Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/458

Shaw in May 1879 he was a steadfast supporter of that politician. By that time, in virtue of the moderation of his views and the prudence and sagacity of his political conduct, he had earned a considerable position in the House of Commons, and his extensive business connections gave him a certain weight with the English liberal party beyond that possessed by most of his colleagues. Shaw was accordingly selected to succeed Butt as chairman of the Irish party, and held the post until the dissolution of parliament in 1880. Perhaps the most important part of Shaw's political career was his appointment in 1880 to a seat on the Bessborough commission, which was appointed to inquire into the tenure of Irish land [see, fourth ]. It was upon the report of this commission that Mr. Gladstone mainly based the provisions of the Land Act of 1881. On the passing of that measure Shaw is understood to have declined an offer of the post of land commissioner.

Meanwhile his relations with his own party had grown unsatisfactory. An active section of the party, led by Charles Stewart Parnell [q. v.], disapproved his moderation. After the general election of 1880, when he was again returned for co. Cork by a very large majority, Parnell and his followers disowned his leadership, and when he was proposed for re-election as chairman (17 May), Parnell was chosen by twenty votes to eighteen. Thenceforward, though he made some attempt in one or two rather violent speeches to recover his position, Shaw and his friends, who had little sympathy with the land league movement and were opposed to the creation of a peasant proprietary in Ireland, ceased to act with the advanced section, and on 12 Jan. 1881 they finally and formally seceded from the Irish party. From that time Shaw gave a general support to Mr. Gladstone, and the votes of himself and those with whom he acted saved the liberal government from defeat on at least one occasion.

Though possessing a reputation for prudence and judgment which in the political world earned him the sobriquet of ‘Sensible Shaw,’ Shaw was unfortunate in later life in his commercial undertakings. In 1885 the Munster Bank, which he had practically founded and of which he was chairman, was obliged to close its doors. Shaw, being unable to meet his personal liabilities, was in 1886 declared a bankrupt. He had previously, on the dissolution of parliament in 1885, retired from public life. Shaw's last years were spent in seclusion and in the shadow of commercial and domestic misfortune. He died on 19 Sept. 1895.

[Lucy's Diary of Two Parliaments; McCarthy's Ireland since the Union; private information.]  SHAW-KENNEDY, JAMES (1788–1805), general. [See .]

SHAW-LEFEVRE, CHARLES, (1794–1888), born on 22 Feb. 1794, was the eldest son of Charles Shaw, a barrister, of a Yorkshire family, and M.P. for Reading from 1802 to 1820. His father on his marriage with Helena, only daughter of John Lefevre, a member of a Normandy family long settled at Heckfield Place, Hartfordbridge, Hampshire, assumed the additional name of Lefevre. Sir John Shaw-Lefevre [q. v.] was his younger brother. Charles was at school at Winchester College, then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1815 and M.A. in 1819, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1819, but practised very little. He at once took to politics and was active in his brother-in-law Samuel Whitbread's contest for Middlesex in 1820, but from his father's death in 1823 resided principally in Hampshire, interesting himself in county business and in the yeomanry drill. In 1830 he entered parliament for Lord Radnor's pocket borough of Downton in Wiltshire, and in 1831, after a severe contest, was returned for the county of Hampshire. The county was divided into two portions by the act of 1832, and thenceforward, till his elevation to the peerage, he sat for the northern division. He was a steady supporter of the whig government, but, though he moved the address in 1834, he spoke rarely. For some years he was chairman of a committee on petitions for private bills, and in 1835 was chairman of a committee on agricultural distress. He was chairman of the select committee on procedure in 1838, and carried his report almost unanimously. By attending closely to the work of these committees and to the forms of the house, and by his natural fair-mindedness and temper, he gained a reputation which led to his selection in 1839, in spite of Spring-Rice's claims as the government candidate, to succeed Abercromby in the chair. He was in fact rather the choice of the party than of its leaders. He was elected in a full house on 27 May by a majority of 317 to 299 votes for Goulburn. He was re-elected in 1841, in spite of Peel's possession of a majority, which could easily have ousted him, and again in 1847 and 1852, on each occasion unanimously. He proved