— the first two volumes of which, appearing in 1878, quickly gave him rank as an historian.
Dislike of Beaconsfield's foreign policy, and whig sympathies derived from his historical studies, caused Walpole to recognise his true political convictions and to leave the Carlton Club. In April 1882 he was appointed by Gladstone governor of the Isle of Man. That post he held for nearly twelve years. His literary activity, though it was such as would have left to most men of letters little time for other occupation, was in no way checked by administrative duties efficiently discharged. In 1889 he published the official life of Lord John Russell — one of the best of political biographies. The history of England to 1856 appeared in its final form in 1890, when the last of the six volumes was published; in 1893 there followed a slim volume called 'The Land of Home Rule' — an essay on the history and constitution of the Isle of Man; and he contributed many articles to the 'Edinburgh Review.'
In 1893 Walpole left the Isle of Man on his appointment as secretary to the post office — a post which gave new opportunities to his aptitude for organisation and enabled him during his five years' tenure to effect lasting improvements in the British postal system. In 1897 he went as British delegate to the Postal Congress which met at Washington in that year, and was greatly interested by all that he heard and saw in America. A mutual attraction and respect marked his relations with Americans and led to the formation of friendships which he valued.
At the beginning of 1898, 'in recognition of his valuable public services,' Walpole was promoted to the rank of K.C.B.— an honour unduly delayed in the opinion of his friends. In Feb. 1899, to the regret of colleagues and subordinates, he left the post office, and early in the following year bought Hartfield Grove, a small property in Sussex pleasantly situated on the edge of Ashdown Forest.
In London, where he was very popular, Walpole had been warmly welcomed when he returned in 1893. Of versatile human interests, he won confidence and regard by his candour, modesty, consideration for others, and freedom from self-consciousness. Honours and compliments fell to him in abundance. In 1894 he had been elected president of the Literary Society — an office which his father had held for nearly thirty years, and he had been for some years a member of The Club when he was elected to Grillion's in May 1902. In 1904 he was given the honorary degree of D.Litt. at Oxford on Lord Goschen's installation as chancellor, and he was made a fellow of the British Academy. He was appointed chairman of the Pacific Cable Board in 1901 and chosen a director of the London and Brighton Railway Company in 1902. He was a valuable member of the committee of the London Library. A continuation of his history under the title of 'A History of Twenty-five Years (1856-1880)' appeared in 1904, and there were contributions from his pen in the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' and the 'Cambridge Modern History,' as well as in the 'Edinburgh Review.' At his country home he was made a magistrate, took much interest in his stock, and played golf. It was in the midst of these various activities that he was stricken down by cerebral hemorrhage and died at Hartfield Grove on 7 July 1907.
It is by his 'History of England from 1815,' brought down to 1880 in the four vols. of the 'History of Twenty-five Years,' that Walpole's name will be remembered. A knowledge derived from experience of the world which he describes, a high integrity of mind, the spirit of detachment, a just sense of proportion, an aptitude for the handling of statistics, with a perception of the right deductions to be drawn from them, and scrupulous accuracy, are high qualifications for the historian of recent events, and Walpole possessed them all. Like Macaulay he is at times too much inclined to accentuate his observations by the use of antithesis, and his generalisations, though interesting, are not always invulnerable when subjected to analysis, but, in the words of his friend, Sir Alfred Lyall, he has, in a style clear, level, and straight-forward, 'filled up, with distinguished merit and ability, large vacant spaces in the history of our country.' Though educated in a conservative atmosphere, he ultimately accepted a political philosophy which was more nearly that of Manchester than of other schools of thought. A believer in laissez faire, he was equally distrustful of toryism and of socialism. Walpole's chief publications were: 1. 'The Life of Spencer Perceval,' 1874. 2. 'The History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1815 to 1856,' 6 vols. 1876-90. 3. 'The Life of Lord John Russell,' 2 vols. 1889. 4. 'The Land of Home Rule,' 1893. 6. 'The History of Twenty-five Years (1856-1880),' of which the first two volumes
