Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/190

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GEEVILLE


GEIFFIN


other reforms. In 1867 he became a Trustee of the National Gallery. As Governor of Ceylon (1871-77) he so won the gratitude of the natives that they called him " our god." He was a Theist, but he tells us in his Autobiography (1894) that "there were few who took more advanced views " than himself (p. 166), and that he was "eminently latitudinarian " and indifferent to " dog matic religion" (p. 167). D. Mar. 6, 1892.

GREYILLE, Charles Cavendish Fulke,

writer. B. Apr. 2, 1794. Ed. Eton and Oxford (Christ s Church). He was appointed Secretary to Jamaica, and later Clerk of the Privy Council (1821-59). His inti mate knowledge of statesmen and State affairs during that period gives great value to his Memoirs (8 vols., 1875-87), and from them we learn the Rationalist opinions of many. Greville s own hostility to the Church is often expressed (iii, 212-15 ; v, 215 ; viii, 47, etc.). Sir H. Taylor remarks in his Autobiography that Greville was " avowedly Epicurean " (i, 315). D. Jan. 18, 1865.

GREYY, Frangois Paul Jules, third President of the French Republic. B. Aug. 15, 1813. Grevy was a Parisian lawyer who took part in the Revolution of 1848, and was a Commissary of the Provisional Government. He entered the National Assembly, then the Legislative Assembly, but quitted politics for a time after Napoleon s coup d etat. In 1868 he was President of the Advocates of Paris and Republican member of the Legislative Assembly. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1871, and to the Chambre, of which he became President, in 1876. As head of the moderate Republicans, after the death of Thiers, he became President of the Republic in 1879, and he was re- elected in 3885. Gr6vy was not personally involved in the scandal which compelled his resignation in 1887 (the misconduct of his step-son). He was a high-minded statesman and sober opponent of the Church. D. Sep. 9, 1891.

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GREY, Albert Henry George, fourth Earl Grey, statesman. B. Nov. 28, 1851. Ed. Harrow and Cambridge (Trinity Col lege). Grey was senior in Law and History Tripos in 1873. He represented South Northumberland in Parliament from 1880 to 1885, and Tyneside from 1885 to 1887 ; and in 1894 he succeeded Mr. Rhodes as representative of the British South Africa Company. In 1896-97 he was Adminis trator of Rhodesia, and in 1904 he became Governor General of Canada. Earl Grey was associated with Holyoake in the Co operative Movement, and was a warm admirer of that gentleman. In a letter to him in 1900 he declared that Christ, Mazzini, R. Owen, and Holyoake (or else Darwin) were " the four men who have opened the eyes of mankind most widely to the truths of human brotherhood " (McCabe s Life and Letters of G. J. Holyoake, 1908, ii, 303). He was one of the most conscientious and idealistic states men in British political life in the nineteenth century. D. Aug. 29, 1917.

GRIFFIN, Sir Lepel Henry, K.C.S.I., statesman. B. July 20, 1838. .Ed. Maiden s School (Brighton), Harrow, and private tutor. Entering the Indian Civil Service, he became assistant commissioner to the Punjab in 1860, under-secretary to the local government in 1870, officiating secretary in 1871, superintendent of the Kapurthala State in 1875, chief secretary of the Punjab in 1878, and agent to the Governor-General of Central India in 1881. After his return to England (1889) he was Chairman of the Imperial Bank of Persia. He had been knighted in 1881. In his " Sikhism and the Sikhs " (in Great Religions of the World, 1901) Sir Lepel plainly rejects Christianity, though he is, apparently, Theistic. He thinks that Brahmanism " provided conceptions of the Deity as noble and exalted as those to be found in any religion of East or West " (p. 140), and seems to approve " that state of suspension of judgment which is somewhat inadequately designated 308