New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-12-18
SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT.
CAREER OF THE BRITISH LIBERAL
LEADER WHO HAS RECENTLY
RESIGNED.


to John Morley mus: be considered vir-
tual resignation Of his leadership Of the Liberal
party in Great Britain. He has occupied that
position since Lord Rosc5ery resigned the
Premiership in 1893. He is no longer in his
youthful vigor and besides is almost blind The
rank and file OF his adherents were ever strong
in their devotion to his 'eadership-for his per-
sonality is not such as to bind men to him. He
felt that they were turning again to the young
and picturesque RoscDery. The British public
have seen this for some time and so were not
surprised that he should 1T last surrender the
direction Of tie Opposition to younger and more
vigorous hands.
His career in British politics has been long
and useful and one full Of distinction. He has
been Prime Minister. but. like Henry
Clay. he has stood all but at the top in the po-
ltical affairs Of his own country without ever
attaining the goal Of his ambition
The Right Honorable Sir William George
Granville Venabes Vernon Haicourt-to give
him his full name and title-was born October
II. 1927. The son Of canon in the Established
Church. the grandson of an Archbishop Of York.
Sir William is scion of the noble house OF
Vernon. and it was a Vernon that he came
into the world. But in his early childhood the
Earldom of HarcOurt became extinct and his
grandfather. the Most Reverend and Honor
able Edward Vernon. assumed the ancient
name. Through his maternal grandmother Sir
William can claim descent from the winning
Harcourt' OF Swifls satire. wh) having joined
the Wings was created a vscount" Perhaps
it has been the ambition of Vernon Iiarcourt
as he was known in earlier days. to emulate
the first Lord Harcourt. of whom ii was said h
was among the lawyers the most eloquent ora
tba no "A w
yer" "A though such ancestry we're not sufii-
cient. this Radical leader may boast of descent
through his grandmother from the Plantagenets
This descendant of Queen Anne's Lord Chan
cellor a second son and spent his youth
as he has often said lin an English parsonage.
He went TO a private school near Salisbury and
in due time TO Trinity College. Cambridge. on
leaving Cambridge Vernon II2ICOurt. tail.
handsome clever and quite conhdent-qulte a
superior young man. with plenty of "adrotness
and chaff"-studied law and drifted into news
paper work He was among the earliest re-
cruits Of THE Saturday Review" and probably
helped to form its peculiar style. as his Work
on it certainly left its mark on his own style
In 1875 after seven years Of law and journal
ism he stood as an Independent Liberal candi-
date for Kirkcaldy. But his time for entrance
into the House Of Commons had not yet come
and he continued his newspaper writing.
Harcourt has been one OF the most cordially
hated Of Englishmen In America. That feeIh8
has existed ever since 1860, when over the pen
name of "Historicus' he contributed to The
Jondon Times" a seriea of letters on points or
international law raised by the American Civil
War These articles were continued from time
TO time until 1861 and involved discussion OF
such questions as the Trent affair. Americans
have come to accede to the correctness Of his
opinions but the lingo spirit or TINS country
has only recently permitted an acknowledgment
OF the correctness Of any position tha' uu ho'
conceGe the American side
While writing in "The Tines as 'Hlstorlcus
ne continued his legal studies and was called
I'm the bar in 1854 BY 1866 he was made
Queens counsel. He practised chiefly at the
Parliamentary bar. Such a practice. involving
&c i, does the appcarance before Parliamentary
commissions in the interest of private bills, is
tbe most lucrative in the Whole field of the Eng
lsh legal profession. But to enter the Ihoie
attractive field of "a membership in the House
NJ Commons he was obliged to sacrifice It, In
1893 me WAS elected to Parliament for the city
oS Oxford and since then has devoted himself
,o nolitical career To be sure he held the
,rofcssorship of international law at cam
Lrdee from 1860 to 1881 but the post had been
c,icalv a sinecure long before he resigned
6, and that Office has left only slight mark
on his career. -,
v.rnop Uarcourt was forty-one years old
,hep he entered Parliament. Mr. Dsraelfs ad-
ministration had just been deiea'tu d. INC p0"'
and Mr. Gladstone had for the first time become
a hnr