SELBORNE.
983
Schools " (in collaboration with the Kev. E. A. Abbott), 18G9 ; "Lec- tures and Essays," 1870 ; an edition of *' Livy, with Introduction, His- torical Examination, and Notes,'* the first volume of which, appeared in 1871 ; " Life and Adventures of E. M. Amdt," translated, 1879; "Life and Times of Stein: or, Germany and Prussia in the Na- X>oleomc Age," 3 vols., 1879 j "Natural Religion, by the author of * Ecce Homo,' " 1882 ; and "The Expansion of England," 1883.
SELBORNE (Eabl of). The Bight Hon. Roundell Palhier, second son of the late Rev. WiUiam Palmer, rector of Mixbury, Ox- fordshire, by Dorothea, youngest daughter of the late Rev. WilSam Bonndell, of Gledstanes, Yorkshire, was born at Mixbury, Nov. 27, 1812. He was educated at Rugby and Winchester Schools, and was elect- ed in 1830 to an open scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated, as a first-class in classics, in Easter term, 1834, having previously gained the Chan- cellor's prize for Latin verse, and for the Latin essay in 1831, the Newdigate prize for English verse in 1832, and the Ireland scholarship in the same year. The subject of the Latin verse composition was " Numantia," and of the English " Staffa." He was elected to a Fellowship at Magdalen College, and obtmned the Eldon I^w Scholarship in 1834. In 1837 he graduated M.A., and was called to the bar at Lincoln's-inn on June 9 the same yejkr. Having practised with great success as a Chancery barrister, he was created a Queen's Council in April, 1849, and was immediately elected a Bencher of his inn. Sir Roundell Palmer was first returned to Parliament as member for Plymouth, at the gene- ral election of July, 1847, being the colleague of Viscount Ebrington. He is described in the Parliamentary Companion of the day as a " Liberal Conservative, favourable to the ex-
tension of free trade, but friendly to the principle of the Navigation Laws ; is opposed to the endowment of the Roman Catholic clergy." He represented Plymouth till Jiily, 1832, when he was not re-elected ; but regained his seat in June, 1853, and held it till March, 1857, when he did not offer himself as a candi- date. In July, 1861, though he had not a seat in Parliament at the time, he was appointed Solicitor- General in Lord Palmerston's Administration, succeeding Sir William Atherton, who was pro- moted to be Attorney-General on the elevation of Sir Richard Bethell to the Chancellorship as Lord Westbury. Sir Roundell then re- ceived the honour of knighthood, and he was soon after elected M.P. for Richmond, a borough in which the Earl of Zetland has paramount influence, and which he continued to represent until his elevation to the peerage. In Oct., 1863, on the death of Sir WUliam Atherton, he became Attorney-General, and re- tired from office with Lord John Russell's second Administration in June, 1866. On the return of the Liberal party to power, under the leadership of Mr. Gladstone, in Dec., 1868, he was offered the Chancellorship, but not being able to endorse the policy of the Govern- ment in relation to the Irish Church, declined taking office. Sir Roun- dell Palmer's views on the Irish Church question were embodied at the time in a speech addressed by hitn to his constituents at Rich- mond. He concurred with the Government in recommending the disestablishment of the Irisli Church, but differed from them on the quMtion of disendowment. He continued, however, to be an inde- pendent supporter of Mr. Glad- stone's Cabinet on most of the public questions of the day, and consented to represent Her Ma- jesty's Government as counsel be- fore the Arbitration Court at Geneva in 1871. • ^e wa^ appointed
