Parr, until April 1840 at Durnford, near Salisbury, and from that time at Preston, where Parr was made vicar of St. John's. Chief of his friends and fellow-pupils at Durnford was Laurence Oliphant [q. v.]. At Preston he was an eye-witness of the bread riots of 1842, and the poverty and misery of the people made him a lifelong opponent of protection. From Preston he went to Cambridge University, entering Trinity College as a pensioner on 30 Sept. 1846. Already a good scholar and mathematician, he soon showed signs of brilliance. He matriculated in 1847 and became a scholar of Trinity in 1850. He took an active part in the debates of the Union and was admitted to the exclusive 'Society of Apostles.' There, as at the Union, his chief adversary in debate was (Sir) James Fitzjames Stephen [q. v.]. Harcourt championed the liberals and Stephen the conservatives. Their encounters were reckoned by contemporaries 'veritable battles of the gods,' though in 'adroitness' and 'chaff' Harcourt was Stephen's superior (L. Stephen, J. F. Stephen, 99 seq.). Although of magnificent physique he took no prominent part in sport. Whilst an undergraduate he was introduced by his tutor, (Sir) H. S. Maine, to John Douglas Cook [q. v.], then the editor of the 'Morning Chronicle,' a Peelite organ. He soon wrote regularly for that journal. In 1851 he graduated B. A. with a first-class in classics and a senior optime in the mathematical tripos. On 2 May 1851 he entered at Lincoln's Inn and settled down to the study of law in London. Three years later, on 1 May 1854, he was called to the bar of the Inner Temple, and he chose the home circuit. He soon acquired a large practice at the common law bar and, later, established a high reputation at the parliamentary bar, where his work yielded him a handsome income. Through the long struggle over the Thames Embankment scheme he acted as counsel for the Metropolitan Board of Works (see his letter to The Times of 7 July 1861, signed 'Observer'). During Nov. and Dec. 1863 public interest was centred in the court-martial trial of Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Crawley for alleged misconduct at Mhow in the previous year; Harcourt acted as Crawley's legal adviser, and his brilliant advocacy gained his acquittal.
He did not, however, confine his attention exclusively to his profession. He quickly made his mark in London society as an extremely clever young man who could both write and talk well. On the demise of the 'Morning Chronicle,' Beresford Hope inaugurated the 'Saturday Review,' in Nov. 1866, with Douglas Cook as editor. Cook at once enlisted Harcourt's services as one of the original contributors Harcourt wrote continuously for the brilliant periodical from 1855 to 1859.
At the general election of May 1869 he contested the Kirkcaldy Burghs as an independent liberal against the official liberal candidate and old member, Robert Ferguson. The fight was fierce, and Harcourt was defeated by only eighteen votes. In the following January, at a great public demonstration at Kirkcaldy, he received a presentation 'as a tribute to his eminent talent, and in admiration of his eloquent advocacy of our cause.'
Meanwhile Harcourt was studying privately international law, which, in a letter to Lord John Russell, he described as 'my passion, not my profession.' He turned the study to advantage in the controversies over international law which occupied the cabinets of Europe after the first stages of the American civil war. To the 'London Review' of 30 Nov. 1861 he sent two letters, one on 'International Law and International Exasperation' and the other 'The case of the Nashville.' In 'The Times' of 5 Dec. 1861 appeared the first of a series of long and weighty letters, over the signature of 'Historicus,' dealing chiefly with questions of international law arising out of the American civil war. The letters were continued at intervals till 1876 and covered a wide field of political controversy. Throughout life he remained a constant correspondent of 'The Times' on all manner of political themes, in later years under his own name. The aim of the early 'Historicus' letters was to deny the Southern States the title to recognition as belligerents, and to define the obligation of neutrality on England's part. In 1863 Harcourt collected some of the letters under the title 'Letters by Historicus on Some Questions of International Law,' and in 1865 others appeared in a volume as 'American Neutrality.' The letters, which had a marked effect upon political opinion, established the writer's reputation. Lord John Russell wrote to Harcourt in 1868 thanking him for the help he had rendered to the maintenance of peace between England and the United States.
He was appointed a member of the Neutrality Laws Commission in the same year, and signed the report with a qualification deprecating any extension of the
