Iddesleigh, EARL OF,

Iddesleigh, EARL OF, Conservative statesman, better known as Sir Stafford Northcote, was born of a very old Devonshire family, on 27th October 1818, and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, gaining a first-class in classics. He began public life in 1842 as private secretary to Mr Gladstone, who was then President of the Board of Trade. In 1847 he was called to the bar, and four years later succeeded his grandfather as eighth baronet. He was secretary to the commissioners of the Great Exhibition, and for his services was created a C.B. In 1855 he entered parliament as Conservative member for Dudley, and in 1858 was elected for Stamford, in 1866 for North Devon. He sat for the latter constituency until 1885. He was Financial Secretary to the Treasury in Lord Derby's ministry of 1859, and in 1866 he was appointed by the same prime-minister President of the Board of Trade. He had already demonstrated his knowledge of finance by his treatise entitled Twenty Years of Financial Policy, published in 1862. While at the India Office in 1868 Sir Stafford Northcote was charged with the responsibility of the Abyssinian Expedition, which under his auspices was carried to a successful issue. In 1871 his old ally Mr Gladstone appointed him British Commissioner to the United States for the adjustment of the Alabama difficulty. Sir Stafford Northcote was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Mr Disraeli's ministry of 1874, and among other useful measures which he introduced, in addition to his budgets, was the Friendly Societies Bill of 1875. In the debates on eastern affairs and the Suez Canal he rendered signal service to the government. When Mr Disraeli went to the Upper House Sir Stafford succeeded to the leadership in the Commons, and his task was very arduous in connection with the Irish debates. Upon the death of Lord Beaconsfield he became joint leader of the Conservative party with the Marquis of Salisbury. His management of the Tories in the Lower House during several years of opposition elicited warm eulogiums. When Lord Salisbury came into power in 1885 Sir Stafford Northcote was raised to the peerage, under the title of Earl of Iddesleigh and Viscount St Cyres, and was appointed First Lord of the Treasury. He sat as chairman of the committee appointed to inquire into the depression of trade. In 1886 he was the recipient of a handsome testimonial, subscribed by members of both political parties. In Lord Salisbury's second ministry Lord Iddesleigh was Foreign Secretary; but he resigned this post early in January 1887. On the 12th of the same month he died very suddenly at the premier's official residence in Downing Street. Lord Iddesleigh was elected Lord Rector of Edinburgh University in 1883, and during his tenure of office delivered an excellent address to the students on 'Desultory Reading.' See his collected Lectures and Essays (1887), and the Life by Andrew Lang (1890).