Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/258

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Biggar
196
Bingham

dence on 29 May 1889, he was severely pressed by the 'Times' counsel as to his relations with the Fenians, and as to his connection with the land agitation. He would admit no cognisance of the management or disposal of the league accounts, though he was admittedly one of the treasurers, always taking shelter under the plea of defective memory. His advocacy of boycotting formed an important feature in the whole case. Biggar advocated the extreme doctrine that any boycotting short of physical force was justifiable, and extensive extracts from his speeches are cited in the report of the judges to support their findings on that count. His address to the court, delivered on 24 Oct., occupied only about a quarter of an hour.

Parnell considered Biggar a valuable auxiliary, and he enjoyed unbounded popularity among the Irish members; while his opponents came in time to recognise his honesty and good nature. He died of heart disease at 124 Sugden Road, Clapham Common, on 19 Feb. 1890. A requiem mass, said for him the next day at the Redemptorist Church, Clapham, was attended by the Irish members, and the body was then taken to Ireland and buried in St. Patrick's Church, Donegal Street, Belfast, on 24 Feb., the funeral being the largest ever seen in the town. He was, after his conversion, a devout Roman catholic. During the later years of his life Biggar was in very comfortable circumstances. One result of his residence in Paris in 1882 was a breach of promise suit by a lady named Fanny Hyland, who in March 1883 recovered 400l. damages. He was unmarried, and the bulk of his fortune was left to a natural son.

Probably no member with less qualifications for public speaking ever occupied so much of the time of the House of Commons. None practised parliamentary obstruction more successfully. With a shrill voice and an ugly presence, he had no pretensions to education. But he had great shrewdness, unbounded courage, and a certain rough humour.

[O'Brien's Life of Parnell, i. 81-5, 92-3, 109-111, 135-6, 195, 254-5, 301, ii. 1, 2, 122-8; Lucy's Diary of Two Parliaments (1874–85), and Diary of Salisbury Parliament, with two sketches by Harry Furniss; O'Connor's Gladstone's House of Commons, and Parnell Movement; Men of the Time, 12th edit.; Illustrated London News, 20 Nov. 1880 (with portrait); Times, 20–25 Feb. 1890; Weekly Northern Whig, 22 Feb. 1890; Report of the Special Commission, 1890; Macdonald's Diary of the Parnell Commission, 1890; McCarthy's Reminiscences, ii. 398.]

G. Le G. N.


BINGHAM, GEORGE CHARLES, third Earl of Lucan (1800–1888), field-marshal, born in London on 16 April 1800, was eldest son of Richard, second earl, by Elizabeth, third daughter of Henry, third Earl of Fauconberg of Newborough, and divorced wife of Bernard Edward Howard, afterwards fifteenth Duke of Norfolk.

Lord Bingham was educated at Westminster, and was commissioned as ensign in the 6th foot on 29 Aug. 1816, He exchanged to the 3rd foot guards on 24 Dec. 1818, went on half-pay next day, and became lieutenant in the 8th foot on 20 Jan. 1820. He obtained a company in the 74th foot on 16 May 1822, again went on half-pay, and on 20 June was gazetted to the 1st life guards. He was given an unattached majority on 23 June 1825, and on 1 Dec. was appointed to the 17th lancers. He succeeded to the command of that regiment as lieutenant-colonel on 9 Nov, 1826, and held it till 14 April 1837, when he went on half-pay. During the term of his command the regiment remained at home, but he himself witnessed the campaign of 1828 in the Balkans, being attached to the Russian staff. The order of St. Anne of Russia (2nd class) was conferred on him.

He was M.P. for county Mayo from 1826 to 1830. On 30 June 1839 his father's death made him Earl of Lucan, and in 1840 he was elected a representative peer of Ireland. He was made lord lieutenant of Mayo in 1845, and for several years devoted himself mainly to the improvement of his Irish estates. He became colonel in the army on 23 Nov. 1841, and major-general on 11 Nov. 1851.

In 1854, when a British army was to be sent to Turkey, Lucan applied for a brigade, and on 21 Feb. he was appointed to the command of the cavalry division. It consisted of two brigades—a heavy brigade under James Yorke Scarlett [q. v.] and a light brigade under Lord Cardigan [see Brudenell, James Thomas]. The latter was Lucan's brother-in-law; but there was little love between them, and no two men could have been less fitted to work together. There was soon friction. Cardigan complained of undue interference, and Lucan complained that his brigadier's notions of independence were encouraged by Lord Raglan.

At the battle of the Alma (20 Sept.) Lucan was present, but the cavalry was not allowed to take an active part in it. When the army encamped in the upland before Sebastopol the cavalry division remained in the valley of Balaclava, to assist in guarding the port. On 25 Oct. the Russians advanced on Bala-