Sir Courtenay Boyle, the Permanent Secretary to the Board of
Trade, who died suddenly last Sunday at the age of fifty-six, was a public servant of the best type. He was twice private secretary to Lord Spencer in Ireland, and rendered invaluable aid to his chief in the troubled years of 1882-86. For the last fifteen years of his life he was connected with the Board of Trade, first as Assistant' Secretary to the Railway Department, and since 1893 as permanent head of the Department. The work of the Board of Trade has grown enormously in magnitude and multi- fariousness during that period, but Sir Courtenay Boyle never spared himself in his efforts to cope with the ever-increasing burden of responsibility laid upon his shoulders. Within afew days of his death he had been speaking in Liverpool on commer- cial education, a subject in which he was deeply interested, and it is a signal proof of his devotion to duty that, though a keen and successful sportsman, he was never known to take the regulation holidays of the service. In a word, though naturally versatile, with a pretty taste for art and letters, and an athlete's love of pastime, he took for his motto son multa sad multum, and concentrated himself on the work of his office with an energy that doubtless shortened his life.
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