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1ST BARON THOMAS HENRY FARRER FARRER ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 189 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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1ST

BARON THOMAS HENRY FARRER FARRER (1819-1899)  ,
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English
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civil servant and statistician, was the son of Thomas Farrer, a
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solicitor in Lincoln's
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Inn Fields . Born in
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London on the 24th of
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June 1819, he was educated at
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Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 184o . He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1844, but retired from practice in the course of a few years . He entered the public service in 185o as secretary to the
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naval (renamed in 1853 the marine) department of the Board of Trade . In 1865 he was-promoted to be one of the joint secretaries of the Board of Trade, and in 1867 became permanent secretary . His tenure of this office, which he held for upwards of twenty years, was marked by many reforms and an energetic administration . Not only was he an advanced Liberal in politics, but an uncompromising
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Free-trader of the strictest school . He was created a
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baronet for his services at the Board of Trade in 1883, and in 1886 he retired from office . During the same
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year he published a
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work entitled Free Trade versus
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Fair Trade, in which he dealt with an economic controversy then greatly agitating the public mind . He had already, in 1883, written a
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volume on The State in its Relation to Trade . In 1888 he was co-opted by the Progressives an alderman of the London County Council, of which he became
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vice-chairman in 189o . His efficiency and ability in this capacity were warmly recognized; but in the course of time divergencies arose between his
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personal views and those of many of his colleagues .

The tendency towards socialistic legislation which became apparent was quite at variance with his principles of individual enterprise and responsibility . He consequently resigned his position . In 1893 he was raised to the

peerage . From this time forward he devoted much of his energy and leisure to advocating his views at the Cobden Club, the
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Political
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Economy Club,on the platform, and in the public press . Especially were his efforts directed against the opinions of the Fair Trade
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League, and upon this and other controversies on economic questions he wrote able, clear, and uncompromising letters, which
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left no doubt that he still adhered to the doctrines of free trade as advocated by its earliest exponents . In 1898 he published his Studies in Currency . He died at Abinger Hall,
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Dorking, on the 11th of
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October 1899 . He was succeeded in the title by his eldest son Thomas
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Cecil (b . 1859) .

End of Article: 1ST BARON THOMAS HENRY FARRER FARRER (1819-1899)
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