19 NOVEMBER 1904, Page 19

We regret to record the death on Tuesday of Lord

North- brook, once Viceroy of India, and one of the most efficient of the many statesmen whom the house of Baring has produced. He was through his long life—he was born in 1826—an ideal Whig, a man who, though wealthy and distinguished, was always ready to work hard in the service of his country. After years of active labour as private secretary to the heads of the Board of Trade and the Colonial Office, be became a Peer, and then accepted in succession a Lordship of the Admiralty and two Under-Secretaryships, in all of which he proved of material assistance to his chiefs. In 1872 he succeeded Lord Mayo as Viceroy of India, and showed himself there a patient though active ruler, a sound economist, and a believer in the reasonable policy of guiding rather than abolishing the remaining native dynasties. He was appointed by Mr. Glad- stone First Lord of the Admiralty, and during his tenure of office was sent as High Commissioner to Egypt. He refused to agree to Mr. Gladstone's proposals of Home-rule, and as a skilled and sound economist energetically repudiated the scheme for reviving Protection which we now call Fiscal Reform. Not a brilliant man, or an orator of even the second class, he was through life one of those competent servants of the State without whose aid the great machine would never work with continuous success or with so little discontent among the body of the people.