Born August 3, 1753. Died December 17, 1816.

Charles Stanhope, third earl of that name, was born at Chevening in Kent, and was sent at a very early period to Eton; but at the age of ten he removed with his family to Geneva, where he was placed under the tuition of M. Le Sage, a well-known man of letters in that place. There can be but little doubt that the whole political career of Earl Stanhope was deeply influenced by the circumstance of his receiving his early education in this republican city; and to this may be ascribed the extreme views which he entertained in after life respecting civil liberty and other points affecting the welfare of great communities.

While acquiring these sentiments, Lord Stanhope was at the same time pursuing a course of training which subsequently made him so remarkable, as a man of science and letters. Natural philosophy was his chief study; and the knowledge which he acquired of this subject was decisively shewn by his gaining, at the early age of eighteen, a prize offered by the Stockholm Society of Arts for the best essay, written in French, on the pendulum; and this essay was the more remarkable, as being the fruit not only of mere reading, but of numerous original experiments, performed by him in person.

Shortly after attaining his majority, Lord Stanhope, together with his family, left Geneva amidst the regrets of the whole population, while crowds of poor people assembled to take a last look on the noble English residents who had long been their generous benefactors. On reaching England, the family rank and influence of the young nobleman speedily procured him a seat in the House of Commons, which he occupied until his succession to the Stanhope title called him to the Upper House of Parliament. Here it was that he became famous as a politician. Honesty and straightforwardness were the grand features of his statesmanship; his views, however, although now entertained by even moderate politicians, were at that time considered extreme, and subsequently led to a separation of the earl from his family.

But it is chiefly as a man of science, and as an inventor in the field of practical mechanics, that Earl Stanhope has rendered himself celebrated. Shortly after leaving the Continent, about the year 1775, he turned his attention to devising some means whereby forgeries in coins and bank-notes might be prevented; this resulted in his publishing a pamphlet on that subject, in which various processes calculated to prevent forgeries on the mint are recommended.

In the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1778, Lord Stanhope gives a full account of experiments performed by him, on a large scale, in presence of the Lord Mayor and members of the Royal Society, showing that wood could be rendered fireproof, by coating it with a species of stucco or plaster of his own invention. The practical efficiency of this was still more decisively shown by a fire which broke out in the earl's mansion at Chevening. Having had occasion to rebuild this some time previously, Earl Stanhope had taken care to make use of his new discovery; a portion of the offices, however, remained unsecured, and here the fire originated; but on reaching the protected portion, it was at once arrested, and the mansion saved from destruction.

Among other works of Lord Stanhope which attracted most attention at that time are his experiments on electricity, his improvements in shipbuilding and navigation, a calculating machine, and the Stanhope printing-press, which to this day bears his name. He has also been called the inventor of stereotype printing, and had at all events the merit of greatly improving this most important process, and of introducing it into general use. The application of steam to navigation was another favourite study of Earl Stanhope; and, in concert with him, Fulton the American entered into an extensive series of experiments to prove its practicability. Although unsuccessful in this last pursuit, canal navigation owes much to the earl; the value of his improvements in canal-locks being felt to this day throughout the whole land. He lived in constant pursuit of these philosophical enquiries till the age of sixty-three, when he died of dropsy, at his seat in Kent.

Lord Stanhope was essentially a practical man, of a firm, upright, and independent character; and it is related of him, that when advising his children to pursue some useful calling, he remarked of himself, that "Charles Stanhope, as a carpenter, blacksmith, or millwright, could in any country, or at any time, preserve his independence, and bring up his family to honest and industrious courses, without soliciting either the bounty of friends or the charity of strangers." He merits the grateful remembrance of posterity, not only for the practical results of his genius, but for the indirect influence of his noble example exerted on others, and for the generous patronage he bestowed on many poorer fellow-labourers in the same great field.—Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, No. 392, August 3, 1839.—Stuart's Anecdotes of the Steam-Engine. London, 1829.