Charles Baron Clarke, li 



enthusiasm or subconsciously influenced by a thirst for place. Clarke was 

 neither, and his views on political economy were therefore particularly 

 refreshing. He treated the subject as one of the exact sciences, and if the 

 sanity of his outlook seemed at times almost cynical, those who knew him 

 knew also that this was to be attributed to the subject and not to the man. 

 For the factors in a social problem never presented themselves to his mind as 

 mere abstractions, and any approach to cynicism was foreign to his kindly 

 nature. 



While in residence at Queen's, the penchant for what was then his favourite 

 study incidentally led to his taking an active part in the Cambridge Election 

 of 1863 which Fawcett unsuccessfully fought. He was still more active in 

 his friend's behalf a year later, when Fawcett first stood for Brighton. 

 Between these two contests occurred the more memorable one, so vividly 

 described by Leslie Stephen, into which Clarke and Stephen flung themselves 

 with almost unacademic ardour, that resulted in Fawcett's appointment to 

 the Chair of Political Economy at Cambridge. Clarke's intervention in these 

 struggles was due to his personal affection for Fawcett, whose views on social 

 problems were substantially his own. The relative position of the two was, 

 however, far from being that of disciple and teacher. Though not a good 

 public speaker, as Fawcett was, Clarke's conversation was easy and, from his 

 store of facts, he was remarkably ready in discussion. We learn from Leslie 

 Stephen that Fawcett made frequent use of Clarke's often pithy expressions 

 on economic subjects. Where his interests were shared, whether his views 

 were accepted or not, political economy was a frequent topic in Clarke's letters 

 and talk. Besides various pamphlets and letters on special problems, some 

 of these written at the request of Indian officials with reference to legislative 

 measures that were being contemplated or enforced, in which his views are 

 stated with lucidity and directness, Clarke has recorded his attitude towards 

 the subject as a whole in his ' Speculations from Political Economy,' published 

 in 1886. 



The circle at Cambridge to which Clarke belonged was mainly a 

 mathematical one, but most of its members seem to have held the view that 

 the value of a mathematical training lay chiefly in its excellence as a branch 

 of intellectual gymnastics. It is not clear that this was precisely Clarke's 

 view; the fact that he published no purely mathematical paper suggests 

 that he may have shared it. He was, though not technically a musician, 

 fond of good music, and while in India was interested in native, particularly 

 Bengali, music. The interest in this case was, however, mathematical rather 

 than aesthetic, and that he was attracted to this side of the art as a whole 

 may be deduced from his note on the " Equal Temperament of the Scale " 

 which appeared in ' Nature ' in 1883. 



The members of this Cambridge circle had a house in the Lake Country 

 where they could stay during vacations. Here Clarke spent most, if not all, 

 of the Easters of his time at Queen's ; Leslie Stephen has recorded how, 

 during Clarke's last visit, Easter 1865, he and Clarke made an ascent of the 



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