Roundell Palmer, 1st earl of Selborne

Selborne, Roundell Palmer, 1st earl of (sĕl'bôrn), 1812-95, British jurist and statesman. Called to the bar in 1837, he entered Parliament in 1847 as a nominal Conservative. He soon was associated more with the Liberals, however, and served Lord Palmerston as solicitor general (1861-63) and Palmerston and Lord John Russell as attorney general (1863-66). As lord chancellor under William Gladstone (1872-74, 1880-85), Selborne secured passage of the Judicature Act of 1873, a landmark reform of the British courts. He broke with Gladstone in 1885 on the question of Irish Home Rule and joined the Liberal Unionists. Selborne was a conservative writer on problems of church history and doctrine. He was created an earl in 1882. His son, William Waldegrave Palmer, 2d earl of Selborne, 1859-1942, was first lord of the admiralty (1900-1905) and worked closely with Sir John Fisher (later 1st Baron Fisher) on the important naval reforms of the period. As high commissioner (1905-10) for South Africa, he proposed and worked out the details for the formation of the Union of South Africa. He was president of the Board of Agriculture in 1915-16 but held no further offices.