CARDWELL, EDWARD CARDWELL, VISCOUNT (1813-1886)

This article appears in Volume V05, Page 327 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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CARDWELL, EDWARD CARDWELL, VISCOUNT (1813-1886) , English statesman, was the son of a merchant of Liverpool, where he was born on the 24th of July 1813. After a brilliant career at Oxford, where he gained a

double

first-class, he entered

parliament

PARLIAMENT (Anglo-Lat. parliamentum, Fr. parlement, from parler, to speak)

as member for Clitheroe in 1842, and in 1845 was made secretary to the treasury. He supported Sir Robert Peel's free-trade policy, and went out of office with him. In 1847 he was elected for Liverpool, but lost his seat in 1852 for having supported the repeal of the navigation laws. He soon found another constituency at Oxford, and upon the formation of Lord Aberdeen's coalition ministry became president of the Board of Trade, although debarred by the jealousy of his Whig colleagues from a seat in the cabinet. In 1854 he carried, almost without opposition, a most important and complicated act consolidating all existing shipping laws, but in 1855 resigned, with his Peelite colleagues, upon the appointment of Mr Roebuck's Sevastopol inquiry committee, declining the offer of the chancellorship of the Exchequer pressed upon him by Lord Palmerston. In 1858 he moved the famous resolution condemnatory of Lord Ellen-borough's despatch to Lord Canning on the affairs of Oude, which for a time seemed certain to overthrow the Derby government, but which ultimately dissolved into nothing. He obtained a seat in Lord Palmerston's cabinet of 18J9, and after filling the uncongenial posts of secretary for Ireland and chancellor of the duchy of

Lancaster

LANCASTER
LANCASTER,
HOUSE
- HOUSE
- HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
  Gothic
  - GOTHIC
  it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)
OF
LANCASTER, JOHN OF GAUNT
LANCASTER, JOSEPH (1778-1838)
LANCASTER, SIR JAMES (f1. 1591—1618)
THOMAS
_EARL_OF_c_127.html">LANCASTER,
THOMAS
, EARL OF (c. 1277-1322)

(1861), became secretary for the colonies in 1864. Here he reformed the system of colonial defence, refusing to keep troops in the colonies during time of peace unless their expense was defrayed by the colonists; he also laid the foundation of federation in Canada and, rightly or wrongly, censured Sir George Grey's conduct in New Zealand. Resigning with his friends in 1866, he again took office in 1868 as secretary for war. In this post he performed the most memorable actions of his life by the abolition of purchase and the institution of the short service system and the reserve in the army,

measures

MEASURES

which excited more opposition than any of the numerous reforms effected by the Gladstone government of that period, but which were entirely justified by their successful working afterwards. On the resignation of the Gladstone ministry in 1874 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount

Cardwell

of Ellerbeck, but took no further prominent part in politics. His mental faculties, indeed, were considerably impaired during the last few years of his life, and he died at Torquay on the 15th of February 1886. He was not a showy, hardly even a prominent politician, but effected far more than many more conspicuous men. The

great

GREAT

administrator

ADMINISTRATOR

and the bold innovator were united in hint in an exceptional degree, and he allowed neither character to preponderate unduly.

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