LESLIE, William (1814-1880), of Warthill, Aberdeenshire

A landowner and former merchant, Leslie was a Conservative who was not afraid to give credit to his political opponents when it was due. He was one of a number of MPs representing constituencies in north-eastern Scotland in the 1860s who had East India and Chinese connections, others including the Liberals William Henry Sykes, MP for Aberdeen, 1857-72, and James Dyce Nicol, MP for Kincardineshire, 1865-72.

Leslie was descended from the Leslies of Garioch, who traced their lineage back to the eleventh century. His father and namesake had succeeded his uncle as the 10th laird of Warthill in 1799.Burke’s landed gentry (1879), ii. 955-6. Like all of his four brothers, Leslie went into trade in the East, entering the ‘celebrated house of Dent & Co.’, in China, with which his family was connected. He soon occupied a ‘leading place in that great commercial concern’ and returned to Scotland in 1847 after amassing a fortune sufficient to enable his retirement. His health, ‘which had been somewhat impaired by an Eastern climate, gradually improved’ after his return. He succeeded his father as the 11th laird of Warthill in 1857.Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 5 Mar. 1880.

Leslie was returned for Aberdeenshire at the 1861 by-election, after declaring his support for reciprocal free trade and a non-interventionist foreign policy.The Standard, 27 Dec. 1860. He was not afraid to go against popular feeling on local issues during his public speeches. For example, he defended the game laws, which were unpopular with local farmers, arguing that ‘an immense sum of money [was] spent every year by gentlemen who come down to visit Scotland during the shooting season’.Aberdeen Journal, 9 Jan. 1861. He bluntly informed the inhabitants of the port of Peterhead that it would be ‘a piece of folly’ for the government to establish a harbour of refuge there or anywhere else without regard to the cost to the exchequer.Ibid.

Leslie voted with the Conservative leadership in the key party votes of the early 1860s, opposing Gladstone’s repeal of paper duty, 30 May 1861, and backing Disraeli’s censure motion on the government’s Danish policy, 8 July 1864. On religious issues, he opposed the abolition of church rates and religious tests for English universities and supported the anti-Maynooth motions of George Hampden Whalley. He favoured legislation to ensure a strict observance of the Sabbath.The Standard, 27 Dec. 1860. He resisted political reforms such as the ballot and the 1861 borough franchise bill.

In his maiden speech, he lobbied for the government to grant public money for new buildings at King’s College, University of Aberdeen, 12 Apr. 1861. An occasional speaker, most of Leslie’s other speeches were brief, technical points on proposed legislation, particularly regarding Scottish matters. For example, in the 1862 debates on salmon fisheries, an important sector in the Scottish economy, Leslie successfully proposed a sixty rather than a thirty-six hour break from fishing over weekends.Hansard, 27 May 1862, vol. 167, cc. 72-4.

Leslie was returned unopposed at the 1865 general election after modifying his stance on key issues to placate local farmers. He now favoured exempting hares and rabbits from the game laws and altering, if not abolishing, the law of hypothec.Aberdeen Journal, 5 July 1865. He gave a detailed account of his parliamentary career to date at the hustings. He opposed lowering the franchise, arguing that under the current system ‘thousands of persons year by year, entirely by their own industry and intelligence, acquire the privilege of suffrage’. He acknowledged that the financial policy of Palmerston’s government had been ‘highly successful’, which was due to luck as well as Gladstone’s ability. He also approved of the chancellor of the exchequer’s measures such as the Post Office Savings Bank Act, to promote thriftiness.Dundee Courier, 15 July 1865.

Leslie displayed a similarly unpartisan streak by defending the Liberal government from blame for the spread of the cattle plague, during the debate on the Queen’s speech, 6 Feb. 1866. The government had taken the only course ‘befitting the free institutions of their country’ and empowered local quarter sessions to act.Hansard, 6 Feb. 1866, vol. 181, cc. 178-9 (at 178). In Aberdeenshire the magistrates had acted decisively, authorising a cull which had successfully checked the plague. In 1864 the government had attempted to introduce a bill to establish preventative measures. However, the bill had fallen due to lack of support from MPs who were unwilling to restrict trade, Leslie, a member of the committee on the bill, noted.Ibid., 179; PP 1864 (431), vii. 2, 4. Despite his defence of Russell’s ministry over the cattle plague, Leslie opposed their reform bill, dividing in favour of Earl Grosvenor’s call for a parallel redistribution scheme, 27 Apr. 1866.

That vote proved to be Leslie’s last act of significance in Parliament as he resigned unexpectedly in early May due to his own ill-health and that of other members of his family. In later life he was affected by paralysis and he died in 1880. A local obituary noted that his political career ‘increased his reputation as a man of solid judgment and splendid business capacity’. As he had been predeceased by his two sons, the entailed Warthill estate passed to his eldest daughter Mary Rose, who was married to George Arbuthnott, of Elderslie, Surrey, an officer in the Scots Greys.Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 5 Mar. 1880.