Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/16

 the Merchant Shipping Act in 1875. It was merely temporary, and was to expire on 1 Oct. 1876. Stanhope, on his appointment to the board of trade, exerted himself to redeem the pledge made by the government to deal more thoroughly with the subject in a subsequent session, and the act of 1876, which was brought in at the beginning of that year, was drafted to a very considerable extent under Stanhope's direction and control. He made an important speech on the second reading of the bill (17 Feb. 1876), and took great interest in its further progress through the house, and in its subsequent administration by the board of trade.

On 6 April 1878 Stanhope was promoted to the more important post of under-secretary of state for India, which he held till the downfall of Lord Beaconsfield's administration at Easter 1880. At the llndia office he acquired the reputation of a strong and conscientious administrator. He was specially interested in questions of finance and complicated matters of exchange. He twice introduced the Indian budget into the House of Commons. On the first occasion, 13 Aug. 1878, he dealt with the new policy of a 'Famine Insurance Fund,' the abolition of the inland customs line, the equalisation of the salt duties, the abolition of the transit duties on sugar, and the amendment of the customs tariff. On the second occasion, 22 May 1879, he dealt chiefly with the measures taken to meet the large charges incurred in the Afghan war, and the loss by exchange; and he announced a determined effort to reduce Indian expenditure, in part by the employment of a larger number of natives in the civil service. On 9 Dec. 1878 he ably defended the policy of the Afghan war in the debate in the House of Commons on a vote of censure moved by Mr. Whitbread.

On Mr. Gladstone's accession to office at Easter 1880, Stanhope became a leader of the opposition, allying himself with the decorous tactics of Sir Stafford Northcote rather than with the guerilla warfare waged by Lord Randolph Churchill and the 'Fourth Party.' When Lord Salisbury became prime minister, for the first time, in the summer of 1885, Stanhope was appointed (24 June) vice-president of the committee of council on education, with a seat in the cabinet. This was the first instance in which a vice-president had been admitted to the cabinet at the time of his appointment. On the 19th of the following August he was appointed president of the board of trade, but resigned the office when Lord Salisbury made way for Mr. Gladstone's home-rule government (3 Feb. 1886). In July 1886, after Mr. Gladstone's defeat at the general election, Lord Salisbury became prime minister for the second time, and he appointed Stanhope secretary of state for the colonies. He received the seals of office at Osborne on 3 Aug. 1886. At the colonial office he was thoroughly in his element. He was imbued with a zeal for the idea of imperial federation, and issued the invitations for the colonial conference, which was held with success in 1888. In the readjustment of offices consequent on Lord Randolph Churchill's sudden resignation at Christmas 1886, Stanhope was called, much against his wish, to succeed William Henry Smith [q.v.] at the war office. He received the seals of his new office in January 1887.

Under Stanhope's auspices the modern army system, inaugurated by Lord Cardwell, was completed. Specific spheres of action were allotted to all regular and auxiliary troops on the outbreak of war, and the volunteers for the first time took a definite place in the scheme of national defence. The process of decentralising the stores formerly concentrated at Woolwich and distributing them to the various points of mobilisation was set on foot. Sites were chosen for a line of earthworks for the defence of London in case of invasion, and negotiations for their purchase were begun. In order to supply modern guns for service by sea and land, Stanhope called the private trade of the country to his aid by the promise of continuity of demand, encouraged great firms like Armstrong & Whitworth to lay down the necessary plant and tender for orders, and thus created a valuable additional source of warlike supply. Early in 1887 Stanhope also reorganised the manufacturing departments, and the system under which warlike stores were passed into the service. He abolished the office of surveyor-general of ordnance; transferred the great departments of ordnance, works, and supply to the staff of the commander-in-chief, and placed the establishment of the ordnance factories under a single civilian head. In connection with these changes, the services of supply and transport were reorganised, and the army service corps established.

In 1888 Stanhope, turning from departmental reorganisation, introduced and passed the Imperial Defence Act. The loan of two and a half millions obtained under this act, together with more than a million borne on the annual estimates, was devoted to strengthening the defences of the coaling stations commanding the great sea routes, to improving armaments of military ports at home and 