Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/154

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Gorst
134
Goschen

degree of tact and intelligence' (Modern Egypt, ii. 292). He had proved himself a broad-minded administrator, hard-working, with great aptitude for finance and a good knowledge of the Arabic language. Gorst himself defined the aim of British policy in Egypt as 'not merely to give Egypt the blessings of good administration, but to train the Egyptians to take a gradually increasing share in their own government' (Reports an Egypt and the Sudan in 1910, Cd. 5633, May 1911, p. 1). The necessary qualifications were knowledge of the vernacular, sympathy with the feelings, the way, and the thought of the people, and even with their prejudices, and tact, power of effacement, and unlimited patience (Reports for 1909, Cd. 5121, April 1910, p. 50).

Gorst entered on his difficult duties at a very difficult time. The year 1907 was marked by financial depression due to overtrading and excessive credit, and by one of the worst Nile floods on record. Next year, 1908, he reported progress in satisfying the reasonable aspirations of the Egyptian people, but noted that Egyptian feeling had been affected by the unrest in other Mohammedan countries. The virulence of the extreme nationalist party made it necessary in 1909 to revive the press law and to pass a special 'Loi soumettant certains individus à la surveillance de la Police'; in February 1910 the Egyptian prime minister, Boutros Pasha, was murdered. In his report for 1910, the last which he wrote, Gorst recorded the comparative failure of representative institutions in Egypt in the form of the legislative council and general assembly, and he emphasised the necessity of caution in countenancing principles of self-government.

Like Lord Durham in his celebrated report on Canada; like Lord Dufferin in his report on Egypt; and like his own immediate predecessor. Lord Cromer, Gorst insisted on the wisdom of promoting municipal and local self-government, and one of the chief measures passed during his tenure of office was a law for enlarging the powers of the provincial councils, which came into force on 1 Jan. 1910. His administrative policy was subjected to criticism by politicians of both the advanced and the reactionary schools, but he was uniformly supported by the British government. He died prematurely, after a painful illness, on 12 July 1911, at his father's house. The Manor House, Castle Combe, Wiltshire, and was buried in the family vault at Castle Combe. He was succeeded as consul-general in Egypt by Lord Kitchener.

Gorst was made a G.C.M.G. in 1911 on the coronation of King George V, and held the first class of the Medjidie (1897) and the first class (grand cordon) of the order of Osmanie (1903). He was a keen sportsman. He married on 25 June 1903 Evelyn, daughter of Charles Rudd, of Ardnamurchan, Argyllshire, and had one daughter.

[The Times, 13 July 1911; Foreign Office List; Who's Who; Blue Books; Milner, England in Egypt, 3rd edit., 1893; Sir Auckland Colvin, The Making of Modern Egypt, 1906; Cromer, Modern Egypt, 1908.]

C. P. L.

GOSCHEN, GEORGE JOACHIM, first Viscount Goschen (1831–1907), statesman, born on 10 Aug. 1831 at his father's house in the parish of Stoke Newington, was eldest son and second child in the family of two sons and five daughters of William Henry Göschen, a leading merchant of the City of London, by his wife Henrietta, daughter of William Alexander Ohmann. His youngest brother, Sir William Edward Goschen, became British ambassador at Berlin in 1908. The father was son of Georg Joachim Göschen, an eminent publisher and man of letters at Leipzig, the intimate friend of Schiller, Goethe, Wieland and other 'heroes of the golden age of German literature' (see Lord Goschen, Life and Times of Georg Joachim Göschen, 1903). In 1814 young William Henry Göschen came to London, where, with his friend Henry Frühling from Bremen, he founded the financial firm of Frühling & Göschen. A man of strong character, great industry, and deep religious convictions, he found time throughout an exceedingly busy life to indulge his love of literature and his taste for music.

From nine to eleven (1840-2) Goschen attended daily the 'Proprietary School' at Blackheath. Thence his father sent him for three years to Dr. Bernhard's school at Saxe Meiningen. During this period he only once visited England, usually spending his holidays with his German relations. His father, who intended his son for a business career, now thought he perceived in him qualities which would ensure success in public life in England. For this end it was desirable that young George should mix more than he had yet done with English boys ; and it was with the view of making an Englishman of him that he was sent in August 1845 to Rugby entering the house of Bonamy Price [q. v.], afterwards professor of political economy at Oxford. After his first year, Goschen grew to like