James Caird (politician)

Sir James Caird KCB PC FRS (10 July 1816 – 9 February 1892) was a Scottish agriculturist, agricultural writer and politician. His views were based on economic liberalism which led to him forming an advisory relationship to Sir Robert Peel and later under Benjamin Disraeli. He examined the Irish famine and still later served on the commission to examine the famines in India.

Life

Born at Stranraer, the son of James Caird and Isabella McNeil,^[1]^[2] Caird was educated at Edinburgh High School and University of Edinburgh. He was Member of Parliament for Dartmouth from 1857 to 1859 and for Stirling Burghs from 1859 to 1865.

He started as a progressive farmer at Baldoon and then became a land-owner at Kirkcudbrightshire. He grew to become a voice of the free-trade farmer and thus represented economic liberalism of the period. In 1849, he wrote High Farming as the best Substitute for Protection. The work caught the attention of the Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, who saw Caird as a well-informed commentator. Peel invited Caird to examine agriculture and the famine in Ireland. Caird subsequently represented the "Peelite" position on economics and famine relief. In 1850 he wrote The Plantation Scheme: Or, the West of Ireland as a Field of Investment. He toured America, and Canada.^[3]^[4]

He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1865 and President of the Royal Statistical Society in 1880-1882 and was made a Privy Counsellor in 1889. Caird travelled to India from October 1878 to join a commission of famine inspectors. He held opinions that the Indian administrators did not appreciate. He was of the opinion that famine relief should be aimed to save life and was against fitness tests and wage payment against work for Indians. He believed that Indian governance needed fundamental change with peasants receiving payment in kind with handling of harvest variability. He even considered that land revenue superstructure including the Indian Civil Services needed pruning or even abolition.^[4]^[5] He was senior member of the Land Commission in 1882. He was director of the land department of the Board of Agriculture from 1889 to 1891.^[3]

He was appointed a CB in 1869 and promoted to KCB in 1882.^[3]

He died on 9 February 1892 and was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.

Family

In 1865 he married Elizabeth Jane Dudgeon (1826-1899), daughter of Robert Dudgeon of Hastings.^[6] She is buried alongside her husband.

Works

English Agriculture in 1850-51 (London, 1852)
The Plantation Scheme; Or, the West of Ireland as a Field of Investment (Edinburgh, 1850)
Caird, James (1878). The Landed Interest and the Supply of Food (1 ed.). London, Paris & New York: Cassell, Petter & Galpin. Retrieved 21 August 2015. via Internet Archive

Notes

^ Thom, Alexander (1859). Thom's Almanac and Official Directory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the Year. Thom. p. 213.
^ Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950
^ ^a ^b ^c Leadan 1901.
^ ^a ^b Gray, Peter (2006). "Famine and Land in Ireland and India, 1845-1880: James Caird and the Political Economy of Hunger". The Historical Journal. 49 (1): 193–215. doi:10.1017/S0018246X05005091. ISSN 0018-246X. JSTOR 4091745. S2CID 162828689.
^ Caird, James (1884). India, The Land and the People (3 ed.). London: Cassell & Company.
^ Burke's Peerage: Caird

References

Leadam, Isaac Saunders (1901). "Caird, James" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by James Caird
Famine Commission Report

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Thomas Herbert	Member of Parliament for Dartmouth 1857–1859	Succeeded by Edward Wyndham Harrington Schenley
Preceded by Sir James Anderson	Member of Parliament for Stirling Burghs 1859–1865	Succeeded by Laurence Oliphant

[1] Thom, Alexander (1859). Thom's Almanac and Official Directory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the Year. Thom. p. 213.

[birth-2] Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950

[FOOTNOTELeadan1901-3] Leadan 1901.

[gray-4] Gray, Peter (2006). "Famine and Land in Ireland and India, 1845-1880: James Caird and the Political Economy of Hunger". The Historical Journal. 49 (1): 193–215. doi:10.1017/S0018246X05005091. ISSN 0018-246X. JSTOR 4091745. S2CID 162828689.

[5] Caird, James (1884). India, The Land and the People (3 ed.). London: Cassell & Company.

[6] Burke's Peerage: Caird

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society
19th century	1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1843–1845 Lord Ashley 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby 1857–1859 Lord Stanley 1859–1861 Lord John Russell 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone 1869–1871 William Newmarch 1871–1873 William Farr 1873–1875 William Guy 1875–1877 James Heywood 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey 1880–1882 James Caird 1882–1884 Robert Giffen 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson 1886–1888 George Goschen 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat 1892–1894 Charles Booth 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney 1899–1900 Henry Fowler 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury
20th century	1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow 1906–1907 Richard Martin 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth 1914–1915 The Lord Welby 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott 1924–1926 Udny Yule 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon 1928–1930 A. William Flux 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp 1932–1934 The Lord Meston 1934–1936 Major Greenwood 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty 1941 Hector Leak 1941–1943 William Beveridge 1943–1945 Ernest Charles Snow 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton 1947–1949 David Heron 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy 1955–1957 Egon Pearson 1957–1959 Harry Campion 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett 1967–1968 Frank Yates 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard 1972–1973 Harold Wilson 1973–1974 D. J. Finney 1974–1975 Henry Daniels 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe 1977–1978 Henry Wynn 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser 1980–1982 David Cox 1982–1984 Peter Armitage 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer 1985–1986 John Nelder 1986–1987 James Durbin 1987–1989 John Kingman 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew 1995–1997 Adrian Smith 1997–1999 Robert Nicholas Curnow 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley
21st century	2001–2003 Peter Green 2003–2005 Andy Grieve 2005–2007 Tim Holt 2008–2009 David Hand 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand) 2011–2012 Valerie Isham 2013–2014 John Pullinger 2014–2016 Peter Diggle 2017–2018 David Spiegelhalter 2019– Deborah Ashby
Category List

Authority control databases
International	ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat
National	United States Australia Netherlands Norway Sweden Poland Israel Belgium
People	Trove
Other	IdRef SNAC