OBITUARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1196, 1 February 1895, Page 15

OBITUARY.

MARSHAL CANROBERT. Paris, January 28. Marshal Canrobert is dead, aged 85 years. [The deceased officer was one of the best known of Prance’s soldiers. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the East in the Crimea, and also led "the French troops in the Italian war jn 1859. At the capitulation of Metz he was sent prisoner into Germany, returning to France when the preliminaries of peace had been signed. After |*is army career he became a member of the French Senate.]

LORD R. CHURCHILL. London, January 24. Lord Randolph Churchill died to-day, after being in a state of coma for 36 hours. His end was peaceful. His deathbed was surrounded by members of his family. London, January 25. The English and foreign press contain laudatory and regretful obituary notices or Lord Randolph Churchill. _ The Duke of Devonshire, referring to the death of Lord Randolph Churchill, said the Unionists had suffered an irreparable loss. The deceased statesman’s efforts to bring the Tories into touch with Democratic opinion were unequalled, and his memory would never fade. London, January 27.

A memorial service in honour of the late Lord Randolph Churchill will be held in Westminster Abbey on Monday. The funeral takes place at Woodstock at the same time.

At the early age of 46 years there has thus been removed by death a man who at one period of his political career was looked upon as a secure prop of the Conservative Party, an inevitable leader, who was bound to make a great name for himself if he played long enough and closely enough at the stirring game of politics. Yet now his death will probably excite not, much more than passing interest. Such is the fickleness of fame, and the insecurity of pubiic reputation. Of his career ‘ ‘Hazell’s Annual ” says : “ Lord Randolph Churchill, second son of the sixth Duke of Marlborough and of Lady Frances, daughter of the Marquis of L6ndonderry, was born at Blenheim Palace, February 13th, 1849, and entered Merton College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1871. Hon. LL.D. Cam. 1887. He married in 1874, Jennie, daughter of the late Mr L. Jerome, New York. In the same year he entered Parliament as Conservative M.P. for Woodstock. He made his maiden speech the first year he sat in Parliament, and was complimented by his future antagonist, Sir William Harcourt. From 1875 to 1879 Lord Randolph rarely addressed the House, The collapse of the Conservative Party at the general election of 1880, acted, however, as a spur, and he soon distinguished himself as an audacious and powerful debater. He was not quite alone in the independent course he had marked out for himself. Mr (now Sir John) Gorst and Sir Henry Drummond-Wolff acted with him. These three sat together, and soon became known as the Fourth Party. Mr Arthur Balfour and Earl Percy occasionally associated themselves with the three. Lord Randolph Chur chill was the life and soul of this combination. He never lost an opportunity of damaging the Government, or of dragging his own leaders farther than they wished to go. His persistence and ability won at last the admission that he was a man who must in future be reckoned with. He was elected chairman of the National Union of Conservative Associations, but resigned soon after, owing to a schism between the Union and the Central Conservative Committee, Lord Salisbury, Sir Stafford Northcote, and the recognised leaders of the party siding with •the latter. The quarrel, if quarrel it could bo called, only lasted a few days ; and on the 9th of May, 1884, at a meeting of Conservative members of the House of Commons, held at the Carlton Club, Lord Randolph consented to withdraw his resignation, and the threatened split was averted. The result was a victory by Lord Randolph over his own leaders, who agreed to adopt the policy of organisation which he recommended. From this point he rose steadily to the position of a recognised leader of the Conservative Party. When the Liberal Government was overthrown on the Budget, in June, 1885, it resigned, and in the new Conservative administration Lord Randolph Churchill received the Indian Secretaryship. . The general election took place in November, 1885, and though the position of the Conservatives was somewhat improved, they were in a considerable minority in the House of Commons. Lord Randolph Churchill was defeated at Birmingham, where he opposed the Right Hon John Bright, but was elected for South Paddington. In the following January the Government were overthrown on the motion brought forward by Mr Jesse Collings, and immediately resigned. Mr Gladstone succeeded Lord Salisbury ; but was defeated on the second reading of his Home-Rule.; Bill. . Lord Salisbury 'was a.gain called to the helm, and in the new Ministry, formed in July, 1886, Lord Randolph Churchill was appointed leader of the House of Commons and Chancellor of the Exchequer. His most remarkable speech during the recess was made at Dartford, where lie unfolded a programme which his opponents declared to be Liberal, if not Radical, and which some of his friends felt to be anything but Conservative. The resignation of Lord Randolph, on December 23rd, 1886, took both friends and opponents by surprise. The announcement in the Times gave as his reasons for taking this unexpected course differences with his colleagues on the subject of the naval and military estimates. In 1888 he yisited St. Petersburg. In 1891 he visited South Africa, wheq he wrote a series of letters to

the Daily Graphic descriptive -of Yds tour, and his experiences in jjilashonaland. At the general election in 1892, he was again returned for South Paddington, and during the debates on the Home Rule Bill came again to.dhe fore, the old breach between himself and the Conservative leaders having been glossed over, if not altogether healed. Soon afterward came his fatal illness.