George John Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll (30 April 1823 - 24 April 1900) was a prominent United Kingdom Liberal politician as well as a writer on science, religion, and the politics of the 19th century. April 30 is the 120th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (121st in leap years), with 245 days remaining. ... 1823 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... April 24 is the 114th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (115th in leap years). ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday. ... The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become known as... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Life

He succeeded his father, the seventh Duke of Argyll, in 1847. His talents and eloquence soon raised him to distinction in public life. 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

A close associate of Prince Albert, he served as Lord Privy Seal in the cabinet of Lord Aberdeen, and then as Postmaster General in Lord Palmerston's first cabinet. He was again Privy Seal in the second Palmerston administration, where he was notable as a strong advocate of the Northern cause in the American Civil War. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Francis Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel, of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha branch of the House of Wettin) (26 August 1819 - 14 December 1861) was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... The Lord Privy Seal or Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal is one of the traditional sinecure offices in the British Cabinet. ... The Right Honourable George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, PC (January 28, 1784–December 14, 1860) was a Tory/Peelite politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1852 until 1855. ... In the United Kingdom, the Postmaster General is a now defunct ministerial position. ... The Right Honourable Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (October 20, 1784 - October 18, 1865) was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid 19th century. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederate) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties Killed in action: 110,000 Total dead: 360,000 Wounded: 275,200 Killed in action: 93,000 Total dead: 258...

In Gladstone's first government, Argyll became Secretary of State for India, in which role his refusal to promise support against the Russians to the Emir of Afghanistan helped lead to the Second Afghan War. Argyll's wife, née Elizabeth Georgiana Leveson-Gower, also served as Mistress of the Robes in this government. In 1871, while actually serving in the Cabinet, his son and heir, Lord Lorne, married one of Queen Victoria's daughters, Princess Louise, enhancing his status as a leading Grandee. William Ewart Gladstone (29 December 1809–19 May 1898) was a British Liberal Party statesman and Prime Minister (1868–1874, 1880–1885, 1886 and 1892–1894). ... The office of Secretary of State for India or India Secretary was created in 1858 when India was brought under direct British rule (British Raj). ... ... Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Leveson-Gower (30 May 1824-25 May 1878) was the eldest daughter of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland by his wife Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Howard. ... The Mistress of the Robes is the senior lady of the British Royal Household. ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, usually better known by his courtesy title of Marquess of Lorne, by which he was known before 1900 (August 6, 1845 - May 2, 1914) was Governor General of Canada. ... Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the eminent Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June, 1837, and Empress of India from 1 January, 1877, until her death in 1901. ... The Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, (Louise Caroline Alberta), (18 March 1848 - 3 December 1939) was a member of the British Royal Family. ...

In 1880 he again served under Gladstone, as Lord Privy Seal, but resigned a year later in opposition to the government's Irish policy. In 1886, he fully broke with Gladstone over the question of the Prime Minister's support for Irish Home Rule, although he did not join the Liberal Unionist Party, but pursued an independent course. He died in 1900, 6 days before his 77th birthday. 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Lord Privy Seal or Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal is one of the traditional sinecure offices in the British Cabinet. ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... Devolution or Home rule is the pooling of powers from central government to government at regional or local level. ... The Liberal Unionists were a British political party which split away from the Liberals in 1886, and had effectively merged with the Conservatives by the turn of the century, the formal merger being completed in 1912. ...

Scholarship

Argyll was not only a politician, but also an eminent scientist, or at least an eminent publicist on scientific matters, especially evolution and economics. He was a leader in the scholarly opposition against Darwinism (1869, 1884b) and an important reality-based (i.e., heterodox, non-classical) economist (1893) and institutionalist (1884a), in which latter capacity he was quite similar to his political opponent, Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield. While some of his works seemed quite strangely reactionary and obsolete at the times and for many decades, recent trends in scholarship - in evolutionary and institutional economics, as well as in ("post-genomic") biology - have led to some very positive reevaluation of his work. He was a man of the highest character, honest, courageous, and clear-sighted, and, though regarded by some professional scientists as to a certain extent an amateur, his ability, knowledge, and dialectic power made him a formidable antagonist, and enabled him to exercise a useful, generally conservative, influence on scientific thought and progress. A speculative phylogenetic tree of all living things, based on rRNA gene data, showing the separation of the three domains, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. ... Buyers bargain for good prices while sellers put forth their best front in Chichicastenango Market, Guatemala. ... Charles Darwin Darwinism is a term for the underlying theory in those ideas of Charles Darwin concerning evolution and natural selection. ... Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was an English statesman and literary figure. ...

Key Works

• (1868) The Reign of Law, 5th Ed. . London: Strahan.
• (1869) Primeval Man: An Examination of some Recent Speculations. New York: Routledge.
• (1879) The Eastern Question. London: Strahan.
• (1884) The Unity of Nature. New York: Putnam.
• (1887) Scotland As It Was and As It Is
• (1893) The Unseen Foundations of Society. An Examination of the Fallacies and Failures of Economic Science Due to Neglected Elements. London: John Murray.
• (1906) Autobiography and Memoirs