George Smythe, 7th Viscount Strangford
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George Smythe, 7th Viscount Strangford (16 April 1818 – 23 November 1857), George Smythe before 1855, was a British Conservative politician, best known for his association with Benjamin Disraeli and the Young England movement.
Smythe was the son of Percy Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford, who had been Disraeli's friend during the 1830s, and had sponsored the latter for the Carlton Club (along with Lord Chandos). The younger Smythe believed in the sort of romantic Toryism espoused by Lord John Manners. Both of them were heavily influenced by Frederick Faber, an apostle of John Henry Newman, leader of the Oxford Movement.
Disraeli and Smythe had known each other through the latter's father since an early age, but it was in the House of Commons that the two became close. Smythe sat as a Member of Parliament for Canterbury from 1841 until 1852, when he was defeated. Along with Disraeli, Manners, and Henry Baillie-Cochrane, they comprised "Young England", a sect of the Conservative Party which, in espousing a romantic Toryism, was often at odds with the moderate, business-like administration of then-Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel.
Young England finally splintered over the Maynooth Grant. In 1845 Peel proposed to increase the annual subsidy granted to the Catholic seminary at Maynooth, in Ireland. Smythe, possibly under pressure from his father, supported Peel, as did Lord John Manners. Disraeli, then in open rebellion against Peel, opposed the grant. Lord Blake, Disraeli's biographer, noted that Disraeli's speech was "essentially ad hominem" and that Disraeli had a "poor case." In January of 1846 Smythe accepted minor office in Peel's government. Nevertheless, Smythe and Disraeli apparently remained close friends until the former's death. The title character in Disraeli's novel Coningsby was modeled after Smythe, and Smythe wrote to Disraeli in 1852 that "you were of old the Cid and Captain of my boyish fanaticism."
Smythe's career was shattered later in the year when he apparently had an affair with the daughter of an earl, got her pregnant, and then refused to marry her. In the nineteenth century social and political ruin often went hand-in-hand. At his last electoral appearance in 1852 Smythe fought a duel with his fellow MP, Colonel Romilly, and lost in a landslide. He succeeded to his father's peerage in 1855 and died in 1857 at the relatively young age of 39.
[edit] References
- Blake, Robert (1966). Disraeli, New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 0-19-832903-2.
- This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Lord Albert Conyngham |
Member of Parliament for Canterbury 1841–1852 |
Succeeded by: Henry Gipps Henry Butler-Johnstone |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by: Percy Smythe |
Viscount Strangford 1855–1857 |
Succeeded by: Percy Smythe |
