Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/241

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Phipps
233
Phipps

3 Dec., and made the usual progress through the provinces. He was generally well received, both by Europeans and Maories (see esp. Visit of his Exc. the Governor to the North, 1876). In 1875–6 the colony was divided into counties, in which councils, elected triennially, were established. During the last two years of his government in New Zealand Normanby and Sir George Grey, the premier, were in constant collision. The governor declined to make an appointment to the legislative council which Grey recommended. The assembly censured his action. He refused to dissolve the assembly by Grey's advice, and Grey charged him with making his ministers ‘not advisers, but servants’ (cf. Rees, Sir George Grey, pp. 453–454).

In February 1879 Normanby left New Zealand, and became governor of Victoria, where he remained till 1884. During his government the Melbourne international exhibition was held, and the long-disputed question of the reform of the legislative council was settled. In 1881 he was involved in a dispute with the Victorian premier, Mr. Berry, similar to that in which he had been engaged with Sir George Grey. He declined to dissolve parliament on Mr. Berry's demand. In August 1884 Normanby left Victoria for England, and retired from public life on a pension. He had been created K.C.M.G. in 1874, and G.C.M.G. in 1877. On 9 Jan. 1885 he was created G.C.B.

A consistent liberal through life, he broke with Mr. Gladstone on the home rule question, and resigned the chairmanship of the Whitby Liberal Association. He died, after a long illness, at 6 Brunswick Terrace, Brighton, on 3 April 1890. He was buried in St. Oswald's Church, Whitby. Normanby was a good administrator and a terse speaker. His genial manner made him popular, both in the colonies and with his own tenants. A man of simple tastes, he took much interest in agriculture. He was a prominent member of the Four-in-hand Club.

Normanby married, on 17 Aug. 1844, Laura, daughter of Captain Robert Russell, R.N. She died on 26 Jan. 1885, leaving a large family. Constantine Charles Henry (b. 1846), the eldest son, now canon of Windsor succeeded to the marquisate; the second son, William Brook (b. 1847), died in 1880.

[Doyle's Baronage; Burke's Peerage, 1895; Yorkshire Post, 5 April 1890; Times, 4 April; Illustr. Lond. News, 19 April (with portrait); Whitby Gazette, 11 April; Rusden's Hist. of New Zealand, chap. xviii. and xix., and of Australia, chap. xix.; Colonial Year Book, 1892, pp. 140–1, 251; Ret. Memb. Parl.; Men of the Time, 1887; Haydn's Book of Dignities.]

G. Le G. N.

PHIPPS, HENRY, first Earl of Mulgrave and Viscount Normanby (1755–1831), statesman, born on 14 Feb. 1755, was the second son of Constantine Phipps, baron Mulgrave of New Ross, by Lepell, eldest daughter of John, lord Hervey [q. v.] of Ickworth. His elder brother was Constantine John, second baron Mulgrave [q. v.] He was educated at Eton, and on 8 June 1775 entered the army as an ensign in the 1st foot guards. He was promoted lieutenant and captain in 1778. On 30 Aug. 1779 he exchanged into the 85th foot as major, and on 4 Oct. 1780 became lieutenant-colonel of the 88th Connaught rangers. He exchanged into the 45th on 19 Jan. 1782. While in the guards he served with credit in several campaigns of the American war, was subsequently stationed in Jamaica and other West Indian islands, and served in Holland. He attained the rank of colonel on 18 Nov. 1790, and on 8 Feb. 1793 received the command of the 31st foot.

As a supporter of Pitt he was elected to parliament for Totnes on 5 April 1784, and for Scarborough on 11 June 1790. In the ‘Rolliad’ Phipps and his elder brother are characterised as ‘a scribbling, prattling pair’ (Rolliad, 4th edit. pp. 16, 294–5). In the House of Commons Phipps spoke with some authority on military questions (cf. Parl. Hist. xxvii. 1323–5, xxviii. 371). He actively supported both the home and foreign policy of Pitt, but disagreed with him on the questions of parliamentary reform and the slave trade. In speaking on 19 April 1791 against Wilberforce's motion for abolition, Phipps declared that, though he had been twelve months in Jamaica, he had never seen a slave ill-treated (ib. xxix. 334–5). In 1792 Phipps succeeded, on the death of his elder brother, to the Irish barony of Mulgrave of New Ross.

In the following year he was again on active service. Happening to be a visitor in Hood's ship in September 1793, Hood gave him the command, with the temporary rank of brigadier-general, of three regiments sent from Gibraltar to garrison Toulon at the invitation of its inhabitants. Mulgrave directed the strengthening of the outworks on the heights behind the city; but the command was eventually assumed by Lieutenant-colonel Charles O'Hara [q. v.], and Mulgrave, declining to serve in a subordinate capacity, returned home. In defending his conduct in the House of Commons on 10 April 1794, he said he never quitted a situation with more regret (Parl. Hist. xxxi. 250–2).