As became a nephew of Saul Solomon (editor of the Cape Argus and champion of the natives in the Cape parliament) he took a keen interest in native affairs and served on the Cape native law commission of 1882. In 1886 he was legal adviser to the royal commission which inquired into the administration of Mauritius. Three years later he settled at Kimberley, and secured the De Beers retainer. In 1893, after having been appointed Q.C., he entered the Cape house of assembly as independent member for Kimberley. At the elections of 1894 he was defeated by a supporter of Cecil Rhodes, but he was returned once more for Kimberley at a by-election at the end of 1896. In 1898 he became attorney-general in the ministry of William Philip Schreiner [q.v.] as member for Tembuland, and he supported his chief in the policy of punishing Cape rebels, which brought about the downfall of the Cabinet in June 1900.
Early in 1901 Solomon was appointed legal adviser to the Transvaal government. He took part in the negotiations which led to the peace of Vereeniging, and was created K.C.M.G. As attorney-general of the Transvaal from June 1902 onwards, he exercised his great powers of persuasion, his moderating influence, his industry, and his knowledge of affairs in the work of reconstruction. He revised the Transvaal native labour regulations, presided over the gold laws commission, and reorganized the statute book and the administration of justice. He represented the South African colonies at the Delhi durbar of 1903, and twice served as acting-lieutenant-governor of the Transvaal. He was elected an honorary fellow of Peterhouse in 1904, and in the next year was awarded the K.C.B.
In 1906 Solomon helped to draft the letters patent by which responsible government was established in the Transvaal, and was much talked of as the future prime minister. He resigned the attorney-generalship, and stood for Pretoria South with the support of Het Volk (the party of Louis Botha [q.v.]), but was unexpectedly defeated by the progressive candidate (1907). He refused a post in Botha's ministry, and became agent-general for the Transvaal in London, where from 1910 onwards he was high commissioner for the Union of South Africa. He was created G.C.M.G. in 1911. He died unexpectedly in London, after a very short illness, 10 November 1913.
Solomon married in 1881 Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. John Walton, Wesleyan minister, of Grahamstown, and had one daughter.
[The Times, 11 November 1913; Cape Times, 11 November 1913 and 14 November 1923; private information. Portrait, Royal Academy Pictures, 1922.]
SOMERSET, Lady ISABELLA CAROLINE, Lady Henry Somerset
(1851–1921), was born in London 3 August 1851. Her father was Charles Somers Cocks, Viscount Eastnor, afterwards third and last Earl Somers; her mother was Virginia, seventh daughter of James Pattle, Bengal civil service, whose wife was a daughter of the Chevalier Antoine de l'Etang, page of honour to Queen Marie Antoinette. Of Earl Somers's three children, Isabella was the eldest, Adeline—subsequently Duchess of Bedford—the second; the third, Virginia, died young. In 1872 Lady Isabella married Lord Henry Somerset, second son of the eighth Duke of Beaufort. Her husband was comptroller of Queen Victoria's household from 1874 to 1879, and M.P. for Monmouthshire, 1871–1880. In 1874 her only child, Henry Charles Somers Augustus, was born. The marriage proved an unhappy one, and in 1878 Lady Henry found herself facing life alone with her child, whose custody had been secured to her by the courts. She now devoted herself to work amongst the poor in the country town of Ledbury, near her home, Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. It was her acquaintance with the brutalizing effects of drunkenness in this place, made poignant by the suicide, under the influence of drink, of her dearest friend, that led her to take up the cause of temperance. Henceforth it became the absorbing interest of her life. She now began to speak publicly for the cause all over England. Her beauty, her eloquence, her power to hold and move great audiences, won for her a widespread reputation.
In 1883 Earl Somers died, and Lady Henry Somerset inherited his estates. This event did not affect her temperance work. In 1890 she was elected president of the British Women's Temperance Association, and in 1891 she went to America to represent the association at the convention of the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union. It was at this convention, at Boston, Massachusetts, that she first met Miss Frances Willard. In company with her Lady Henry travelled much in the United States, everywhere receiving enthusiastic welcomes. But, later on, it became known that she could not support the prohibition movement, and her influ--
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