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SKETCHES OE STATESMEN.

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[ Copt/rigK SKETCHES OE STATESMEN. LORD HARRIS, UNDER SECRETARY FOR WAR. GEOSCE ROBERT CANNING, 4th Baron Harris, passed part of his infancy in India, so that Lord Salisbury's appointment of the popular young Kentish nobleman to the Under Secretaryship for our groat Eastern dependency in 18,45 was a peculiarly appropriate one. His lordship has perhaps won wider renown in the cricket field than as a politician, though there is all the making of a thoroughly capable and earnest statesman in him, and he has acquitted himself well at the War Office and as Indian Under Secretary. Hegot such agoodgripofdepartmental duty, and showed such astuteness at his first official post, that no one was surprised to find the Marquis of Salisbury offering him the Under Secretaryship for War when he was called upon to form his second Administration. Withal his urbaniiy—and there is no more courteous and pleasantly communicative gentleman in the House of Peers than Lord Harris—the famous cricketing baron knows how to be as impene- trable as the Sphynx when occasion requires. He proved a capital hand at warding oft awkward questions in Parliament as to his department's j doings seeming to have the gift of returning a full and exhaustive reply to every interrogatory without affording any information as to points which it was unadvisable to give publicity to, and this with a neatness and finish which effectually beat back a critical questioner. This, together with his characteristic thorough- ness and devotion to duty, made Lord Harris an invaluable departmental lieutenant, and proved that his Premier hit ti-c mark in singling him out for such important appointments. Lord Harris was born in February, 1851, at St. Anne's, Trinidad, of which West Indian island his father, tho third baron, was Governor for some seven years. His mother was Sarah, daughter of the Venerable George Cummins, th estimable Archdeacon of Trinidad. When the I present holder of the title was only three years I old. his father went from Wostern India to the greater Tndia in the East, and took upon himself the Governorship of Madras, a post which he held for five years. The third baron was a man of much administrative talent, who won golden opinions among the native population. In 1830 he camo home with his family to England, and WaS given a household appointment, being made a Lord-:n-Waiting to Her Majesty. Subse- quently he acted for nine years—until his demise, indeed -as Chamberlain to H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, but his fame rested chiefly upon his work abroad. He wore tho Grand Cross of the Star of India among other distinctions, and was an accomplished scuo'.ar and cultured man. At home in Kent in hiq later years he sett'ed down to the life of a public-spirited country nobleman, finding time amid his onerous oRicial duties to take his part in everything connected with the wclibeing of his county. Like his son, he was very fond of sport, especially cricket, and for some time acted as President of tho Kent County Club. He was a colonel in tho East Kent Militia, and major of the East Kent Mounted Lilies. Lord Harris's great-grandfather, the first baron, was a very distinguished Indian officer. 0 The son of a Kentish clergyman, the Bey. CJeorgo Harris, of Brasted, he was born in 174o he tOIJk up the profession of arms, and subsequently commanded the 1-r(A Foot. For his conspicuous gallantry and skill in tho chief command at the siege and capture of Seringapatara, the General was in lo 15 raised to the peerage as Baron I Harris of Sui ingipatirn aid Mysore in tho East Indies, and of Belmont, county Kent. lie died in 1821), when the title devolved upon his eldest son, the present peer's grandfather, Win. George, second baron, a lieutenant general in the army, and colonel in the i:;rd Regiment. Like his father, Lord Harris was educated at Eton, and Christ Church, Oxford, and came out well both at school and college. He succeeded to the title in 1S72. He is a hard working county magistrate, and has been deputy chair- man of the Kent Quarter Sessions since .ii-:7í". Ho was appointed captain in the East Kent Yeomanry Cavalry in 187."?, arid married ia 1871 the Hon. Lucy Ada Jervis, daughter at the third Viscount St. Vincent. Failing issue, his lord- ship's heir presumptive is his uncle, the Hon. Reginald Temple Harris-Temple, (son of tho second baron), of Wat ntown, Athlolh). "ho was born in 1 S-j0, and assumed tho additional surname of Temple in I80I 011 succeeding to the Irish property of his mother. The arms of tho Harris family are an abiding testimony to their distinguished and honourable connection with the India in its ante-Imperial days. The motto reads My Prince and My Country, and tho arms are thus described by a high heraldic authority Vert. OIl a chevron embattled, erminois. between three hedgehogs, or, a3 many llomb3 fired, proper; and for augmentation (granted to the first baron) on a chief, a repre- sentation of part of the wall and ditch and one of the sally-ports of Seringapatara, the drawbridge lut down, and the Union flag of Great Britain hoisted above the ibg of Tippoo Sultaun. Crest: On a mural crown, or, the Royal tiger of Tippoo Sultaun, passant guardant, vert, striped, crowned with an Eastern crown, and charged on the forehead with the Persian character im- plying '•ilydery/' or tho dominions of Hyder Ali, gold vulned in the breast by an arrow, abo gold. Supporters Dexter, a grenadier in the uniform of the 7:>d Foot, supporting with his exterior hand a flagstaff, proper, thereon hoisted the Union Flag, flying towards the dexter over the flag of Tippoo Sul- taun, and holding in the same hand the tri- coloured flag wound round the lower part of the stall, and the white stripe inscribed with tho word Hepublique," all r r )per: Sinister, a sepoy of the Madra.s Army, in uniform, supporting in his exterior hand a flagstaff, thereon hoisted tho flag of tho East India Company over the standard of Tippoo Sultaun, and holding the tricolourecj tt* flag wound round the lower end of the staff, and the white inscribed with the word" Francaise." Lord Harris is an aative member of the Carlton Club, and has a town house in Ebury-street. He is very popular in society, being an accomplished talker and entortainer. Round his Kentish place, Belmont, Faveraham, he has a host of friends, the farmers and the yeomen esteeming him for the keen interest he takes in agriculture and all things pertaining thereto and the peasantry respecting him for his high regard for integrity and justice, and for his kindly-hearted urbanity. He had a hand in tho launching of the Farmers' Alliance, but was soon compelled to sever his con- nection therewith, because of the extreme stand this body took up politically. He himself isaCon- servativeof the robust type, a staunch supporter of the Constitution, but not at all averse to re- forms which donot savour of revolution or threaten the existence of well-tried institutions. Beides exerting his influence in aid of all manner of improvements in agriculture, and urging the im- portance of scientific farming, he has taken up with spirit tobacco cultivation, which he holds can be profitably carried on in this country. His own experiments in the summer of 188H were certainly a gratifying success. In the House of Lords there are few more earnest champions of the agricultural interest than Lord Harris, and when speaking on subjects connected with farm- ing in any way he always has a most attentive hearing. His lordship is a good and practical debater, though at times a little inclined to heaviness and solidity in Lis delivery. He never rises to make flippant or immaterial utterances, however, and if inclined to be prosy in his lengthier speeches, he is always sincere and feel- ing. Farmers are very fond of getting him to attend their gatherings, and like to listen to his thoughtful hints and observations on stock- raising, wheat-growing, and pasturage. Lord Harris's Scotch estates arc often sup- posed to be situated in the Harris Is'ands of the Hebrides. They, he i,ever, lie in the more picturesque though less wild country on the banks of the Nith, and by the side of the noted Lowland mountain, Criffel. The yellow sands of Solway stretch across from the lovely green woods to Kirkconnel Lea, immortalised by the old Scottish ballad singers, where Sir James Anderson, of Atlantic Cable and Great Eastern reiiowii, built a few years back a beautiful resi- dence. To sport-lovers, Lord Harris will always bo more familiar as a cricketer than as a statesman He is one of the most popular amateur ex- ponents of the game who ever crossed a wicket. He is a thorough onthusiast as well as a high authority in all things cricketical. So saturated with the cricket spirit is he that often enough in the hot summer season he has spent hours in the field, and then doffed his flannels to hurry up to the House of Lords or to the India or War Oftice to deal with the more important affairs of State. Lord Harris is a very capable, all-round cricketer, and it is not too much to say that he enjoys the personal esteem of every amateur and professional of the game of any note. In the Eton Eleven, from IStiS to 1370, with Mr. ('. I. Thornton, the leviathan hitter, Mr. C. J. Ottaway, and others, he won consider- able celebrity as a wielder of the willow, and when he wont up to Oxford he quickly increased his reputation. Ho has several times taken part, with success, in tho matches between the Gentlemen of England and the Players, In 188;, batting for the Gentlemen of England against tho Australians at Lord's Ground, he drove a ball back with characteristic forco to Sir. SpofForth, the "demonbowler," who, on injudiciously attempting to stop it, had in consequence to retire from the cricket field for several weeks afterwards. Lord Harris went out to Canada and America with Mr. Fitzgerald's team in 1 *<72, and in i*78 he himself captained an English team which went to tho Anti- podes, and did well there. This tour was marred, it will ba remembered, by an ugly row at Sydney, in which Harris and Mr. Hornby, the popular Lancashire cap- tain, were rather a New South Wales mob, who were more interested in betting than cricket. Always affable and forgiving, how- ever, Lord Harris healed the breach by labouring hard to make the succeeding tour of the Aus- tralians in England a success, and now no cricketers regret the Sydney incident more than the men of New South Wales. Loid Harris has been honoured with election to the committee of the Marylebono Cricket Club, and he is a great patron of professionals, and a practical friend of the Cricketers a- und, in the welfare or which he has always evinced much interest. Kent owes its present position among cricketing counties almost entirely to his enthusiastic efforts. When he took the club ia hand in 1870, things were very low with it. The glory of the old days of Felix, Fuller Pilch, Farmer Bennett, and Alfred Mynn, seemed to have de- parted. Lord Harris soon changed all this. He hunted out all tho available cricket "talent" from the puUic schook and universities, found out some valuable professional support, and above all went into the field with his men on every possible occasion. The result was that Kent came to be able to render a good account of herself against any eleven which can be pitted in opposition to the hop county. This is not the place to enlarge on Kent's cricketing achievements, but what they are is more owing to Lord Harris than all else. His lordship takes a great interest in volunteer matters also, and was appropriately appointed Chairman of tho War Department Comniitteo for the consideration of the capitation question.

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