For many years, especially during the panto which existed in this country respecting ' French principles,' and in the midst of the extra vagance in the public expenditure occasioned by the war, it was an ardeoue if not a thankless task which an careen advocate of popular rights, like Mr. Grey, was called upon to discharge. The country was frequently in a critical state; the minister was supported by over whelming majorities; and events occasionally warranted the executive in adopting bold and vigorous steps which were not precisely consti tutionaL Mr. Grey's opposition to the measures of the minister was at the time fruitless, but the vigilance of the small band of which he was the moat active leader did much to check any more daring inroads upon national liherties. In 1794 Mr. Grey endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to obtain an inquiry into the conduct of government is bringing foreign troops into England without the consent of parlia meat ; and he was most zealous in opposing the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, which the government passed through all its stages up to the third reading in one day. In 195 he opposed with equal vigour a bill which was calculated to limit, if not to prohibit, the holsing of public, meetings. On the 10th of March 1790 he moved for a committee on the state of the nation, in which he animadverted on the enormous expenditure, the large advances made by the Bank, and the application of money to purposes different from those for which it had been voted by parliament. On the 6th of May he brought forward a charge of misapplication of public money; and in December he exposed another instance of the unconstitutional appropriation of the public money, in which 1,200,000/. had been advanced by the minister to the Emperor of Germany without the consent of the House of Commons, though parliament was then sitting. In 1797 he was one of the committee of secrecy appointed to inquire into the circum stances connected with the stoppage of the Bank, and he dissented from the report which that committee made. On the 26th of May he again brought forward a motion for parliamentary reform; and pro posed that 113 members should be returned by the counties, each for one division, and that the franchise should be extended from free holders to leaseholdens and copyholders. The remaining 400 members were to be returned by household suffrage, and the elections were to take place on one and the same day. He intimated that, if such a measure of reform were carried, ho would, but not otherwise, shorten the duration of parliament to three years. In the course of his address he i ntimated the likelihood of his not again taking part iu the business of the house if his motion were rejected. On a division it was lost by 253 to 93; and it was not until 1799 that he again made his appearance in the house as a speaker, for the purpose of opposing the first propositions that were made for the union with Ireland. He was opposed throughout to this measure, but submitted a plan for securing the independence of the Irish members by abolishing forty rotten boroughs in Ireland ; and he proposed that the addition of Irish members should not Increase the numbers of the House of Commons.
The death of Mr. Pitt, in 1800, led to the formation of a Whig ministry under Lord Grenville. Mr. Grey, now become Lord Ilowick by hie father's elevation, was appointed first lord of the Admiralty, and Fox bold the seals of the Foreign Office. On the death of Fox in September, the office which he had held was filled by Lord Howick, who met parliament in December as leader of the House of Commons. Ile and Lord Grenville were now at the head of the Whig party. The cabinet was broken up In Marsh 1807 ; but during its brief existence Lord Howlek bad carried through the House of Commons the Act for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade.
In November 1807, on the death of his father, Lord Howick became Earl Grey, after nearly twenty years of his public life had been spent In the House of Commons. In the House of Lords he and Lord Grenville were the leaders of the opposition. One of his first acts as a peer was to protest against the attack upon Copenhagen in the previous year.
In 1809 Lords Grey and Grenville were invited by Mr. Pereeval to join his adminletrutIon, which had been just weakened by the retire ment of Mr. Canning and Lord Castlereagh, but the offer was at once declined. On the Prince of Wales being appointed regent, Lords Grey and Grenville prepared, at his request, the answer to be returned to the addresses of parliament ; but the prince, in the end, did not make use of it. Early in 1812 the regent addressed a letter to the Duke of York which he was authorised to communicate to the above two noble lords, in which ho expressed a wish that "some of those persons with whom the early habits of his public life were formed would strengthen his hands and constitute part of his government." But as neither Lord Grey nor Lord Greo villo could join the existing administration without a sacrifice of principle, the prince's wish was not complied with. Again, on the death of Mr. Perceval, fresh negociationa were set on foot, but like the former they resulted in nothing. Lord Moira was then empowered to treat with the two lords unconditionally ; but the negociations were broken off in consequence of Lord Moira not being authorised to make the power of removing the great officers of the household a part of the arrangement. The negociations eventually terminated In the formation of the Liverpool administration.
On the return of Napoleon from Elba in 1815, Earl Grey was averse to plunging into another war, and on this occasion he and Lord Grenville took opposite views. During the period of discontent and distress which the couutry experienced in the first few yeare after the peace, Earl Grey sought to show that the beet way of defending the constitution was to conciliate the affection and esteem of the people, and he urged that the natural mode of removing the discontent of the country was to remove its causes. He therefore condemned the measures of coercion adopted by the government. He moved for an inquiry into the conduct of the government respecting what has been called the 'Manchester massacre; and though the motion was rejected by 155 to 34, two members of the royal family, the Dukes of Kent and Sussex, voted with the minority. He was strongly opposed to the punishment of transportation for seditious libel, from its liability to become a dangerous means of persecution and proscription. Earl Grey took an active part in the trial of Queen Caroline, and in opposing the Bill of Pains and Penalties which had been brought in against her. The Act for the Emancipation of the Roman Catholics, which was passed in 1829, realised one of the great objects of his political life. Ho gave his support to Mr. Huskisson's measures of commercial reform.
When Mr. Canning became prime minister, early in 1827, ho was supported by most of the leaders of the Whig party ; but Earl Grey, so far from joining his party in this course, bitterly attacked Mr.
Canning and treated with contempt his pretended liberalism. Himself the model of an inflexible patrician, with high connections and a lofty public character, he seemed as if he regarded the prime minister as a brilliant and dexterous adventurer. The only persons who listened with pleasure to this speech were men whose principles Earl Grey's public life had been devoted to opposing; and yet it was commonly felt that this attack on the minister proceeded from a sense of duty to his party and his order, combined with a peculiar temperament. This at the same time led him into a disdain of popular opinion which was no leas a feature of his character. In the eamo session he supported the amendment of the Duke of Wellington which led to the abandon ment of Mr. Canning's corn bilL He knew how unpopular his vote on this occasion would be; but " if," he said, "there should come a contest between this house and a great portion of the people, my part is taken ; and with that order to which I belong I will stand or fall; " and, he added, "I will maintain to the last hour of my existence the privileges and independence of this House :" and this lofty view of the rights and privileges of the aristocracy was in Fact the key to what was most liberal in his policy, as well as to what appeared most otherwise.