Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/320

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Brand
258
Brand

[q. v.] resigned the speakership of the House of Commons in February 1872, Brand was elected without opposition to succeed him. Brand's long tenure of the position of party whip caused doubts as to his fitness for the speakership, but these were soon solved by Brand's impartial performance of his duties; he endeared himself to the house by his uniform suavity (Mowbray, pp. 115, 118), and in 1874, when Disraeli returned to office, Brand was on 5 March, on the motion of Mr. Henry Chaplin, unanimously re-elected speaker (Lucy, Diary of two Parliaments, i. 6). The development of systematic obstruction under Parnell's auspices placed Brand in a position of unprecedented difficulties [see Parnell, Charles Stewart], and on 11 July 1879 Parnell moved a vote of censure on him for having ordered two clerks to take minutes of the speeches, on the ground that he had no power to do so; the motion was lost by 421 to 29 votes, one of the biggest majorities recorded in the history of parliament (Lucy, i. 485-6). Brand had in the same parliament some difficulty in dealing with Samuel Plimsoll [q. v. Suppl.]

After the general election of 1880 Brand was once more, on the motion of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland [q. v. Suppl.] on 30 April, unanimously elected speaker, but the return of the Parnellite home-rulers in increased numbers added to his difficulties, and their obstructive tactics culminated in the debate on W. E. Forster's motion for leave to introduce his coercion bill. The sitting, which began on 31 Jan. 1881, was by these means protracted for forty-one hours until 9 a.m. on Wednesday, 2 Feb. Brand, who had left the chair at 11.30 on the previous night, then returned, and ended the debate by refusing on his own responsibility to hear any more speeches. The strict legality of his action is perhaps doubtful, but it was justified by sheer necessity. It was the first check imposed upon members' power of unlimited obstruction; on the following day Gladstone introduced resolutions reforming the rules of procedure, and the speaker's powers of dealing with obstruction have subsequently been further increased. Brand's tenure of the speakership was henceforth comparatively uneventful; he received the unusual honour of G.C.B. at the close of the 1881 session, and in February 1884 resigned the chair on the ground of failing health. He was granted the usual pension of 4,000l. and viscountcy, being created on 4 March Viscount Hampden of Glynde, Sussex. His choice of title was probably determined by his descent in the female line from John Hampden [q. v.] For the rest of his life he devoted himself to agricultural experiments at Glynde, particularly in dairy farming. He was made lord-lieutenant of Sussex, and in 1890 succeeded his elder brother, Thomas Crosbie William, as twenty-third Baron Dacre. He died at Pau on 14 March 1892, and was buried at Glynde on the 22nd, a memorial service being held on the same day in St. Margaret's, Westminster. A portrait of Hampden, painted by Frank Holl, is at The Hoo, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, and a replica hangs in the Speaker's Court, Westminster.

By his wife, who died at Lewes on 9 March 1899, aged 81, Hampden had issue five sons and five daughters; the eldest son, Henry Robert (b. 1841), is the present Viscount Hampden; the second son, Thomas Seymour (b. 1847), is admiral, R.N.; the third son, Arthur (b. 1853), was M.P. for the Wisbech division of Cambridgeshire (1892-1895), and treasurer of the household in 1894-5.

[Burke's Peerage; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, s.vv. ‘Dacre’ and ‘Hampden;’ Times, 16-23 March 1892 and 10 March 1899; Daily News, 16-23 March 1892; Annual Register, 1892 p. 165, 1899 p. 141; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Hansard's Parl. Debates; Lucy's Diary of two Parliaments; T. P. O'Connor's Gladstone's House of Commons; Andrew Lang's Life of Stafford Northcote; Sir John Mowbray's Seventy Years at Westminster, 1900; Childers's Life of H. C. E. Childers, 1901.]

A. F. P.

BRAND, Sir JOHANNES HENRICUS (JAN HENDRIK) (1823–1888), president of the Orange Free State, the son of Sir Christoffel Brand (1797–1875), speaker of the House of Assembly at the Cape, was born at Cape Town on 6 Dec. 1823, and educated at the South African College at that place. On 18 May 1843 he entered Leyden University, graduating LL.D. in 1845 (Peacock, Leyden Students, p. 13). He was admitted student of the Inner Temple in London on 9 May 1843, and was called to the bar on 8 June 1849. He returned almost immediately to South Africa, and commenced to practise as an advocate before the supreme court of the Cape Colony, making gradually a sound reputation. In 1854 he became a member of the first House of Assembly, representing the borough of Clanwilliam. In the house, as at the bar, his speeches were delivered with vehemence, and his manner was confident, but he made no great impression in the assembly. In 1858 he was elected professor of law at the South African College, Cape Town.

In November 1863 Brand was elected by