DU CANE, Charles (1825-1889), of 54 Queen’s Gate Terrace, South Kensington, London and Braxted Park, Witham, Essex

Du Cane, who sat briefly for Maldon before coming in for Essex North in 1857, was one of the most prominent and indefatigable opponents of Gladstone’s economic policies in the 1860s. A descendent of Flemish Huguenots who had settled at Braxted in Essex early in the eighteenth century, he was born in 1825 at Ryde in the Isle of Wight, where his namesake father served as a royal navy commander of the coastguard.1S. Smiles, The Huguenots: their settlements, churches, and industries in England and Ireland (1868), 441; J. Marshall, Royal Naval biography (1833), 398. In May 1841 he succeeded his cousin Peter Du Cane (1778-1841), Whig Member for Steyning, 1826-30, to the Braxted estate, an inheritance that secured his financial future.2HP Commons, 1820-1832, iv. 961. Following an Oxford education, where he read classics and mathematics, he ingratiated himself with Essex society, playing a prominent role in county agricultural organisations and serving as a magistrate.3Essex Standard, 2 Mar. 1889. He was also a keen cricketer and batted for the MCC.4Ibid; http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/12409.html.

At the 1852 general election Du Cane was brought forward by local Conservatives for the small Essex borough of Maldon.5Daily News, 15 May 1852. His Conservative credentials were beyond reproach: he offered Lord Derby and the agricultural interest his ‘uncompromising support’, and called for the abolition of the Maynooth grant.6Morning Chronicle, 10 July 1852. The contest, which was characterised by internecine battles within the Maldon True Blue club, was a bitter and personal one, but after successfully rebutting accusations that he was a cruel landlord, he was returned at the top of the poll.7Daily News, 12 July 1852; Essex Standard, 16 July 1852. He voted against Villiers’ motion praising corn law repeal but backed Palmerston’s motion in favour of free trade, 26 Nov. 1852. As pledged, he opposed the Maynooth grant, 23 Feb. 1853. His first parliamentary session, however, was abruptly cut short when he was unseated because of bribery by his agents at the 1852 election, 18 Mar. 1853.8The Times, 12, 15, 18 Mar. 1853; PP 1852-53 (290), xiv. 14.

Du Cane did not have to wait too long for a return to the Westminster fold. In March 1856 the Essex North Conservatives choose him to replace Sir John Tyrell, the county’s longest-serving Member who intended to retire at the dissolution.9HP Commons, 1820-1832, vii. 523-5. Presenting himself to the constituency at Saffron Walden the next month, he declared his intention to zealously defend the Protestant religion and resist any attempt to ‘unchristianise the British House of Commons’.10Essex Standard, 4 Apr. 1856. At the 1857 general election he delivered a series of energetic speeches laced with literary allusions and metaphor, a style that would characterise his public oratory. Much to the pleasure of his partisan audiences, he quipped that the ‘sword of Damocles’ was hanging over the leaders of the Liberal party.11Ibid., 27 Mar. 1857. At the nomination he criticised the bombardment of Canton, arguing that there would be serious ramifications for Britain’s commercial future, but insisted that he would support Palmerston’s efforts to resolve the crisis. He was elected without a contest.12Ibid., 1 Apr. 1857.

Du Cane’s first known speech in the Commons, on the election expenses bill, was a hesitant one, in which his attempts to explain his opposition to prohibiting payment for the conveyance of voters were drowned out by repeated calls for him to withdraw, 10 June 1857. He fared better the following year, when in a lengthy, confident contribution, he outlined the deficiencies in the ‘worse than useless’ agricultural statistics bill, 28 Apr. 1858. With his next speech, he made his mark in the Commons. Moving the amendment against Locke King’s county franchise bill, he delivered a fluent critique of a measure he felt to be ‘a perfect mountain of anomaly and inconsistency’, for which he was congratulated by his colleague Charles Miles, who described him in the chamber as ‘a great accession’ to the House.13Hansard, 10 June 1858, vol. 150, cc. 1861-72. Disraeli was equally impressed. In a letter to Queen Victoria, the party leader praised his ‘fine voice, graceful carriage and great vigour and comprehension in his treatment of the subject’, and predicted, ‘he will rise’.14Disraeli to Queen Victoria, 11 June 1858: Benjamin Disraeli letters, 1857-1859, ed. M. G. Wiebe, M.S. Millar, A. P. Robson and E. Hawman (2004), vii. 203.

Du Cane was a frequent attender and after opposing Palmerston’s conspiracy to murder bill, 19 Feb. 1858, he voted steadily with the new Conservative government. In a thoughtful speech which dwelt on the inherently contested nature of parliamentary reform, he argued that the Derby ministry’s reform bill should be allowed to go into committee, where its objectionable features could be amended, 31 Mar. 1859. At the subsequent general election following the bill’s defeat, he offered a strong defence of Derby’s leadership and was again returned without a contest.15Essex Standard, 20 Apr., 4 May 1859.

In his second full Parliament, Du Cane loyally followed Disraeli into the division lobby on the major issues of the day and enhanced his reputation as a ‘very eloquent and lucid speaker’.16Essex Standard, 2 Mar. 1889. He moved the amendment against the 1859 church rate abolition bill, invoking Shakespeare’s Hamlet to underline his argument that abolition would only exacerbate the problem: ‘it will but skin and film the ulcerous place, whilst rank corruption, mining all within, infects unseen’.17Hansard, 12 July 1859, vol. 154, cc. 1129-40. He was also a prominent critic of the Liberal government’s 1860 reform bill, asserting that the measure would surrender the counties to the £10 occupiers resident in the towns. Like the Tory leadership, however, he was equally anxious not to appear hostile to the enfranchisement of the working classes, insisting only that disproportionate power was not placed in their hands.18Hansard, 30 Apr. 1860, vol. 158, cc. 396-408; R. Saunders, Democracy and the vote in British politics, 1848-1867 (2011), 121-2. Nevertheless, he consistently voted against subsequent radical motions to extend the county and borough franchises.

Du Cane reserved his most pugnacious contributions for debates on the Liberal government’s budgets, becoming a perennial thorn in the side of Gladstone’s economic proposals. He opposed the 1860 budget on three grounds: the re-imposition of a higher rate of income tax would leave the country worse off; the reduction and abolition of duties on wine and paper were uncalled for; and the commercial treaty with France was completely ‘one-sided’. He was particularly aggrieved that the French treaty was presented as part of the budget, declaring that ‘if the constitution of Parliament and the country can stand the dose, it must make up its mind from henceforth to swallow anything’.19Hansard, 21 Feb 1860, vol. 156, cc. 1475-97. His motion against the budget, however, was defeated by 339 votes to 228, 24 Feb. 1860. The satirical magazine Punch mocked his and Disraeli’s failure:

Diz and Du,

Made motions to

Knock over the ministers’ budget,

The House felt bored,

Pert Diz was floored,

And Du was driven to trudge it.20Punch, 3 Mar. 1860.

Undeterred by this setback, Du Cane remained a vociferous critic of Gladstone, both inside and outside the House. After somewhat reluctantly accepting the existence of a budget surplus, he attacked the Liberal leader’s decision to use the 1861 customs and inland revenue bill to abolish paper duty, 16 May 1861. At a speech at Castle Hedingham, Essex, in October 1862, he compared the chancellor of the exchequer to ‘little wanton boys’ who ‘swim on bladders in a sea of glory ... far beyond their depth’.21Spectator, 25 Oct. 1862. Du Cane was especially exasperated at Gladstone’s intransigence concerning the malt tax, a duty much detested by his constituents. In 1864 he backed a motion calling for a decrease in the duty, 14 Apr., and the following year he supported Fitzroy Kelly’s motion for the House to consider its reduction upon any future remission of indirect taxation, 7 Mar. 1865. He remained sceptical, though, that the chancellor would address the malt tax, quipping that he was a ‘master ... in the art of evading pitched battles on the main question at issue’, 27 Apr. 1865. In the division lobby, meanwhile, he continued to vote with the Conservative opposition on domestic and foreign policy issues, backing Disraeli’s censure of government policy on the Schleswig-Holstein question, 8 July 1864. He was also an active member of select committees on paper (export duty on rags), the Cadastral survey, sewage of towns, and metropolitan open spaces.22PP 1861 (467), xi. 268; PP 1861 (475), xiv. 94; PP 1862 (160), xiv. 321; PP 1865 (178), viii. 260. In June 1863, meanwhile, he had married Georgiana Susan Copley, daughter of Baron Lyndhurst, who had served three times as lord chancellor. Disraeli attended the wedding.23Morning Post, 26 June 1863; Disraeli to Sarah Brydges Willyams, 25 June 1863: Disraeli letters, 1860-1864 (2009), vii. 281.

Although Du Cane was popular with the Conservative leadership at Westminster, his standing amongst his tenants was damaged by accusations that he unfairly protected his game at Braxted Park. The dispute momentarily caused him to search for an alternative seat at the dissolution, until the local party rallied to his defence.24K. Neale, ‘Essex gentry and the general election of 1865’, in K. Neale (ed.), Essex ‘full of profitable thinges’ (1996), 395, 400-3. At the 1865 general election he championed church rates, describing them as the ‘safeguard of all civil and religious liberties’, and blamed the continuing disenfranchisement of the ‘intelligent’ male working class on Liberal party intransigence. Following a difficult contest, in which he was opposed by a popular Liberal candidate, he was re-elected at the top of the poll.25Essex Standard, 19 July 1865.

With parliamentary reform firmly back on the political agenda, Du Cane lost little time in attacking the Liberal ministry’s proposals, arguing that a £14 county franchise would destroy the representation of the landed interest, and that a redistribution of seats would only serve to aggravate such an injustice, 31 May 1866.26M. Cowling, The Making of the Second Reform Act (1966), 97. He also asserted his preference for a rating rather than a rental basis for the franchise, 14 June 1866, and backed the subsequent Adullamite motion on the issue, 18 June 1866, the success of which brought down Russell’s ministry.

With the Conservatives back in power, Du Cane was made a lord of the admiralty in Derby’s third administration.27London Gazette, 17 July 1866. At the subsequent by-election, he insisted that he supported giving the vote to the ‘industrious and intelligent working class’, but warned against making them the ‘sole depository of political power’.28Essex Standard, 20 July 1866. He was re-elected unopposed and voted with Disraeli on the major clauses of the 1867 representation of the people bill. Unsurprisingly, he opposed Gladstone’s resolutions on the Irish church, 3 Apr. 1868. As a lord of the admiralty, Du Cane’s primary task was to oversee the reform of Greenwich naval hospital, determining where greater economy and efficiency could be achieved.29Hansard, 5 Aug. 1867, vol. 189, cc. 905-6; 17 July 1868, vol. 193, cc. 1396-1401. He was also an active member of the 1867-68 select committee on admiralty finances.30PP 1867-68 (469), vi. 2. His tenure in the post, though, was relatively brief. In July 1868 it was announced that he had accepted the governorship of Tasmania.31The Times, 30 July 1868; Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative Party: journals and memoirs of Edward Henry, Lord Stanley, 1848-1869, ed. J. Vincent (1978), 335. He retired from the Commons at that year’s dissolution, taking up his colonial post in January 1869.

Du Cane proved to be a largely successful governor, promoting the extension of public education and free trade. His desire to travel widely round the colony endeared him to the locals and his energetic lecturing, delivered in his usual style, mixing metaphors with ‘classical erudition’, was widely reported by the Australian press. He retired from the post in November 1874.32G. Rimmer, ‘Du Cane, Sir Charles (1825-1889)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, www.adb.edu.au. On his return to England the following year he was made a knight of the order of St. Michael and St. George, 5 Mar. 1875.33London Gazette, 5 Mar. 1875. In 1876 he was appointed to the royal commission on the Factory and Workshops Acts and two years later he became chairman of the board of customs, with an annual salary of £1,000.34PP 1876 [C. 1443], xxix. 3. He remained a popular public speaker. His lectures titled ‘Tasmania – Past and Present’, delivered at Colchester Town Hall in January 1877, were subsequently published, as was his translation of Homer’s Odyssey in 1880.35Rimmer, ‘Du Cane, Sir Charles’, Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Du Cane died at Braxted Park in February 1889. He was remembered as a ‘very popular county magnate’, whose political skills had been widely appreciated by the Conservative leadership at Westminster.36Essex Standard, 2 Mar. 1889. He left effects valued at £23,717 2s. 5d.37National Probate Calendar, 1 Apr. 1889. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles Henry Copley Du Cane (1864-1938). The Du Cane family papers are held by Essex Record Office.38Essex RO, D/DB F53-9.