hours. This summary dismissal of the British ambassador was first known to the ministers in London when Bulwer called in Downing Street to report himself at the Foreign Office. Immediately afterwards M. Isturiz, the Spanish ambassador, took his departure from England. Bulwer had been gazetted on 27 April 1848 a knight commander of the Bath, being promoted three years afterwards, on 1 March 1851, to the grand cross. Before the close of the year of his return from Spain he was married, on 9 Dec. 1848, to the Hon. Georgiana Charlotte Mary Wellesley, youngest daughter of the first baron Cowley, and niece to the first duke of Wellington. On 27 April 1849 Sir Henry Bulwer was appointed ambassador at Washington. His principal achievement in that capacity was the bringing to a satisfactory completion the Bulwer-Clayton treaty. During the three years of his sojourn in America he obtained an extraordinary amount of popularity. More than once he roused immense audiences in the United States to exceptional enthusiasm. On 19 Jan. 1852 he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany at Florence. There he remained until his retirement on 26 Jan. 1855. A pension was awarded to him on 25 April. Several diplomatic missions, some of them of extreme delicacy, were afterwards entrusted to him, at Constantinople, in the Danubian principalities, and elsewhere along the borders of the Levant. Among these he was, for nearly two years together, empowered as commissioner under the 23rd article of the treaty of Paris—from 23 July 1856 to 9 May 1858—to investigate the condition of the Danubian principalities. Bulwer was selected, at the close of the Crimean war, to be the successor of Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe as ambassador extraordinary to the Ottoman Porte at Constantinople. From 10 May 1858 to August 1865 he added much to his already high reputation.
On returning from the Bosphorus in the winter of 1865 Bulwer retired from the diplomatic service. On 17 Nov. 1868 he was elected member for Tamworth, and retained that seat until his elevation to the peerage on 21 March 1871 as Baron Dalling and Bulwer. His last speech in the commons, upon the Irish church, was one of the most effective he ever delivered, though his infirmity made him inaudible to most of the house. Before the close of 1867 he published in two volumes, entitled ‘Historical Characters,’ four masterly sketches of Talleyrand, Cobbett, Canning, and Mackintosh. Two other companion sketches, those of Sir Robert Peel and Viscount Melbourne, have since been selected from among their author's papers and published posthumously. The first two volumes of a ‘Life of Viscount Palmerston’ appeared in 1870. Four years afterwards a third volume was issued from the press posthumously. He died very suddenly on 23 May 1872 at Naples. As he died without issue, his title became extinct. The sweetness of his disposition and his high-bred manner rendered him a universal favourite. Habitually sauntering through society with an air of languor, he veiled the keenest observation under an aspect of indifference. Whenever in his more delicate negotiations he was in reality the most cautious, he was seemingly the most negligent. The apparently languid way in which he related an anecdote gave it a peculiarly poignant effect. His personal popularity was mainly attributable to his complete mastery of the subtlest arts of a conversationalist.
[Many particulars in the foregoing record are drawn from the writer's own personal recollections and correspondence. Memoirs by the present writer have appeared in the Morning Post, 28 May 1872; Athenæum, 1 June 1872; Illustrated Review, 15 Aug. 1872; and Encycl. Brit. (9th edition), vi. 780–3. See also Times, 3 June 1872; Lord Dalling's Life of his political chief, Viscount Palmerston, i. ii. iii.; Life of Edward, Lord Lytton, by his son Robert, Earl of Lytton, i. ii.; Returns of Members of Parliament.]
BUNBURY, Sir HENRY EDWARD (1778–1860), seventh baronet, of Mildenhall and Barton Hall, Suffolk, a lieutenant-general on the retired list, and author of several historical works, was son of the eminent amateur artist H. W. Bunbury [see Bunbury, Henry William]. He was born on 4 May 1778, and received his education at Westminster School under Dr. Vincent. In 1795 he obtained a commission in the Coldstream guards, and became aide-de-camp to his uncle, General Gwyn. In 1797 he purchased a troop in the 16th light dragoons, which at that period was stationed for several years in the vicinity of the royal residences at Windsor and Weymouth. He served on the personal staff of the Duke of York in North Holland in 1799, and in 1800 was promoted to an unattached majority. He studied in the Royal Military College at Wycombe in 1800–1. During the invasion alarms of 1803–4 he was employed on the quartermaster-general's staff of the south-eastern district. In 1805 he was quartermaster-general of the force sent to the Mediterranean under Sir James Craig, which, after landing in Naples, withdrew to Sicily, and he held the same post under Sir John Stuart in the descent on Calabria in
