Earl of Oxford

On the advice of Premier Stanley Baldwin, King George V bestowed the dignity of an earldom upon the Rt. Hon. Herbert Henry Asquith, Premier of Great Britain and Ireland from 1908 to 1915--the longest period of time that the office has been held by one man since the Ministry of Lord Liverpool (1812-1827). The new peer chose the historic title of Earl of Oxford*, and His Majesty's sanction for the revival of that title was obtained.

Several times before a peerage had been offered to Mr. Asquith, but he resolutely refused the honor; for to enter the House of Lords' powerless debating chamber, would have been to commit political suicide. At the age of 73, however, and with the fortunes of the Liberal Party at their lowest ebb, the barrier to the Lords was obviously removed. Were it not that he was opposed in principle to accepting honors for himself, the matter might rest there; but, as London club talk had it, his last scruples were overcome by his dynamic wife.

The heir to the earldom is Lord Oxford's grandson, Julian Asquith, only son of the earl's eldest son, Raymond Asquith (killed in France in 1915). This young man will now be known as the Hon. Julian Asquith.

Herbert Henry Asquith was 'born in Yorkshire in 1852 of "old Puritan stock." When Herbert was eight, his father died and the family moved to Huddersfield, where it lived with the widow's parents.

A few years later, little Herbert was shipped to London, where he attended the City of London School and was early taught "to fend for himself." This incident has given rise to the fiction that he was penniless. His allowance was extremely small, 'because his family believed in young men making their fortunes unaided, but his father was comfortably off and the maternal grand folks were rich.

While in London he worked hard, practiced the art of oratory, was "a constant votary of the play." At the age of 17 he won a scholarship at Balliol and from then on the whole of his 'varsity life was literally one honor after another. Small wonder that his contemporaries predicted great things for him. But, though he was successful at Oxford, his success at the bar, while not so swift, gave him the surest foundation for his political career. As a young barrister he reached the pinnacle of his fame in his able management of the great case between The Times and Parnell (1888-1890). A year later, he "took silk" (became a Queen's Counsellor, a sort of Elder Barrister).

It was about this time that Gladstone formed his fourth and last Ministry. Asquith at that time had been a Liberal M. P. for East Fife for six years. Gladstone plucked him greedily, made him Home Secretary; and his wisdom and faith in the young man's ability was amply rewarded; for many agree that Mr Asquith made the best Home Secretary with which Britain was ever blest.

Two years later he married "Margot," his second and present wife. This was a happy match, for Mrs. Asquith not only adored the ground upon which Herbert walked, but was possessed with a superabundance of energy motivated by her ambitions for her husband. Mr. Asquith's fortunes daily grew brighter.

After the fall of the Balfour Cabinet-- in 1905, which closed a decade of Conservative dominance, the ministry of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman was elected, and Mr. Asquith became his chief's first lieutenant in the capacity of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Within two years, however, Campbell-Bannerman was dead and Mr. Asquith at last became Prime Minister.

During his quarter of a century in active Ministerial offices, he ever strained at effective reform of social, labor and industrial conditions. If his great measure, the Factory Bill, was subsequently passed by a Conservative Government (and that in itself was no mean compliment), his Old Age Pensions Act and his fight with the Lords which culminated in the Parliament Act of 1911 remain unique monuments to a life of splendid service to his country, for which he has at last consented to accept a high honor from the people through its cherished embodiment, the King.

It is a strange irony of fortune, however, that finds the Earl of Oxford a member of the House of Lords which he did so much to deprive of its effective powers.

*The Earldom of Oxford was first conferred upon the illustrious family of de Vere in 1142. It first fell into abeyance in 1703, upon the death of Aubrey de Vere, the 20th Earl, who died without issue. It was, however, revived by Queen Anne in 1711 in favor of Robert Harley, a great Tory leader of the late 17th and early 18th Centuries, sometime Speaker of the House of Commons and First Lord of the Treasury (position nearly equivalent to the then unknown premiership). In 1853 it again fell into abeyance to be revived now in favor of H. H. Asquith, who doubtless chose it owing to his close connections with the great university.