RUTLAND, JOHN JAMES ROBERT MANNERS, 7TH DUKE OF (1818-1906), English statesman, was born at Bel voir Castle on Dec. 13,1818, the younger son of the 5th duke of Rutland by Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the 5th earl of Carlisle. Lord John Manners, as he then was, was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1841 he was returned for Newark in the Tory interest, along with W. E. Gladstone, and sat for that borough until 1847. Subsequently he sat for Col chester, 1850-57; for North Leicestershire, 1857-85; and for East Leicestershire from 1885 until in 1888 he took his seat in the House of Lords upon succeeding to the dukedom.
In 1841 Manners definitely associated himself with the "Young England" party, under the leadership of Disraeli. This party sought to extinguish the predominance of the middle-class bour geoisie, and to re-create the political prestige of the aristocracy by resolutely proving its capacity to ameliorate the social, intellec tual, and material condition of the peasantry and the labouring classes. Manners made an extensive tour of inspection in the industrial parts of N. England, in the course of which he and his friend Smythe expounded their views with a brilliancy which frequently extorted compliments from the leaders of the Man chester school. In 1843 he supported Lord Grey's motion for an inquiry into the condition of England, the serious disaffection of the working classes of the north being a subject to which he was constantly drawing the attention of parliament. Among other measures that he urged were the disestablishment of the Irish Church, the modification of the Mortmain Acts, and the resump tion of regular diplomatic relations with the Vatican. In the same
year he issued in pamphlet form a strong Plea for National Holy days. In 1844 Lord John vigorously supported the Ten-hours Bill, which, though strongly opposed by Bright, Cobden, and other members of the Manchester school, was passed in May Manners figured as "Lord Henry Sidney" in Disraeli's by, and not a few of his ideas are represented as those of Egremont in Sybil and Waldershare in Endymion. But the disruption of the Young England party was already impending. Lord John's sup port to Peel's decision to increase the Maynooth grant in 1845 led to a difference with Disraeli. Divergences of opinion with regard to Newman's secession from the English Church produced further defections in the ranks, and the rupture was completed by Smythe acquiescing in Peel's conversion to Free Trade. Lord John produced another volume of verse, known as English Ballads, chiefly patriotic and historical, in 185o. During the three short administrations of Lord Derby (1851, 1858 and 1866) he sat in the cabinet as first commissioner of the office of works. On the return of the Conservatives to power in 1874 he became post master-general in Disraeli's administration, and was made G.C.B. on his retirement in 1880. He was again postmaster-general in Lord Salisbury's administration, 1885-86, and was head of the department when sixpenny telegrams were introduced. Finally, in the Conservative government of 1886-92 he was chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. He had succeeded to the dukedom of Rutland in March 1888, upon the death of his elder brother. He died on Aug. 4, 1906 at Belvoir Castle.