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LYTTON, EDWARD ROBERT

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 188 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LYTTON, See also:EDWARD See also:ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON, 1ST See also:EARL OF (1831-1891), See also:English diplomatist and poet, was the only son of the 1st See also:Baron Lytton. He was See also:born in See also:Hertford See also:Street, Mayfair, on the 8th of See also:November 1831. ' Robert Lytton and his See also:sister were brought up as See also:children principally by a See also:Miss See also:Green. In 184o the boy was sent to a school at See also:Twickenham, in 1842 to another at See also:Brighton, and in 1845 to See also:Harrow. From his earliest childhood Lytton read voraciously and wrote copiously, quickly developing a genuine and intense love of literature anda remarkable facility of expression. In 1849 he See also:left Harrow and studied for a See also:year at See also:Bonn with an English See also:tutor, and on his return with another tutor in See also:England. In 185o he entered the See also:diplomatic service as unpaid attache to his See also:uncle, See also:Sir See also:Henry Bulwer, who was then See also:minister at See also:Washington. His advance in the diplomatic service was continuous, his successive appointments being: as second secretary—1852, See also:Florence; 1854, See also:Paris; 1857, The See also:Hague; 1859, See also:Vienna; as first secretary or secretary of See also:legation—1863, See also:Copenhagen; 1864, See also:Athens; 1865, See also:Lisbon; 1868, See also:Madrid; 1868, Vienna; 1873, Paris; as minister—1875, Lisbon. In 1887 he was appointed to succeed See also:Lord See also:Lyons as See also:ambassador at Paris, and held that See also:office until his See also:death in 1891. This rapid promotion from one See also:European See also:court to another indicates the esteem in which Lytton was held by successive See also:foreign secretaries. In 1864, immediately before taking up his See also:appointment at Athens, he married Edith,.daughter of Edward See also:Villiers, See also:brother of the earl of See also:Clarendon, and in 1873, upon the death of his See also:father, he succeeded to the See also:peerage and the. See also:estate of Knebworth in See also:Hertfordshire. See also:Early in 1875 Lord Lytton declined an offer of appointment as See also:governor of See also:Madras, and in November of that year he was nominated governor-See also:general of See also:India by Disraeli.

The moment was See also:

critical in the See also:history of India. In Central See also:Asia the advance of See also:Russia had continued so steadily and so rapidly that Shere All, the See also:amir of See also:Afghanistan, had determined to seek safety as the See also:vassal of the See also:tsar. Lytton went out to India with See also:express instructions from the See also:British go-ernment to recover the friendship of the amir if possible, and if not so to arrange matters on the See also:north-See also:west frontier as to be able to be indifferent to his hostility. For eighteen months Lytton and his See also:council made every effort to conciliate the friendship of the amir, but when a See also:Russian See also:agent was established at See also:Kabul, while the See also:mission of Sir See also:Neville See also:Chamberlain was forcibly denied entrance into the amir's dominions, no choice was left between acknowledging the right of a subsidized ally of See also:Great See also:Britain to See also:place himself within Russian See also:control and depriving him of the office which he owed to British patronage and assistance. The inevitable See also:war began in November 1878, and by the See also:close of that year the forces prepared by Lytton for that purpose had achieved their task with extraordinary accuracy and See also:economy. Shere All fled from Kabul, and shortly afterwards died, and once more it See also:fell to the See also:Indian See also:government to make See also:provision for the future of Afghanistan. By the treaty of See also:Gandamak in May 1879 Yakub See also:Khan, a son of Shere See also:Ali, was recognized as amir, the See also:main conditions agreed upon being that the districts of Kuram, Pishin and See also:Sibi should be " assigned " to British See also:administration, and the Khyber and other passes be under British control; that there should be a permanent British See also:Resident at Kabul, and that the amir should be subsidized in an amount to be afterwards determined upon. The endeavour of the Indian government was to leave the See also:internal administration of Afghanistan as little affected as possible, but considerable See also:risk was run in trusting so much, and especially the safety of a British See also:envoy, to the See also:power and the See also:goodwill of Yakub Khan. Sir See also:Louis See also:Cavagnari, the British envoy entered Kabul at the end of See also:July, and was, with his See also:staff, massacred in the rising which took place on the 3rd of See also:September. The war of 1879-8o immediately began, with the occupation of See also:Kandahar by See also:Stewart and the advance upon Kabul by See also:Roberts, and the military operations which followed were not concluded when Lytton resigned his office in See also:April 1880. A See also:complete See also:account of Lytton's viceroyalty, and a lucid exposition of the principles of his government and the main outlines of his policy, may be found in Lord Lytton's Indian Administration, by his daughter, See also:Lady See also:Betty See also:Balfour (See also:London, 1899). The frontier policy which he adopted, after the method of a friendly and See also:united Afghanistan under Yakub Khan had been tried and had failed, was that the Afghan See also:kingdom should be destroyed.

The See also:

province of Kandahar was to be occupied by Great Britain, and administered by a vassal See also:chief, Shere Ali Khan, who was appointed " Wali " with a See also:solemn See also:guarantee of British support (unconditionally withdrawn by the government succeeding Lytton's). The other points of the Indian frontier were to be made as secure as possible, and the provinces of Kabul and See also:Herat were to be left absolutely to their own devices. In See also:con-sequence of what had been said of Lytton by the leaders of the See also:parliamentary opposition in England, it was impossible for him to retain his office under a government formed by them, and heaccordingly resigned at the same See also:time as the See also:Beaconsfield See also:ministry. This See also:part of his policy was thereupon revoked. Abdur Rahman, proving himself the strongest of the claimants to the See also:throne left vacant by Yakub Khan's deposition, became amir as the subsidized ally of the Indian government. The two most considerable events of Lytton's viceroyalty, besides the Afghan See also:wars, were the See also:assumption by See also:Queen See also:Victoria of the See also:title of empress of India on the 1st of See also:January 1877, and the See also:famine which prevailed in various parts of India in 1876-78. He satisfied himself that periodical famines must be expected in Indian history, and that See also:constant preparation during years of See also:comparative prosperity was the only See also:condition whereby their destructiveness could be modified.. Accordingly he obtained the appointment of the famine See also:commission of 1878, to inquire, upon lines laid down by him, into available means of mitigation. Their See also:report, made in 188o, is the See also:foundation of the later See also:system of See also:irrigation, development of communications, and " famine See also:insurance." The equalization and reduction of the See also:salt See also:duty were effected, and the abolition of the See also:cotton duty commenced, during Lytton's See also:term of office, and the system of Indian See also:finance profoundly modified. by decentralization and the regulation of provincial responsibility, in all which matters Lytton enthusiastically supported Sir See also:John See also:Strachey, the See also:financial member of his, council. Upon Lytton's resignation in 188o an earldom was conferred upon him in recognition of his services as See also:viceroy. He lived at Knebworth until 1887, in which year he was appointed to succeed Lord Lyons as ambassador at Paris. He died at Paris on the 24th of November, 1891, of a See also:clot of See also:blood in the See also:heart, when apparently recovering from a serious illness.

He was succeeded by his son (b. 1876) as 2nd earl. Lytton is probably, better known as a poet—under the See also:

pen-name of " See also:Owen See also:Meredith "—than as a statesman. The See also:list of his published See also:works is as follows: Clytemnestra, and other Poems, 1855; The Wanderer, 1858; Lucile, 186o; Serbski Pesme, or See also:National Songs of See also:Servia, 1861, Tannhkuser See also:art collaboration with Mr See also:Julian Fane), 1861; See also:Chronicles and Characters, 1867; Orval, or The See also:Fool of Time, 1868; Fables in See also:Song (2 vols.), 1874; Glenaveril, or The Metamorphoses, 1885; After See also:Paradise, or the Legends of See also:Exile, and other Poems, 1887; Marah, 1892; See also:King See also:Poppy, 1892. The two last-mentioned volumes were published posthumously. A few previously unpublished pieces are included in a See also:volume of Selections,published, with an introduction by Lady Betty Balfour, in 1894. His metrical See also:style was easy and copious, but not precise. It often gives the impression of having been produced with facility,, because the flow of his thought carried him along, and of not having undergone prolonged or See also:minute See also:polish. It was frequently suggestive of the See also:work of other poets, especially in his earlier productions. The friend who wrote the inscription for the See also:monument to be erected to him at St See also:Paul's described him as " a poet of many styles, each the expression of his habitual thoughts." Lucile, a novel in See also:verse, presents a romantic style and considerable wit; and Glenaveril, which also contains many passages of great beauty and much poetic thought, has much of the same, narrative See also:character. Besides his volumes of See also:poetry, Lytton published in 1883 two volumes of a See also:biography of his father. The second of these contains the beginning of the See also:elder Lytton's unfinished novel, Greville, and his See also:life is brought down only to the year 1832, when he was twenty-six years of See also:age, so that the, completion of the See also:book upon the same See also:scale would have required at least four more volumes.

The executrix of Lytton's See also:

mother See also:chose to consider that the publication was injurious to that lady's memory, and issued a volume purporting to contain Bulwer-Lytton's letters to his wife. This Lytton suppressed by See also:injunction, thereby procuring a fresh exposition of the See also:law that the See also:copyright in letters remains in the writer or his representatives, though the See also:property in them belongs to the recipient. Lytton's appointment to the Parisian See also:embassy caused the biography of his father to be finally laid aside. The See also:Personal and See also:Literary Letters of Robert, list Earl of Lytton, have been edited by Lady Betty Balfour (1906). (H. S*.) M The thirteenth See also:letter of the Phoenician and See also:Greek alphabets, the twelfth of the Latin, and the thirteenth of the See also:languages of western See also:Europe. Written origin-ally from right to left, it took the See also:form which survivies in its earliest representations in Greek. The greater length of the first See also:limb of m is characteristic of the earliest forms. From this form, written from left to right, the Latin See also:abbreviation M' for the praenomen Manius is supposed to have See also:developed, the See also:apostrophe representing the fifth stroke of the See also:original letter. In the early Greek alphabets the four-stroke M with legs of equal length represents not m but s; m when written with four strokes is The five-stroke forms, however, are confined practically to See also:Crete, Melos and See also:Cumae; from the last named the See also:Romans received it along with the See also:rest of their See also:alphabet. The Phoenician name of the See also:symbol was mem, the Greek name ii is formed on the See also:analogy of the name for n. M represents the bilabial nasal See also:sound, which was generally voiced.

It is commonly a See also:

stable sound, but many languages, e.g. Greek, Germanic and See also:Celtic, See also:change it when final into -n, its dental correlative. It appears more frequently as an initial sound in Greek and Latin than in the other languages of the same stock, because in these s before m (as also before 1 and n) disappeared at the beginning of words. The sounds m and b are closely related, the only difference being that, in pronouncing m, the nasal pas-See also:sage is not closed, thus allowing the sound to be prolonged, while b is an instantaneous or explosive sound. In various languages b is inserted between m and a following consonant, as in the Gr. peo p.8pla " See also:mid-See also:day," or the English " number," Fr. nombre from See also:Lat. numerus. The sound m can in unaccented syllables form a syllable by itself without an audible vowel, e.g. the Enghlish word See also:fathom comes from an Anglo-Saxon fapm, where the m was so used. (For more details as to this phonetic principle, which has important results in the history of See also:language, see under N.) (P.

End of Article: LYTTON, EDWARD ROBERT

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