943 James Bryce

Constituency : Tower  Hamlets  1880-5, Aberdeen  South  1885-1907

James  took  over  from  Joseph  Samuda  at  Tower  Hamlets.  He  became  one  of  the  great  party  servants  over  the  next  decades.

James  was  a  Scottish  lawyer's  son  born  in  Belfast. He  was  educated  at  Glasgow  High  School  and  Oxford. He  became  a  barrister. He  became  a  Professor  of  Civil  Law  at  Oxford  holding  the  post  between  1870  and  1893.  He  was  also  a  historian  and  travelled  to  Iceland  and  Armenia in  pursuit  of  his  interests. In  the  1860s  he  chaired  a  Royal  Commission  on  Secondary  Education.  He  was  a  prolific  author  with  works  on  botany, history, law  and  travel. He  was  a  keen  mountaineer.

In  1882  James  established  the  National  Liberal  Club. He  was  a  close  friend  of  Gladstone.

In  1884  James  introduced  the  first  right  to  roam  bill.

James  was  under-secretary  of  state  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  Gladstone's  brief  third  ministry.  He  clashed  with  Henry  Richard  over  the  practicality  of  continuous  parliamentary  consultation  on  foreign  affairs. He  opposed  the  alterations  to  Charterhouse  School. He  deplored  to  Gladstone  that  fewer  businessmen  had  time  to  sit  in  the  Commons. He  had  a  reputation  as  a  radical  but  George  Campbell  said  of  him  over  Egypt  "It  is  sad  to  see  how  a  Radical  , when  he  accepts  office, gets  into  the  official  groove... Formerly  there  was  no  man  who was  more  robust  in  his  sympathy  with  people  struggling  to be  free".

In  1887 James  helped found  the  Liberal  Publications  Department.

In  1888  James  published  The  American  Commonwealth  which  was  very  popular  in  the  U.S.  despite  his  concerns  about  growing  inequality.

James  was  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster  in  Gladstone's  last  ministry. He  was  a  rather  reluctant  "Home  Ruler"  anticipating  that  it  would  alienate   Presbyterian  Liberals   but  helped  Gladstone  draft  the  Second  Home  Rule Bill.  Rosebery  made  him  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade.

With  the  Liberals  out  of  office  James  visited  South Africa  and  became  a  fierce  critic  of  British  rule  there   in  a  book  Impressions  published  in  1897. This  provided  much  material  for  opponents  of  the  Boer  War. James  denounced  the  concentration  camps.

Campbell- Bannerman  made  James  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland  in  1905.

In  1907  James  was  made  ambassador  to  the  USA  and  had  to  resign  his  seat. He  became  a  great  friend  of  Rooseveldt. He  was  a  strong  advocate  of  Anglo-American  unity  and  the  civilising  mission  of  the  English-speaking  peoples.

James  retired  in  1913 , much  to  the  relief  of  the  Germans , and  was  given  a  peerage  as  Viscount  Bryce. In  1915  he  published  the  influential  Bryce  Report  about  German  atrocities  against  the  Belgians  although  it  contained  exaggerations  such  as  cutting  off  childrens'  hands.  He  was  critical  of  Asquith's  conduct  of  the  war. He  appealed  for  mercy  for Sir  Roger  Casement.

James  later  raised  the  issue  of  the  Armenian  and  Assyrian  genocides  in  the  Lords   and  published  an  account  of  those  in  1916.

James  was  an  opponent  of  female  suffrage.

In  his  last  years  James  served  the  International  Court  at  The  Hague  and  supported  the  establishment  of  the  League  of  Nations. His  last  speech  in  the  Lords  supported  the  Anglo-Irish  Treaty  of  1921.

He  died  in  1922  aged  83.