OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (MoNKHOUSE.) 



501 



and yet its author was repudiated as a leader. 

 The young Kaiser, however, needed a man to 

 counterbalance the influence of the Conservatives 

 and to stand before the country as a pledge that 

 no purely reactionary policy would be followed. 

 .Therefore Miquel was appointed Prussian Minis- 

 ter of Finance, and was known throughout Ger- 

 many as the Kaiser's man. Finance was his own 

 peculiar branch, and in Prussia there was a pe- 

 culiar opportunity to display both his construc- 

 tive ability and his political adroitness. His 

 management of the finances was remarkably able, 

 sound, and safe, and in proportion as it preserved 

 and enlarged the pecuniary resources of the Gov- 

 ernment his own political power and authority 

 increased. His planned reforms were far more 

 original and important, and of such magnitude 

 that he was able to accomplish only a small part 

 of the task he set before himself. He endeavored 

 to make the imperial treasury independent of the 

 finances of the individual states, but the increase 

 of the bourse tax and some new stamp duties 

 were all the new resources he succeeded in un- 

 locking, as he encountered the opposition of the 

 Center. In reforming the Prussian system of 

 taxation he was more successful, but only by 

 adapting his plans to the demands of the Agra- 

 rians, and in becoming their instrument he sought 

 to make them the instrument for his elevation 

 to the chancellorship. The direct income tax was 

 made more productive by imposing on taxpayers 

 the responsibility of assessing their own incomes, 

 by making the rate of progression much steeper, 

 and by imposing an additional tax on incomes 

 from investments. Communal taxes were read- 

 justed for the relief of overtaxed communities, 

 and the taxes on land, buildings, and trades were 

 surrendered for the benefit of all, the trade tax 

 being altered to the advantage of small industries. 

 For completing the railroad network and for 

 mines, canals, and all reproductive works and 

 public improvements from which he could calcu- 

 late a future increase of revenue, Miquel could 

 find any amount of money; to all proposals for 

 temporary relief or for increasing current ex- 

 penses he was obdurate, saying, when the sur- 

 plus mounted up, that he must be ready for lean 

 years to come. He would not give doles even to 

 the Agrarians, although the political subservience 

 to them of the old National Liberal leader, and 

 to the Conservatives in their educational and 

 general reactionary policy, and to the Kaiser in 

 all his whims, furnished a curious example of 

 political opportunism. In abandoning his con- 

 victions he abandoned also his prudent self-re- 

 straint and practical sagacity. He grasped at the 

 reward for so great a sacrifice, and by his sly 

 intrigues to upset Caprivi, Hohenlohe, and Billow, 

 his ambition growing more restless and reckless 

 with each disappointment, he plunged the Govern- 

 ment into chaos, lost his control over the Prus- 

 sian Chamber when he tried to force through the 

 Elbe Canal bill to please the Emperor, or perhaps 

 only pretended to try. After the third rejection 

 of this measure, which he probably as a financier 

 inwardly condemned, he had to lay down his 

 office only three months before his death. 



Monkhouse, Harry (real name, John Adolph 

 Mekie), English actor, born in Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne. March 17, 1854; died in London, Dec. 18, 

 1901. He made his first appearance at Blyth, 

 England, in October, 1871, at Tyne's Theater. 

 After four years' experience on the provincial cir- 

 cuits he made his London debut at the Elephant 

 and Castle, where he remained until the theater 

 was burned, three years later. After brief en- 

 gagements at the Victoria and the Marylebone 



Theaters, he went to the (Jrccisui Theater, where 

 he played low-comedy role.-, tor three years. His 

 next important engagement, was ;a the (iaict.y 

 Theater, Nov. 1, 1882, in More tlisin Kver; after 

 which he acted in Fra Diavolo, al>o in liluebcard 

 and in Ariel. He then became the st;ir in a 

 highly successful play called Larks, \\l;i, ; |, r ;ui 

 for three years. In 1888 Mr. Monkhouse leu-c.l 

 the Tyne Theater, Newcastle, arid phi\c:d there 

 for three months in a repertoire of Dion Bom-i- 

 cault's Irish dramas. He then returned to Lori 

 don and became a member of Carl Rosa's Opera 

 Company, opening at the Prince of Wales's Thea- 

 ter, Jan. 12, 1889, in the opera of Paul Jones, in 

 which Mr. Monkhouse made a great hit as Bou- 

 illetaise. He afterward scored another notable 

 success in The Rose and the Ring, in 1890, at the 

 Prince of Wales's Theater, under the manage- 

 ment of Horace Ledger; after which, under the 

 same management, he played important roles in 

 Maid Marian, La Cigale, Poor Jonathan, The 

 Mountebanks, and The Magic Ring. In 1893 he 

 was engaged by George Edwardes to play Dr. 

 Brierly in A Gaiety Girl at the Prince of Wales's 

 Theater, and his success in that role was so pro- 

 nounced that his services were secured for the 

 American tour of that popular musical comedy. 

 He appeared in New York at Daly's Theater, 

 Sept' 18, 1894, and became a favorite with metro- 

 politan theatergoers. When the Edwardes com- 

 pany returned to England in the spring of 1895, 

 Mr. Monkhouse assumed the leading roles in The 

 Shop Girl, An Artist's Model, and The Geisha. 

 After this he leased the Art Theater, at New- 

 castle, for a time, and then appeared again in 

 London in The Circus Girl and A Runaway Girl. 

 These engagements were followed by another tour 

 in Larks, his early triumph, and an appearance 

 in the pantomime Cinderella, at Manchester. He 

 then -rejoined the Edwardes company, to play 

 Hooker Pasha in A Messenger Boy, and the King 

 of Illyria in Kitty Grey. His last appearance 

 was in Florodora, in which he played Anthony 

 Tweedlepunch. Mr. Monkhouse was the author 

 of several bright comedies and sketches; he also 

 wrote the libretto of a comic opera, La Rosiere, 

 produced at the Shaftesbury Theater in 1893. 

 His last work was a pantomime arranged for 

 Paul Martinetti. He was one of the greatest 

 favorites of the modern English stage and was 

 equally popular in private life; he had a com- 

 manding presence and a fine voice, and was a 

 celebrated raconteur. 



Monkhouse, William Cosmo, an English au- 

 thor, born in 1840; died in Skegness, Lincolnshire, 

 England, July 20, 1901. He was educated at St. 

 Paul's School, London, and in 1857 entered the 

 Board of Trade Office as a junior clerk, remain- 

 ing in the service of that institution until his 

 death, at which time he had been for several 

 years a secretary in the financial department. 

 Among the minor English poets of the Victorian 

 era he occupied an honored place, and he won 

 some prominence as an art critic. Besides con- 

 tributing 137 articles to the Dictionary of Na- 

 tional Biography, practically covering the whole 

 field of English art, he published A Question of 

 Honor, a novel (1868); Masterpieces of English 

 Art (1868); The Works of John Henry Foley 

 (1875); Sir Charles Eastlake (1877); Sketches 

 by Sir Edwin Landseer, with a History of his 

 Art Life (18'77) ; Key to Exercises in the Precis 

 Book (1877) ; Turner, in the Great Artist Series 

 (1879); The Italian Pre-Raphaelites (1887); The 

 Earlier English Water-Color Painters (1890): 

 Leigh Hunt, in Great Writers Series (1893); In 

 the National Gallery (1895); British Contem- 



