abroad, and to constructing barracks at ports and coaling stations for the increased garrisons, the size of which was now for the first time determined by strategical principles.
In 1889, after a committee of the House of Commons had reported on the subject, Stanhope revised the conditions of promotion and retirement of officers. He promulgated a scheme for the reform of the general officers' list, which secured the reduction of the list by a gradual progress from 140 to 100, and the establishment of the principle that promotion to general's rank should only be by selection, and to fill actually vacant appointments allotted to that rank. At the same time he instituted a special rate of retired pay for those colonels whose prospects could be shown to be unfairly injured by the operation of the new rules.
During 1889 Stanhope made endeavours to improve the material conditions of the soldier's life. In 1890 he obtained from parliament a loan of over four millions, with which the camps at Aldershot, Shorncliffe, Strensall, and the Curragh were almost entirely rebuilt, while the barracks at Portsmouth, Plymouth, Dublin, Malta, and other large garrisons were improved and renewed. He also gave much attention to the difficult question of the employment of soldiers on return to civil life. He succeeded in persuading the great railway companies to meet him in conference, and obtained from them certain pledges as to the employment of reserve and discharged soldiers. Further, a committee appointed by him to consider the question of soldiers' diet resulted in considerable improvement. Stanhope carried forward the work of organising and developing our military resources under conditions of great difficulty. He had the ear of the House of Commons, but outside he obtained little recognition. His sagacious reforms were realised and appreciated only by the few, while his retrenchments made a bitter enemy of every officer whose interests were threatened by them. His adoption on 22 Dec. 1888, on the advice of technical experts, of a magazine rifle, though more than justified by experience, was long the subject of bitter opposition in press and parliament (Hansard, 3rd ser. cccxlix. 1631–83). A growing agitation against the administration of the war office under the new system of 1887 at length led to the appointment of a royal commission under Lord Hartington's presidency. The commissioners reported in 1891 that sufficient time had not elapsed to justify a verdict on the system instituted in 1887, but recommended a reconstruction of the war office on the occurrence of a vacancy in the office of commander-in-chief.
In 1891 Stanhope, to allay alarm caused by a temporary failure to meet an abnormal demand for recruits, appointed Lord Wantage's committee to inquire into the terms and conditions of service in the army. But the momentary difficulty passed away, and neither Stanhope nor his successor attempted to give effect to the far-reaching and expensive recommendations of the committee.
Lord Salisbury's second administration was overthrown by the general election of July 1892, and Stanhope surrendered the seals of the war office. His constitution, never very robust, had been completely broken by the incessant work and worry of his post. In the new parliament of 1892 he was a regular attendant and a frequent debater, and he was elected chairman of the ‘church party’ in the House of Commons. In this capacity, Stanhope, in the autumn session of 1893, threw himself with great ardour into the debates on such parts of the Parish Councils Bill as affected the powers or property of the establishment. He made his last speech on 9 Dec. 1893. On the same day he left London and went to Chevening to pay a visit to his brother, Lord Stanhope. There he was seized with a severe attack of gout, and, after a partial rally, he died suddenly from paralysis of the heart on 21 Dec. He was buried at Revesby.
Stanhope married, on 18 May 1870, Lucy Constance, youngest daughter of the Rev. Thomas Egerton, and niece of the first Lord Egerton of Tatton.
[Private information.]
STANHOPE, GEORGE (1660–1728), dean of Canterbury, was son of Thomas Stanhope (rector of Hertishorn or Hartshorn, Derbyshire, vicar of St. Margaret's, Leicester, and chaplain to the Earls of Chesterfield and Clare), by a lady of good family in Derbyshire, named Allestree. His grandfather, George Stanhope (d. 1644), was canon and precentor of York from 1631, and was rector of Wheldrake, Yorkshire, and chaplain to James I and Charles I; he was dispossessed during the Commonwealth (Walker, Sufferings, p. 83).
George was born on 5 March 1660 at Hartshorn, and was successively educated at Uppingham school, Leicester, and Eton. From Eton he was elected on the foundation at King's College, Cambridge, in 1677. Graduating B.A. in 1681 and M.A. in 1685, he entered into holy orders, but remained three years longer at Cambridge. In 1688 he was appointed rector of Tewin, Hertfordshire
