Glasgow and Aberdeen; but in 1881 he was elected for the Elgin district of boroughs (in succession to Sir M. E. Grant Duff) and retained this seat for the rest of his life. He made no great mark in the House of Commons, where he followed Gladstone in his support of home rule. Meanwhile in 1881 he became Q.C., and was solicitor-general for Scotland during Gladstone's later ministries in the years 1881–5, 1886, and 1892–4. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the Universities of Aberdeen (1883) and of Edinburgh (1891). In 1894 he resigned office, ‘largely,’ it was said, ‘owing to the very inadequate remuneration then paid to the Scottish solicitor-general’ (The Times, 7 Aug. 1905), and in the following year was elected dean of the faculty of advocates. Suddenly taken ill in London on 4 July 1905, he died at Beechwood, near Edinburgh, on 5 Aug. following, and was buried in the churchyard of Corstorphine. Asher, who married in 1870 Caroline, daughter of the Rev. C. H. Gregan Craufurd, left no family. There is a portrait of him in the Parliament House at Edinburgh, painted, at the request of the Scottish bar, by Sir William Quiller Orchardson, R.A. [q. v. Suppl. II], in 1902.
[Scotsman and The Times, 7 Aug. 1905; Roll of Alumni in Univ. and King's Coll., Aberdeen, 1596–1860, p. 170; Hist. Speculative Soc. p. 150; Rolls of the Faculty of Advocates.]
ASHLEY, EVELYN (1836–1907), biographer of Lord Palmerston, born in London on 24 July 1836, was fourth son of Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh earl of Shaftesbury [q. v.], by his wife Emily, daughter of Peter Leopold Cowper, fifth Earl Cowper ; his maternal grandmother was sister of Lord Melbourne, and in 1839 married as her second husband Lord Palmerston.
Ashley, whose baptismal names were Anthony Evelyn Melbourne, was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1858. In the same year he became private secretary to Lord Palmerston, then prime minister. The government was on the eve of defeat, and on its fall (1858) Ashley paid a visit to America with Lord Frederick Cavendish [q. v.] and Lord Richard Grosvenor, afterwards Lord Stalbridge. Next year Lord Palmerston [returned to office, and Ashley acted as his private secretary until the prime minister's death in 1865. Meanwhile he made more than one eventful excursion abroad. In 1860 he told Lord Palmerston that he was going to Italy to see what Garibaldi was doing and should take full advantage of his official position. Lord Palmerston replied that what his secretary did during his holiday was no business of his. With this implied permission, Ashley presented himself to Garibaldi in camp and was given ample facilities for watching the progress of the campaign. In 1863 he accompanied Laurence Oliphant [q. v.] on an expedition into the Russian province of Volhynia, where they were arrested on suspicion of being Polish insurgents (Oliphant, Episodes in a Life of Adventure, p. 333). In 1865 he was attached to the mission sent to convey the Order of the Garter to King Christian IX of Denmark, and was then created a commander of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog.
In 1864 Ashley joined Algernon Borthwick [q. v. Suppl. II] and others in producing ' The Owl,' the forerunner of society newspapers. The editors were intimately acquainted with current public and private affairs, and secured contributions of literary value. The publication attracted much attention during the six years of its existence. Ashley had become a student of Lincoln's Inn on 22 Nov. 1856, and was called to the bar in 1863. After Lord Palmerston's death (1865) he joined the Oxford circuit; he held the office of treasurer of county courts from 1863 until 1874. He devoted most of his time to the completion of 'The Life of Lord Palmerston,' which had been begun by Lord Dalling, but was interrupted by his death in 1872. Lord Dalling published in 1870 two volumes and had written part of a third. This Ashley finished in 1874, and he added two concluding volumes which he published in 1876. Though new material has since been published, the book still holds standard rank.
In 1874 Ashley entered parliament as a member of the liberal party. At the general election in February he had been defeated in the Isle of Wight, but he was returned for Poole, Dorset, at a bye-election on 26 May 1874. As a private member he persistently but unsuccessfully endeavoured to pass a bill to enable accused persons to give evidence. The principle was eventually sanctioned by Lord Halsbury's Act of 1898. In 1879 he distinguished himself by his defence of Sir Bartle Frere from an attack by members of his own party. At the general election of 1880 he was returned for the Isle of Wight and was appointed under-secretary to the board of trade in Gladstone's second administration. The president,
