LORD GOSCHEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2761, 13 February 1907, Page 27

LORD GOSCHEN.

February 7. Viscount Goschen died suddenly to-day from heart failure. He was 75 years of age. February 8. There have been many public tributes to the memory of Viscount Goschen. j Lord. Goschen was the son of the late "WilHain Henry Goschen, • London merchant, of German extraction, and was born August 10, 1831. • He received his education at Rugby, under Dr« Tait and Goul">urn, and at Oriel College, Oxford, where fie graduated 8.A., taking a first-cles3 in tit. Hum. in 1853. . Soon after he became at merchant in partnership with Messrs Fruhling and Goschen, of Austinfriars, and » director of the Bank of England; but lie retired from the partnership on taking dffioe in the Rusaell-GUadstone ministry. He was returned in the Liberal interest for the City of London in May, 1863, on the death of Mr W. Wood; and he took An active part in the movement for throwing open the universities to dissenters, and the abolition of religious tests. Mr Goschen, who was re-elected for the City of London, at the head of the poll, at the general election in July, 1865, was made •vioe-president of the Board of Trade, November 20, 1865, when he was sworn o£ the Privy Council, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a Cabinet Minister, January 26, 1866, retiring with €ha Russell ministry in June of that year. On the accession of Mr Gladstone to power in December, 1868, he was appointed president of the Poor Law Board, which office he held to March, 1871, when he succeeded Sir Childers as First Lord of the Admiralty. He went out of office with hia party in February,. 1874-. At the general election -which was held in that year he was the only Liberal candidate returned for the city. On July 17, 1878, Mr Goschen issued an address to the Liberal electors of the City of London, declining to come forward again at the next general election, on the ground that hia votes on the County Franchise question had not been in accord with the views generally entertained by the Sxty. In May, 1880, immediately after r Gladstone's accession to power, Mr Goschen consented to undertake the special duties of Ambassador Extraordinary at Constantinople. Before proceeding to Constantinople Mr Goechen visited the most Important political centres in Europe, and this was the first step towards the formation of a European concert for the execution of the unperformed parts of the Treaty of Berlin. In 1881 the ambassadors of tho great oowera in tfie Conference of Con-

stantinople, after long and patient negotiations, joined in a note to the Greek Government recommending the acceptance of the utmost that Turkey could be brought to yield. The new frontier line left the greater part of Epirus, with Janina and Metzovo, to Turkey, giving Greece possession of almost all Thessaly, and the command of the Gulf of Arta. The Cabinet of Athens was forced, under pressure, to agree to this frontier line, which deprived Greece of nearly one-third of the territory promised to her at Berlin. It was admitted by all the Powers that the assent of Turkey to these terms wa<3 obtained chiefly through the persistence and firmness of Mr Goschen. His mission came to an end in April, 1881. He was appointed an Ecclesiastical Commissioner for England in November, 1882. Ho ha 3 written largely on financial questions, and his treatise en "The Theory of the Foreign Exchanges," sth edition, 1864, has been translated into French by M. Leon Say. At the general election of 1885, Mr Goachen, who had eat for Ripon 6ince his retirement from the representation of the City of London in 1880, was elected, after a severe contest (in which he was opposed by a Radical, but obtained a great majority), to represent the Eastern Division of Edinburgh. In 1886. however, he was defeated by a large Gladstone-Liberal majority. He subsequently represented the St. George's Hanover Square Division. Mr Goschen had taken a foremost place in the campaign ajjainst the Home Rule Bill. On the- resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill in December. 18€6, an 1 when Lord Salisbury had failed to induce Lord Hartington to join his Government. Mr Goschen was prevailed upoi to accept the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, though he declined the leadership of the Hi use. Mr Goschen'e scheme for "thw reduction of the interest on the national debt was cordially accepted by all parlies, and successfully brought to a conclusion in July, 1889. Mr Gladstone, however, vigorously attacked his proposal? with reference to the death duties. In 1895 he was appointed first Lord of the Admiralty. He was made a Viscount in 1900. COUNTESS CADOGAN. (February 11. The death is announced oE Countess Cadogan. MR W. H. RUSSELL. Mr William Henry Russell, the wellknown war correspondent, is dead.