# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Malet, Edward Baldwin

​MALET, Sir EDWARD BALDWIN, fourth baronet (1837–1908), diplomatist, born in the British legation at the Hague on 10 Oct. 1837, was second son of Sir Alexander Malet, second baronet [q. v.], by his wife Marianne, daughter of John Spalding of the Holme, and step-daughter of Henry, first Lord Brougham. Educated at Eton from 1850 to 1853, he entered the diplomatic service in 1854 at the exceptionally early age of seventeen, being appointed attaché to his father at Frankfort. On 14 April 1856 he matriculated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford. But a brief stay at the university scarcely interrupted his progress in diplomacy. Transferred from Frankfort to Brussels in 1858, he was appointed paid attaché at Paraná, Argentina, in August 1860, after passing the necessary examination. He was transferred to Rio de Janeiro in 1861, and thence to Washington in 1862, where he served three years under Richard Bickerton Pemell, Lord Lyons [q. v.]. During the various difficult discussions which followed the American civil war Malet was one of the most trusted members of Lord Lyons's staff. After four months in Lisbon in 1865 Malet rejoined Lord Lyons on the latter's appointment to Constantinople, and followed him to Paris in 1867. in September 1870, after the battle of Sedan, he was despatched by Lord Lyons on an adventurous journey to the German headquarters at Meaux with a letter to Count Bismarck, inquiring whether he would entertain negotiations with Jules Favre for an armistice. Bismarck, who had known him as a boy and as Prussian representative in the Diet had been on terms of friendship with his father and mother at Frankfort, received Malet cordially, but merely gave him a verbal promise to receive a member of the government of national defence. Jules Favre's first interview with the German chancellor at Ferridres was the result. On the investment of Paris by the German forces, Malet accompanied Lord Lyons, who followed the provisional government to Tours and afterwards to Bordeaux. On the conclusion of peace in March 1871 the embassy returned to Paris, but during the outbreak of the Commune, when Lord Lyons went to Versailles with the French government, Malet was left in charge at Paris from 19 March to 6 June 1871. For his zealous services during this trying period he was made C.B. Lyons and Malet remained close friends and constant correspondents till the former's death, but they separated, to their great mutual regret, in August 1871, when Malet became secretary of legation at Peking. After a year in China he was transferred to Athens, and thence to Rome in August 1875, where he remained three years, becoming secretary of embassy when the mission was raised to that rank in 1876. He took an active part in the negotiations for the renewal of the treaty of commerce of 1863 between Great Britain and Italy and acted in November 1875 as joint commissioner with (Sir) Charles Malcolm Kennedy in conferences at Rome.
In April 1878 he was transferred to Constantinople. The situation there was critical. The treaty of San Stefano had been signed on 3 March 1878. Russia had agreed to submit the treaty to a European congress, reserving the right of accepting or refusing discussion on any question. The British government demanded that all the provisions of the treaty should ye unreservedly open to consideration. The Russian army was encamped outside Constantinople, while the British fleet was in the Sea of Marmora. Owing to the bad health of Sir Austen Henry Layard [q. v. Suppl. I], the British ​ambassador, Malet received the provisional rank of minister plenipotentiary in case of the absence of the ambassador. Malet rendered Layard substantial assistance until February 1879, when the ambassador was compelled to take leave of absence, and Malet, who assumed charge, was largely instrumental in procuring the acceptance by the Turkish government of various arrangements necessitated by the provisions of the treaty of Berlin — among others those for the occupation of Bosnia by Austria-Hungary and the policing of Eastern Roumelia after the withdrawal of the Russian troops. His straightforward but considerate demeanour gained the confidence of the sultan, Abdul Hamid II, who, several years later, on the occurrence of a vacancy in the embassy, expressed a hope that Malet would leave the embassy at Berlin for Constantinople. In October 1879 he was appointed British agent and consul-general in Egypt. Three months before Tewfik Pasha had succeeded as Khedive on the abdication of his father Ismail. Malet was at once occupied with negotiation for financial and administrative reform which Ismail's reckless extravagance and mismanagement made imperative.
There followed in 1881 the native unrest and revolt of the Egyptian army under Arabi, Toulba, and Ali Fehmi. Malet, who was made K.C.B. in October 1881, was in sympathy with the movement for constitutional government, and sought means of reconciling it with due observance of financial obligations. But as the disturbances grew more acute he deemed intervention necessary, and recommended Turkish intervention under European control, or, failing that, intervention by Great Britain and France jointly, or by one of them alone. On the outbreak of the rebellion and the native attacks on Europeans, Malet, under instructions from his government, followed the representatives of the other European powers to Alexandria, but, declining the offer of accommodation on board the British admiral's flagship, took up his residence in an hotel in the centre of the town, and endeavoured to restore confidence among the European community and promoted measures of protection. In the midst of this work he was struck down by sudden illness — whether due to natural causes or to poison seems doubtful — and after remaining on board H.M.S. Hehcon for some days in a critical condition returned to England. Meanwhile the British government undertook to subdue the rebellion single-handed. Malet resumed his place in Egypt on 10 August, as soon as his health permitted, and after the defeat of Arabi's forces by Sir Garnet Wolseley's army at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir (13 Sept. 1882) he accompanied the Khedive on his re-entry into his capital. In the angry controversy over the fate of Arabi and his leading associates Malet deprecated capital punishment, and after the exercise of considerable pressure on the Egyptian government, the sentence of death which was pronounced on the ringleaders was commuted to one of perpetual banishment to Ceylon. These discussions and the task of reconstituting the comphcated machinery of government in Egypt were over-taxing Malet's weakened health, and Lord Dufferin [q. v. Suppl. II], then ambassador at Constantinople, was sent to Egypt (November 1882) on a special mission. Lord Granville, referring to this appointment in the House of Lords (15 Feb. 1883), said: 'If any man ever deserved the confidence of his country, Sir E. Malet deserves it in consideration of the way in which he conducted the affairs of Egypt in times of extraordinary difficulty. But we thought it would not be fair to centre in one man constructive as well as diplomatic duties.' Malet aided Lord Dufferin in drawing up a scheme of reorganisation, and after Lord Dufferin's departure superintended the development of the scheme, helped actively and courageously to cope with an epidemic of cholera in July 1883, and left amidst general expressions of affection and regret on promotion to be British envoy at Brussels in September following. In a speech delivered at a farewell luncheon given to him by the British community at Cairo, he strongly emphasised his feeling that the great need for Egypt was a well-ordered system of justice. After a year in Belgium he became British ambassador at Berlin on the death of Lord Ampthill [q. v.] in August 1884. There he served eleven years. Among various thorny questions with which he had to deal were those of the rival British and German claims in East and West Africa, the settlement of the international agreements affecting the navigation of the Niger and Congo rivers, the recognition of the Congo Free State, and the complications which had arisen in the Samoa Archipelago. He took part as British plenipotentiary in conferences held at Berlin on these questions in 1884 and 1885. He had been sworn a privy councillor in 1885, and became G.C.M.G. in the same year and G.C.B. in 1886. He resigned on grounds of ill-health in 1895, when the German court and government ​expressed regrets which amounted almost to reproaches and testified to his great popularity. Subsequently Lord Salisbury appointed him one of the British members of the international court of arbitration, established at the Hague under the convention of 29 July 1899. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his elder brother, Henry Charles Eden, without male issue, on 12 Jan. 1904. During his remaining years he suffered from constant attacks of asthma, and he died at Chorley Wood, Hertfordshire, on 29 June 1908. He married in March 1885 Lady Ennyntrude Sackville Russell, daughter of Francis Charles Hastings, ninth duke of Bedford, but had no children. A portrait in oils, painted by Sir William Richmond at the embassy at Berlin, is in the possession of Lady Ennyntrude Malet. A cartoon portrait by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1884.
Malet published in 1901 a book entitled 'Shifting Scenes,' in which he gave an interesting but somewhat disjointed account of various episodes in his diplomatic career. He left an unfinished memoir of his service in Egypt, which was supplemented by extracts from his correspondence and printed in 1909 for private circulation.
[Malet's own accounts of his experiences; The Times, 30 June 1908; Foreign Office List, 1909, p. 403; Papers laid before Parliament; Cambridge Modern History, xii. 435; Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt, 2 vols. 1908.]
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