LORD RIPON.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 325, 12 October 1908, Page 7

LORD RIPON.

RESIGNS PORTFOLIO AT EIGHTY. LORD CREWE SUCCEEDS. (lit TELEGRAPH—rRES3 ASSOCIATION—COP YBtoilT.) (Rec. October 11, 4.15 p.m.): > ' London, October 11. • The Marquis of Ripon has resigned tho portfolio of Lord Privy Seal, winch ho has held since tho late Sir Henry CampbellBannerman formed his Government in 1905. The Earl of Crewe will succeed him as Lord Privy Seal, but will retain'the Secretaryship of the Colonies. ■ • his career! On October. 24 the Marquis of Ripon will be 81 years of age. As Lord Privy Seal his leadership of the House of Lords has been mainly nominal, tho principal work devolving upon tho Earl of Crewe,. who took up , the portfolio of the Colonies when Mr. Asquith formedjiis Government. The Marquis of Ripon has all Ilia life been a very zealous Liberal, and has established at least one remarkable record in politics, for lie has sat, with one exception, in. every Liberal Cabinet sinco Lord Palmerston's last Administration. The exception was, of course, that of Mr. Gladstone second Government, when the Marquis was in India acting as Viceroy. Tho Marquis joined the House of Commons, as Viscount Goderich, in 1852, when ho was barely twenty-five, the constituency was Hull, and he was returned as an advanced Liberal. In 1874, ho caused a sensation by being converted to the Church of Rome; for which purpose he resigned the Grand Mastership of the Freemasons of England. His position as a Roman Catholic in the Government that fathors the Education Bill used to arouse wonderment in some quarters. He was lately reported as suffering from rheumatism. The "Pall Mall Gazette" (Conservative) thus expresses itself concerning Lord Ripon:—"The two greatest events of his career have been extra—Parliamentary—his tactful chairmanship of the International Commission, under whoso auspices the 'Alabama' trouble resulted in the Treaty of Washington, and his Indian Viceroyalty in 1880-84. In India, Lord Ripon, who 'had always been an 'advanced' mail ever sinco in youth he ranged himself as a Christian •Socialist with Charles Kingsley and Tom Hughes, made haste to repeal Lord Lytton's salutary press regulations, and. altogether raneed himself on the side that commends itself to Padgett, M.P., and the Indian National Congress rather than to those who had moro years' administrative experience of the Indian native's capacities than lie had months'. Consequently, the fiorcest Radicals have always had more than a sneaking kindness for Lord Ripon, heightened by his Homo Rule trip to Ireland with Mr. Morley. His opponents, however, have always respected him as a conscientious if mis-guided Liberal peer."