The Duke of Argyll's political career has been long and illustrious. He first took office as Lord Privy Seal under Lord Aberdeen's administration in 1852. After Lord Palmerston had assumed the reins of Government he was continued in this place until, in 1855, he exchanged it for the office of Postmaster-General. In the following year he went out of office; but in 1867 he was again induced to accept the Lord Privy Seal, an appointment which he continued to hold until 1859. In 1860 he was restored to the slightly more lucrative (there is a difference in salary of £500) but much more responsible and useful appointment of Postmaster-General. When the present Administration was formed, the Duke was elected to the office of Secretary of State for India, the Under-Secretary being Mr. Grant Duff, the member for the Elgin Burghs, than whom no man alive has a more thorough acquaintance with Indian affairs.
In 1851 the Duke was elected Chancellor of the University of St. Andrews, and in 1854 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University. In September, 1855, His Grace presided over the twenty-fifth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which was held that year in Glasgow. On that occasion, as well as at other times throughout his career, His Grace displayed scientific knowledge and antiquarian research of more than ordinary depth; and his remarks on the subjects brought under discussion were listened to by the savants with the utmost deference.
The Duke of Argyll is married to Lady Elizabeth Georgina, second daughter of George Greville, second Duke of Sutherland, by whom he has issue five sons and seven daughters. The eldest son, who has recently allied himself to Royalty, gives promise, as we have already indicated, of possessing in an eminent degree the talents that have so much distinguished his ancestors. Both the Marquis of Lorne and his Royal partner are extremely popular, and the alliance which has been consummated amid the fervent aspirations of a whole nation, is bound to raise still higher the influence of the ducal family of Argyll. Alexander, the second son of the Duke, was born in 1846, and married, in 1869, Miss Jane Sabella Callendar, ward of his father, and daughter of the late James Henry Callendar, Esq. of Craigpark, Stirlingshire. The only other married member of the Duke's family is Edith, his first daughter, who was espoused by Earl Percy, the eldest son and heir of the Duke of Northumberland.
For the benefit of the curious in such matters we may mention that the Duke's titles are, by writ 1445, Baron Campbell; 1457, Earl of Argyll; 1570, Baron of Lorne; by Royal charter, 1701, Duke of Argyll; Marquis of Lorne and Kintyre; Earl of Campbell and Cowal; Viscount of Lochow and Glenila; Baron Inveraray, Mull, Morven, and Tory, in the Peerage of Scotland; 19th December, 1766, Baron Sundridge of Croombank; May 4, 1776, Baron Hamilton, in the Peerage of England; Hereditary Master of the Queen's Household; Keeper of Dunoon, Dunstaffnage, and Carrick Castles; Heritable Lord-Lieutenant of Argyllshire.
The literature of the Herald's College sets forth that the arms of Argyle are—Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Girony of eight pieces topaz and diamond for Campbell; 2d and 3d, pearl, a lymphad, or old-fashioned ship with one mast, close sails, and oars in action; a diamond with flag and pennants flying; ruby for the Lordship of Lorne; crest on a wreath, a boar's head, couped proper, topaz. Supporters, two lions guardant, ruby. Motto—"Ne Obliviscaris." Behind the arms there are two honourable badges in saltire, which his Grace's ancestors have borne a long time, as Great Masters of the King's Household and Justiciaries of Scotland. The first is a battern topaz, same of thistles, emerald, ensigned with an imperial crown proper, and thereon the crest of Scotland, which is a lion sejant guardian ruby, crowned with the like crown he sits on, having in his dexter paw a sword proper, the pommel and hilt, topaz; and in the sinister a sceptre of the last. The other badge is a sword, as that in the lion's paw.
The Duke is proprietor of the greater part of Argyllshire—a county having an area of 2,432,000 acres, of which only 308,000 are under cultivation. The greatest breadth of the mainland is about 115 miles; and from the windings of the numerous bays and creeks, with which the land is everywhere indented, the county is supposed to have more than 600 miles of sea coast. His chief seats are—Inverary Castle, on the banks of Lochfyne; Roseneath Castle, Dumbartonshire; Longniddry, Haddingtonshire; Halnaker, Sussex; and Argyle House, Camden Hill, London.
THE RIGHT HON. H. A. BRUCE.
The Right Hon. Henry Austin Bruce is a native of Wales. He was born at Duffryn, Aberdare, Glamorganshire, and is both by birth and training a thorough Cambrian. His father, who is still living, was for several years Stipendiary Magistrate at Merthyr, and once contested that borough unsuccessfully with Sir John Guest. He was originally a Mr. Knight—a patronymic which, in 1805, he changed to Bruce, and afterwards, in 1837, to Pryce. The Member for Renfrewshire is, therefore, described as the second son of John Bruce Pryce, Esq., of Duffryn, St. Nicholas, Glamorganshire, by Sarah, the second daughter of the Rev. Hugh Austin, Rector of St. Peter's, in Barbadoes. Paternally, he is a nephew of the late Lord-Justice Knight Bruce, who was spared to see him attain the dignity of Privy Councillor, but not long enough to witness his admission to the rank of a Cabinet Minister. It may be added, for the purpose of completing these domestic details, that his great-grandfather, Mr. Bruce of Kennet, was High Sheriff of Glamorgan more than 150 years ago; and, further, that he himself has been twice married, his first wife (to whom he was married in 1846, but who died in 1852) being Annabella, the only daughter of Richard Beadon, Esq., of Clifton, Gloucestershire; and his second wife, to whom he was married in 1854, being Norah, the youngest daughter of the late Lieutenant-General Sir William Napier, K.C.B., the author of that matchless military narrative, the "History of the Peninsular War," and distinguished also as the brother of the heroic conqueror of Scinde. The reader will thus perceive that the Member for Renfrewshire, who might be supposed from his patronymic to be a Scotchman, is not even connected closely by family ties with this part of the Island. His position, however, as the member for Renfrewshire, and his consequent intimate connection with the West of Scotland, may excuse his appearance in these pages.
In 1837, when he was only 22 years of age, Mr. Bruce was called to the bar. He practised at the Chancery bar, and attended the Oxford Circuit for two years. He withdrew from practice in 1843, but still retained his name on the rolls of Lincoln's Inn. In 1847, four years after this withdrawal, he received the appointment of Stipendiary Magistrate at Merthyr-Tydvil and Aberdare, the office previously held by his father, and for a period of more than five years he presided at the Police Courts of those towns. From this office he retired in the December of 1852, when he was elected Member for the Merthyr boroughs, the seat having become vacant by the death of that Sir John Guest whom his father had unsuccessfully opposed many years previously. Mr. Bruce has all along manifested a deep interest in the affairs of his own neighbourhood. He was Deputy-Chairman of Quarter Sessions in his native county of Glamorganshire, and he was also Chairman of the Vale of Neath Railway, Captain of the Glamorganshire Rifle Volunteers, and fourth Charity Commissioner of England and Wales.