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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria"
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The legend of Bucur is plainly unhistorical, and the meaning of Bucharest has been much disputed. One account derives it from an Albanian word Bukur, meaning joy, in memory of a victory won by Prince Mircea of Walachia (c. 1383-1419) over the Turks. For this reason Bucharest is often called "The City of Joy". Like most ancient cities of Rumania, its foundation has also been ascribed to the first Walachian prince, the half-mythical Radu Negru (c. 1290-1314). More modern historians declare that it was originally a fortress, erected on the site of the Daco-Roman Thyanus, to command the approaches to Tirgovishtea, formerly the capital of Walachia. It soon became the summer residence of the court. In 1595 it was burned by the Turks; but, after its restoration, continued to grow in size and prosperity, until, in 1698, Prince Constantine Brancovan chose it for his capital. During the 18th century the possession of Bucharest was frequently disputed by the Turks, Austrians and Russians. In 1812 it gave its name to the treaty by which Bessarabia and a third of Moldavia were ceded to Russia. In the war of 1828 it was occupied by the Russians, who made it over to the prince of Walachia in the following year. A rebellion against Prince Bibescu in 1848 brought both Turkish and Russian interference, and the city was again held by Russian troops in 1853-1854. On their departure an Austrian garrison took possession and remained till March 1857. In 1858 the international congress for the organization of the Danubian principalities was held in the city; and when, in 1861, the union of Walachia and Moldavia was proclaimed, Bucharest became the Rumanian capital. Prince Cuza, the first ruler of the united provinces, was driven from his throne by an insurrection in Bucharest in 1866. For the subsequent history of the city see RUMANIA: History.

BUeCHELER, FRANZ (1837-1908), German classical scholar, was born in Rheinberg on the 3rd of June 1837, and educated at Bonn. He held professorships successively at Freiburg (1858), Greifswald (1866), and Bonn (1870), and in 1878 became joint-editor of the Rheinisches Museum fuer Philologie. Both as a teacher and as a commentator he was extremely successful. Among his editions are: Frontini de aquis urbis Romae (Leipzig, 1858); Pervigilium Veneris (Leipzig, 1859); Petronii satirarum reliquiae (Berlin, 1862; 3rd ed., 1882); Hymnus Cereris Homericus (Leipzig, 1869); Q. Ciceronis reliquiae (1869); Herondae mimiambi (Bonn, 1892). He wrote also Grundriss der lateinischen Deklination (1866); Das Recht von Gortyn (Frankfort, 1885, with Zitelmann); and supervised the third edition (1893) of O. Jahn's Persii, Juvenalis, Sulpiciae saturae.

BUCHER, LOTHAR (1817-1892), German publicist, was born on the 25th of October 1817 at Neu Stettin, in Pomerania, his father being master at a gymnasium. After studying at the university of Berlin he adopted the legal profession. Elected a member of the National Assembly in Berlin in 1848, he was an active leader of the extreme democratic party. With others of his colleagues he was in 1850 brought to trial for having taken part in organizing a movement for refusal to pay taxes; he was condemned to fifteen months' imprisonment in a fortress, but left the country before the sentence was executed. For ten years he lived in exile, chiefly in London; he acted as special correspondent of the National Zeitung, and gained a great knowledge of English life; and he published a work, Der Parliamentarismus wie er ist, a criticism of parliamentary government, which shows a marked change in his political opinions. In 1860 he returned to Germany, and became intimate with Lassalle, who made him his literary executor. In 1864 he was offered by Bismarck, and accepted, a high position in the Prussian foreign office. The reasons that led him to a step which involved so complete a break with his earlier friends and associations are not clearly known. From this time till his death he acted as Bismarck's secretary, and was the man who probably enjoyed the greatest [v.04 p.0664] amount of his confidence. It was he who drew up the text of the constitution of the North German Confederation; in 1870 he was sent on a very confidential mission to Spain in connexion with the Hohenzollern candidature for the Spanish crown; he assisted Bismarck at the final negotiations for the treaty of Frankfort, and was one of the secretaries to the congress of Berlin; he also assisted Bismarck in the composition of his memoirs. Bucher, who was a man of great ability, had considerable influence, which was especially directed against the economic doctrines of the Liberals; in 1881 he published a pamphlet criticizing the influence and principles of the Cobden Club. He identified himself completely with Bismarck's later commercial and colonial policy, and probably had much to do with introducing it, and he did much to encourage anti-British feeling in Germany. He died at Glion, in Switzerland, on the 12th of October 1892.

See Heinrich v. Poschinger, Ein 48er: Lothar Buchers Leben und Werke (3 vols., Berlin, 1890); Busch, Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History (London, 1898).

(J. W. HE.)

BUCHEZ, PHILIPPE JOSEPH BENJAMIN (1796-1865), French author and politician, was born on the 31st of March 1796 at Matagne-la-Petite, now in Belgium, then in the French department of the Ardennes. He finished his general education in Paris, and afterwards applied himself to the study of natural science and medicine. In 1821 he co-operated with Saint-Amand Bazard and others in founding a secret association, modelled on that of the Italian Carbonari, with the object of organizing a general armed rising against the government. The organization spread rapidly and widely, and displayed itself in repeated attempts at revolution. In one of these attempts, the affair at Belfort, Buchez was gravely compromised, although the jury which tried him did not find the evidence sufficient to warrant his condemnation. In 1825 he graduated in medicine, and soon after he published with Ulisse Trelat a Precis elementaire d'hygiene. About the same time he became a member of the Saint-Simonian Society, presided over by Bazard, Barthelemy Prosper Enfantin, and Olinde Rodrigues, and contributed to its organ, the Producteur. He left it in consequence of aversion to the strange religious ideas developed by its "Supreme Father," Enfantin, and began to elaborate what he regarded as a Christian socialism. For the exposition and advocacy of his principles he founded a periodical called L'Europeen. In 1833 he published an Introduction a la science de l'histoire, which was received with considerable favour (2nd ed., improved and enlarged, 2 vols., 1842). Notwithstanding its prolixity, this is an interesting work. The part which treats of the aim, foundation and methods of the science of history is valuable; but what is most distinctive in Buchez's theory—the division of historical development into four great epochs originated by four universal revelations, of each epoch into three periods corresponding to desire, reasoning and performance, and of each of these periods into a theoretical and practical age—is merely ingenious (see Flint's Philosophy of History in Europe, i. 242-252). Buchez next edited, along with M. Roux-Lavergne (1802-1874), the Histoire parlementaire de la Revolution francaise (1833-1838; 40 vols.). This vast and conscientious publication is a valuable store of material for the early periods of the first French Revolution. There is a review of it by Carlyle (Miscellanies), the first two parts of whose own history of the French Revolution are mainly drawn from it. The editors worked under the inspiration of a strong admiration of the principles of Robespierre and the Jacobins, and in the belief that the French Revolution was an attempt to realize Christianity. In the Essai d'un traite complet de philosophie au point de vue du Catholicisme et du progres (1839-1840) Buchez endeavoured to co-ordinate in a single system the political, moral, religious and natural phenomena of existence. Denying the possibility of innate ideas, he asserted that morality comes by revelation, and is therefore not only certain, but the only real certainty.

It was partly owing to the reputation which he had acquired by these publications, but still more owing to his connexion with the National newspaper, and with the secret societies hostile to the government of Louis Philippe, that he was raised, by the Revolution of 1848, to the presidency of the Constituent Assembly. He speedily showed that he was not possessed of the qualities needed in a situation so difficult and in days so tempestuous. He retained the position only for a very short time. After the dissolution of the assembly he was not re-elected. Thrown back into private life, he resumed his studies, and added several works to those which have been already mentioned. A Traite de politique (published 1866), which may be considered as the completion of his Traite de philosophie, was the most important of the productions of the last period of his life. His brochures are very numerous and on a great variety of subjects, medical, historical, political, philosophical, &c. He died on the 12th of August 1865. He found a disciple of considerable ability in M.A. Ott, who advocated and applied his principles in various writings.

See also A. Ott, "P.B.J. Buchez," in Journal des economistes for 1865.

BUCHHOLZ, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, 1700 ft. above the sea, on the Sehma, 18 m. S. by E. of Chemnitz by rail. Pop. (1905) 9307. It has a Gothic Evangelical church and monuments of Frederick the Wise of Saxony, and Bismarck. There is a school for instruction in lace-making, an industry dating from 1589, which still forms the chief employment of the inhabitants.

BUeCHNER, FRIEDRICH KARL CHRISTIAN LUDWIG (1824-1899), German philosopher and physician, was born at Darmstadt. He studied at Giessen, Strassburg, Wuerzburg and Vienna. In 1852 he became lecturer in medicine at the university of Tuebingen, where he published his great work Kraft und Stoff (1855). In this work, the product, according to Lange, of a fanatical enthusiasm for humanity, he sought to demonstrate the indestructibility of matter and force, and the finality of physical force. The extreme materialism of this work excited so much opposition that he was compelled to give up his post at Tuebingen. He retired to Darmstadt, where he practised as a physician and contributed regularly to pathological and physiological magazines. He continued his philosophical work in defence of materialism, and published Natur und Geist (1857), Aus Natur und Wissenschaft (vol. i., 1862; vol. ii., 1884), Fremdes und Eigenes aus dem geistigen Leben der Gegenwart (1890), Darwinismus und Socialismus (1894), Im Dienste der Wahrheit (1899). He died at Darmstadt on the 1st of May 1899. In estimating Buechner's philosophy it must be remembered that he was primarily a physiologist, not a metaphysician. Matter and force (or energy) are infinite; the conservation of force follows from the imperishability of matter, the ultimate basis of all science. Buechner is not always clear in his theory of the relation between matter and force. At one time he refuses to explain it, but generally he assumes that all natural and spiritual forces are indwelling in matter. "Just as a steam-engine," he says in Kraft und Stoff (7th ed., p. 130), "produces motion, so the intricate organic complex of force-bearing substance in an animal organism produces a total sum of certain effects, which, when bound together in a unity, are called by us mind, soul, thought." Here he postulates force and mind as emanating from original matter—a materialistic monism. But in other parts of his works he suggests that mind and matter are two different aspects of that which is the basis of all things—a monism which is not necessarily materialistic, and which, in the absence of further explanation, constitutes a confession of failure. Buechner was much less concerned to establish a scientific metaphysic than to protest against the romantic idealism of his predecessors and the theological interpretations of the universe. Nature according to him is purely physical; it has no purpose, no will, no laws imposed by extraneous authority, no supernatural ethical sanction.

See Frauenstaedt, Der Materialismus (Leipzig, 1856); Janet, The Materialism of the Present Day: A Criticism of Dr Buechner's System, trans. Masson (London, 1867).

BUCHON, JEAN ALEXANDRE (1791-1849), French scholar, was born on the 21st of May 1791 at Menetou-Salon (Cher), and died on the 29th of August 1849. An ardent Liberal, he took an active part in party struggles under the Restoration, while [v.04 p.0665] throwing himself with equal vigour into the great work of historical regeneration which was going on at that period. During 1822 and the succeeding years he travelled about Europe on the search for materials for his Collection des chroniques nationales francaises ecrites en langue vulgaire du XIII^e au XVI^e siecle (47 vols., 1824-1829). After the revolution of 1830 he founded the Pantheon litteraire, in which he published a Choix d'ouvrages mystiques (1843), a Choix de monuments primitifs de l'eglise chretienne (1837), a Choix des historiens grecs (1837), a collection of Chroniques etrangeres relatives aux expeditions francaises pendant le XIII^e siecle (1840), and, most important of all, a Choix de chroniques et memoires sur l'histoire de France (1836-1841). His travels in southern Italy and in the East had put him upon the track of the medieval French settlements in those regions, and to this subject he devoted several important works: Recherches et materiaux pour servir a une histoire de la domination francaise dans les provinces demembrees de l'empire grec (1840); Nouvelles recherches historiques sur la principaute francaise de Moree et ses hautes baronnies (2 vols., 1843-1844); Histoire des conquetes et de l'etablissement des Francais dans les etats de l'ancienne Grece sous es Villehardouin (1846, unfinished). None of the numerous publications which we owe to Buchon can be described as thoroughly scholarly; but they have been of great service to history, and those concerning the East have in especial the value of original research.

BUCHU, or BUKA LEAVES, the produce of several shrubby plants belonging to the genus Barosma (nat. order Rutaceae), natives of the Cape of Good Hope. The principal species, B. crenulata, has leaves of a smooth leathery texture, oblong-ovate in shape, from an inch to an inch and a half in length, with serrulate or crenulate margins, on which as well as on the under side are conspicuous oil-glands. The other species which yield buchu are B. serratifolia, having linear-lanceolate sharply serrulate leaves, and B. betulina, the leaves of which are cuneate-obovate, with denticulate margins. They are all, as found in commerce, of a pale yellow-green colour; they emit a peculiar aromatic odour, and have a slightly astringent bitter taste. Buchu leaves contain a volatile oil, which is of a dark yellow colour, and deposits a form of camphor on exposure to air, a liquid hydro-carbon being the solvent of the camphor within the oil-glands. There is also present a minute quantity of a bitter principle. The leaves of a closely allied plant, Empleurum serratulum, are employed as a substitute or adulterant for buchu. As these possess no glands they are a worthless substitute. The British Pharmacopoeia contains an infusion and tincture of buchu. The former may be given in doses of an ounce and the latter in doses of a drachm. The drug has the properties common to all substances that contain a volatile oil. The infusion contains very little of the oil and is of very slight value. Until the advent of the modern synthetic products buchu was valued in diseases of the urinary tract, but its use is now practically obsolete.

BUCK, CARL DARLING (1866- ), American philologist, was born on the 2nd of October 1866, at Bucksport, Maine. He graduated at Yale in 1886, was a graduate student there for three years, and studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (1887-1889) and in Leipzig (1889-1892). In 1892 he became professor of Sanskrit and Indo-European comparative philology in the University of Chicago; but it is in the narrower field of the Italic dialects that his important work lies, including Der Vocalismus der oskischen Sprache (1892), The Oscan-Umbrian Verb-System (1895), and Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian (1904), as well as an excellent precis of the Italic languages in Johnson's Universal Cyclopaedia. He collaborated with W.G. Hale (q.v.) in the preparation of A Latin Grammar (1903). Of his contributions to reviews on phonological topics, perhaps the most important is his discussion of "Brugmann's Law."

BUCK, DUDLEY (1839-1909), American musical composer, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on the 10th of March 1839, the son of a merchant who gave him every opportunity for cultivating his musical talents; and for four years (1858-1862) he studied at Leipzig, Dresden and Paris. On returning to America he held the position of organist at Hartford, Chicago (1869), and Boston (1871). In 1875 he went to New York to assist Theodore Thomas as conductor of the orchestral concerts, and from 1877 to 1903 was organist at Holy Trinity church. Meanwhile he had become well known as a composer of church music, a number of cantatas (Columbus, 1876; Golden Legend, 1880; Light of Asia, 1885, &c), a grand opera, Serapis, a comic opera, Deseret (1880), a symphonic overture, Marmion, a symphony in E flat, and other orchestral and vocal works. He died on the 6th of October 1909.

BUCK, (1) (From the O. Eng. buc, a he-goat, and bucca, a male deer), the male of several animals, of goats, hares and rabbits, and particularly of the fallow-deer. During the 18th century the word was used of a spirited, reckless young man of fashion, and later, with particular reference to extravagance in dress, of a dandy. (2) (From a root common to Teutonic and Romance languages, cf. the Ger. Bauch, Fr. buee, and Ital. bucata), the bleaching of clothes in lye, also the lye itself, and the clothes to be bleached, so a "buck-basket" means a basket of clothes ready for the wash. (3) Either from an obsolete word meaning "body," or from the sense of bouncing or jumping, derived from (1), a word now only found in compound words, as "buck-board," a light four-wheeled vehicle, the primitive form of which has one or more seats on a springy board, joining the front and rear axles and serving both as springs and body; a "buck-wagon" (Dutch, bok-wagen) is a South African cart with a frame projecting over the wheels, used for the transport of heavy loads. (4) (Either from "buck" a he-goat, or from a common Teutonic root, to bend, as seen in the Ger. buecken, and Eng. "bow"), a verb meaning "to leap"; seen especially in the compound "buck-jumper," a horse which leaps clear off the ground, with feet tucked together and arched back, descending with fore-feet rigid and head down and drawn inwards.

BUCK-BEAN, or BOG-BEAN (Menyanthes trifoliata, a member of the Gentian family), a bog-plant with a creeping stem, alternately arranged large leaves each with three leaflets, and spikes of white or pink flowers. The stout stem is bitter and has tonic and febrifuge properties. The plant is widely distributed through the north temperate zone.

BUeCKEBURG, a town of Germany, capital of the principality of Schaumburg-Lippe, pleasantly situated at the foot of the Harrelberg on the river Aue, 6 m. from Minden, on the main railway from Cologne to Berlin. Pop. 6000. It has a palace standing in extensive grounds, a gymnasium, a normal seminary, a library, a synagogue, and three churches, one of which has the appropriate inscription, Religionis non structurae exemplum. The first houses of Bueckeburg began to gather round the castle about 1365; and it was not till the 17th century that the town was surrounded with walls, which have given place to a ring of pretty promenades. The poet J.G. von Herder was court preacher here from 1771 to 1776.

BUCKERIDGE, JOHN (c. 1562-1631), English divine, was a son of William Buckeridge, and was educated at the Merchant Taylors school and at St John's College, Oxford. He became a fellow of his college, and acted as tutor to William Laud, whose opinions were perhaps shaped by him. Leaving Oxford, Buckeridge held several livings, and was highly esteemed by King James I., whose chaplain he became. In 1605 he was elected president of St John's College, a position which he vacated on being made bishop of Rochester in 1611. He was transferred to the bishopric of Ely in 1628, and died on the 23rd of May 1631. The bishop won some fame as a theologian and a controversialist. Among his intimate friends was Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, whose "Ninety-one Sermons" were published by Laud and Buckeridge in 1629.

BUCKETSHOP, a slang financial term for the office or business of an inferior class of stockbroker, who is not a member of an official exchange and conducts speculative operations for his clients, who deposit a margin or cover. The operations consist, as a rule, of a simple bet or wager between the broker and client, no pretence of an actual purchase or sale being attempted. The term is sometimes, though loosely and wrongfully, applied to [v.04 p.0666] all stockbrokers who are not members of the recognized local exchange. The origin of the word is American. According to the New English Dictionary it is supposed to have arisen in Chicago. The Board of Trade there forbade dealings in "options" in grain of less than 5000 bushels. An "Open Board of Trade" or unauthorized exchange was opened, for the purpose of small gamblers, in a neighbouring street below the rooms of the Board of Trade. The lift used by members of the Board of Trade would be sent down to bring up from the open Board what was known as a "bucketful" of the smaller speculators, when business was slack.

BUCKHOLDT [properly BEUKELSZ, or BOCKELSZOON], JOHANN (c. 1508-1535), Dutch Anabaptist fanatic, better known as JOHN OF LEIDEN, from his place of birth, was the illegitimate son of Bockel, burgomaster of Soevenhagen, who afterwards married his mother. He was born about 1508, apprenticed to a tailor, became infected with the opinions of Thomas Muenzer, travelled in pursuit of his trade (being four years in London), married a widow, became bankrupt, and in September 1533 joined the Anabaptist movement under Johann Matthysz (Matthyszoon), baker of Haarlem. He had little education, but some literary faculty, and had written plays. On the 13th of January 1534 he appeared in Muenster as an apostle of Matthysz. Good-looking and fluent, he fascinated women, and won the confidence of Bernard Knipperdollinck, a revolutionary cloth merchant, who gave him his daughter in marriage. The Muenster Anabaptists took up arms on the 9th of February 1534 (see ANABAPTISTS). On the death of Matthysz (1534), Buckholdt succeeded him as prophet, added his widow to the number of his wives, and organized a new constitution for Muenster, with twelve elders (suggested by the tribes of Israel) and other officers of a theocracy, but soon superseded these, making himself king of the new Zion. His arbitrary rule was marked by pomp and severity. Muenster was retaken (June 25, 1535) by its prince-bishop, Franz von Waldeck. Buckholdt, after many indignities, was cruelly executed on the 22nd of January 1536; his body, and those of his companions, were hung in cages to the tower of the Lamberti church. His portrait is in Grouwelen der Hooftketteren (Leiden, 1607; an English edition is appended to Alexander Ross's Pansebeia, 2nd ed., 1655); a better example of the same is given by Arend.

See Arend, Algemeene Geschiedenis des Vaderlands (1846), ii., iii., 629; Van der Aa, Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden (1853); E. Belfort Bax, Rise and Fail of the Anabaptists (1903).

(A. GO.*)

BUCKIE, a fishing town and police burgh of Banffshire, Scotland, on the Moray Firth, at the mouth of Buckie burn, about 17 m. W. of Banff, with a station on the Great North of Scotland railway. Pop. (1891) 5849; (1901) 6549. Its public buildings include a hall and literary institute with library and recreation rooms. It attracts one of the largest Scottish fleets in the herring season, and is also the chief seat of line fishing in Scotland. The harbour, with an outer and an inner basin, covers an area of 9 acres and has half a mile of quayage. Besides the fisheries, there are engineering works, distilleries, and works for the making of ropes, sails and oil. The burn, which divides the town into Nether Buckie and Eastern Buckie, rises near the Hill of Clashmadin, about 5 m. to the south-west. Portgordon, 11/2 m. west of Buckie, is a thriving fishing village, and Rathven, some 2 m. east, lies in a fertile district, where there are several interesting Danish cairns and other relics of the remote past.

BUCKINGHAM, EARLS, MARQUESSES AND DUKES OF. The origin of the earldom of Buckingham (to be distinguished from that of Buckinghamshire, q.v.) is obscure. According to Mr J.H. Round (in G.E.C.'s Peerage, s.v.) there is some charter evidence for its existence under William Rufus; but the main evidence for reckoning Walter Giffard, lord of Longueville in Normandy, who held forty-eight lordships in the county, as the first earl, is that of Odericus Vitalis, who twice describes Walter as "Comes Bucchingehamensis," once in 1097, and again at his death in 1102. After the death of Walter Giffard, 2nd earl in 1164, the title was assumed by Richard de Clare, earl of Pembroke ("Strongbow"), in right of his wife, Rohais, sister of Walter Giffard I.; and it died with him in 1176. In 1377 Thomas of "Woodstock" (duke of Gloucester) was created earl of Buckingham at the coronation of Richard II. (15th of July), and the title of Gloucester having after his death been given to Thomas le Despenser, his son Humphrey bore that of earl of Buckingham only. On Humphrey's death, his sister Anne became countess of Buckingham in her own right. She married Edmund Stafford, earl of Stafford, and on her death (1438) the title of Buckingham passed to her son Humphrey Stafford, earl of Stafford, who in 1444 was created duke of Buckingham. This title remained in the Stafford family until the attainder and execution of Edward, 3rd duke, in 1521 (see BUCKINGHAM, HENRY STAFFORD, 2nd duke of).

In 1617 King James I. created George Villiers earl, in 1618 marquess, and in 1623 duke of Buckingham (see BUCKINGHAM, GEORGE VILLIERS, 1st duke of). The marquessate and dukedom became extinct with the death of the 2nd (Villiers) duke (q.v.) in 1687; but the earldom was claimed, under the special remainder in the patent of 1617, by a collateral line of doubtful legitimacy claiming descent from John Villiers, 1st Viscount Purbeck. The title was not actually borne after the death of John Villiers, styling himself earl of Buckingham, in 1723. The claim was extinguished by the death of George Villiers, a clergyman, in 1774.

In 1703 John Sheffield, marquess of Normanby, was created "duke of the county of Buckingham and of Normanby" (see below). He was succeeded by his son Edmund who died in October 1735 when the titles became extinct.

The title of marquess and duke of Buckingham in the Grenville family (to the holders of which the remainder of this article applies) was derived, not from the county, but from the town of Buckingham. It originated in 1784, when the 2nd Earl Temple was created marquess of Buckingham "in the county of Buckingham," this title being elevated into the dukedom of Buckingham and Chandos for his son in 1822.

GEORGE NUGENT TEMPLE GRENVILLE, 1st marquess of Buckingham (1753-1813), was the second son of George Grenville, and was born on the 17th of June 1753. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he was appointed a teller of the exchequer in 1764, and ten years later was returned to parliament as one of the members for Buckinghamshire. In the House of Commons he was a sharp critic of the American policy of Lord North. In September 1779 he succeeded his uncle as 2nd Earl Temple; in 1782 was appointed lord-lieutenant of Buckinghamshire; and in July of the same year became a member of the privy council and lord-lieutenant of Ireland in the ministry of the earl of Shelburne. On his advice the Renunciation Act of 1783 was passed, which supplemented the legislative independence granted to Ireland in 1782. By royal warrant he created the order of St Patrick in February 1783, with himself as the first grand master. Temple left Ireland in 1783, and again turned his attention to English politics. He enjoyed the confidence of George III., and having opposed Fox's East India Bill, he was authorized by the king to say that "whoever voted for the India Bill was not only not his friend, but would be considered by him as an enemy," a message which ensured the defeat of the bill. He was appointed a secretary of state when the younger Pitt formed his ministry in December 1783, but resigned two days later. In December 1784 he was created marquess of Buckingham "in the county of Buckingham." In November 1787 he was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland under Pitt, but his second tenure of this office was hardly as successful as the first. He was denounced by Grattan for extravagance; was censured by the Irish Houses of parliament for refusing to transmit to England in address calling upon the prince of Wales to assume the regency; and he could only maintain his position by resorting to bribery on a large scale. Having become very unpopular he resigned his office in September 1789, and subsequently took very little part in politics, although he spoke in favour of the union with Ireland. He died at his residence, Stowe House, [v.04 p.0667] Buckingham, on the 11th of February 1813, and was buried at Wotton. In 1775 he had married Mary Elizabeth (d. 1812), daughter of Robert, Earl Nugent.

His elder son, RICHARD GRENVILLE, 1st duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776-1839), was one of the members of parliament for Buckinghamshire from 1797 to 1813, and, as Earl Temple, took an active part in politics. In February 1813 he succeeded his father as marquess of Buckingham; and having married the only child of the 3rd duke of Chandos, he was created duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1822. He died in 1839. Owing to financial embarrassments, the duke lived out of England for some time, and in 1862 an account of his travels was published, as The Private Diary of Richard, Duke of Buckingham and Chandos.

He was succeeded by his only child, RICHARD GRENVILLE, 2nd duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1797-1861). Educated at Eton and Oriel College, Oxford, he was known as Earl Temple and subsequently as marquess of Chandos. He was member of parliament for Buckinghamshire from 1818 to 1839, and was responsible for the "Chandos clause" in the Reform Bill of 1832. He was lord privy seal from September 1841 to January 1842, and partly owing to his opposition to the repeal of the corn laws was known as the "Farmers' Friend." He found the estates heavily encumbered when he succeeded to the dukedom in 1839, and his own generous and luxurious tastes brought matters to a climax. In 1847 his residences were seized by his creditors, and the duke left England. His personal property and many of his landed estates were sold, and returning to England he devoted himself to literature. He died in London, on the 29th of July 1861. His wife, whom he married in 1819, was Mary (d. 1862), daughter of John, 1st marquess of Breadalbane, and she obtained a divorce from him in 1850. Buckingham's chief publications are, Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George III. (London, 1853-1855); Memoirs of the Court of England, 1811-1820 (London, 1856); Memoirs of the Court of George IV. (London, 1859); and Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of William IV. and Victoria (London, 1861).

RICHARD GRENVILLE, 3rd duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1823-1889), the only son of the 2nd duke, was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and, as marquess of Chandos, represented the borough of Buckingham in parliament from 1846 to 1857. He was chairman of the London & North-Western railway from 1853 to 1861. After succeeding to the dukedom he became lord president of the council, and subsequently secretary for the colonies in the Conservative government of 1866-1868. From 1875 to 1880 he was governor of Madras, and in 1886 was chosen chairman of committees in the House of Lords. He was twice married and left three daughters. As he left no son the dukedom became extinct on his death; but the Scottish barony of Kinloss (to which he established his title in 1868) passed to his eldest daughter, Mary, the wife of Captain L. F. H. C. Morgan; the earldom of Temple to his nephew, William Stephen Gore-Langton; and the viscounty of Cobham to his kinsman, Charles George, 5th Baron Lyttelton. His widow married the 1st Earl Egerton of Tatton in 1894.

BUCKINGHAM, GEORGE VILLIERS, 1ST DUKE OF[1] (1592-1628), English statesman, born in August 1592,[2] was a younger son of Sir George Villiers of Brooksby. His mother, Mary, daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Glenfield, Leicestershire, who was left a widow early, educated him for a courtier's life, sending him to France with Sir John Eliot; and the lad, being "by nature contemplative," took kindly to the training. He could dance well, fence well, and talk a little French, when in August 1614 he was brought before the king's notice, in the hope that he would take a fancy to him.

The moment was favourable. Since Salisbury's death James had taken the business of government upon himself. But he wanted some one who would chat with him, and amuse him, and would also fill the office of private secretary, and save him from the trouble of saying no to importunate suitors. It would be an additional satisfaction if he could train the youth whom he might select in those arts of statesmanship of which he believed himself to be a perfect master. His first choice had not proved a happy one. Robert Carr, who had lately become earl of Somerset, had had his head turned by his elevation. He had grown peevish toward his master, and had placed himself at the head of the party which was working for a close alliance with Spain.

The appearance of Villiers, beaming with animal spirits and good humour, was therefore welcomed by all who had an interest in opposing the designs of Spain, and he was appointed cupbearer the same year. For some little time still Somerset's pre-eminence was maintained. But on the 23rd of April 1615, Villiers, in spite of Somerset, was promoted to be gentleman of the bedchamber, and was knighted on the 24th; the charge of murdering Overbury, brought against Somerset in September, completed his downfall, and Villiers at once stepped into the place which he had vacated. On the 3rd of January 1616 he became master of the horse, on the 24th of April he received the order of the Garter, and on the 27th of August 1616 was created Viscount Villiers and Baron Waddon, receiving a grant of land valued at L80,000, while on the 5th of January 1617 he was made earl, and on the 1st of January 1618 marquess of Buckingham. With the exception of the earl of Pembroke he was the richest nobleman in England.

Those who expected him to give his support to the anti-Spanish party were at first doomed to disappointment. As yet he was no politician, and he contented himself with carrying out his master's orders, whatever they were. In his personal relations he was kindly and jovial towards all who did not thwart his wishes. But James had taught him to consider that the patronage of England was in his hands, and he took good care that no man should receive promotion of any kind who did not in one way or another pay court to him. As far as can be ascertained, he cared less for money than for the gratification of his vanity. But he had not merely himself to consider. His numerous kinsfolk were to be enriched by marriage, if in no other way, and Bacon, the great philosopher and statesman, was all but thrust from office because he had opposed a marriage suggested for one of Buckingham's brothers, while Cranfield, the first financier of the day, was kept from the treasury till he would forsake the woman whom he loved, to marry a penniless cousin of the favourite. On the 19th of January 1619 James made him lord high admiral of England, hoping that the ardent, energetic youth would impart something of his own fire to those who were entrusted with the oversight of that fleet which had been almost ruined by the peculation and carelessness of the officials. Something of this, no doubt, was realized under Buckingham's eye. But he himself never pretended to the virtues of an administrator, and he was too ready to fill up appointments with men who flattered him, and too reluctant to dismiss them, if they served their country ill, to effect any permanent change for the better.

It was about this time that he first took an independent part in politics. All England was talking of the revolution in Bohemia in the year before, and men's sympathy with the continental Protestants was increased when it was known that James's son-in-law had accepted the crown of Bohemia, and that in the summer of 1620 a Spanish force was preparing to invade the Palatinate. Buckingham at first had thrown himself into the popular movement. Before the summer of 1620 was at end, incensed by injuries inflicted on English sailors by the Dutch in the East Indies, he had swung round, and was in close agreement with Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador. He had now married Lady Katherine Manners, the daughter of the earl of Rutland, who was at heart a Roman Catholic, though she outwardly conformed to the English Church, and this alliance may have had something to do with the change.

Buckingham's mistakes were owing mainly to his levity. If he passed briskly from one camp to the other, an impartial [v.04 p.0668] observer might usually detect some personal motive at the bottom. But it is hardly probable that he was himself conscious of anything of the sort. When he was in reality acting under the influence of vanity or passion it was easy for him to persuade himself that he was doing his duty to his country.

The parliament which met in 1621, angry at discovering that no help was to be sent to the Palatinate, broke out into a loud outcry against the system of monopolies, from which Buckingham's brothers and dependants had drawn a profit, which was believed to be greater than it really was. At first he pleaded for a dissolution. But he was persuaded by Bishop Williams that it would be a wiser course to put himself at the head of the movement, and at a conference of the Commons with the Lords acknowledged that his two brothers had been implicated, but declared that his father had begotten a third who would aid in punishing them. In the impeachment of Bacon which soon followed, Buckingham, who owed much to his wise counsels, gave him that assistance which was possible without imperilling his own position and influence. He at first demanded the immediate dissolution of parliament, but afterwards, when the cry rose louder against the chancellor, joined in the attack, making however some attempt to mitigate the severity of the charges against him during the hearing of his case before the House of Lords. Notwithstanding, he took advantage of Bacon's need of assistance to wring from him the possession of York House.

In the winter of 1621, and the succeeding year, Buckingham was entirely in Gondomar's hands; and it was only with some difficulty that in May 1622 Laud argued him out of a resolution to declare himself a Roman Catholic. In December 1621 he actively supported the dissolution of parliament, and there can be little doubt that when the Spanish ambassador left England the following May, he had come to an understanding with Buckingham that the prince of Wales should visit Madrid the next year, on which occasion the Spanish court hoped to effect his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church before giving him the hand of the infanta Maria. They set out on their adventurous expedition on the 17th of February 1623, arriving at Madrid, after passing through Paris on the 7th of March. Each party had been the dupe of the other. Charles and Buckingham were sanguine in hoping for the restitution of the Palatinate to James's son-in-law, as a marriage gift to Charles; while the Spaniards counted on the conversion of Charles to Roman Catholicism and other extreme concessions (see CHARLES I.). The political differences were soon accentuated by personal disputes between Buckingham and Olivares and the grandees, and when the two young men sailed together from Santander in September, it was with the final resolution to break entirely with Spain.

James had gratified his favourite in his absence by raising him to a dukedom. But the splendour which now gathered round Buckingham was owing to another source than James's favour. He had put himself at the head of the popular movement against Spain, and when James, acknowledging sorely against his will that the Palatinate could only be recovered by force, summoned the parliament which met in February 1624, Buckingham, with the help of the heir apparent, took up an independent political position. James was half driven, half persuaded to declare all negotiations with Spain at an end. For the moment Buckingham was the most popular man in England.

It was easier to overthrow one policy than to construct another. The Commons would have been content with sending some assistance to the Dutch, and with entering upon a privateering war with Spain. James, whose object was to regain the Palatinate, believed this could only be accomplished by a continental alliance, in which France took part. As soon as parliament was prorogued, negotiations were opened for a marriage between Charles and the sister of Louis XIII., Henrietta Maria. But a difficulty arose. James and Charles had engaged to the Commons that there should be no concessions to the English Roman Catholics, and Louis would not hear of the marriage unless very large concessions were made. Buckingham, impatient to begin the war as soon as possible, persuaded Charles, and the two together persuaded James to throw over the promises to the Commons, and to accept the French terms. It was no longer possible to summon parliament to vote supplies for the war till the marriage had been completed, when remonstrances to its conditions would be useless.

Buckingham, for Buckingham was now virtually the ruler of England, had thus to commence war without money. He prepared to throw 12,000 Englishmen, under a German adventurer, Count Mansfeld, through France into the Palatinate. The French insisted that he should maroh through Holland. It mattered little which way he took. Without provisions, and without money to buy them, the wretched troops sickened and died in the winter frosts. Buckingham's first military enterprise ended in disastrous failure.

Buckingham had many other schemes in his teeming brain. He had offered to send aid to Christian IV., king of Denmark, who was proposing to make war in Germany, and had also a plan for sending an English fleet to attack Genoa, the ally of Spain, and a plan for sending an English fleet to attack Spain itself.

Before these schemes could be carried into operation James died on the 27th of March 1625. The new king and Buckingham were at one in their aims and objects. Both were anxious to distinguish themselves by the chastisement of Spain, and the recovery of the Palatinate. Both were young and inexperienced. But Charles, obstinate when his mind was made up, was sluggish in action and without fertility in ideas, and he had long submitted his mind to the versatile and brilliant favourite, who was never at a loss what to do next, and who unrolled before his eyes visions of endless possibilities in the future. Buckingham was sent over to Paris to urge upon the French court the importance of converting its alliance into active co-operation.

There was a difficulty in the way. The Huguenots of La Rochelle were in rebellion, and James had promised the aid of English ships to suppress that rebellion. Buckingham, who seems at first to have consented to the scheme, was anxious to mediate peace between the king of France and his subjects, and to save Charles from compromising himself with his parliament by the appearance of English ships in an attack upon Protestants. When he returned his main demands were refused, but hopes were given him that peace would be made with the Huguenots. On his way through France he had the insolence to make love to the queen of France.

Soon after his return parliament was opened. It would have been hard for Charles to pass through the session with credit. Under Buckingham's guidance he had entered into engagements involving an enormous expenditure, and these engagements involved a war on the continent, which had never been popular in the House of Commons. The Commons, too, suspected the marriage treaty contained engagements of which they disapproved. They asked for the full execution of the laws against the Roman Catholics, and voted but little money in return. Before they reassembled at Oxford on the 1st of August, the English ships had found their way into the hands of the French, to be used against La Rochelle. The Commons met in an ill-humour. They had no confidence in Buckingham, and they asked that persons whom they could trust should be admitted to the king's council before they would vote a penny. Charles stood by his minister, and on the 12th of August he dissolved his first parliament.

Buckingham and his master set themselves to work to conquer public opinion. On the one hand, they threw over their engagements to France on behalf of the English Roman Catholics. On the other hand they sent out a large fleet to attack Cadiz, and to seize the Spanish treasure-ships. Buckingham went to the Hague to raise an immediate supply by pawning the crown jewels, to place England at the head of a great Protestant alliance, and to enter into fresh obligations to furnish money to the king of Denmark. It all ended in failure. The fleet returned from Cadiz, having effected nothing. The crown jewels produced but a small sum, and the money for the king of Denmark could only be raised by an appeal to parliament. In the meanwhile the king of France was deeply offended by the treatment of [v.04 p.0669] the Roman Catholics, and by the seizure of French vessels on the ground that they were engaged in carrying goods for Spain.

When Charles's second parliament met on the 6th of February 1626, it was not long before, under Eliot's guidance, it asked for Buckingham's punishment. He was impeached before the House of Lords on a long string of charges. Many of these charges were exaggerated, and some were untrue. His real crime was his complete failure as the leader of the administration. But as long as Charles refused to listen to the complaints of his minister's incompetency, the only way in which the Commons could reach him was by bringing criminal charges against him. Charles dissolved his second parliament as he had dissolved his first. Subsequently the Star Chamber declared the duke innocent of the charges, and on the 1st of June Buckingham was elected chancellor of Cambridge University.

To find money was the great difficulty. Recourse was had to a forced loan, and men were thrown into prison for refusing to pay it. Disasters had occurred to Charles's allies in Germany. The fleet sent out under Lord Willoughby (earl of Lindsey) against the Spaniards returned home shattered by a storm, and a French war was impending in addition to the Spanish one. The French were roused to reprisals by Charles's persistence in seizing French vessels. Unwilling to leave La Rochelle open to the entrance of an English fleet, Richelieu laid siege to that stronghold of the French Huguenots. On the 27th of June 1627 Buckingham sailed from Portsmouth at the head of a numerous fleet, and a considerable land force, to relieve the besieged city.

His first enterprise was the siege of the fort of St Martin's, on the Isle of Re. The ground was hard, and the siege operations were converted into a blockade. On the 27th of September the defenders of the fort announced their readiness to surrender the next morning. In the night a fresh gale brought over a flotilla of French provision boats, which dashed through the English blockading squadron. The fort was provisioned for two months more. Buckingham resolved to struggle on, and sent for reinforcements from England. Charles would gladly have answered to his call. But England had long since ceased to care for the war. There was no money in the exchequer, no enthusiasm in the nation to supply the want. Before the reinforcements could arrive the French had thrown a superior force upon the island, and Buckingham was driven to retreat on the 29th of October with heavy loss, only 2989 troops out of nearly 7000 returning to England.

His spirits were as buoyant as ever. Ill luck, or the misconduct of others, was the cause of his failure. He had new plans for carrying on the war. But the parliament which met on the 17th of March 1628 was resolved to exact from the king an obligation to refrain from encroaching for the future on the liberties of his subjects.

In the parliamentary battle, which ended in the concession of the Petition of Right, Buckingham took an active share as a member of the House of Lords. He resisted as long as it was possible to resist the demand of the Commons, that the king should abandon his claim to imprison without showing cause. When the first unsatisfactory answer to the petition was made by the king on the 2nd of June, the Commons suspected, probably with truth, that it had been dictated by Buckingham. They prepared a remonstrance on the state of the nation, and Coke at last named the duke as the cause of all the misfortunes that had occurred. "The duke of Bucks is the cause of all our miseries ... that man is the grievance of grievances." Though on the 7th of June the king granted a satisfactory answer to the petition, the Commons proceeded with their remonstrance, and on the 11th demanded that he might no longer continue in office.

Once more Charles refused to surrender Buckingham, and a few days later he prorogued parliament in anger. The popular feeling was greatly excited. Lampoons circulated freely from hand to hand, and Dr Lambe, a quack doctor, who dabbled in astrology, and was believed to exercise influence over Buckingham, was murdered in the streets of London. Rude doggerel lines announced that the duke should share the doctor's fate.

With the clouds gathering round him, Buckingham went down to Portsmouth to take the command of one final expedition for the relief of La Rochelle. For the first time even he was beginning to acknowledge that he had undertaken a task beyond his powers. There was a force of inertia in the officials which resisted his efforts to spur them on to an enterprise which they believed to be doomed to failure. He entered gladly into a scheme of pacification proposed by the Venetian ambassador. But before he could know whether there was to be peace or war, the knife of an assassin put an end to his career. John Felton, who had served at Re, had been disappointed of promotion, and had not been paid that which was due to him for his services, read the declaration of the Commons that Buckingham was a public enemy, and eagerly caught at the excuse for revenging his private wrongs under cover of those of his country. Waiting, on the morning of the 23rd of August, beside the door of the room in which Buckingham was breakfasting, he stabbed him to the heart as he came out.

Buckingham married Lady Katherine Manners, daughter of Francis, 6th earl of Rutland, by whom he left three sons and one daughter, of whom George, the second son (1628-1687), succeeded to the dukedom.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Article in the Dict. of Nat. Biography, by S.R. Gardiner; Life of Buckingham, by Sir Henry Wotton (1642), reprinted in Harleian Miscellany, viii. 613; A Parallel between Robert Earl of Essex and George late Duke of Buckingham, by the same writer (1641), in the Thomason Tracts, 164 (20); Characters of the same by Edward, Earl of Clarendon (1706); Life of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, &c. (London, 1740); Historical and Biographical Memoirs of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (London, 1819); Letters of the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham (Edinburgh, 1834); Historia Vitae ... Ricardi II., &c., by Thos. Hearne (1729); Documents illustrating the Impeachment of Buckingham, published by the Camden Society and edited by S.R. Gardiner (1889); Epistolae Hoelianae (James Howell), 187, 189, 203; Poems and Songs relating to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, ed. by R. W. Fairholt for the Percy Society (1850); Rous's Diary (Camden Soc., 1856), p. 27; Gent. Mag. (1845), ii. 137-144 (portrait of Buckingham dead); Cal. of State Papers, and MSS. in the British Museum (various collections). Hist. MSS. Comm. Series. See also P. Gibbs, The Romance of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1908).

(S. R. G.; P. C. Y.)

[1] i.e. in the Villiers line; see above.

[2] The Life, by Sir Henry Wotton, gives August 28th as the date of his birth, but, when relating his death on August 23rd, adds, "thus died the great peer in the 36th year of his age compleat and three days over." August 28th was therefore probably a misprint for August 20th.

BUCKINGHAM, GEORGE VILLIERS, 2ND DUKE OF[1] (1628-1687), English statesman, son of the 1st duke, was born on the 30th of January 1628. He was brought up, together with his younger brother Francis, by King Charles I. with his own children, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained the degree of M.A. in 1642. He fought for the king in the Civil War, and took part in the attack on Lichfield Close in April 1643. Subsequently, under the care of the earl of Northumberland, the two brothers travelled abroad and lived at Florence and Rome. When the Second Civil War broke out they joined the earl of Holland in Surrey, in July 1648. Lord Francis was killed near Kingston, and Buckingham and Holland were surprised at St Neots on the 10th, the duke succeeding in escaping to Holland. In consequence of his participation in the rebellion, his lands, which had been restored to him in 1647 on account of his youth, were now again confiscated, a considerable portion passing into the possession of Fairfax; and he refused to compound. Charles II. conferred on him the Garter on the 19th of September 1649, and admitted him to the privy council on the 6th of April 1650. In opposition to Hyde he supported the alliance with the Scottish presbyterians, accompanied Charles to Scotland in June, and allied himself with Argyll, dissuading Charles from joining the royalist plot of October 1650, and being suspected of betraying the plan to the convenanting leaders. In May he had been appointed general of the eastern association in England, and was commissioned to raise forces abroad; and in the following year he was chosen to lead the projected movement in Lancashire and to command the Scottish royalists. He was present with Charles at the battle of Worcester on the 3rd of September 1651, and escaped safely [v.04 p.0670] alone to Rotterdam in October. His subsequent negotiations with Cromwell's government, and his readiness to sacrifice the interests of the church, separated him from the rest of Charles's advisers and diminished his influence; while his estrangement from the royal family was completed by his audacious courtship of the king's sister, the widowed princess of Orange, and by a money dispute with Charles. In 1657 he returned to England, and on the 15th of September married Mary, daughter of Lord Fairfax, who had fallen in love with him although the banns of her intended marriage with the earl of Chesterfield had been twice called in church. Buckingham was soon suspected of organizing a presbyterian plot against the government, and in spite of Fairfax's interest with Cromwell an order was issued for his arrest on the 9th of October. He was confined at York House about April 1658, and having broken bounds was rearrested on the 18th of August and imprisoned in the Tower, where he remained till the 23rd of February 1659, being then liberated on his promise not to abet the enemies of the government, and on Fairfax's security of L20,000. He joined the latter in his march against Lambert in January 1660, and afterwards claimed to have gained Fairfax to the cause of the Restoration.

On the king's return Buckingham, who met him at his landing at Dover, was at first received coldly; but he was soon again in favour, was appointed a gentleman of the bedchamber, carried the orb at the coronation on the 23rd of April 1661, and was made lord-lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire on the 21st of September. The same year he accompanied the princess Henrietta to Paris on her marriage with the duke of Orleans, but made love to her himself with such imprudence that he was recalled. On the 28th of April 1662 he was admitted to the privy council. His confiscated estates amounting to L26,000 a year were restored to him, and he was reputed the king's richest subject. He took part in the suppression of the projected insurrection in Yorkshire in 1663, went to sea in the first Dutch war in 1665, and was employed in taking measures to resist the Dutch or French invasion in June 1666.

He was, however, debarred from high office by Clarendon's influence. Accordingly Buckingham's intrigues were now directed to effect the chancellor's ruin. He organized parties in both houses of parliament in support of the bill of 1666 prohibiting the import of Irish cattle, partly to oppose Clarendon and partly to thwart the duke of Ormonde. Having asserted during the debates that "whoever was against the bill had either an Irish interest or an Irish understanding," he was challenged by Lord Ossory. Buckingham avoided the encounter, and Ossory was sent to the Tower. A short time afterwards, during a conference between the two houses on the 19th of December, he came to blows with the marquess of Dorchester, pulling off the latter's periwig, while Dorchester at the close of the scuffle "had much of the duke's hair in his hand."[2] According to Clarendon no misdemeanour so flagrant had ever before offended the dignity of the House of Lords. The offending peers were both sent to the Tower, but were released after apologizing; and Buckingham vented his spite by raising a claim to the title of Lord Roos held by Dorchester's son-in-law. His opposition to the government had forfeited the king's favour, and he was now accused of treasonable intrigues, and of having cast the king's horoscope. His arrest was ordered on the 25th of February 1667, and he was dismissed from all his offices. He avoided capture till the 27th of June, when he gave himself up and was imprisoned in the Tower. He was released, however, by July 17th, was restored to favour and to his appointments on the 15 of September, and took an active part in the prosecution of Clarendon. On the latter's fall he became the chief minister, though holding no high office except that of master of the horse, bought from the duke of Albermarle in 1668. In 1671 he was elected chancellor of Cambridge, and in 1672 high steward of Oxford university. He favoured religious toleration, and earned the praise of Richard Baxter; he supported a scheme of comprehension in 1668, and advised the declaration of indulgence in 1672. He upheld the original jurisdiction of the Lords in Skinner's case. With these exceptions Buckingham's tenure of office was chiefly marked by scandals and intrigues. His illicit connexion with the countess of Shrewsbury led to a duel with her husband at Barn Elms on the 16th of January 1668, in which Shrewsbury was fatally wounded. The tale that the countess, disguised as a page, witnessed the encounter, appears to have no foundation; but Buckingham, by installing the "widow of his own creation" in his own and his wife's house, outraged even the lax opinion of that day. He was thought to have originated the project of obtaining the divorce of the childless queen. He intrigued against James, against Sir William Coventry—one of the ablest statesmen of the time, whose fall he procured by provoking him to send him a challenge—and against the great duke of Ormonde, who was dismissed in 1669. He was even suspected of having instigated Thomas Blood's attempt to kidnap and murder Ormonde, and was charged with the crime in the king's presence by Ormonde's son, Lord Ossory, who threatened to shoot him dead in the event of his father's meeting with a violent end. Arlington, next to Buckingham himself the most powerful member of the cabal and a favourite of the king, was a rival less easy to overcome; and he derived considerable influence from the control of foreign affairs entrusted to him. Buckingham had from the first been an adherent of the French alliance, while Arlington concluded through Sir William Temple in 1668 the Triple Alliance. But on the complete volte-face and surrender made by Charles to France in 1670, Arlington as a Roman Catholic was entrusted with the first treaty of Dover of the 20th of May—which besides providing for the united attack on Holland, included Charles's undertaking to proclaim himself a Romanist and to reintroduce the Roman Catholic faith into England,—While Buckingham was sent to France to carry on the sham negotiations which led to the public treaties of the 31st of December 1670 and the 2nd of February 1672. He was much pleased with his reception by Louis XIV., declared that he had "more honours done him than ever were given to any subject," and was presented with a pension of 10,000 livres a year for Lady Shrewsbury. In June 1672 he accompanied Arlington to the Hague to impose terms on the prince of Orange, and with Arlington arranged the new treaty with Louis. After all this activity he suffered a keen disappointment in being passed over for the command of the English forces in favour of Schomberg. He now knew of the secret treaty of Dover, and towards the end of 1673 his jealousy of Arlington became open hostility. He threatened to impeach him, and endeavoured with the help of Louis to stir up a faction against him in parliament. This, however, was unsuccessful, and in January 1674 an attack was made upon Buckingham himself simultaneously in both houses. In the Lords the trustees of the young earl of Shrewsbury complained that Buckingham continued publicly his intimacy with the countess, and that a son of theirs had been buried in Westminster Abbey with the title of earl of Coventry; and Buckingham, after presenting an apology, was required, as was the countess, to give security for L10,000 not to cohabit together again. In the Commons he was attacked as the promoter of the French alliance, of "popery" and arbitrary government. He defended himself chiefly by endeavouring to throw the blame upon Arlington; but an address was voted petitioning the king to remove him from his councils, presence and from employment for ever. Charles, who had only been waiting for a favourable opportunity, and who was enraged at Buckingham's disclosures, consented with alacrity. Buckingham retired into private life, reformed his ways, attended church with his wife, began to pay his debts, became a "patriot," and was claimed by the country or opposition party as one of their leaders. In the spring of 1675 he was conspicuous for his opposition to the Test oath and for his abuse of the bishops, and on the 16th of November he introduced a bill for the relief of the nonconformists. On the 15th of February 1677 he was one of the four lords who endeavoured to embarrass the government by raising the question whether the parliament, not having assembled according to the act of Edward III. once in the year, had not been dissolved by [v.04 p.0671] the recent prorogation. The motion was rejected and the four lords were ordered to apologize. On their refusing, they were sent to the Tower, Buckingham in particular exasperating the House by ridiculing its censure. He was released in July, and immediately entered into intrigues with Barillon, the French ambassador, with the object of hindering the grant of supplies to the king; and in 1678 he visited Paris to get the assistance of Louis XIV. for the cause of the opposition. He took an active part in the prosecution of those implicated in the supposed Popish Plot, and accused the lord chief justice (Sir William Scroggs) in his own court while on circuit of favouring the Roman Catholics. In consequence of his conduct a writ was issued for his apprehension, but it was never served. He promoted the return of Whig candidates to parliament, constituted himself the champion of the dissenters, and was admitted a freeman of the city of London. He, however, separated himself from the Whigs on the exclusion question, probably on account of his dislike of Monmouth and Shaftesbury, was absent from the great debate in the Lords on the 15th of November 1680, and was restored to the king's favour in 1684.

He took no part in public life after James's accession, but returned to his manor of Helmsley in Yorkshire, the cause of his withdrawal being probably exhausted health and exhausted finances. In 1685 he published a pamphlet, entitled A short Discourse on the Reasonableness of Man's having a Religion (reprinted in Somers Tracts (1813, ix. 13), in which after discussing the main subject he returned to his favourite topic, religious toleration. The tract provoked some rejoinders and was defended, amongst others, by William Penn, and by the author himself in The Duke of Buckingham's Letter to the unknown author of a short answer to the Duke of Buckingham's Paper (1685). In hopes of converting him to Roman Catholicism James sent him a priest, but Buckingham turned his arguments into ridicule. He died on the 16th of April 1687, from a chill caught while hunting, in the house of a tenant at Kirkby Moorside in Yorkshire, expressing great repentance and feeling himself "despised by my country and I fear forsaken by my God."[3] The miserable picture of his end drawn by Pope, however, is greatly exaggerated. He was buried on the 7th of June 1687 in Henry VII.'s chapel in Westminster Abbey, in greater state, it was said, than the late king, and with greater splendour. With his death the family founded by the extraordinary rise to power and influence of the first duke ended. As he left no legitimate children the title became extinct, and his great estate had been completely dissipated; of the enormous mansion constructed by him at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire not a stone remains.

The ostentatious licence and the unscrupulous conduct of the Alcibiades of the 17th century have been deservedly censured. But even his critics agree that he was good-humoured, good-natured, generous, an unsurpassed mimic and the leader of fashion; and with his good looks, in spite of his moral faults and even crimes, he was irresistible to his contemporaries. Many examples of his amusing wit have survived. His portrait has been drawn by Burnet, Count Hamilton in the Memoires de Grammont, Dryden, Pope in the Epistle to Lord Bathurst, and Sir Walter Scott in Peveril of the Peak. He is described by Reresby as "the first gentleman of person and wit I think I ever saw," and Burnet bears the same testimony. Dean Lockier, after alluding to his unrivalled skill in riding, dancing and fencing, adds, "When he came into the presence-chamber it was impossible for you not to follow him with your eye as he went along, he moved so gracefully." Racing and hunting were his favourite sports, and his name long survived in the hunting songs of Yorkshire. He was the patron of Cowley, Sprat, Matthew Clifford and Wycherley. He dabbled in chemistry, and for some years, according to Burnet, "he thought he was very near the finding of the philosopher's stone." He set up glass works at Lambeth the productions of which were praised by Evelyn; and he spent much money, according to his biographer Brian Fairfax, in building insanae substructions. Dryden described him under the character of Zimri in the celebrated lines in Absalom and Achitophel (to which Buckingham replied in Poetical Reflections on a late Poem ... by a Person of Honour, 1682):—

"A man so various, that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome; Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts and nothing long; But in the course of one revolving moon, Was chymist, fiddler, statesman and buffoon.... Beggar'd by fools, whom still he found too late, He had his jest, but they had his estate."

Buckingham, however, cannot with any truth be called the "epitome of mankind." On the contrary, the distinguishing features of his life are its incompleteness, aimlessness, imperfection, insignificance, neglect of talents and waste of opportunities. "He saw and approved the best," says Brian Fairfax, "but did too often deteriora sequi." He is more severely but more justly judged by himself. In gay moments indeed he had written—

"Methinks, I see the wanton houres flee, And as they passe, turne back and laugh at me,"[4]—

but his last recorded words on the approach of death, "O! what a prodigal have I been of that most valuable of all possessions—Time!" express with exact truth the fundamental flaw of his character and career, of which he had at last become conscious.

Buckingham wrote occasional verses and satires showing undoubted but undeveloped poetical gifts, a collection of which, containing however many pieces not from his pen, was first published by Tom Brown in 1704; while a few extracts from a commonplace book of Buckingham of some interest are given in an article in the Quarterly Review of January 1898. He was the author of The Rehearsal, an amusing and clever satire on the heroic drama and especially on Dryden (first performed on the 7th of December 1671, at the Theatre Royal, and first published in 1672), a deservedly popular play which was imitated by Fielding in Tom Thumb the Great, and by Sheridan in the Critic. Buckingham also published two adapted plays, The Chances, altered from Fletcher's play of the same name (1682) and The Restoration or Right will take place, from Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster (publ. 1714); and also The Battle of Sedgmoor and The Militant Couple (publ. 1704). The latest edition of his works is that by T. Evans (2 vols. 8vo, 1775). Another work is named by Wood A Demonstration of the Deity, of which there is now no trace.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The life of Buckingham has been well and accurately traced and the chief authorities collected in the article in the Dict, of Nat. Biography (1899) by C.H. Firth, and in George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, by Lady Burghclere (1903). Other biographies are in Wood's Athenae Oxon (Bliss), iv. 207; in Biographia Britannica; by Brian Fairfax, printed in H. Walpole's Catalogue of Pictures of George Duke of Buckingham (1758); in Arber's edition of the Rehearsal (1868); and by the author of Hudibras in The Genuine Remains of Mr Samuel Butler, by R. Thyer (1759), ii. 72. The following may also be mentioned:—Quarterly Review, Jan. 1898 (commonplace book); A Conference on the Doctrine of Transubstantiation between ... the Duke of Buckingham and Father FitzGerald (1714); A Narrative of the Cause and Manner of the Imprisonment of the Lords (1677); The Declaration of the ... Duke of Buckingham and the Earls of Holland and Peterborough ... associated for the King (1648); S.R. Gardiner's Hist. of the Commonwealth (1894-1901); Hist. of Eng. Poetry, by W.J. Courthope (1903), iii. 460; Horace Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, iii. 304; Miscellania Aulica, by T. Brown (1702); and the Fairfax Correspondence (1848-1849). For the correspondence see Charles II. and Scotland in 1650 (Scottish History Soc., vol. xvii., 1894); Calendars of St. Pap. Dom.; Hist. MSS. Comm. Series, MSS. of Duke of Buccleuch at Montagu House, of Mrs Frankland-Russell-Astley, of Marq. of Ormonde, and Various Collections; and English Hist. Rev. (April 1905), xx. 373.

(P. C. Y.)

[1] i.e. in the Villiers line; see above.

[2] Clarendon, Life and Continuation, 979.

[3] Quarterly Review, January 1898, p. 110.

[4] From his Common place Book (Quarterly Rev. vol. 187, p. 87).

BUCKINGHAM, HENRY STAFFORD, 2ND DUKE OF[1] (1454-1483), was the son of Humphrey Stafford, killed at the first battle of St Albans in 1455, and grandson of Humphrey the 1st duke (cr. 1444), killed at Northampton in 1460, both fighting for Lancaster. The 1st duke, who bore the title of earl of Buckingham in right of his mother, was the son of Edmund, 5th earl of Stafford, and of Anne, daughter of Thomas, duke [v.04 p.0672] of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III.; Henry's mother was Margaret, daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd duke of Somerset, grandson of John of Gaunt. Thus he came on both sides of the blood royal, and this, coupled with the vastness of his inheritance, made the young duke's future of importance to Edward IV. He was recognized as duke in 1465, and next year was married to Catherine Woodville, the queen's sister. On reaching manhood he was made a knight of the Garter in 1474, and in 1478 was high steward at the trial of George, duke of Clarence. He had not otherwise filled any position of importance, but his fidelity might seem to have been secured by his marriage. However, after Edward's death, Buckingham was one of the first persons worked upon by Richard, duke of Gloucester. It was through his help that Richard obtained possession of the young king, and he was at once rewarded with the offices of justiciar and chamberlain of North and South Wales, and constable of all the royal castles in the principality and Welsh Marches. In the proceedings which led to the deposition of Edward V. he took a prominent part, and on the 24th of June 1483 he urged the citizens at the Guildhall to take Richard as king, in a speech of much eloquence, "for he was neither unlearned and of nature marvellously well spoken." (More). At Richard's coronation he served as chamberlain, and immediately afterwards was made constable of England and confirmed in his powers in Wales. Richard might well have believed that the duke's support was secured. But early in August Buckingham withdrew from the court to Brecon. He may have thought that he deserved an even greater reward, or possibly had dreams of establishing his own claims to the crown. At all events, at Brecon he fell somewhat easily under the influence of his prisoner, John Morton (q.v.), who induced him to give his support to his cousin Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond. A widespread plot was soon formed, but Richard had early warning, and on the 15th of October, issued a proclamation against Buckingham. Buckingham, as arranged, prepared to enter England with a large force of Welshmen. His advance was stopped by an extraordinary flood on the Severn, his army melted away without striking a blow, and he himself took refuge with a follower, Ralph Bannister, at Lacon Hall, near Wem. The man betrayed him for a large reward, and on the 1st of November, Buckingham was brought to the king at Salisbury. Richard refused to see him, and after a summary trial had him executed next day (2nd of November 1483), though it was a Sunday.

Buckingham's eldest son, Edward (1478-1521), eventually succeeded him as 3rd duke, the attainder being removed in 1485; the second son, Henry, was afterwards earl of Wiltshire. The 3rd duke played an important part as lord high constable at the opening of the reign of Henry VIII., and is introduced into Shakespeare's play of that king, but he fell through his opposition to Wolsey, and in 1521 was condemned for treason and executed (17th of May); the title was then forfeited with his attainder, his only son Henry (1501-1563), who in his father's lifetime was styled earl of Stafford, being, however, given back his estates in 1522, and in 1547 restored in blood by parliament with the title of Baron Stafford, which became extinct in this line with Roger, 5th Baron in 1640. In that year the barony of Stafford was granted to William Howard (1614-1680), who after two months was created Viscount Stafford; he was beheaded in 1680, and his son was created earl of Stafford in 1688, a title which became extinct in 1762; but in 1825 the descent to the barony of 1640 was established, to the satisfaction of the House of Lords, in the person of Sir G.W. Jerningham, in whose family it then continued.

The chief original authorities for the life of the 2nd duke of Buckingham are the Continuation of the Croyland Chronicle; Sir Thomas More's Richard III.; and Fabyan's Chronicle. Amongst modern authorities consult J. Gairdner's Richard III.; and Sir. J. Ramsay's Lancaster and York.

(C. L. K.)

[1] i.e. in the Stafford line; see above.

BUCKINGHAM, JAMES SILK (1786-1855), English author and traveller, was born near Falmouth on the 25th of August 1786, the son of a farmer. His youth was spent at sea. After years of wandering he established in 1818 the Calcutta Journal. This venture at first proved highly successful, but in 1823 the paper's outspoken criticisms of the East India Company led to the expulsion of Buckingham from India and to the suppression of the paper by John Adam, the acting governor-general. His case was brought before parliament, and a pension of L200 a year was subsequently awarded him by the East India Company as compensation. Buckingham continued his journalistic ventures on his return to England, and started the Oriental Herald (1824) and the Athenaeum (1828) which was not a success in his hands. In parliament, where he sat as member for Sheffield from 1832-1837, he was a strong advocate of social reform. He was a most voluminous writer. He had travelled much in Europe, America and the East, and wrote a great number of useful books of travel. In 1851 the value of these and of his other literary work was recognized by the grant of a civil list pension of L200 a year. At the time of his death in London, on the 30th of June 1855, Buckingham was at work on his autobiography, two volumes of the intended four being completed and published (1855).

His youngest son, Leicester Silk Buckingham (1825-1867), achieved no little popularity as a playwright, several of his free adaptations of French comedies being produced in London between 1860 and 1867.

BUCKINGHAM, a market town and municipal borough and the county town of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Buckingham parliamentary division, 61 m. N.W. of London by a branch of the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3152. It lies in an open valley on the upper part of the river Ouse, which encircles the main portion of the town on three sides. The church of St Peter and St Paul, which was extensively restored by Sir Gilbert Scott, a native of this neighbourhood, is of the 18th century, and stands on the site of the old castle; the town hall dates from the close of the previous century; and the grammar school was founded by Edward VI., in part occupying buildings of earlier date, which retain Perpendicular and Decorated windows, and a Norman door. A chantry, founded in 1268 by Matthew Stratton, archdeacon of Buckingham, previously occupied the site; the Norman work may be a remnant of the chapel of a gild of the Holy Trinity. The manor house is of the early part of the 17th century, and other old houses remain. The adjacent mansion of Stowe, approached from the town by a magnificent avenue of elms, and surrounded by gardens very beautifully laid out, was the seat of the dukes of Buckingham until the extinction of the title in 1889. Buckingham is served by a branch of the Grand Junction Canal, and has agricultural trade, manufactures of condensed milk and artificial manure, maltings and flour-mills; while an old industry survives to a modified extent in the manufacture of pillow-lace. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 5006 acres.

Buckingham (Bochingeham, Bukyngham) was an important stronghold in pre-Conquest times, and in 918 Edward the Elder encamped there with his army for four weeks, and threw up two forts on either side of the water. At the time of the Domesday survey there were twenty-six burgesses in Buckingham, which, together with the hamlet of Bourton, was assessed at one hide. Although it appears as a borough thus early, the town received no charter until 1554, when Queen Mary created it a free borough corporate with a bailiff, twelve principal burgesses and a steward, and defined the boundaries as extending in width from Dudley bridge to Thornborowe bridge and in length from Chackmore bridge to Padbury Mill bridge. A charter from Charles II. in 1684 was very shortly abandoned in favour of the original grant, which held force until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. In 1529 and from 1545 onwards Buckingham returned two members to parliament, until deprived by the Representation of the People Act of 1867 of one member, and by the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 of the other. Early mentions occur of markets and fairs, and from 1522, when Henry VIII. granted to Sir Henry Marney the borough of Buckingham with a Saturday market and two annual fairs, grants of fairs by various sovereigns were numerous. Buckingham was formerly an important agricultural centre, and Edward III. fixed here one of the staples for wool, but after the removal of these to Calais the trade suffered such decay that in an act of 32 Henry VIII. Buckingham is mentioned among thirty-six impoverished towns.

BUCKINGHAM AND NORMANBY, JOHN SHEFFIELD, 1ST DUKE OF (1648-1721), English statesman and poet, was born on [v.04 p.0673] the 7th of April 1648. He was the son of Edmund, 2nd earl of Mulgrave, and succeeded to that title on his father's death in 1658. At the age of eighteen he joined the fleet, to serve in the first Dutch war; on the renewal of hostilities in 1672 he was present at the battle of Southwold Bay, and in the next year received the command of a ship. He was also made a colonel of infantry, and served for some time under Turenne. In 1680 he was put in charge of an expedition sent to relieve the town of Tangier. It was said that he was provided with a rotten ship in the hope that he would not return, but the reason of this abortive plot, if plot there was, is not exactly ascertained. At court he took the side of the duke of York, and helped to bring about Monmouth's disgrace. In 1682 he was dismissed from the court, apparently for putting himself forward as a suitor for the princess Anne, but on the accession of King James he received a seat in the privy council, and was made lord chamberlain. He supported James in his most unpopular measures, and stayed with him in London during the time of his flight. He also protected the Spanish ambassador from the dangerous anger of the mob. He acquiesced, however, in the Revolution, and in 1694 was made marquess of Normanby. In 1696 he refused in company with other Tory peers to sign an agreement to support William as their "rightful and lawful king" against Jacobite attempts, and was consequently dismissed from the privy council. On the accession of Anne, with whom he was a personal favourite, he became lord privy seal and lord-lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1703 duke of Buckingham and Normanby. During the predominance of the Whigs between 1705 and 1710, Buckingham was deprived of his office as lord privy seal, but in 1710 he was made lord steward, and in 1711 lord president of the council. After the death of Anne he held no state appointment. He died on the 24th of February 1721 at his house in St James's Park, which stood on the site of the present Buckingham Palace. Buckingham was succeeded by his son, Edmund (1716-1735) on whose death the titles became extinct.

Buckingham, who is better known by his inherited titles as Lord Mulgrave, was the author of "An Account of the Revolution" and some other essays, and of numerous poems, among them the Essay on Poetry and the Essay on Satire. It is probable that the Essay on Satire, which attacked many notable persons, "sauntering Charles" amongst others, was circulated in MS. It was often attributed at the time to Dryden, who accordingly suffered a thrashing at the hands of Rochester's bravoes for the reflections it contained upon the earl. Mulgrave was a patron of Dryden, who may possibly have revised it, but was certainly not responsible, although it is commonly printed with his works. Mulgrave adapted Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, breaking it up into two plays, Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus. He introduced choruses between the acts, two of these being written by Pope, and an incongruous love scene between Brutus and Portia. He was a constant friend and patron of Pope, who expressed a flattering opinion of his Essay on Poetry. This, although smoothly enough written, deals chiefly with commonplaces.

In 1721 Edmund Curll published a pirated edition of his works, and was brought before the bar of the House of Lords for breach of privilege accordingly. An authorized edition under the superintendence of Pope appeared in 1723, but the authorities cut out the "Account of the Revolution" and "The Feast of the Gods" on account of their alleged Jacobite tendencies. These were printed at the Hague in 1727. Pope disingenuously repudiated any knowledge of the contents. Other editions reappeared in 1723, 1726, 1729, 1740 and 1753. His Poems were included in Johnson's and other editions of the British poets.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, EARLS OF. The first earl of Buckinghamshire (to be distinguished from the earls of Buckingham, q.v.) was John Hobart (c. 1694-1756), a descendant of Sir Henry Hobart (d. 1625), attorney-general and chief justice of the common pleas under James I., who was made a baronet in 1611, and who was the great-grandson of Sir James Hobart (d. 1507), attorney-general to Henry VII. The Hobarts had been settled in Norfolk and Suffolk for many years, when in 1728 John Hobart, who was a son of Sir Henry Hobart, the 4th baronet (d. 1698), was created Baron Hobart of Blickling. In 1740 Hobart became lord-lieutenant of Norfolk and in 1746 earl of Buckinghamshire, his sister, Henrietta Howard, countess of Suffolk, being the mistress of George II. He died on the 22nd of September 1756, and was succeeded as 2nd earl[1] by his eldest son John (1723-1793), who was member of parliament for Norwich and comptroller of the royal household before his accession to the title. From 1762 to 1766 he was ambassador to Russia, and from 1776 to 1780 lord-lieutenant of Ireland, but he was hardly equal to the exceptional difficulties with which he had to deal in the latter position. He died without sons at Blickling Hall, Norfolk, on the 3rd of August 1793, when his half-brother George (c. 1730-1804), became 3rd earl. Blickling Hall and his Norfolk estates, however, passed to his daughter, Henrietta (1762-1805), the wife of William Kerr, afterwards 6th marquess of Lothian.

Robert Hobart, 4th earl of Buckinghamshire (1760-1816), the eldest son of the 3rd earl, was born on the 6th of May 1760. He was a soldier, and then a member of both the English and the Irish Houses of Commons; from 1789 to 1793 he was chief secretary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, exerting his influence in this country to prevent any concessions to the Roman Catholics. In 1793, being known by the courtesy title of Lord Hobart, he was sent to Madras as governor, but in 1798, after serious differences between himself and the governor-general of India, Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, he was recalled. Returning to British politics, Hobart was called up to the House of Lords in 1798 (succeeding to the earldom of Buckinghamshire in 1804); he favoured the union between England and Ireland; from March 1801 to May 1804 he was secretary for war and the colonies (his family name being taken for Hobart Town in Tasmania), and in 1805 he became chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster under Pitt. For a short time he was joint postmaster-general, and from 1812 until his death on the 4th of February 1816 he was president of the Board of Control, a post for which his Indian experience had fitted him.

The 4th earl left no sons, and his titles passed to his nephew, George Robert Hobart (1789-1849), a son of George Vere Hobart (1761-1802), lieutenant-governor of Grenada. In 1824 the 5th earl inherited the Buckinghamshire estates of the Hampden family and took the name of Hampden, his ancestor, Sir John Hobart, 3rd baronet, having married Mary Hampden about 1655. On his death in February 1849 his brother, Augustus Edward Hobart (1793-1884), who took the name of Hobart-Hampden in 1878, became 6th earl. His two sons, Vere Henry, Lord Hobart (1818-1875), governor of Madras from 1872, and Frederick John Hobart (1821-1875), predeceased him, and when the 6th earl died he was succeeded by his grandson, Sidney Carr Hobart-Hampden (b. 1860), who became 7th earl of Buckinghamshire, and who added to his name that of Mercer-Henderson. Another of the 6th earl's sons was Augustus Charles Hobart-Hampden, generally known as Hobart Pasha (q.v.).

See Lord Hobart's Essays and Miscellaneous Writings, edited with biography by Lady Hobart (1885).

[1] Until 1784, when George Grenville, Earl Temple, was created marquess of Buckingham, the 2nd earl of Buckinghamshire always signed himself "Buckingham"; his contemporaries knew him by this name, and hence a certain amount of confusion has arisen.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE (abbreviated Bucks) a south midland county of England, bounded N. by Northamptonshire, E. by Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex, S. for a short distance by Surrey, and by Berkshire, and W. by Oxfordshire. Its area is 743.2 sq. m. The county is divided between the basins of the rivers Ouse and Thames. The first in its uppermost course forms part of the north-western boundary, passes the towns of Buckingham, Stony Stratford, Wolverton, Newport Pagnell and Olney, and before quitting the county forms a short stretch of the north-eastern boundary. The principal tributary it receives within the county is the Ouzel. The Thames forms the entire southern boundary; and of its tributaries Buckinghamshire includes the upper part of the Thames. To the north-west of Buckingham, and both east and west of the Ouzel, the land rises in gentle undulations to a height of nearly 500 ft., and north of the Thames valley a few nearly isolated hills stand boldly, such as Brill Hill and Muswell Hill, each over 600 ft., but the hilliest [v.04 p.0674] part of the county is the south, which is occupied by part of the Chiltern system, the general direction of which is from south-west to north-east. The crest-line of these hills crosses the county at its narrowest point, along a line, above the towns of Prince's Risborough and Wendover, not exceeding 11 m. in length. This line divides the county into two parts of quite different physical character; for to the south almost the whole land is hilly (the longer slope of the Chiltern system lying in this direction), well wooded, and pleasantly diversified with narrow vales. The chief of these are watered by the Wye, Misbourne and Chess streams. The beech tree is predominant in the woods, in so much that William Camden, writing c. 1585, supposed the county to take name from this feature (A.S. boc, beech). In the south a remnant of ancient forest is preserved as public ground under the name of Burnham Beeches. The Chilterns reach a height of nearly 900 ft. within the county.

Geology.—The northern half of the county is occupied by Jurassic strata, in the southern half Cretaceous rocks predominate except in the south-eastern corner, where they are covered by Tertiary beds. Thus the oldest rocks are in the north, succeeded continuously by younger strata to the south; the general dip of all the rocks is south-easterly. A few patches of Upper Lias Clay appear near the northern boundary near Grafton Regis and Castle Thorpe, and again in the valley of the Ouse near Stoke Goldington and Weston Underwood. The Oolitic series is represented by the Great Oolite, with limestones in the upper part, much quarried for building stones at Westbury, Thornborough, Brock, Whittlewood Forest, &c.; the lower portions are more argillaceous. The Forest Marble is seen about Thornton as a thin bed of clay with an oyster-bearing limestone at the base. Next above is the Cornbrash, a series of rubbly and occasionally hard limestones and thin clays. The outcrop runs by Tingwick, Buckingham, Berehampton and Newport Pagnell, it is quarried at Wolverton and elsewhere for road metal. Inliers of these rocks occur at Marsh Gibbon and Stan Hill. The Oxford Clay and Kimmeridge Clay, with the Gault, lie in the vale of Aylesbury. The clay is covered by numerous outliers of Portland, Purbeck and Lower Greensand beds. The Portland beds are sandy below, calcareous above; the outcrop follows the normal direction in the county, from south-west to north-east, from Thame through Aylesbury; they are quarried at several places for building stone and fossils are abundant. The Hartwell Clay is in the Lower Portland. Freshwater Purbeck beds lie below the Portland and Lower Greensand beds; they cap the ridge between Oving and Whitchurch. Glass-making sands have been worked from the Lower Greensand at Hartwell, and phosphatic nodules from the same beds at Brickhill as well as from the Gault at Towersey. A broad band of Gault, a bluish clay, extends from Towersey across the county in a north-easterly direction. Resting upon the Gault is the Upper Greensand; at the junction of the two formations numerous springs arise, a circumstance which has no doubt determined the site of several villages. The Chalk rises abruptly from the low lying argillaceous plain to form the Chiltern Hills. The form of the whole of the hilly district round Chesham, High Wycombe and the Chalfonts is determined by the Chalk. Reading beds, mottled clays and sands, repose upon the Chalk at Woburn, Barnham, Fulmer and Denham, and these are in turn covered by the London Clay, which is exposed on the slopes about Stoke Common and Iver. Between the Tertiary-capped Chalk plateau and the Thames, a gentler slope, covered with alluvial gravel and brick earth, reaches down to the river. Thick deposits of plateau gravel cover most of the high ground in the southern corner of the county, while much of the northern part is obscured by glacial clays and gravels.

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