VANE, Lord Harry George (1803-1891), of 29 Grosvenor Square, London and Raby Castle, Staindrop, Darlington, co. Durham

Vane, whose ‘bulky form, finely-cut features, and commanding presence were quite in harmony with the physique and facial outlines of his noble ancestors’, was the youngest son of William Harry Vane, who had been MP for Totnes, 1788-90, and Winchelsea, 1790-92, before succeeding as third earl of Darlington.1North-East Daily Gazette, 22 Aug. 1891. Darlington was created marquess of Cleveland in 1827 and duke of Cleveland in 1833. An extremely wealthy landowner and influential supporter of reform, he disinherited his elder sons (who had become Tories) in favour of Vane, who shared his Liberal sympathies.2W. Carr, ‘Vane, William Harry, first duke of Cleveland (1766-1842)’, rev. K.D. Reynolds, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com. In 1829 Vane graduated from Oxford and joined the diplomatic service as an attaché to the Paris embassy, and ten years later was appointed secretary of legation at Stockholm.3Morning Post, 22 Aug. 1891. In 1842 he succeeded to his father’s extensive estates in county Durham, Shropshire, Sussex, Somerset, Northampton, Kent, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Devon and Gloucester: he was remembered as a ‘strict, yet fair and generous’ landowner, but ‘a dangerous opponent when crossed’.4North-East Daily Gazette, 22 Aug. 1891.

At the 1841 general election Vane offered as a Liberal for Durham South. The campaign was a bitter one, and his canvassing skills were privately lambasted by his political opponents, but backed by his father’s considerable influence, he was easily returned.5In private correspondence, Robert Fitzroy, the Conservative candidate for Durham City, had informed his patron, Lord Londonderry that Vane cut a wretched figure and was a bad canvasser. See T.J. Nossiter, Influence, opinion and political idioms in reformed England: case studies from the North-east, 1832-74 (1975), 67. An occasional speaker in his first Parliament, he generally followed Lord John Russell into the division lobby, and was consistently in opposition minorities for motions to consider the state of Ireland. A strenuous supporter of commercial tariff reform, he backed Russell’s proposals to reduce sugar and timber duties, and moved for the repeal of the export duty on coal imposed by the 1842 Customs Act, but his motion was defeated, 110-74, 4 June 1844. On the critical issue of the corn laws though, he supported the Conservative ministry. He backed Peel’s sliding scale, 9 Mar. 1842, and after expressing his ‘reluctant dissent’, he divided with the premier against viscount Howick’s motion on the distress of the country, stating that ‘he could not consent to such a withdrawal of protection as would introduce great perturbation’, 17 Feb. 1843. In the crucial debate of February 1846, however, he announced that his ‘opinions on the subject had undergone a change’. Whilst insisting that ‘a low fixed duty would be a wise arrangement if the circumstances of the country admitted it’, he conceded that ‘it would be unworthy of him to attempt to maintain his consistency when his views upon a subject of such great importance were altered’, and he voted for repeal, 16 Feb. 1846.

At the 1847 general election Vane was in the delicate position of being the Liberal nominee of a Conservative patron, following the succession of his eldest brother Henry to the dukedom in 1842.6Henry Vane, 2nd duke of Cleveland had been MP for County Durham, 1812-15, Winchelsea, 1816-18, Tregony, 1818-26, Totnes, 1826-30, Saltash, 1830-31, and South Shropshire, 1832-42. The retirement of his Liberal colleague and the decision to field only one Conservative candidate, however, resolved the potential difficulty, and he was returned unopposed.7Nossiter, Influence, opinion and political idioms, 52-3. A frequent attender, he supported Russell’s ministry on most major issues, and moved the address in answer to the Queen’s speech, stating that ‘nothing would conciliate the public more than a reduction of the national expenditure’, 1 Feb. 1849.8Vane was present for 92 out of 219 divisions in 1849: Hampshire Telegraph, 20 Oct. 1849. He intervened to praise Russell’s reform bill, 9 Feb. 1852, but divided consistently against the ballot, and opposed the equalisation of the borough and county franchises, 27 Apr. 1852. He was an active member of the 1847-8 select committees on the slave trade, and he backed, ‘with the utmost reluctance’, William Hutt’s defeated motion which called for Britain to ‘desist from all acts for suppressing the slave trade by force of arms’, 19 Mar. 1850.9PP 1847-48 (272), xxii. 1; PP 1847-48 (366), xxii. 283; PP 1847-48 (536), xxii. 467; PP 1847-48 (623), xxii. 705.

Re-elected without a contest in 1852, Vane stated that while he was not ‘any warm partisan’ of British involvement with the Crimean war, he would ‘give his most cordial support to the Government in its prosecution’, 11 Apr. 1854. He voted against Disraeli’s critical motion on the war, 25 May 1855, but believing that ‘the present war was one fruitful of danger and calamity to the country’, he advocated making peace with Russia at ‘the first available opportunity’, 5 June 1855. He remained loyal though to Palmerston’s newly-formed ministry, but attended less frequently, and he opposed Roebuck’s censure of the cabinet, 19 July 1855. 10Vane was present for 52 out of 257 divisions in 1853, and present for 38 out of 198 in 1856: Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; J.P. Gassiot, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck: with a full analysis of the divisions of the House of Commons during the last session of Parliament (1857), 6. However, he voted for Cobden’s censure motion on Canton, 3 Mar. 1857.

At the 1857 general election Vane’s prospects for re-election were complicated by the emergence of a second Liberal candidate, but the family ties prevailed, and he was returned in second place.11Nossiter, Influence, opinion and political idioms, 53. He spoke frequently and at length during his fourth Parliament, and loyally supported Palmerston’s conspiracy to murder bill, the defeat of which brought about the collapse of his first administration. Vane explained that as the Orsini bomb plot ‘had been concocted in this country, and that the conspirators had left this country to execute it, he was disposed to make great allowances for the agitation and exasperation’ expressed in France, 19 Feb. 1858. According to Sir John Trelawny, however, his defence of Palmerston was filled with ‘pompous platitudes’, and his contention that the government should have responded to Count Walewski’s despatch was merely ‘refining and splitting hairs’ and had been met by ‘ironical cheers ... and laughter’.12The parliamentary diaries of Sir John Trelawny, 1858-1865 ed. by T.A. Jenkins (1992), 25-6. Vane’s motion to delay the transfer of the government of India from the East India company to the Crown, 30 Apr. 1858, proved to be even more unpopular (the motion was defeated 447-57), and his robust defence of travelling expenses for voters, 16 July 1858, was subsequently undermined when he, by mistake, voted in the wrong division on the corrupt practices prevention act continuance bill, 26 July 1858.13See Vane’s admission of his error: Hansard, 26 July 1858, vol. 151, c. 2124.

At the 1859 general election, following his brother’s decision to instruct the family’s tenants to plump for the Conservative candidate, Vane retired after eighteen years as MP for Durham South without giving a public explanation.14Nossiter, Influence, opinion and political idioms, 53. He offered instead for Hastings, where the family also had some influence, and was returned in second place. He continued to support Palmerston on most major issues, though he opposed Gladstone’s customs and inland revenue bill, 4 May 1863, and he voted for Edward Baines’ borough franchise bill, 10 Apr. 1861 and 11 May 1864, and for church rate abolition, 14 May 1862. The majority of his contributions to debate concerned foreign affairs. Whilst insisting that he was ‘in favour of the principle of non-intervention’, he called for ‘the voice of the British nation’ to be heard in the affairs of Italy, 8 Aug. 1859, and pressed ministers for greater transparency concerning their negotiations with other foreign nations, 13 Mar. 1860. Following disturbances in Warsaw, he asked the government to urge the claims of the Polish people upon the government of Russia, 22 Mar. 1861, and he argued that Denmark should allow for the autonomy of Holstein, 12 July 1861. He voted against Disraeli’s censure of government policy during the Danish war, 8 July 1864. His expertise on foreign affairs was also evident when he sat on the 1861 select committee on the diplomatic service, where he was an assiduous questioner of witnesses.15PP 1861 (459), vi. 2.

In September 1864, following the deaths in quick succession of his elder brothers Henry and William, Vane succeeded to the Lords as fourth duke of Cleveland. According to Disraeli, he made ‘a very good duke; tall and dignified, but very natural’.16Quoted in G.E. Buckle and W.F. Monypenny, The life of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield (1916), iv. 419. In November 1864 he adopted the surname Powlett in lieu of Vane, in accordance with the will of his maternal grandmother, the duchess of Bolton. In April 1865 he was made a knight of the garter. 17The Times, 22 Aug. 1891. As a member of the Lords, he ‘carried his years with the vigour of a much younger man’ and remained a frequent contributor to debate, intervening regularly to defend the interests of railway companies.18North-East Daily Gazette, 22 Aug. 1891. He died without issue at his ancestral home of Raby Castle, Staindrop, Darlington, in August 1891, whereupon the dukedom became extinct. He left estate valued at £1,449,241 15s. 3d., and his subsidiary title of baron Barnard passed to his kinsman Henry de Vere Vane.19England and Wales, National Probate Calendar, Index of wills and administration, 1861-1941, 24 Nov. 1891; The Times, 22 Aug. 1891. His stepson, Archibald Primrose, 5^th earl of Rosebery, was prime minister, 1894-95. Vane’s correspondence and papers are located at the British Library, London.20Cleveland Papers, BL Add MSS. 69420-69421.