Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood Dufferin and Ava

DUFFERIN AND AVA, FREDERICK TEMPLE HAMILTON-TEMPLE-BLACKWOOD, 1ST MARQUESS OF (1826-1902), British diplomatist, son of Price Blackwood, 4th Baron Dufferin, was born at Florence, Italy, on June 21, 1826. The Irish Blackwoods were of old Scottish stock, tracing their descent back to the 14th century. Frederick went to Eton (1839 43) and Christ Church, Oxford , where he took a pass school and was president of the Union. His father died in 1841, and the influence of his mother, Helena Selina Sheridan—one of three unusually accomplished sisters, the other two being the duch ess of Somerset and Mrs. Norton (q.v.)—was very marked on his mental development ; she lived till 1867 and is commemorated by the "Helen's Tower" erected by her son in her honour at Clande boye (the Irish seat of the Blackwoods) in 1861, and adorned with epigraphical verses written by Tennyson, Browning and others. Her son edited her Poems and Verses (1894). In 1846-48 Lord Dufferin was active in relieving the distress in Ireland due to the famine. He was a good landlord; in 1855 he already advocated compensation for disturbance and for improvements ; but while supporting reasonable reform, he demanded justice for the land owners. When Gladstone adopted Home Rule, Lord Dufferin re garded the new policy as fatal both to Ireland and to the United Kingdom, though, being then an ambassador, he took no public part in opposing it. In 1849 Dufferin was made a lord-in-waiting. In 1855 Lord John Russell took him as attache on his special mission to the Vienna Conference, and in 186o sent him as British representative on a joint commission of the powers appointed to inquire into the affairs of the Lebanon (Syria), where the massa cres of Christian Maronites by the Mussulman Druses had re sulted in the landing of a French force and the possibility of a French occupation. Lord Dufferin was associated with French, Russian, Prussian and Turkish colleagues, and the diplomatic position was delicate. At last it was agreed to place a Christian governor, subordinate to the Porte, over the Lebanon district, and to set up local administrative councils. In May 1861 the French forces departed, and Lord Dufferin was thanked for his services by the government. In 1862 he married Hariot, daughter of Cap tain A. Rowan Hamilton, of Killyleagh Castle, Down. He held successively the posts of under-secretary for India (1864-66) and under-secretary for war (1866) in Lord Palmerston's and earl Russell's ministries; and he was chancellor of the duchy of Lan caster, outside the cabinet, under Gladstone (1868-7 2 ). In 1871 he was created earl of Dufferin.

In 1872 he was appointed governor-general of Canada. He had already become known as a powerful and graceful orator, and a man of culture and political distinction ; and his abilities were brilliantly displayed in dealing with the problems of the newly united provinces of the Canadian Dominion. He admittedly strengthened and consolidated the imperial connection. Lord Dufferin left Canada in 1878, and in 1879 he was appointed by Lord Beaconsfield ambassador to Russia. In 188i he was trans ferred to Constantinople, where he was concerned in the negotia tions connected with the situation in Egypt caused by Arabi's revolt and the intervention of Great Britain. He was considerably helped by Turkish ineptitude, and by the accomplished fact of British military successes in Egypt, but his own diplomacy con tributed to secure freedom of action for Great Britain. From Oct. 1882 to May 1883 he was in Egypt as British commissioner to report on a scheme of reorganization. In 1884 he was appointed viceroy of India, succeeding Lord Ripon. Lord Dufferin, though agreeing in the main with Lord Ripon's native policy, gained the confidence of the Anglo-Indian community without producing any undesirable reaction. He initiated stable relations with Afghani stan, and settled the crisis with Russia arising out of the Panjdeh incident (1885), which led to the delimitation of the north-west frontier (1887). The annexation of Burma during his viceroyalty procured for him, on his resignation, the title of marquess of Duf ferin and Ava (1888) . His viceroyalty was also memorable for Lady Dufferin's work in providing better medical treatment for native women. In 1888 he was made ambassador at Rome, and in 1892 ambassador in Paris. He retired in 1896.

His last years, spent mainly at his Irish home, were clouded by the death of his eldest son, the earl of Ava, at Ladysmith in the Boer War (1900), and by business troubles due to his having ac cepted the chairmanship of the London and Globe Finance Cor poration, of which Whitaker Wright was managing director. He died on Feb. 12, 1902, and was succeeded in the title by his sec ond son Terence (1866-1918) . His fourth son Frederick (b. 1875) succeeded in 1918 and was Speaker of the Senate, Northern Ire land, in 1921. Killed in an air smash, July 21, 193o, he was succeeded by his son Basil, Lord Ava (b. 1909).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Lord

Dufferin's Letters from High Latitudes, anBibliography.-Lord Dufferin's Letters from High Latitudes, an account of a voyage to Iceland, was published in 1857 and has been re-issued in the Everyman's Library (Iwo). His Speeches and Addresses have been edited by H. Milton (1882) . The official Life of Lord Dufferin, by Sir Alfred Lyall, appeared in 1905. There are two Canadian histories of his Canadian administration, one by George Stewart (1878) , the other by W. Leggo (1878) . Lady Dufferin wrote Our Viceregal Life in India (1889) , and My Canadian Journal (1891) . Sir Spencer Walpole, Studies in Biography (1907). Sir Arthur Comyn Lyall, The Life of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, 2 vols. (1925).

LUC

IE (1821-1869), English woman of letters, daughter of John and Sarah Austin (q.v.), was born on June 24, 1821, and died in Egypt on July 14, 1869. Her chief play fellows as a child were her cousin, Henry Reeve, and John Stuart Mill, who lived next door in Queen Square, London. In 1834 the Austins went to Boulogne, and at table d'hote Lucie found herself next to Heinrich Heine. The poet and the little girl became fast friends, and years afterwards she contributed to Lord Houghton's Monographs Personal and Social a touching account of a renewal of their friendship when Heine lay dying in Paris. Her parents went to Malta in 1836, and Lucie Austin was left in England at school. She married in 184o Sir Alexander Duff-Gordon (181 1-7 2) . With her mother's beauty she had inherited her social gifts, and she gathered round her a brilliant circle of friends. George Meredith has analysed and described her extraordinary success as a hostess, and the process by which she reduced too ardent admirers to "happy crust-munching devotees." "In England, in her day," he says, "while health was with her, there was one house where men and women conversed. When that house perforce was closed, a light had gone out in our country." She went in 186o to the Cape of Good Hope, and later to Egypt, where she died. She had trans lated among other works Ancient Grecian Mythology (1839) from the German of Niebuhr; Mary Schweidler; The Amber Witch (1844) from the German of Wilhelm Meinhold; and Stella and Vanessa (185o) from the French of A. F. L. de Wailly. Her Letters from the Cape (1862-63) appeared in 1865, and were re printed in 192 7 ; and in her Letters from Egypt, edited by her mother, attracted much attention. Last Letters from Egypt contained a memoir by her daughter, Janet Ross (q.v.), Lady Duff-Gordon won the hearts of her Arab dependents and neigh bours. She doctored their sick and taught their children.

The Letters from Egypt were not originally published in a complete form. A fuller edition with an introduction by George Meredith, was edited in 1902 by Mrs. Janet Ross. See also Mrs. Ross's Three Generations of Englishwomen (1886) .