Harcourt, Sir

WILLIAM GEORGE GRANVILLE VENABLES VERNON, British statesman, was born Oct. 14, 1827; graduated with high distinction at Trinity College, Cambridge; called to the bar (1854), and became Q. C. (1866); appointed profe or of International Law at Cambridge (1869); was solicitor-general (1873-74); returned to Parliament for Oxford (1868) and for Derby (1885-92). In Gladstone's cabinet of 1880 he was Secretary of State for the Home Department; was Chancellor of the Exchequer during the brief period of Liberal government in 1886, and was appointed to the same office in 1892, retiring in 1895. He has contributed to the Saturday Review and London Times under the penname of HISTORIC US, and is now (1897) the leader of the Liberal party in the Englisn Parliament.