Halifax, GEORGE SAVILE, MARQUIS OF, statesman, was born in the year 1633. For the share he took in bringing about the Restoration he was created a viscount in 1668. In 1675 he opposed Danby's Test Bill, and in 1679 by a display of extraordinary oratory procured the rejection of the Exclusion Bill. Three years later he was created a marquis, and made Lord Privy Seal. On the accession of James II. he became president of the council, but was dismissed in 1685 for his opposition to the repeal of the Test Act and the Habeas Corpus Act. He was one of the three commissioners appointed by James II. to treat with William of Orange after he landed in England. After the flight of James, Halifax tendered his allegiance to William III., and under him resumed the office of Lord Privy Seal; but, subsequently joining the opposition, he resigned his post in 1689. He died 20th April 1695. Shaftesbury was the sole rival as an orator of this
Jotham of piercing wit and pregnant thought,
Endued by nature and by learning taught
To move assemblies.—DRYDEN'S Absalom and Achitophei.
As a minister he was a failure, owing to his frequent changes of side; yet he was not a fickle party-man, but rather a philosophic statesman, who, in order to serve his country, was compelled by the excesses of party to adopt this course—such at least is the defence he lays down in his On the Character of a Trimmer. The poet-musician Henry Carey (q.v.) is believed to have been his natural son. See his Life and Letters, by H. C. Foxcroft (1898).