DEATH OF MR. W. E. H. LECKY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12402, 26 October 1903, Page 5

DEATH OF MR. W. E. H. LECKY.

By Telegraph.-Press Association.-Copyright , " London, October 23. The death is announced of the Right Hon. William Edward Hartpole Lecky, P. 0., M.P., the well-known historian, at the age of 64.

William Henry Hartpole Lecl y was bom at Newton Park, near Dublin, on March, Jb 1838, «d educated at Trinity College Dub lin, where he graduated .8.A., «-M.S9£ M A in 1863. Devoting himself to hteraSit he soon gained distinction as an authoi. His works include ' TheLcaaera of Public Opinion in Ireland," "History of the Use S Influence of the; Spirit of M™*?* in Europe" (two volumes, 1865), W r * of European Morals from 'Augustus to CharlernS" (two volumes, 1868),: " History of England in the Eighteenth Century. Mr. . Deoky published a small volume of poems in 1891," and subsequently he published Democracy and Liberty," a survey -and criticism of modern Governments,■■and Ihe Amp pi Life " Most of his works have gone through many editions in England. : Mr. Lecky received the honorary degree of LL.D. trom I his own university of Dublin, and from the i University of St. Andrew's; the degree of D Cl: from the University of Oxford, and I the degree of Litt.D. from the University !of Cambridge. In 1894 he was elected cori responding member to the Institute ot | : France. He contributed occasionally, but not frequently, to periodical literature. Early in the present year Mr. Lecky retired from political life. He had entered the political I arena comparatively late in life. His puo- ! lish*d letters placed him in the forefront of controversy in the great.struggle of 1880, and contributed largely to the defeat of Mr. ■ 1 Gladstone's' Home Rule Bill of that year. ! But it was not till 10 years later that he ac- ' cepted, With soma reluctance, the invitation , | of his Dublin admirers to sit in Parliament I for his old university. The wideness of his ; studies never succeeded in making him a ■: mere armchair politician; .and'though' he I had spent a lifetime in the academic study ■ of political societies, he brought to the disi cussion of current problems an unusual ■ amount of common sense. His minority rei port on the : question of old age-pensions, ! when he served on Mr. Chaplin's commit-- ; i tee, "was in itself a sufficient refutation of I those who tried to disparage him as an un- : practical man. • Added to an unusual modesty -•; mid to a peculiar, yet attractive, delivery, ' Mr. Lecky's merits as a writer and thinker I ensured for him the respect and apprecia- ; tion of the House of ; Commons. ' Oi? ;". no ;■ ■ occasion were his speeches more valuable to the House''than on those when topics of Irish legislation or administration' : came up: for '• discussion. ;At present, when optimism is ? the order of the day in Irish affairs, it'is at ?•■; all events pleasant to be able to quote Mr. Lecky as 'a man who believed that the finjust ices of past -government-, and the i|: longstanding differences which divide one part of the population from another do not exclude the hope of permanent' settlement- in tho future.