GRAHAM, Sir JAMES ROBERT GEORGE,• TILE RIGHT HONORABLE, of Netherby, Cum berland, statesman, eldest son of sir James, the first baronet, by lady C. Stewart, eldest daughter of the seventh earl of Galloway, was b. June 1, 1702, The Grahams of Netherby are a itini,dtebraneli of the Grahams of Isk, viscounts of Preston, descended from the earls of Stratherne and Menteith. was educated at Westminster school, whence he proceeded to queen's college, Cambridge. He afterwards became private secretary to lord Montgomerie, the British minister in Sicily: during the most critical period of the war, and the entire management of the mission devolved upon him at a most important moment, in consequence of the illness of his chief. On the arrival of lord W. Bentiuck, he was continued in his post, and he afterwards accepted a military situation attached to the person of lord William, who was commander-in chief in the Mediterranean. He was sent in this capacity to Murat, with whom, at Naples, he negotiated the armistice which separated that general from Napoleon. In 1818 he was returned for Hull on whig principles; but at the next election, in 1820, lost his seat, and some years elapsed before he re-entered parliament. In 1824 he suc ceeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father. In 1826 he was returned for Car. lisle as a whig, and a warm supporter of Catholic emancipation He displayed somuch ability in opposition, that earl Grey offered him, in 1830 the post of first lord of the admiralty, with a seat in the cabinet. He was also one of of the cabinet appointed to discuss and settle the provisions of the first reform bill. He was at this time very popular with the extreme liberal party, and was supposed to be, of all the members of the Grey cabinet, most favorable to radical changes. • In 1834 he seceded from the government, with Mr. Stanley, on the appropriation clause of the Irish church temporalities act. He refused to join the Peel administration in that year, but grad ually in opposition approximated to the politics of that statesman; and in 1841. became
secretary of state for the home department in the government of sir Robert Peel, who on one occasion declared that Graham was the ablest administrator and the best man of business he had ever known. In 1844 he issued a warrant for opening the letters of Mazzini, and caused the information thus obtained to be communicated to the Austrian minister, an act by which the ministry. and Graham m particular, incurred great obloquy. He also encountered great displeasure n. of the Tweed by his highhanded method of dealing with the Scottish church during the troubles which ended, contrary to his anticipation, in the disruption, and the formation of the free church. He gave Peel a warm support in carrying the corn law repeal bill, and resigned office with his chief as soon as that great measure was carried. On the death of Peel. in 1850, lie became leader of the Peelite party in the lower house, and led the opposition to the ecclesiastical titles bill. In Dec. 1852, he took office in the coalition ministry of the earl of Aberdeen, and accepted his old office of first lord of the admiralty. This was a post much below his talents and pretensions, but he held it until Feb. 1855. Graham refused to take office either in the first or second administration of .lord Palmerston, but he gave that minister a general support. He died from disease of the heart, Oct. 25, 1861. When the house of commons again met, it felt that it had lost one who stood in the first rank of statesmen. Ills commanding stature, fine personal presence, his calm and impressive delivery, his ripe and gentle wisdom, poured forth in a stream of quiet, yet winning and persuasive eloquence, made him the Nestor of the house of commons. Yet his changes of opinion, from the whiggism of his youth to the vehement conservatism of his manhood, and the radicalism of his old age, exposed him to incessant and well. founded charges of political inconsistency