button to main menu  Gents Mag 1865 part 1 p.100

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Gentleman's Magazine 1865 part 1 p.100
street, Berkeley-square, April 18, 1802. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, bearing the courtesy title of Lord Morpeth, and earned a high reputation as a graceful scholar. He was especially distinguished for his skill in versification, and in 1821 he obtained two of the University prizes for his poems - the Chancellor's prize for Latin, and the Newdigate prize for English verse. He took his degree in 1823, and was first-class in classics. In 1826 he accompanied his uncle, the late Duke of Devonshire, on his vist to Russia at the coronation of the Emperor Nicholas; where his high rank, his youth, and his engaging manners, made him a great favourite in St. Petersburgh society. He was afterwards returned to the House of Commons from the family seat of Morpeth; and one of his earliest speeches was in defence of the character of the Russian Emperor, who had been made the subject of severe attacks in consequence of the cruelties practised on the Poles after the suppression of the Polish insurrection of 1830. This was not calculated to endear him to the Liberal party, to which, in accordance with the politics of his family, he had given in his adhesion; but in the agitation which took place on the Reform Bill he banded himself on the side of Earl Grey, and on the dissolution of Parliament which followed the success of General Gascoyne's motion he was returned for Yorkshire, which seat he held until the passing of the Reform Act in 1832. He afterwards represented the West Riding from 1833 to 1841, when he was defeated, but he was subsequently returned on the elevation of the Hon. J. S. Wortley to the dignity of Lord Wharncliffe. Lord Morpeth then sat for the Riding from 1846 to 1848, when the death of his father caused his elevation to the peerage. His Lordship was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1835 to 1841; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1849 to 1851; and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland from 1855 to 1858, when during Lord Derby's Ministry he was superseded; but on the fall of the Conservative Administration he resumed the office, and he held it until the August of 1864, when his failing health compelled him to retire from the public service. Both as Chief Secretary and as Viceroy he was very popular, as indeed he was wherever he was known, his manner being particularly gracious and conciliatory, and his deep interest in everything that concerned the well-being of the working classes leading him, it may almost be said, to originate the now common practice of men of rank and high literary attainments taking an active part in the proceedings of mechanics' institutes, and similar bodies.
Lord Carlisle was appointed Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1847; he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen in 1853, and he received the freedom of the city of Derry in 1863.
During the time that he was out of Parliament Lord Morpeth paid a lengthened visit to the United States, and he made this tour the subject of a lecture which he delivered on several occasions, especially in Yorkshire, and which gave a very favourable picture of the Americans. Another lecture that gained equal popularity was one on "The Life and Writings of Pope." Some years afterwards he visited the East, and this gave rise to a very graceful and pleasant volume, entitled "A Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters;" and he was also the author of a work on Prophecy.
Lord Carlisle paid great attention to the subject of juvenile criminals, and one of the best-conducted reformatories for them is that which was established on his estate at Castle Howard. He also set on foot the building of a church at Welburn, in the neighbourhood, but he did not live to see it finished. His remains were interred in the mausoleum in his park, on Dec. 13. He was unmarried, and is succeeded by his brother the Hon. and Rev, William George Howard, who was born in 1808, and has held the rectory of Londesborough, in Yorkshire, ever since 1832.
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