DUFFERIN AND AVA, FREDERICK TEMPLE HAMILTON-TEMPLE-BLACKWOOD, 1ST
MARQUESS OF (1826-1902), British diplomatist, son of Price Blackwood,
4th Baron Dufferin, was born at Florence, Italy, on the 21st of June
1826. The Irish Blackwoods were of old Scottish stock,[1] tracing their
descent back to the 14th century. John Blackwood of Bangor (1591-1663),
the ancestor of the Irish line, made a fortune and acquired landed
property in county Down, and his great-grandson Robert was created a
baronet in 1763. Sir Robert's son, Sir John, married the heiress of the
Hamiltons, earls of Clanbrassil and viscounts of Clandeboye ("clan of
yellow Hugh"), and thus brought into the family a large property in the
borough of Killyleagh and barony of Dufferin, county Down. Sir John
Blackwood (d. 1799) declined a peerage, and so did his heir James at the
time of the Union, but the Irish title of Baroness Dufferin was
conferred (1800) on Sir John's widow, and James (d. 1836) succeeded as
second baron in 1808. His brother Hans (d. 1839) became third baron, and
by his marriage with Miss Temple (a descendant of the Temples of Stowe)
was the father of Price Blackwood, 4th baron. Among other distinguished
members of the family was Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood, Bart.
(1770-1832)--a brother of James and Hans--one of Nelson's captains, who
commanded the "Euryalus" at Trafalgar. Price Blackwood, too, was in the
Navy; his marriage in 1825 with Helen Selina Sheridan, a daughter of
Thomas Sheridan, and granddaughter of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the
dramatist and politician, was against his parents' wishes, but his young
wife's talents and beauty soon won them over.
Frederick went to Eton (1839-1843) and Christ Church, Oxford
(1845-1847), where he took a pass school and was President of the Union.
His father died in 1841, and the influence of his mother--one of three
unusually accomplished sisters, the other two being the duchess of
Somerset and Mrs Norton (q.v.)--was very marked on his mental
development; she lived till 1867 and is commemorated by the "Helen's
Tower" erected by her son in her honour at Clandeboye (the Irish seat of
the Blackwoods) in 1861, and adorned with epigraphical verses written by
Tennyson, Browning and others. On leaving Oxford Lord Dufferin busied
himself for some little while with the management of his Irish estates.
In 1846-1848 he was active in relieving the distress in Ireland due to
the famine, and he was always generous and liberal in his relations with
his tenants. In 1855 he already advocated compensation for disturbance
and for improvements; but while supporting reasonable reform, he
demanded justice for the landowners. In later years (1868-1881) he wrote
much, in opposition to J.S. Mill, on behalf of Irish landlordism, and,
when Gladstone adopted Home Rule, Lord Dufferin, who had been attached
throughout his career to the Liberal party, regarded the new policy as
fatal both to Ireland and to the United Kingdom, though, being then an
ambassador, he took no public part in opposing it.
Starting with every personal and social advantage, Lord Dufferin quickly
became a favourite both at Court and in London society; and in 1849 he
was made a lord-in-waiting. In political life he followed Lord John
Russell, and in 1850 was further attached to the party by being created
a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Clandeboye. In 1855 Lord John
Russell took him as attache on his special mission to the Vienna
Conference. Meanwhile Lord Dufferin was enlarging his experience by
foreign travel, and in 1856 he went on a yachting-tour to Iceland, which
he described with much humour and graphic power in his successful book,
_Letters from High Latitudes_; this volume made his reputation as a
writer, though his only other purely literary publication was his
memorial edition (1894) of his mother's _Poems and Verses_. In 1860 Lord
John Russell sent him as British representative on a joint commission of
the powers appointed to inquire into the affairs of the Lebanon (Syria),
where the massacres of Christian Maronites by the Mussulman Druses had
resulted in the landing of a French force and the possibility of a
French occupation. Lord Dufferin was associated with French, Russian,
Prussian and Turkish colleagues, and his difficult diplomatic position
was made none the less delicate by his conscientious endeavour to be
just to all parties. Even if he had not satisfied himself that the
Mahommedans were by no means wholly to blame, the question of punishment
was in any case complicated by the problem of future administration. His
own proposal to put the whole Syrian province under a responsible
governor, appointed by the sultan for a term of years, with unfettered
jurisdiction, was rejected; but at last it was agreed to place a
Christian governor, subordinate to the Porte, over the Lebanon district,
and to set up local administrative councils. In May 1861 the French
forces departed, and Lord Dufferin was thanked for his services by the
government.
In 1862 he married Hariot, daughter of Captain A. Rowan Hamilton, of
Killyleagh Castle, Down. He held successively the posts of
under-secretary for India (1864-1866) and under-secretary for war (1866)
in Lord Palmerston's and Earl Russell's ministries; and he was
chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, outside the cabinet, under Mr
Gladstone (1868-1872). In 1871 he was created earl of Dufferin.
In 1872 he was appointed governor-general of Canada. There his tact and
personal charm and genial hospitality were invaluable. He had already
become known as a powerful and graceful orator, and a man of culture and
political distinction; and his abilities were brilliantly displayed in
dealing with the problems of the newly united provinces of the Canadian
Dominion. At a time when a weak or unattractive governor-general might
easily have damaged the imperial connexion, he admittedly strengthened
and consolidated it. Lord Dufferin left Canada in 1878, and in 1879,
rather to the annoyance of his old party leader, he accepted from the
conservative prime minister, Lord Beaconsfield, the appointment of
ambassador to Russia. At St Petersburg he did useful diplomatic work for
a couple of years, and then, in 1881, was transferred to Constantinople
as ambassador to Turkey. He was soon involved in the negotiations
connected with the situation in Egypt caused by Arabi's revolt and the
intervention of Great Britain. It was Lord Dufferin's task to arrange
matters at Constantinople, so that no international friction should be
created by any inconvenient assertion by the sultan of his position as
suzerain, while it was also necessary to avoid offending either the
sultan or the other powers by any appearance of ignoring their rights.
He was considerably helped by Turkish ineptitude, and by the
accomplished fact of British military successes in Egypt, but his own
diplomacy was responsible for securing the necessary freedom of action
for the British government.
From October 1882 to May 1883 he was himself in Egypt as British
commissioner to report on a scheme of reorganization; and his
recommendations--drawn up in a somewhat elaborate State paper--formed
the basis of the subsequent reforms. In 1884 he was appointed viceroy of
India, succeeding Lord Ripon, whose zeal on behalf of the natives had
created a good deal of antagonism among the officials and the
Anglo-Indian community. Lord Dufferin, though agreeing in the main with
Lord Ripon's policy, was excellently fitted for the task of restoring
confidence without producing any undesirable reaction, and in domestic
affairs his viceroyalty was a period of substantial progress, in the
reform of the evils of land tenure and in other directions. He was
responsible also for initiating stable relations with Afghanistan, and
settling the crisis with Russia arising out of the Panjdeh incident
(1885), which led to the delimitation of the north-west frontier (1887).
The most striking event of his administration was, however, the
annexation of Burma, resulting from the Burmese War of 1885; and this
procured him, on his resignation, the title of marquess of Dufferin and
Ava (1888). His viceroyalty was also memorable for Lady Dufferin's work,
and the starting of a fund called by her name, for providing better
medical treatment for native women. In 1888 he was made ambassador at
Rome, and in 1892 he was promoted to be ambassador in Paris, a post
which he retained till 1896, when he retired from the public service.
Lord Dufferin was one of the most admired public servants of his time. A
man of great natural gifts, he had a special talent for diplomacy,
though he has no claim to a place in the first rank of statesmen. He was
remarkable for tact and amiability, and had a florid and rather
elaborately literary style of oratory, which also characterized his
despatches and reports. For purposes of ceremony his courtliness,
dignity and charm of manner were invaluable, and both in public and in
private life he was a conspicuous "great gentleman." His last years,
spent mainly at his Irish home, were clouded by the death of his eldest
son, the earl of Ava, at Ladysmith in the Boer War (1900), and by
business troubles. He was so ill-advised as to become chairman in 1897
of the "London and Globe Finance Corporation," a financial company which
most good judges in the city of London thought to be too much in the
hands of its managing director, Mr Whitaker Wright, whose methods had
been a good deal criticized. At last there came a complete crash, and an
exposure before the liquidator, which ultimately led to Mr Whitaker
Wright's trial for fraud in 1904, and his suicide within the precincts
of the court on being found guilty. Lord Dufferin did not live to see
this final catastrophe. The affairs of the company were still under
investigation in bankruptcy when, on the 12th of February 1902, he died.
He had been in failing health for two or three years, but, having once
become chairman of the "London and Globe," he had insisted upon standing
by his colleagues when difficulties arose. Incautious as he had been in
accepting the position, no reflections were felt to be possible on Lord
Dufferin's personal honour; he was a serious loser by the failure, and
he had followed his predecessor in the chairmanship, Lord Loch, in
confiding too wholly in the masterful personality of Mr Wright. He was
succeeded in the title by his second son Terence (b. 1866).
The official _Life_ of Lord Dufferin, by Sir Alfred Lyall, appeared in
1905. There are two Canadian histories of his Canadian administration,
one by George Stewart (1878), the other by W. Leggo (1878). Lady
Dufferin brought out _Our Viceregal Life in India_ in 1889, and _My
Canadian Journal_ in 1891. See also the articles on INDIA; _History_;
CANADA: _History_; and EGYPT: _History_. (H. Ch.)