From this date Lord Holland took a frequent part in the debates fur the next four years, being ell this time ono of the steadiest opponents of the administration, and seconding in the Upper House the principal efforts of his uncle Charles James Fox in the Commons. Among other measures which met with his opposition was the Union with Ireland, which he contended (8th May 1800) would both impoverish that country and endanger the constitution of England. A few days before this (on the 30th of April) he had moved that the penal Jews against the Roman Catholics should be taken into consider ation by a committee of the whole house. This motion, the first of the kind that had been made in the Lord; was got rid of by the previous question without a vote.
Meanwhile, in 1800, before the war was suspended, ho had paid a visit to Germany, and returned from Dresden by Cologne and Brussels, having obtained a French passport from Talleyraud, and liberty to make use of it from Lord Grenville, than foreigu secretary. Iu the summer of 1802, after the conclusion of the peace of Amiens, he repaired, with Lady Holland, to Paris, and was there soon after joined by Mr. Fox, along with whom ho was introduced to the first consuL From Paris. Lord and Lady Holland proceeded through France to Spain, and they remained in that country till after the breaking out of the war with England in January 1805, returning home through Portugal by means of passports obtained through the Prince of the Peace.
Ho now resumed his attendance in tho House of Lords; and his name, as before, appears frequently in the reported debates. Ito was not admitted to office during tho ministry of Mr. Fox and Lord Grenville (January—September 1606); but on the 28th of August ho and Lord Auckland were appointed joint-commissioners and pleni potentiaries for arranging and settling the several matters in dis cussion between this country and the United States, with Mr. Munro and Mr. Pinckney, the United States commissioners; and on the 27th of the same month he was sworn of the privy council. An arrange ment of the differences with America was effected after a long ncgociation (with the omission however of the impressment question); but Mr. Jefferson refused Ilia ratification, and it came to nothing. On the 15th of October, after the death of Mr. Fox, Lord Holland was appointed lord privy seal ; and ha held that office for the six months longer that the Grenville ministry lasted.
In 1806, Lord Holland became an author by the publication of 'Some Account of the Life and Writings of Lope Felix do Vega Carpi's,' in an octavo volume. This work, which was republished in 1817, when it was extended to two volumes by the addition of an account of Quillen de Castro and other matter, was creditable to hia lordship's taste and familiarity with the more popular parts of Spanish literature, without being very learned or profound. Lord Holland followed up his life of
Lope de Vega the next year by another octavo volume entitled Three Comedies from the Spanish.' and in 180S he edited and introduoed by a preface of some length Mr. Fox's fragment entitled ' A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James the Second.' On the breaking out of the Spanish insurrection in this last-mentioned year, he hastened once more to visit the peninsula ; and he remained there till the latter part of the year 1809. The rest of his public life for many years was a continuation of the Name course of opposition to the policy of the government with which he had act out on his entrance into parliament. lie took a leading part in most of the great questions that came before the House of Lords, and distinguished himself by his support of Sir Samuel Romilly's law amendments, by his advocacy of Catholic' emancipation and his opposition to the orders in council, the cession of Norway and the detention of Bonaparte at St. Helena. However opinion may differ as to the wisdom of his politics, the praise at least of consistency cannot be refused to him. He was one of the steadiest Whigs of the school of Mr. Fox. But in those days the boundaries of party were much more clearly marked than they are now, and almost the only sort of inconsistency that was possible was going over openly from the ono oamp to tho other, changing from Whig to Tory or from Tory to Whig.
When the unsuccessful attempt was made through the Marquis of Wellesley to effect a union of parties in January 1811, it was proposed that in the new ministry to be formed upon that principle Lord Holland should occupy the post of first lord of the Admiralty. Like the majority of his party, ho supported without joining the ministry of Mr. Canning in 1827. In 1828 he made what has been described as his best speech in introducing the bill for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts to the House of Lords. At last, ou tho aocession of the Whigs to power in November 1830, he became once moro a cabinet minister as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,; and this office ho held (with the exception of the ministerial interregnum of a fortnight in May 1832, and Sir Robert Peel's four months' tenure of power from December 1834 to April 1835) till his death at Holland House on the 22nd of October 1840. Ile was succeeded in his titles by his sou, tho present Lord Holland.