now, perhaps, best known. Leaving the world of Politics on one side, he finds ample scope for his unique powers in furthering God's Kingdom, by helping on the eternal interests of humanity. An Evangelical by conviction he identifies himself with all Christian effort, whether it comes from the Church of England or Protestant Dissent. As a proof that he is in no way narrow in his appreciation of excellence, we may state that his lordship is responsible for the appointment of Mr. Hugh Reginald Haweis to S. James', Westmoreland Street, Marylebone, as well as that of the late Rev. F. D. Maurice, to the Chapel in Vere Street, both those appointments were in his gift when First Commissioner of Works. Although not sharing the views of those eloquent preachers, Lord Mount-Temple considered it a duty to enable Broad Church Teaching to be uttered in two of the Pulpits of London. The Conferences his lordship has convened at delightful Broadlands, mark him as one of those whose business it is to strive to promote Christian union amongst all earnest men, whatever their denomination. His meetings at Southampton have also been signally blessed; men being gathered together preeminent in force and piety, who sincerely coalesced as to the teaching of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Ghost in deepening the spiritual life, although they might on other occasions differ widely about several important doctrines and practices.

On the death of the fifth Earl Cowper, her first husband, the mother of Lord Mount-Temple married the illustrious Viscount Palmerston. In his will there was a clause desiring that the surname Temple should be used in addition to and after that of Cowper. In November, 1872, Her Majesty's license was obtained, constituting the Honourable William Cowper, William Cowper-Temple. In 1880, the Queen bestowed upon his lordship the title of Lord MountTemple. As step-son of Lord Palmerston, Lord MountTemple became his heir, the former dying childless. He consequently inherited Broadlands and the other estates of Lord Palmerston.

Lord Mount-Temple married in 1852, Georgine, sister of Lord Tollemache of Helmingham.

*Lord Mount-Temple was created a Peer in the same batch, as Viscount Sherbrooke and Lord Brabourne, on the formation of Mr. Gladstone's Ministry.

VISCOUNT MIDLETON.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM BRODRICK, Eighth Viscount Midleton, Baron Brodrick (Ireland), and Baron Brodrick (Great Britain), is the eldest son of William John, seventh Viscount, and his second wife and cousin, the Honourable Harriet Brodrick. His lordship was born at Castle Rising, Norfolk, on January 6th, 1830, and was educated at Eton, entering that historic seminary at the age of thirteen. He afterwards proceeded to Balliol College, Oxford, taking his B.A. degree with Second Class Honours in 1848. For some time his lordship travelled on the Continent, and on his return was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn. This was in 1855, and for some years Lord Midleton (then the Hon. William Brodrick) practised at the Chancery and Parliamentary Bars, also going the Home (now the South-Eastern) Circuit. Unlike most other noblemen and gentlemen who have merely been members of any of the Inns of Court in an ornamental" sense, the noble subject of our sketch worked hard, and is a sound and safe lawyer. In 1865 he became a candidate in the Conservative interest for the Surrey County (Eastern division), but after a close contest he was unsuccessful. was returned for Mid-Surrey, in 1868, however, which seat he retained until the demise of his father, the seventh Viscount, when he succeeded to the title and took his seat in the Upper House. As a representative of the great Conservative Party, Viscount Midleton has attained to considerable reputation in Parliament. His career in the Lower House was shortened through the death of his father, and it is in the House of Lords that his puissance as a legislator and debater has been most apparent. As a legislator, Viscount Midleton is the father of the Marriages Law (Ireland) Act, 1873, and the Infants' Protection Act, 1876. In a telling speech Lord Midleton moved the rejection of the Rock of Cashel Bill in 1872, and the rejection of the Metropolitan Local Government Bill in 1879. His lordship also took a prominent part in the historical debates on the Irish Church and Land Bills of 1869 and 1870; the Agricultural Holdings Bill, 1876; the debates on the Empress of India (Title), 1877; Hours of Sitting of House of Lords, 1878-79; Afghan Campaign, 1879; Irish

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Middle Schools Act, 1879; Irish Loans Bill, 1880; Noxious Vapours Bill, 1880-81; and the Protection to Life and Property Bill (Ireland), 1881.

There can be no doubt that Viscount Midleton's skill as a debater no less than his capacity as a legislator, may in great measure be attributed to his legal training and his. practice at both the Chancery and Common Law Bars. A noble lord once stated to the writer of this memoirette, that "Lord Midleton's 'points' were the artillery of the House of Peers," meaning to imply that his lordship's arguments not only "told" but were looked upon as the heavy ordnance of what some call an unpractical assembly. Those who have heard or perused any of Viscount Midleton's speeches will acquit the House of Lords of this charge as long as his lordship remains a member, for no measures could be of a more practical, and, with regard to the Infants' Protection Act of a more thoughtful character. His dignified and logical protests against the Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Irish Church whilst in the House of Commons, were also of a noteworthy kind, for Lord Midleton is not a statesman to give a captious opposition to a measure. Founded on high principles, acute feeling, and a philosophically historical knowledge of the subject, he demonstrated that the measure was a measure of spoliation, a political "bid," an ad captandum device. What the Bishops of Derry and Peterborough lacked in their remarkable declamatory speeches in the House of Lords, Viscount Midleton supplied. What could be more to the point than the following passages? After the then Attorney-General for Ireland had defended the measure of his chief, his lordship (then Mr. Brodrick) thus proceeded :

"I think the last speaker* has wholly failed to prove that the Government are about to deal with the Church fairly in this matter of glebe-houses and glebes. Three-fourths, at least, of the glebe-houses in Ireland have been built since the Act of Union, and as to the glebes themselves, fivesixths of them have been granted since the Reformation. Some of them have been granted out of private endowments, and others, as Dr. Maziere Brady has shown, out of the confiscated abbey-lands, and hardly any portion of them except the abbey-lands have ever been in the possession of the Roman Catholic Church. Nearly all the glebe

*The Attorney-General for Ireland.

houses have been built either at the expense of the incumbent, or with money borrowed from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. They were built by the then incumbents, on the faith of one of the most solemn engagements, and of a most indefeasible title. They were built on the faith of the Act of Union, which guaranteed that the Church of England and the Church of Ireland should be one and indivisible; and which also guaranteed to the Church of Ireland the possession of her property and her income. Prior to 1834 there was, no doubt, a grant from the Imperial Exchequer, but I shall be able to show that it bears a very small proportion to the total cost of the fabrics. I will take two instances in support of this statement, my figures being derived from a work written by my friend, Dr. Brady. The first is that of a living worth £700 per annum in the gross, and which, probably, produces a net income of between £500 and £600. Since the year 1721 there has been £3,540 spent on the glebe house, of which some £2,000 was contributed from the private moneys of the original builder; £92 from public sources; and the remainder borrowed from the Ecclesiastical Commissions since 1834. Surrounding the glebe-house was a glebe of some ten acres, which was valuable solely in consequence of the residence and the improvements effected by the various incumbents of the parish. Now, is the course now proposed to be taken just or fair to the successors of those godly men, who thought they were doing the Church a service when they spent their money on an inheritance which could not descend to their own families?

"The incumbents have been induced, on the faith of Acts of Parliament, to lay out money on property which could become their own, and yet their successors are to be deprived of it by a Bill which, two short years ago, no human being could have imagined would pass through the Parliament of Great Britain. I am, of course, bound to accept the statement of Mr. Gladstone that he has been misunderstood on this point, although it is a practical exemplification of the truth of Talleyrand's saying, that words were intended not to express thoughts but to conceal them. If all these projects had been openly avowed-and I do not say they have been intentionally concealed-before the General Election, the Bill which South Lancashire was unable to swallow would, in my conviction, have proved

too nauseous and too unbearable, even for the seasoned palate of Greenwich."

Lord Midleton's speeches on the Irish Land Bill were equally effective, but space precludes our quoting from his contributions to the Parliamentary debates of that wellremembered year. His lordship is also well-known as a writer, being the author of the archæological paper on the "History and Antiquities of Surrey," in "Bentley," and the "Noxious Gases Bill" in the Nineteenth Century (Nov. 1879).

The noble subject of our sketch is a Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey; a Magistrate for the counties of Surrey and Cork; High Steward of Kingston-on-Thames (to which he was unanimously elected in 1875); and President of the Surrey Lay and Clerical Association (1871-81). In_1876 Viscount Midleton was appointed Member of the Royal Commission on Noxious Vapours, serving upon it from 1876-78. He was also appointed Member of the Royal Commission on Sale and Exchange of Ecclesiastical Benefices (1878-79).

Viscount Midleton married in October, 1853, the Honorable Augusta Mary, third daughter of Thomas Francis, First Lord Cottesloe, by whom he has had a family of three sons and five daughters.