His abilities won him government positions and he was Under-Secretary of State for India, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and Governor of Madras. His performance in politics and administration has received mixed reviews during the 1880s: "a politician of brilliant promise and scant performance, of wide information which he seemed to turn to much account, of abilities which would have made the fortunes of half a dozen men and of which he made little enough."[1]
On his return from Madras, he retired from politics and served in various art and scientific societies, before passing away in 1906.
He studied law at the Inns of Court and passed with honours, ranked only behind James Fitzjames Stephen.[2] He was called to the bar at Inner Temple, London on 17 November 1854[3] and practised as a junior under William (later Mr Justice) Field.[2] During this time he lectured at the Working Men's College and wrote for the Saturday Review.[2] Soon afterwards, he entered politics and joined the Liberal Party.
Political career
In the 1857 election he was elected to the House of Commons as the Liberal Party's candidate for Elgin Burghs, holding the seat without interruption until 1881.[2] He was returned unopposed at every election except in 1880, when he easily defeated a Conservative candidate. Every year from 1860, Stuart delivered an elaborate speech to his constituents, many of which were collected and reprinted, often on foreign affairs.
As an MP, Duff was mainly concerned with foreign policy, a subject on which he became known as an authority. He travelled widely, wrote extensively, and met with many of Europe's leading personalities. In 1866, he was elected rector of the University of Aberdeen, holding the post until 1872.
In 1868, William Ewart Gladstone appointed Duff Under-Secretary of State for India under the Duke of Argyll.[4] Duff held the office until the government was defeated in 1874. He worked well with the secretary of state Argyll; their relationship was described by Duthie as 'rather deliberately obedient to Argyll; and always in agreement with him on policy'.
He was captivated by the beach at Madras on an earlier visit to the city.[6][7] As a result, when he became governor in 1881 he immediately commenced the construction of a promenade along the beach.[6] The beach was extensively modified and layered with soft sand and was named "The Marina".[6] The promenade was opened to the public in 1884.[6]
On the naming of the beach, Grant Duff explained in a letter:
We have greatly benefitted Madras by turning the rather dismal beach of five years ago into one of the most beautiful promenades in the world. From old Sicilian recollections, I gave in 1884 to our new creation the name of Marina; and I was not a little amused when walking there last winter with the Italian General Saletta, he suddenly said to me 'On se dirai a Palerme'.[7]
In 1864, several specimens of a yellow flowering iris were collected by Mr. B. T. Lowne on the banks of the river Kishon in Israel. It was later found by Grant Duff on the plains of Esdraelon (Jezreel Valley).[8][9] The iris was then named after him, Iris grant-duffii.[10]
His tenure was filled with a number of controversies and allegations of partisan behaviour and injustice. He was sharply criticised for the way he handled the Chingleput Ryots' Case and the arrests and trials following the Salem riots of 1882. The Hindu accused him of indulging in vindictive and vengeful behaviour. In one of the articles, he was criticised thus: "Oh! Lucifer! How art thou fallen? Oh! Mr Grant-Duff, how you stand like an extinct volcano in the midst of the ruins of your abortive reputation as an administrator! Erudite you may be, but a statesman you are not."[12] He was also accused of deliberately nurturing a movement against Brahmins.[13]
However, Louis Mallet, the then Under-Secretary of State for India, was all praise for him. On receipt of his last minute as governor, Mallett said, "I doubt whether any governor has left behind so able and so complete a record".[2]
W. S. Blunt, the British publicist, who visited Madras in November 1884, said of Grant Duff:
"And Mr. Grant Duff?", I asked a friend. "We consider him, he said "a failure. He came out as Governor of Madras with great expectations, and we find him feeble, sickly, unable to do his work himself, and wholly in the hands of the permanent officials. The Duke of Buckingham, of whom we expected less, did much more, and much better. "...I found this opinion of Grant Duff a general one among the natives. Though a clever man, he had spent all his life in the confined atmosphere of the House of Commons, and was quite unable to deal with a state of society so strange to him as that which he found in India[7]
On an official visit to Rome a few years after the conclusion of his tenure, Grant Duff records that the Speaker of the Italian ParliamentBiancheri inquired about the size of the province that Grant Duff had governed.[15] On receiving the reply that the province was 'larger than Italy, including all the Italian islands', Biancheri astonishedly asked "What an empire is that, in which such a country is only a province?".[15]
Lieutenant-Colonel Adrian Grant-Duff, CB (1869–1914),[17] colonel of the Black Watch, was killed at the First Battle of the Aisne in September 1914. Adrian's daughter was Shiela Grant Duff while his son, Neill, was killed at Houdetot near St Valery-en-Caux France in 1940 whilst serving with the Black Watch.
He died in his home in Chelsea, London in January 1906, aged 76,[18] and was buried in Elgin Cathedral, Scotland.
^
Oliver, J.W. (1901). "Forestry in India". The Indian Forester. Vol. v.27 (Original from Harvard University, Digitized 4 April 2008 ed.). Allahabad: R. P. Sharma, Business Manager, Indian Forester. pp. 616–617.
^ abThurston, Edgar (1913). Provincial Geographies of India: The Madras Presidency with Mysore, Coorg and Associated States. Cambridge University. p. 7.
^"Marriages". The Times. No. 36103. London. 30 March 1900. p. 1.
^H. C. G. Matthew, 'Duff, Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant- (1829–1906)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004
