his power to diminish the friction and the presidential jealousies which are so often detrimental to the efficiency of Indian administration. At the same time, whenever he perceived a tendency to override the legitimate interests of the presidency entrusted to his charge, he did not fail to remonstrate. It may be truly affirmed that at no period in the history of British India, since the days of Sir Thomas Munro [q. v.], were the relations of the government of India and of the Madras government more satisfactory than they were during the six yean in which Napier presided over the government of Madras.
In February 1872, in consequence of the assassination of the Earl of Mayo [see Bourke, Richard Southwell], it devolved upon Napier to assume temporarily the office of governor-general of India. During the time, a little short of three months, that the temporary governor-generalship lasted, no business of very great importance arose, and Napier, on being relieved by Lord Northbrook, returned to England. For his Indian services he was created a baron of the United Kingdom, with the title of Ettrick (16 July 1872). In the same year he took the chair at the meeting of the social science congress which was held at Plymouth. The address which he delivered on that occasion called forth some comment at the time as being unduly socialistic ; but several of the measures which Napier then suggested have been since embodied in the county councils and parish councils acts. In this address, as in many of his utterances, he evinced the greatest sympathy with the condition of the poor, both in the rural and in the urban districts. An address delivered on 29 April 1878 at the annual meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was, with those of Canon (afterwards Bishop) Lightfoot and Bishop Kelly, published in the same year under the title 'Missions, their Temporal Utility, Rate of Progress, and Spiritual Foundation.' In 1874 he delivered an address on education at the social science congress held at Glasgow. While he continued to live in London he served for some time on the London school board and took an active part in its proceedings. He also served as chairman of the dwellings committee of the Charity Organisation Society. He subsequently took up his residence on his estate in Scotland, and in 1883 he presided over a royal commission which was appointed to inquire into the condition of the crofters and cottars in the highlands and islands of Scotland. This was a congenial duty, which gave full scope to his sympathy with the poor. The report, which was drafted by him, was thorough and exhaustive. It was vehemently attacked in the 'Nineteenth Century' for November 1884 by the late Duke of Argyll, whose criticisms were replied to by Napier in an effective article in a subsequent number of the same review. The report was followed by the appointment of a permanent commission, which deals with all questions concerning the crofters and cottars. During the latter years of his life Napier resided almost entirely in Scotland, acting as convener of his county, and interesting himself generally in local affairs. He was extremely popular with people of all classes on and in the neighbourhood of his estate, to whom he had endeared himself by his kindly and generous nature. He was a LL.D. of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Harvard. He died very suddenly on 19 Dec. 1898 at Florence, where he and Lady Napier and Ettrick had spent their honeymoon fifty-three years before, and where they had gone to pass the winter. He had married, in 1845, Anne Jane Charlotte, only daughter of Robert Manners Lockwood of Dun-y-Graig in Glamorganshire. Lady Napier, who survives her husband, was appointed a member of the imperial order of the crown of India shortly after it was constituted. Lord Napier left three sons, and was succeeded in his titles and estate by his eldest son, William George.
Napier's career was undoubtedly a very brilliant one up to a certain point. As the representative of Queen Victoria at two of the most important courts in Europe and at Washington, he had discharged his important functions with admirable judgment and tact. His government of Madras had been so successful that he was invited to retain it beyond the usual time. His long official experience and dignified bearing would have seemed to point him out as the most fitting successor to Lord Mayo, whose loss India was at that time deploring. He certainly had shown himself to be possessed of qualifications which few governors-general of India had displayed before being appointed to that high post. He was an eloquent speaker. His reply to an address which was presented to him by the natives of Madras on his departure from India has seldom been surpassed in felicity of diction and pathos. But he was passed over. After his return to England he might have been expected to follow with eminent success a political career. But he was without the pecuniary means of meeting the expenses of parliamentary life, and, although not
