hereditary estates, he obtained control of all but a very small portion of the county. He found the population more numerous than the soil, in its then state of cultivation, could support—indolent, ignorant and often lawless. In the teeth of much attack from without and much unpopularity among his tenants, the marquis carried out a reform of the whole system of administering the estate, clearing thousands of peasants from the interior, and causing them to remove to the sea-coast, thus eventually destroying the remaining vestiges of the clan system. He reduced both rents and burdens, improved the condition of the people, and brought many thousands of acres under cultivation for the first time. He especially aimed at getting rid of the tacksmen, and making all the peasants his own immediate tenants. (For the case against the Sutherlandshire clearances see, Etudes sur l'économie politique, ed. 1837, i. 203; , Sutherland as it was and is; , History of the destitution of Sutherlandshire, 1841; , Tour in Scotland, 1833; , Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. For the contrary view, see , Essai sur l'économie rurale de l'Angleterre; Quarterly Review, lxix. 419). The stories, however, of ruthless evictions and banishment of peasants appear to have no good foundation. Patrick Sellar, a writer to the signet and underfactor on the estate, who was one of the agents most assailed in the matter, stood his trial at Inverness assizes for culpable homicide caused by harsh clearances, and was acquitted, and subsequently recovered heavy damages for slander against the sheriff-substitute for Sutherlandshire, the chief author of the charges. So far were the clearances, from being merely selfish improvements, that from 1811 to 1833 the county yielded him no rent, and resulted in a loss of 60,000l. in all. (See speech by J. Loch, Sutherland's agent, in the House of Commons, Hansard, 3rd ser. lxxxi 412.) In these efforts he spent the best years of his life.

In politics he was a liberal, and supported catholic emancipation and the Reform Bill. Fur the development of his estates and properties he made large investments in the Liverpool and Manchester railway, of the capital of which he was an origin proprietor to the extent of one-fifth, and in the Liverpool and Birmingham canal, of which he was the principal proprietor. In 1822 he was seized with paralysis, from which he recovered, but with impaired activity and strength. On 14 Jan. 1888 be was raised to a dukedom, and on the suggestion of Princess Augusta selected the title of Duke of Sutherland. He paid his last visit to Sutherland a few months afterwards, and reached Dunrobin Castle on 5 July, but was seized with an illness of which he died on 19 July 1833. He was buried in the old cathedral of Dornoch, the burial-place of the ancestors of the duchess-countess. Two sons and two daughters survived him: George Granville, who succeeded him in the dukedom, Lord Francis Leveson-Gower, on whom were entailed the Bridgewater estates, Lady Charlotte, afterwards Duchess of Norfolk, and Lady Elizabeth, afterwards Marchioness of Westminster. In figure he was tall and slight. There are two colossal statues of him by Chantrey, one at Dunrobin and the other at Trentham. His portrait was painted by Romney, Phillips, and Opie.

The second duke, George Granville Leveson-Gower (1786–1861), whose wife, Harriet Elisabeth, Georgiana. is separately noticed, was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son,, third (1828–1892). The latter was M.P. for Sutherlandshire in the liberal interest, from 1852 till 1861, but took little part in politics. After his accession to the title he devoted great sums of money to the improvement of his highland estates, contributing in all 226,300l. towards the construction of the Highland railway, and even larger sums for the reclamation of waste lands. He was a keen sportsman and traveller, and was fond of riding on locomotive engines and of watching the fire brigade at work. He went to the coronation of the Czar Alexander II in 1856 as a member of the special mission, was