Lord Eversley,—the Speaker known to the House of Com- mons
as Charles Shaw-Lefevre,--died yesterday week at his house, Heckfield Place, Hampshire, at the age of ninety-four. He succeeded Mr. Speaker Abercomby in 1839, and though a steady Liberal, soon gained great popularity on the Con- servative side of the House, the rather, perhaps, that his predecessor had acquired the reputation, which may very likely have wronged him, of favouring the Whigs. Charles Shaw-Lefevre had inherited from his father, who represented Reading in the unreformed Parliament, a great interest in the forms of the House of Commons, and he proved that interest by his wise reforms when he became Speaker. He was one of the best shots in his county, and is said to have attributed his quickness and vigilance in detecting the right Member to call upon, when some twenty rose together, to his old practice in rabbit-shooting,—certainly an odd apprentice- ship for a Speaker. When first proposed as Speaker in 1839, the Conservatives opposed him by the nomination of Mr. Goulburn, and Mr. Shaw-Lefevre only obtained his election by the majority of 18. But when Sir Robert Peel came into power in 1841, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre was accepted by the new Government, and elected Speaker without a contest. He served during four Parliaments, or eighteen years, and re- signed his office to be created Viscount Eversley in 1857, after Lord Palmerston's Chinese War dissolution ; so that he survived his discharge of the great Parliamentary office he held more than thirty-one years. He left no son to succeed to the title.
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