of the Union—which in practice meant personal government by the chief secretary—combined with a policy of economic development (land purchase, light railways, assistance to agriculture). Wyndham’s personal administration was on the whole successful, as he worked very hard, was fair-minded, and had a more sympathetic understanding of the Irish than most English statesmen. His only important contribution to the economic policy was his Land Act (1903). It followed the general lines of Mr. Arthur Balfour’s Land Purchase Act of 1891, but by several new provisions made sale much more profitable to the landlords without increasing the immediate payment by the tenant-purchasers; hence an immense extension of sales, which had nearly come to an end under the former acts. The Act of 1903 made a very bold use of imperial credit (the terms were modified in 1906); it encountered much opposition in the Cabinet, and was discussed at great length in the House of Commons; its passing marks the zenith of Wyndham’s political career. In 1904 he attempted, without success, to devise a scheme of university education for Irish Catholics, which would at the same time meet their views and those of a unionist government; and in March 1905 he resigned as the result of a scheme of ‘devolution’, that is, half-way Home Rule, brought forward by his permanent under-secretary, Sir Antony (afterwards Baron) MacDonnell, with the approval of the lord lieutenant, the Earl of Dudley. Wyndham was savagely attacked at the time for a betrayal of unionist principles, and has since been praised for having devised a solution of the Irish question. He deserved neither the praise nor the blame; he did not know what his colleagues were doing and would certainly have stopped them if he had. He might possibly have extricated himself from the embarrassment had he been physically fit, but in fact six years of overwork had broken him down. He retired from politics for a few months to recuperate, and then came in again gradually, but did not take any considerable part before the conservatives went out of office in 1906.
In the last seven years of his life (he died suddenly in Paris from a clot of blood, 8 June 1913, not having reached the age of fifty), Wyndham was associated mainly with the tariff reform wing of the unionist party, though he never renounced his personal loyalty to Mr. Balfour. But he showed some signs of a desire to leave politics altogether, especially after he succeeded his father (1911) and had the management of a small landed estate on his hands. He took this duty very seriously, for he was an English tory in the best sense; his love of England, which was intense, was bound up with a belief in the monarchy, the church, and the landed gentry, as the best institutions for England. He was an imperialist, and he was not a believer in democracy. But his ideal for the nation, or for the class which he thought called to the function of government, was so high that he grieved less at the gentry’s loss of power than at any manifestation of their abandoning their traditions. In his last years he found politics very depressing, and saw nothing clearly in the future except war with Germany.
Wyndham’s career in office was less than seven years, and his literary output was small; the impression which he made on those who knew him personally was greater than can be justified by his actual achievements. He had a very keen appreciation of beauty in nature, in some kinds of art, and in some departments of literature; a passion for life, and a passion for ideas; he loved hunting and open-air life, he loved talking—and his conversation was most inspiring. His public speaking was, at its best, admirable, but very uncertain. He had many friendships, and an inner devotion to his family. He entered political life with a good deal of ambition, but was retained in it mainly by a sense of duty; his delicate feeling of honour was a contributing cause of his fall from power. He had not so much a faculty of concentration as an inability to escape from any subject which he took up seriously; and this characteristic, while it made him very powerful in council and in administration, probably led to overstrain and shortened his life.
Wyndham was survived by his wife and by one son.
[Letters; J. W. Mackail and Guy Wyndham, Life and Letters of George Wyndham, 2 vols., 1924; C. Whibley’s edition of Wyndham’s Essays in Romantic Literature, 1919; private information; personal knowledge.]
YOUNG, Sir ALLEN WILLIAM (1827–1915), sailor and polar explorer, was born at Twickenham 12 December 1827, the son of Henry Young, of Twickenham. After being educated at home he joined the merchant service in 1842 and rose quickly. During the Crimean War he transferred from the Marlborough, an East Indiaman, to the command of the
599
