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GRANVILLE, GRANVILLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 362 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GRANVILLE, GRANVILLE . See also:GEORGE LEVESON-See also:GOWER, 2ND See also:EARL (1815–1891), See also:English statesman, eldest son of the 1st Earl Granville (1773–1846), by his See also:marriage with See also:Lady Harriet, daughter of the See also:duke of See also:Devonshire, was See also:born in See also:London on the 11th of May 1815. His See also:father, Granville Leveson-Gower, was a younger son of Granville, 2nd See also:Lord Gower and 1st See also:marquess of See also:Stafford (1720–1803), by his third wife; an See also:elder son by the second wife (a daughter of the 1st duke of See also:Bridgwater) became the 2nd marquess of Stafford, and his marriage with the daughter and heiress of the 17th earl of See also:Sutherland (countess of Sutherland in her own right) led to the merging of the Gower and Stafford titles in that of the See also:dukes of Sutherland (created 1833), who represent the elder See also:branch of the See also:family. As Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, the 1st Earl Granville (created See also:viscount in 1815 and earl in 1833) entered the See also:diplomatic service and was See also:ambassador at St See also:Petersburg (1804–1807) and at See also:Paris (1824–1841). He was a Liberal in politics and an intimate friend of See also:Canning. The See also:title of Earl Granville had been previously held in the See also:Carteret family. After being at See also:Eton and See also:Christ See also:Church, See also:Oxford, See also:young Lord Leveson went to Paris for a See also:short See also:time under his father, and in 1836 was returned to See also:parliament in the Whig See also:interest for See also:Morpeth. For a short time he was under-secretary for See also:foreign affairs in Lord See also:Melbourne's See also:ministry. In 1840 he married Lady See also:Acton (See also:Marie See also:Louise Pelline de See also:Dalberg, widow of See also:Sir See also:Richard Acton; see ACTON and DALBERG). From 1841 till his father's See also:death in 1846, when he succeeded to the title, he sat for See also:Lichfield. In the See also:House of Lords he signalized himself as a See also:Free Trader, and Lord See also:John See also:Russell made him See also:master of the buckhounds (1846). He proved a useful member of the party, and his See also:influence and amiable See also:character were valuable in all matters needing See also:diplomacy and See also:good breeding.

He became See also:

vice-See also:president of the See also:Board of See also:Trade in 1848, and took a prominent See also:part in promoting the See also:great See also:exhibition of 1851. In the latter See also:year, having already been admitted to the See also:cabinet, he succeeded See also:Palmerston at the foreign See also:office until Lord John Russell's defeat in 1852; and- when Lord See also:Aberdeen formed his See also:government at the end of the year, he became first president of the See also:council, and then See also:chancellor of the duchy of See also:Lancaster (1854). Under Lord Palmerston (1855) he was president of the council. His interest in See also:education (a subject associated with this office) led to his See also:election (1856) as chancellor of the London University,-a See also:post he held for See also:thirty-five years; and he was a prominent See also:champion of the See also:movement for the See also:admission of See also:women, and also of the teaching of See also:modern See also:languages. From 1855 Lord Granville led the Liberals in the Upper House, both in office, and, after Palmerston's resignation in 1858, in opposition. He went in 1856 as See also:head of the See also:British See also:mission to the See also:tsar's See also:coronation in See also:Moscow. In See also:June 1859 the See also:queen, embarrassed by the See also:rival ambitions of Palmerston and Russell, sent for him to See also:form a ministry, but he was unable to do so, and Palmerston again became See also:prime See also:minister, with Lord John as foreign secretary and Granville as president of the, council. In 186o his wife died, and to this heavy loss was shortly added that of his great See also:friends Lord and Lady Canning and of his See also:mother (1862); but he devoted himself to his See also:political See also:work, and retained his office when, on Palmerston's death in 1865, Lord Russell (now a peer) became prime minister and took over the leadership in the House of Lords. He was made Lord See also:Warden of the Cinque Ports, and in the same year married again, his second wife being See also:Miss See also:Castalia See also:Campbell. From 1866 to 1868 he was in opposition, but in See also:December 1868 he became colonial secretary in See also:Gladstone's first ministry. His tact was invaluable to the government in carrying the Irish Church and See also:Land Bills through the House of Lords. On the 27th of June 1870, on Lord See also:Clarendon's death, he was transferred to the foreign office.

Lord Granville's name is mainly associated with his career as foreign secretary (1870–1874 and 1880–1885); but the Liberal foreign policy of that See also:

period was not distinguished by enterprise or " backbone." Lord Granville personally was patient and polite, but his courteous and pacific methods were somewhat inadequate in dealing with the new situation then arising in See also:Europe and outside it; and foreign governments had little See also:scruple in creating embarrassments for Great See also:Britain, and relying on the disinclination of the Liberal leaders to take strong See also:measures. The Franco-See also:German See also:War of 187o See also:broke out within a few days of Lord Granville's quoting in the House of Lords (11th of See also:July) the curiously unprophetic See also:opinion of the permanent under-secretary (Mr See also:Hammond) that " he had never known so great a See also:lull in foreign affairs." See also:Russia took See also:advantage of the situation to denounce the See also:Black See also:Sea clauses of the treaty of Paris, and Lord Granville's protest was ineffectual. In 1871 an intermediate See also:zone between See also:Asiatic Russia and See also:Afghanistan was agreed on between him and See also:Shuvalov; but in 1873 Russia took See also:possession of See also:Khiva, within the neutral zone, and Lord Granville had to accept the aggression. When the Conservatives came into See also:power in 1874, his part for the next six years was to criticize Disraeli's " spirited " foreign policy, and to defend his own more pliant methods. He returned to the foreign office in 1880, only to find an See also:anti-British spirit developing in German policy which the temporizing methods of the Liberal leaders were generally powerless to See also:deal with. Lord Granville failed to realize in time the importance of the See also:Angra Pequena question in 1883–x884, and he was forced, somewhat ignominiously, to yield to See also:Bismarck over it. Whether in See also:Egypt, Afghanistan or See also:equatorial and See also:south-See also:west See also:Africa, British foreign policy was dominated by suavity rather than by the strength which commands respect. Finally, when Gladstone took up See also:Home See also:Rule for See also:Ireland, Lord Granville, whose mind was similarly receptive to new ideas, adhered to his See also:chief (1886), and gracefully gave way to Lord See also:Rosebery when the latter was preferred to the foreign office; the Liberals had now realized that they had lost ground in the See also:country by Lord Granville's occupancy of the post. He went to the Colonial Office for six months, and in July 1886 retired from public See also:life. He died in London on the 31st of See also:March 1891, being succeeded in the title by his son, born in 1872. Lord Granville was a See also:man of much See also:charm and many friendships, and an admirable after-See also:dinner See also:speaker. He spoke See also:French like a Parisian, and was essentially a diplomatist; but he has no See also:place in See also:history as a constructive statesman.

The life of Lord Granville (1905), by Lord Fitzmaurice, is full of interesting material for the history of the period, but being written by a Liberal, himself an under-secretary for foreign affairs, it explains rather than criticizes Lord Granville's work in that See also:

department. (H.

End of Article: GRANVILLE, GRANVILLE

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