William Harcourt (politician) Attribution William Harcourt (politician) Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt, KC (14 October 1827 – 1 October 1904) was a British lawyer, journalist and Liberal statesman. He served as Member of Parliament for various constituencies and held the offices of Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone before becoming Leader of the Opposition. A talented speaker in parliament, he was sometimes regarded as aloof and possessing only an intellectual involvement in his causes. He failed to engender much emotional response in the public and became only a reluctant and disillusioned leader of his party. Harcourt
Harcourt interpolation Harcourt interpolation The Harcourt interpolation was a scandal of Victorian London in which a rogue compositor inserted an obscene remark into a page proof for "The Times" newspaper, in the middle of a speech by a leading politician of the day. The addition was not noticed until after the first edition had been printed and efforts to recall the copies were not entirely successful. In January 1882, as Parliament was not sitting, "The Times" included lengthy verbatim reports from speeches given by politicians outside Parliament. On Sunday 22 January, the Attorney General Sir Henry James and Home Secretary Sir William