SIR

See also:

• JAMES
• JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
• JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
• JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
• JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
• JAMES, EPISTLE OF
• JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP
• JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
• JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
• JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (d. 1827)

JAMES

See also:

• SIR JAMES STANSFELD (182o-1898)

STANSFELD (182o-1898)  , English politician, was born at Moorlands, Halifax, on the 5th of October 182o, the son of James Stansfeld, a county-court judge . Educated at University College, London, he was called to the bar in 1849 . In 1847 he was introduced through his father-in-law, W . H . Ashurst, to Mazzini, with whom he formed a close friendship . In 1859 he was returned to parliament as Radical member for Halifax, which town he continued to represent for over thirty-six years . He voted consistently on the Radical side, but his chief energies were devoted to promoting the cause of Italian unity . He was selected by Garibaldi as his adviser when the Italian patriot visited England in 1862 . In 1863 he moved in the House of Commons a resolution of sympathy with the Poles, and two months later was made a junior lord of the admiralty . In 1864, as the result of charges made against him by the French authorities, in connexion with Greco's cdnspiracy against Napoleon III., Disraeli, in the House of Commons, accused him of being " in correspondence with the assassins of Europe." Stansfeld was vigorously defended by Bright and Forster, and his explanation was accepted as quite satisfactory by Palmerston . Nevertheless he only escaped a vote of censure by ten votes, and accordingly resigned office . In 1865 he was re-elected for Halifax, and in 1866 became under-secretary of state for India .

In the first

Gladstone administration he held a variety of public offices, finally becoming, in 1871, the first president of the local government board . The remainder of his life was mainly spent in endeavouring to secure the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, and in 1886 this object was attained . In the same year Stansfeld again became president of the local government board . He died on the 17th of February 1898 .