Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/81

 gave the word, and great was the company of the preachers."

He was not a Lawson at all, but the representative of an old Yorkshire family who had become connected with the county of Cumberland through marriage with Miss Hartley, whose sister was the wife of the then owner of Bray ton. Old Wilfrid Lawson, having no descendants, left his estates and name to his godson and nephew by affinity,—the father of the present baronet. He—the late Sir Wilfrid—married a Miss Graham of Netherby, the sister of Sir James Graham, the well-known Minister of state, who was consequently the member for Carlisle's uncle. Sir Wilfrid, senior, was a stanch Liberal, who did not permit family connections to hamper him in the discharge of his public duties. When Sir James Graham vacillated in his allegiance to Liberalism, his brother-in-law, who was universally esteemed for his many virtues, set an example to the constituency of fidelity to principle by being among the first to record his vote against him. The poll was then open and of two days' duration, and the consequence was that the Minister lost his seat. On repentance only was he permitted to resume it.

The witty champion of the Permissive Bill was born in the year 1829 at Brayton Hall, Aspatria, Cumberland. He succeeded to the family estates and the baronetcy—which has existed, with a break, for about two centuries—on the death of his father in 1867. His education was, for a youth of his social status, of a very limited kind. He was never either at a public school or at college; and, if you ask him what instruction he received, he replies, with evident satisfaction,