ST. ALDWYN, MICHAEL EDWARD HICKS BEACH, 1ST EARL (1837-1916), English statesman, son of Sir Michael Hicks Beach, 8th Bart., whom he succeeded in 1854, was born in London on Oct. 23, 1837, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He entered parliament as Conservative M.P. for East Gloucestershire in 1864, and held various offices between 1868 and 1880. In 1885 he was elected for West Bristol, and the Conservative party having returned to power, became chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons. After Gladstone's brief Home Rule ministry in 1886 he entered Lord Salisbury's next cabinet again as Irish secretary, making way for Lord Randolph Churchill as leader of the House; but his eyesight compelled him to resign in 1887 and meanwhile Goschen replaced Lord Randolph as chancellor of the exchequer. From 1888 to 1892 Sir Michael Hicks Beach returned to active work as president of the Board of Trade, and in 1895—Goschen being transferred to the Admiralty—he again became chancellor of the exchequer. In 1899 he lowered the fixed charge for the National Debt from 25 to 23 millions—a reduction imperatively required, apart from other reasons, by the difficulties found in redeeming Consols at their then inflated price. When compelled to find
means for financing the war in South Africa, he insisted on com bining the raising of loans with the imposition of fresh taxation; and besides raising the income-tax each year, up to is. 3d. in 1902, he introduced taxes on sugar and exported coal (1901), and in 19o2 proposed the reimposition of the registration duty on corn and flour which had been abolished in 1869 by Lowe. On Lord Salisbury's retirement in 19o2 Sir Michael Hicks Beach also left the Government. He accepted the chairmanship of the Royal Commission on Ritualistic Practices in the Church, and he did valuable work as an arbitrator; he was a firm advocate of free trade and by his campaign against Joseph Chamberlain's protec tionist programme did much to prevent Balfour from committing his party to that policy. When Balfour resigned in 19o5 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount St. Aldwyn, (1906), and was created an earl in 1915. He died in London on April 3o, 1916.