DALLING AND BULWER, WILLIAM HENRY LYTTON EARLE BULWER, BARON (1801-1872), known as Sir Henry Bulwer, English diplomatist and author, the son of General William Earle Bulwer and his wife Elizabeth Barbara Lytton was born in London on Feb. 13, 1801. His younger brother Edward Bulwer, Baron Lytton, is separately noticed.
Henry Bulwer was educated at Harrow, under Dr. George But ler, and at Trinity and Downing Colleges, Cambridge. In 1824 he went to the Morea, as emissary of the Greek committee then sitting in London, with L80,000 sterling for the use of Prince Mavrocordato and his colleagues. This he describes in An Autumn in Greece (1826) . In the meantime he had, on Oct. 19, 1825, been gazetted as a cornet in the 2nd Life Guards, but finally left the army for the diplomatic service (Jan. 1, 1829). His first diplomatic appointment was as attache in Berlin, and he held later similar posts in Vienna (1830), and The Hague (1831). At the beginning of the Belgian revolution (August to October 1830) Bulwer was despatched to Belgium to watch and report on events, and sent home a series of despatches for which he received the congratulations of the cabinet. Shortly before the carrying of the first Reform Bill Bulwer was returned to parliament for Wilton, and later, in 1831 and 1832 as M.P. for Coventry. After two years' absence he was again returned in 1834 as member for Marylebone, and won considerable distinction as a debater. At this time he published France—Literary, Social and Political ( 2 vols. 1834), a work completed in 1836 by two further volumes entitled The Monarchy of the Middle Classes.
While on one of his many visits to Paris from Brussels, he ob tained his nomination as secretary of embassy at Constantinople. The first task entrusted to him by Lord Ponsonby was the negotia tion of a commercial treaty, which had the double object of re moving the intolerable conditions which hampered British trade with Turkey, and of dealing a blow at the power of Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, by shattering the system of monopolies on which it was largely based. In this difficult task Bulwer was helped by the hatred of Sultan Mahmed II. for Mehemet Ali, but the treaty was none the less a remarkable proof of his diplomatic skill. Shortly afterwards Bulwer was nominated secretary of embassy at St. Petersburg, but, before he could take up the appointment, was nominated to Paris in the same capacity (June, 1839).
On Nov. 14, 1843 he was appointed ambassador at the court of the young Spanish queen Isabella II. Upon his arrival at Madrid he was chosen arbitrator between Spain and Morocco, and his mediation led to the signature of the treaty of 1844. In 1846 a much more formidable difficulty arose over the question of the "Spanish Marriages," the dynastic intrigue which led up to the February revolution in Paris. The explosion which took place at Paris was answered a month later at Madrid by a similar out break. Marshal Narvaez thereupon assumed the dictatorship and wreaked upon the insurgents a series of reprisals whose excessive severities the British ambassador did his utmost to mitigate. When at last Narvaez summarily suppressed the constitutional guaran tees Bulwer sent a formal protest in the name of England. Nar vaez's counterstroke was the denunciation of the English ambas sador as an accomplice in the conspiracies of the Progressistas, and in spite of Bulwer's diplomatic position he was, on June 12, sum marily required to quit Madrid within twenty-four hours. Two days later M. Isturitz, the Spanish ambassador in London returned to Madrid. Diplomatic relations were not restored between the two countries until a formal apology, dictated by Lord Palmerston, had been signed by the prime minister of Queen Isabella. Bulwer was gazetted a K.C.B., and received the formal approbation of the ministry and the thanks of both houses of parliament.
Within a year of his return Sir Henry Bulwer married the Hon. Georgiana Charlotte Mary Wellesley, youngest daughter of the 1st Baron Cowley. On April 27, 1849 he was nominated am bassador at Washington. There his principal success was the com pact known as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (q.v.), ratified in May 1850, pledging the contracting governments to respect the neu trality of the meditated ship canal through Central America. After three years in Washington, Bulwer spent three years (1852– 55) as minister plenipotentiary at the court of the grand duke of Tuscany at Florence. From May 1858 to Aug. 1865 he was ambassador extraordinary to the Ottoman Porte at Constantinople. He returned to England in 1865 and retired with a pension.
On Nov. 17, 1868 he was elected M.P. for Tamworth, and re tained his seat until he was raised to the peerage on March 21, 1871, with the title of Baron Dalling and Bulwer of Wood Dalling in the country of Norfolk. He died on May 23, 1872.