Carnarvon

Carnarvon, HENRY HOWARD MOLYNEUX HERBERT, EARL OF, born in 1831, from Eton passed to Christ Church, Oxford, where in 1852 he took a first-class in classics. He had succeeded his father as fourth earl in 1849, so now entered the Upper House as a Conservative, and in 1866 accepted from Lord Derby the office of Colonial Secretary. As such he had moved the second reading of an important bill for the confederation of the British North American colonies, when, with the future Marquis of Salisbury, he resigned office upon the Reform Bill of 1867, which he regarded as democratic and dangerous. On Disraeli's return to power in 1874, Lord Carnarvon resumed office as Colonial Secretary, once more, however, to resign in January 1878 in consequence of the despatch of the British fleet to the Dardanelles. In 1885-86 he was Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and his negotiations with Mr Parnell gave rise, two years later, to controversy. Carnarvon, who died 28th June 1890, was author of The Druses of Mount Lebanon (1860), Reminiscences of Athens and the Morea (1869), and translations of the Agamemnon (1879), the Odyssey (1886), and the Prometheus Vinctus (1893).