1899.]
OBITUAEY.
133
the reduction of the import duties, roused the whole agricultural party, of which the Conservatives and Clericals were the principal factors ; but in reply to their taunts and reproaches the Emperor in 1891 raised his Chancellor to the rank of count.
His talents, however, as a tactician and debater were put to a greater test in 1898, when he introduced the new Army Bill, which reduced the period service in the infantry to two years, inoreased the strength of the Army on a peace footing to 479,229 men, and introduced the system of fourth bat- talions. The bill was opposed in the Reichstag by the various sections of the Conservatives, and rejected. A dissolution ensued, and in the electoral campaign, as well as in the debates in the new Reichsrath, Count von Capri vi, notwithstanding the objections of many superior officers, carried the majority with him, and placed the Army upon an extended and elastic basis.
In addition to the Chancellorship of the empire, Count von Caprivi held the offices of Prussian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. In 1892, Count Zedlitz, as Minister of Education, had introduced a bill for enforcing religious education in Prussian national schools, which raised the opposition of the Liberals and Radicals, and was highly displeasing to the academic bodies. Count von Caprivi thoroughly asso- ciated himself with his colleague's measure, and when at length it was found necessary to withdraw it, he resigned his Prussian Premiership. For some time longer he continued to hold the Imperial Chancellorship, but he had lost the support of the Liberals without having ingratiated himself with the Conservatives, of whom the Eulenbergs were the most prominent spokesmen. He retained his place, however, until October, 1894, when the news of his retirement was received without surprise. He withdrew to his country seat at Skyren, near Erossen, on the Oder, where he died, on February 6, after a very short illness, and shortly before completing his sixty- eighth year.
Lord Justice Chitty. — Joseph William Chitty, son of Thomas Chitty, a dis- tinguished special pleader, was born in 1828, ana educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first class in Classical Honours in 1861, having during his undergraduate career played in the University "eleven," and "stroked" the University boat for three successive
years. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, 1856, and speedily ob- tained a considerable practice in lead- ing Chancery and commercial cases. In 1874 he {became Queen's Counsel, and his good fortune followed him in the Rolls Court, over which Sir George Jessel presided, and for many years he continued to make a larger income than any of his contemporaries who were not Crown officers. During all this time Mr. Chitty was an active officer of the Inns of Court Rifle Vol- unteers, and acted as umpire each year at the University boat race.
Mr. Chitty took but a slight part in politics, but in 1880 he stood as a Liberal for the city of Oxford, and was returned in conjunction with Sir Wm. Harcourt. In 1881 he was ap- pointed under the new Judicature Act to be a Chancery judge, and took up the work hitherto performed by the Master of the Rolls as a judge of first instance. In 1896, on the retirement of Lord Justice Kay, Mr. Justice Chitty was promoted to the Court of Appeal, where he promptly made his mark as a judge of great learning and aouteness, but his judgments were not marked by the literary qualities whioh distinguished those of his colleagues.
In private life he devoted nearly the whole of his leisure to carpentry, miniature shipbuilding, and cabinet- making, in which he had acquired great skill, and not a few of the trade secrets, such as those of French polishing, etc. His workshop was his real play-room during vacation and after the labours of a day in court. He married Clara Jessie, daughter of Chief Baron Pollock. His death,
S receded by an attack of influenza, appened suddenly at his house in Queen's Gate Gardens on February 15, he having sat in court only five days previously.
President Faure. — Francois Felix Faure was born January 30, 1841, of Provencal parents who had settled in Normandy, and had there attained a respectable position. After some years* education in France, Felix Faure was sent to England to learn the lan- guage. On his return he was appren- ticed to a tanner at Amboise, and worked at his trade for some years. He then removed to Havre, and set up in business as a shipbuilder and ship- owner, in which he was very successful and took a leading place in commercial life. In 1881 he was sent to the Chamber of Deputies as representative of Havre, and attached himself to the Union Republicaine. He promptly
