by the secretary of state on account of his dismissal of a Mr. Riddell from the executive council. The sorrow at his departure was genuine, and money was at once raised to erect a statue to him. ‘He was the most popular governor who ever presided over the colonial affairs’ (Braim, History of New South Wales, i. 275).
On returning home to Ireland Bourke spent nearly twenty years at his country seat, Thornfield, near Limerick. He was promoted lieutenant-general, and appointed colonel of the 64th regiment in 1837, served the office of high sheriff of the county of Limerick in 1839, and was promoted general in 1851. He died suddenly, at the age of seventy-eight, at Thornfield, on 13 Aug. 1855.
[Gent. Mag. 1855, p. 428; Royal Military Calendar. For his Australian government consult Braim's History of New South Wales, from its Settlement to the Close of 1844, 2 vols. 1846; Lang's Historical and Statistical Account of the Colony of New South Wales, from the Foundation of the Colony to the Present Day, 1834, 1837, 1852, 1875; Flanagan's History of New South Wales, 2 vols. 1862.]
BOURKE, RICHARD SOUTHWELL, sixth Earl of Mayo (1822–1872), viceroy and governor-general of India, was the eldest son of Robert Bourke, fifth earl of Mayo, who succeeded his uncle, the fourth earl, in 1849. The earls of Mayo, like the earls and marquises of Clanricarde, are said to have descended from William Fitzadelm de Borgo, who succeeded Strongbow in the government of Ireland in 1066. Richard, the eldest of ten brothers and sisters, was born in Dublin on 21 Feb. 1822, and spent his earlier years at Hayes, a country house belonging to the family in the county of Meath. He was educated at home, and in 1841 entered Trinity College, Dublin, where, without going into residence, he took an ordinary degree. His father was a strong evangelical. His mother, Anne Jocelyn, a granddaughter of the first Earl of Roden, was a woman of considerable culture, of deep religious feelings, and of strong common sense. Brought up amidst the sports of country life he became a clever shot, an accomplished rider, and a good swimmer. While an undergraduate he spent much of his time at Palmerstown and in London with his granduncle, the fourth Earl of Mayo, whom Praed described as
A courtier of the nobler sort,
A christian of the purer school,
Tory when whigs are great at court,
And protestant when papists rule.
In 1845 he made a tour in Russia, and after his return to England published an account of it ('St. Petersburg and Moscow: A Visit to the Court of the Czar, by Richard Southwell Bourke, Esq.,' 2 vols., Henry Colburn, 1846), which gave evidence of acute observation, and met with considerable success. In 1847 he took an active part in the relief of the sufferers from the Irish famine. At the general election in the same year he was elected to parliament as one of the members for the county of Kildare. In the following year he married Miss Blanche Wyndham, daughter of the first Lord Leconfield. In 1849 his granduncle died, and his father succeeding to the earldom, he assumed the courtesy title of Lord Naas. In 1852 he was appointed chief secretary for Ireland in Lord Derby's administration, and held the same office during the subsequent conservative administrations which came into power in 1858 and 1866, retaining it on the last occasion until his appointment as viceroy and governor-general of India shortly before the fall of Mr. Disraeli's government. He succeeded to the Irish earldom on the death of his father in 1867.
During all these years Lord Mayo had a seat in the House of Commons, serving as member for Kildare county from 1847 to 1852, for the Irish borough of Coleraine from 1852 to 1857, and for the English borough of Cockermouth during the remainder of his parliamentary life. His politics were those of a moderate conservative. His policy was eminently conciliatory, combined with unflinching firmness in repressing sedition and crime. While opposed to any measure for disestablishing the protestant church in Ireland, he was in favour of granting public money to other institutions, whether catholic or protestant, without respect of creed, 'established for the education, relief, or succour of his fellow-countrymen.' His view was that no school, hospital, or asylum should languish because of the religious teaching it afforded, or because of the religion of those who supported it. His opinions on these questions and on the land question were very fully stated in a speech made by him in the House of Commons on 10 March 1868, in which he propounded a policy which has been often described as the 'levelling-up policy,' involving the establishment of a Roman catholic university, and such changes in ecclesiastical matters as would meet the just claims of the Roman catholic portion of the community. He was in favour of securing for tenants compensation for improvements effected by themselves, of providing for increased powers of improvement by limited owners, and of written contracts in supersession of the system of parole tenancies.
Lord Mayo's views on all these matters met
