NORTHCOTE, Sir STAFFORD HENRY, b. London. 1818; educated at Eton, and Oxford university, graduating at Balliol college in 1839 with high honors. His first position in political life was that of private secretary to Mr. Gladstone, when the latter was president of the board of trade. In 1847 he was called to the bar and was made legal secretary to the board of trade. In 1851 he succeeded to the family title and estates as eighth baronet of the line. For the next three years he was occupied in exam ining the state of the English civil service, and the report made by him and his colleague sir C. E. Trevelyan, led to the establishment of the present system of competitive exami nations. lie was member of parliament from Dudley and Stamford from 1855-66. and was then returned from North Devon, which place he has since represented in the inter est of the conservative party. He was president of the board of trade (1866-67), and in
1867 was made secretary of state for India. He was appointed a member of the joint high commission which signed the treaty of Washington on May 8, 1871. On the forma tion of Disraeli's cabinet in 1374, sir Stafford Northcote was made chancellor of the exchequer, and when his leader was elevated to the peerage untie.• the title of lord Beaconsfield, Northcote became himself the leader of the house. lie is a magistrate and deputy-lieut. of Devonshire, a fellow of the royal society, and has received from Oxford the honorary title of ac.L. He has published a number of political and' financial pant. phlets such as Twenty Years of Fill-4116a Pdieg, Samoa,ry of the chityfinancial measures passed between 1842 and 1861, with a table of Budgets (London, 1862).
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