The New International Encyclopædia/Northcote, Stafford Henry

NORTHCOTE, Sir Stafford Henry, first Earl of Iddesleigh (1818-1887). An English statesman and financier, born in London. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, graduating at Balliol College in 1839 with high honors. His first position in political life was that of private secretary to Gladstone, when the latter was president of the Board of Trade. In 1847 he was called to the bar and was made legal secretary to the Board of Trade. In 1851 be succeeded to the family title and estates as eighth baronet of his line. He was member of Parliament for Dudley and Stamford 1855-66, and was then returned for North Devon, which place he continued to represent in the interest of the Conservative Party. He was president of the Board of Trade in 1866-67, and in 1867 was made Secretary of State for India. From 1869 to 1874 he was chairman of the Hudson's Bay Company, and promoted the transfer of Prince Rupert's Land to the Canadian Government. He visited Canada and the United States in 1870 to study conditions, and was a member of the joint high commission which signed the Treaty of Washington on May 8, 1871. On the formation of Disraeli's Cabinet in 1874, Sir Stafford Northcote was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and when his leader was elevated to the peerage under the title of Lord Beaconsfield, Northcote became leader of the Commons. In the first Salisbury Administration (1885-86) he was First Lord of the Treasury. He was created Earl of Iddesleigh and Viscount Saint Cyres in 1885. When Salisbury became Premier for the second time (1886) the Earl of Iddesleigh was made Foreign Secretary. He died suddenly on January 12, 1887, in the presence of Lord Salisbury, the Premier, in the official residence, London. Northcote published a number of political and financial pamphlets, such as Twenty Years of Financial Policy (London, 1862). His character was distinguished by unselfishness, pure-mindedness, and sincere patriotism. Consult his collected Lectures and Essays (London, 1887); Lang, Life, Letters, and Diaries of Stafford Northcote, First Earl of Iddesleigh (London, 1890).