HARCOURT, Sm William George Granville Venables Vernon, English statesman : b. York, 14 Oct. 1827; d. Nuneham, Oxfordshire, 1 Oct. 1904. He was the second son of the Rev. William Vernon Harcourt, canon of York, and was graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, with high honors in 1851, receiving the degree of M.A. He then studied law, being called to the bar in 1854, and in 1866 he became queen's counsel. In 1859 he stood for the Kirkcaldy Burghs as an Independent Liberal, but was narrowly de feated. During these years he wrote largely for the Saturday Review and other journals, and in 1861 began to attract attention by a series of letters on international law and kin dred subjects contributed to The Times over the signature of (Historicus.° These were continued intermittently till 1876. In the early years he dealt with the problems arising out of the American Civil War. His aim was to deny belligerent rights to the Confederates, and he strongly influenced public opinion in favor of the North. A series of these letters was pub lished under the title Neutrality.* In 1868 he entered Parliament as Liberal mem ber for Oxford, serving his constituents till 1880, when he was defeated for re-election. He was, however, selected to represent Derby and continued in that position until 1895, when, having been defeated at the general election, he found a seat in West Monmouthshire. In 1869 he was elected Whewell professor of interna tional law at Cambridge. He was appointed solicitor-general in 1873, but held the office only three months, and in the same year was knighted by the queen. Although he had not supported Mr. Gladstone during his retirement from power, yet upon that statesman's return to the office of Prime Minister in 1880, he was appointed Secretary of State for the home de partment, continuing in that capacity until the Liberal party went out of power in 1885. During this Parliament his name became famous through his connection with the Ground Game Act (1880), the Arms (Ireland) Act (1881), and the Explosives Act (1883), the last one being pushed through all its stages in the shortest time on record. He was also con spicuous for his attacks on the Nationalist leaders; but on the conversion of Gladstone to Home Rule he followed his leader in yielding to the Irish demands. In 1884 his bill for uni fying the municipal administration of London was introduced. Upon the return of the Liberals to power in 1886 he was made Chan cellor of the Exchequer, holding that position only a short time as the fortunes of politics again took him from office. He offered strenuous op position to the cession of Heligoland to Ger many. Again in 1892 he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, acting as such until 1895. It was during this term, in 1894, that he intro duced and carried his famous budget, in which the income tax became more graduated and the duties* on real and personal property were equalized, and imposed on an ascending scale. Upon Gladstone's retirement in 1894, Harcourt was looked upon as his successor, but Queen Victoria on her own initiative sent for Lord Rosehery and asked him to form a government. Sir William then became leader of the Liberals in the House of Commons, and it became evident that he and the new Prime Minister did not agree as to party policy, and, though their differences were from time to time patched up, it was clear in his defeat at Derby in 1895 that the was divided on many issues, and the effect was then seen of Sir Williams Local Veto Bill, not only in the utter rout of the Liberals, but in the setback given to temperance legislation. From 1895 to
1900 he represented West Monmouthshire in the House of Commons, but the task of leader ship of the Liberal party became particularly onerous because of the tendency of the various sections to break away from control. In the session of 1896, against the overwhelming Unionist majority, he scored several successes, but was severely criticised by his own party for concurring in the majority report of the special committee, of which he was a member, ap pointed in 1897 to investigate the Jamieson Raid and the British South Africa Company. The internal dissensions in the Cabinet became more marked as time went on, and the divided coun sels manifest among the leaders of the Liberals led to his decision to retire from. the leadership of the party on the floor of the House of Com mons, and in 1898 with John Morley he retired from active work and thereafter sat as a pri vate member. As a private member, he no longer restrained his attacks on the govern ment, paying not the least deference to Liberal imperialism. He actively opposed the govern ment's policy with regard to the sinking fund, their attitude in the negotiations with the Trans vaal, and the financing of the South African War, and throughout the war he lost no oppor tunity in criticising the South African develop ments. In 1898-1900 he became prominent, both on the platform and in his letters to The Times, in advocating active measures against ritualistc practices in the Church of England. Thegen eral election of 1900 found him full of fight, favoring the official Liberal program as dis tinct from that of the imperialist section which favored the return of Lord Rosebery to the leadership. In his last years he opposed with characteristic energy Chamberlain's tariff re form proposals. Sir William was a Liberal after the type of Cobden and Gladstone, and viewed with intense dislike the policy of ex pansion and imperialistic adventure that became popular with an influential section of his party in his late years. He was great as a parlia mentary gladiator. Though his speeches were in the main carefully prepared and delivered from copious notes in reply he was very effec tive, a hard hitter, who was always brimful of witty and telling phrases, and on occasion, the master of a prose style at once flexible and sinuous. Sir William Harcourt married in 1859 Lady Therese Lewis, widow of Sir George Cornwall Lewis, and daughter of T. H. Lister, and again in 1876 Mrs. Elizabeth Ives, widow of J. P. Ives, and daughter of John Lothrop Motley, the historian, and at one time United States Minister in London. His son Lewis by his first wife was Colonial Secretary in the Asquith Cabinet, 1910-15, Commissioner of Works in the coalition ministry 1915-16, and was raised to the peerage on the accession of Lloyd George to power in December 1916.