Charles Grey Grey

GREY, CHARLES GREY, 2ND EARL Eng lish statesman, eldest surviving son of General Sir Charles Grey, afterwards 1st Earl Grey, was born at Fallodon, near Alnwick, on March 13, 1764. General Grey (1729-1807), who was a younger son of the house of Grey of Howick, had already begun a career of active service which, like the political career of his son, cov ered nearly half a century. At the peace of Amiens, he was rewarded with a peerage, as Baron Grey of Alnwick, being cre ated in 1806 Earl Grey and Viscount Howick. His elder brother, Sir Henry Grey of Howick, the head of the family, had supported the government in parliament.

Young Grey was returned for Northumberland in 1786, and came forward as a vigorous assailant of the government of Pitt. He was hailed by the opposition, and associated with Fox, Burke and Sheridan as a manager in the Hastings impeach ment. Grey became the trusted lieutenant of Fox, whom he was destined to succeed in the leadership of the party. As time went on, some differences arose between the two men on the conduct of the war, but there was never any open breach, and their personal relations remained those of close friend ship. Grey was a pioneer of parliamentary reform. He joined the "Society of Friends of the People" for promoting the re form of the franchise, he presented their petition to parliament, and in 1793 he moved the reference of this petition to a parlia mentary committee. Fox did nothing to discourage this activity, but he did not support it. At a later date Grey passed some rather bitter criticism on the "Society." But at the time he had no doubts on the opportuneness of the agitation. But Pitt sup pressed the movement with a strong hand. Grey moved the impeachment of Pitt, and he next promoted the equally foolish "Secession." Since the parliament did not properly represent the nation, and refused to reform itself or to impeach the minis ter, the opposition announced their intention of "seceding," or systematically absenting themselves from parliament. This movement was originated by Grey, Lauderdale and the duke of Bedford. Pitt easily defeated the secession manoeuvre, and Grey himself reappeared to protest against the Act of Union with Ireland, moved by his interest in Irish affairs.

When Pitt died in 1806 the All the Talents ministry was formed under Grenville, with Fox foreign secretary and Grey, now Lord Howick, first Lord of the Admiralty. On Fox's death Grey became foreign secretary, and leader of the House of Commons. When the cabinet proposed to concede a portion of the Catholic claims, George demanded of them an undertaking never to propose simi lar measures again. This was refused, and the Grenville-Grey cabinet retired in March 1807. In the same year Grey's father died, and Grey went to the Upper House. Opposition united Grey and Grenville for a time, but the parties finally split on foreign policy. When Napoleon returned from Elba in 1815, Grenville followed the traditions of Pitt, and supported the ministry in at once renewing hostilities. Grey followed those of Fox, and main tained the right of France to choose her own governors, and the impossibility of checking the reaction in the emperor's favour. Grenville and Grey gradually drifted apart. Grey was in a small minority in opposing the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in 1817, and the part taken by Grey in opposing the bill for Queen Caroline's divorce, though it won for him the respect of the nation, sealed the exclusion of himself and his few friends from office during the king's life. When in 1827 Grey came forth to denounce the ministry of Canning, he declared that he stood alone in the political world. His words were soon justified, for when Lord Goderich resigned, the remnant which had hitherto supported Grey, hastened to support the ministry of the duke of Wellington.

In 1827 Grey seemed to stand forth the solitary and powerless relic of an extinct party. In 1830 we find that party restored to its old numbers and activity, supreme in parliament, popular in the nation, and Lord Grey at its head. The duke of Wellington's foolish declaration against parliamentary reform suddenly de prived him of the confidence of the country, and a coalition of the Whigs and Canningites became inevitable. Grey was sent for by William IV. on Nov. 16, 1830, and formed a coalition cabinet, pledged to reform. The question of the place to be offered to the indispensable Brougham nearly wrecked his cabinet-making, but the king in the end consented to Brougham's taking the chancel lorship. Grey then appointed a committee of four to study the question and prepare a moderate measure of reform. Grey himself was an old-fashioned Whig, and, when he took office, did not foresee how far he would go in reform. But now, faced with a formidable agitation, he saved the country from revolution by driving through a bold measure of reform. In his youth he had assailed Pitt's administration because Pitt's administration threat ened with extinction the political monopoly of that landed inter est to which he belonged. In his old age, on the contrary, unable to check the progress of the wave, he swam with it, and headed the movement which compelled that landed interest to surrender its monopoly.

The second reading (March

22, 1831) of the first Reform Bill was carried in the Commons by a majority of one. On April 22 parliament was dissolved. The second reading was carried in the new parliament (July 8) by a majority of 136. When the bill had at length passed the Commons after months of debate, it was Grey's task to introduce it to the Lords. It was rejected (Oct. 8) by a majority of 41. Grey had the prudence and cour age to remain in office, with the intention of introducing a third Reform Bill in the next session. The last months of 1831 were the beginning of a political crisis such as England had not seen since 1688. The two extreme parties, the Ultra-Radicals and the Ultra-Tories, were ready for civil war. Between them stood the ministry and the majority of intelligent peace-loving Englishmen. The second reading in the Commons was passed in December by a majority of 162. On April 9 Grey moved the second reading in the Lords. A sufficient number of the opposition temporized; and the second reading was allowed to pass by a majority of nine. Their intention was to mutilate the bill in committee. On May 7, Lyndhurst secured a motion to postpone certain clauses by a majority of 35 against the Goverment. Grey now reluctantly asked the king, by a unanimous minute from the cabinet, to give authority for the creation of peers to swamp the opposition. He himself disliked the step, but the younger members of his cabi net were insistent. But William IV., at first favourable to re form, was alienated by the violent state of opinion. He rejected the proposal of his ministers, and accepted their resignation, May 9, 1832. The duke of Wellington undertook the hopeless task, in which Peel declined to join, of constructing a ministry which should pass a restricted or sham Reform Bill. After a week of the profoundest agitation throughout the country, the king, beaten and mortified, was forced to send for Grey and Brougham. He now angrily and reluctantly yielded to the cre ation of peers. The threat was sufficient, the necessary number of peers abstained, and the bill became law.

Grey took but little part in directing the legislation of the reformed parliament. Never anxious for power, he had executed the arduous task of 1831-1832 rather as a matter of duty than of inclination, and he found an opportunity of retiring over the renewal of the Irish "coercion" bill. It became clear in the discus sion on the bill that Lord Althorp, the leader of the House of Commons, was privately opposed to retaining those clauses which it was his duty to push through the house. Lord Althorp resigned, and Grey, who was now seventy, resigned also. His voluntary withdrawal enabled Lord Althorp to return to his post and to proceed with the bill in its milder form. Grey was succeeded by Lord Melbourne; but no other change was made in the cabinet.

During most of his remaining years Grey continued to live in retirement at Howick, where he died on July 17, 1845, in his eighty-second year.

See Gen. C. Grey, Charles 2nd earl Grey. Some Account of his Life and Opinions (1861) ; Correspondence of Earl Grey and William IV. (2 vols., 1867), ed. Henry, 3rd earl Grey ; Le Strange, Corre spondence of Princess Lieven and Earl Grey 1824-34 (189o) ; and memoirs of the period; see also G. M. Trevelyan, Lord Grey of the Reform Bill (192o) .