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CHAPTER XVI. 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
The notices of members of the Society which follow have beeu 
derived in part from ' Men of the Times/ from the proceedings of the 
Society, and from other sources, and of necessity are brief and in 
many respects imperfect. 
MARQUIS OF RIPON, K.G., F.R.S. 
The ^larquis of Ripon was elected President of the Society on 
December 8th, 1858., about a year after the death of its first presi- 
dent, Earl Fitzwilliam. He was at that time member of parliament 
for the West Riding of Yorkshire, under the title of Viscount 
Goderich. He was born in London, October 24th, 1827, and 
succeeded to Ins father's title of Earl of Ripon on January 28th, 
1859, and to that of his uncle, Earl de Grey, on November IJrth, in 
the same year. He was at this time, as he has been since, devoted 
to political life. At the general election of 1852 Lord Goderich was 
returned to the House of Commons as member for Hull, and coji- 
tinued to sit for that borough until 1853, when he vacated his seat 
to oppose Mr. Starkey at Huddersfield, where he succeeded in winning 
the seat for the Liberals by a majority of 80. At the general election 
in 1857 he was returned for the "West Riding without opposition. 
In June, 1859, the year in which he took his seat in the House 
of Lords, Lord Herbert selected him for the post of Under-Secretary 
for War, and in February, 1861, he was made Under-Secretary for 
India. Upon the death of Sir G. C. Lewis, in April, 1863, his 
lordship, who had shown great efficiency in his subordinate office, 
became Secretary for War, with a seat in the Cabinet. He remained 
at the War Office nearly three years, and in February, 1866, when Sir 
