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Dowse
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Doyle

which was followed in 1884 by his 'History of Taxation and Taxes in England from the Earliest Times to the Present Day,' London, 4 vols. 8vo. This is the standard work on the subject, and reached a second edition in 1888.

[Works in Brit. Mus. Library; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Lincoln's Inn Records, 1896, ii. 307; Times, 16 June 1898; Athenæum, 1898, i. 792; information kindly supplied by the Rev. A. G. Dowell.]

A. F. P.

DOWSE, RICHARD (1824–1890), Irish judge, son of William Henry Dowse of Dungannon, by Maria, daughter of Hugh Donaldson of the same town, was born in Dungannon on 8 June 1824, and received his early education in the royal school there. In 1845 he entered Trinity College, obtaining a sizarship, and, gaining the distinction of a classical scholarship in 1848, graduated with honours in 1849. In 1852 Dowse was called to the Irish bar. Joining the north-west circuit, he early displayed marked forensic ability, and in 1863 became a queen's counsel. In 1869 he was appointed one of the queen's serjeants-at-law, and in the same year was elected a bencher of the King's Inns. A liberal in politics, Dowse was a successful candidate for the parliamentary representation of Londonderry city (18 Nov. 1868), and, taking his seat as a supporter of Gladstone's Irish Church Act, he was appointed in February 1870 solicitor-general for Ireland, being re-elected for Londonderry on 15 Feb. In the House of Commons, where the prominence of Irish questions during his career in it gave him exceptional opportunities, Dowse quickly obtained a high reputation both for ability and wit, his speeches being marked by a racy humour, joined to a keen incisiveness, which made him a very effective parliamentary debater. In January 1872 Dowse became attorney-general for Ireland in succession to Charles Robert Barry (1834–1897), raised to the bench, and was appointed a member of the Irish privy council; but in November of the same year his parliamentary career was closed by his acceptance of the office of a baron of the Irish court of exchequer, a title which Dowse was the last among Irish judges to accept. He remained a member of the Irish bench until his death, which occurred suddenly in the court-house at Tralee, where he was sitting as judge of assize, on 14 March 1890. His career as a judge was not one of special distinction, nor did Dowse ever attain the reputation of a lawyer of the first rank; but his judgments were marked by sound common sense and breadth of view, and pointed by his always ready wit.

Dowse was a visitor of the Queen's College, Galway, and was twice appointed a lord justice for the government of Ireland in the absence of the viceroy.

He married, on 29 Dec. 1852, Catherine, daughter of George Moore of Clones, co. Monaghan, who died in 1874.

[Private information; Todd's Graduates of Dublin University; Official Return of Members of Parl.; Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby.]

C. L. F.

DOYLE, Sir FRANCIS HASTINGS CHARLES, second baronet (1810–1888), poet, born at the house of his grandfather, Sir William Mordaunt Milner, at Nunappleton, near Tadcaster in Yorkshire, on 21 Aug. 1810, was the only son of Major-general Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, first baronet (1783–1839), by his wife Diana Elizabeth (d. 14 Jan. 1828), eldest daughter of Sir William Milner. General Sir John Doyle, baronet [q. v.], was his great-uncle; while General Sir Charles Hastings Doyle [q. v.] was his second cousin, and Lieutenant-general Sir Charles William Doyle [q. v.] and Colonel Sir John Milley Doyle [q. v.] were his father's first cousins. He was first sent to a well-known private school at Chelsea, kept by a Frenchman named Clement, where Walter Kerr Hamilton [q. v.], (Sir) Henry John Codrington [q. v.], and others afterwards well known were his contemporaries. At the beginning of 1823 he entered Eton as the pupil of Richard Okes [q. v.], and under the head-mastership of John Keate [q. v.] There, through the debating society held at Miss Hatton's, 'a cook and confectioner,' he formed friendships with Gladstone, Arthur Henry Hallam, James Bruce (afterwards eighth Earl of Elgin) [q. v.], Charles John Canning (afterwards Earl Canning) [q. v.], George Augustus Selwyn (1809–1878) [q. v.], and (Sir) John Hanmer (afterwards Baron Hanmer) [q. v.] He heard Gladstone's maiden speech delivered to this society, and co-operated with him in editing the 'Eton Miscellany.'

At Christmas 1827 Doyle left Eton to study with a private tutor, Henry De Foe Baker, rector of Greetham in Rutlandshire. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 6 June 1828, and went into residence in January 1830. Among his Oxford friends were (Sir) Thomas Dyke Acland [q. v. Suppl.], Sidney Herbert (afterwards Baron Herbert) [q. v.], Joseph Anstice [q. v.], and (Sir) Robert Joseph Phillimore [q. v.] He was also acquainted with Manning, while his intercourse with Gladstone became very intimate. He acted as best man at Glad-