GRAHAM, Sir JAMES ROBERT GEORGE (1792 1861). An English statesman. The eldest son of Sir James, the first baronet, and of Lady Catha rine Stewart, eldest daughter of John, seventh Earl of Galloway. He was born at Netherby, Cumberland, June 1, 1792. He was educated at Westminster School. and in 1810 entered Christ Church, Oxford. At twenty-one years of age he became private secretary to Lord Montgomerie, the British Minister to Sicily, and the entire management of the Anission devolved upon him during the most critical period of the war, in consequence of the illness of his chief. On the arrival of Lord William Bentinek, he retained his position, and afterwards accepted a military situation at,tached to the person of Lord William, who was Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterra nean. In this capacity at Naples he negotiated the armistice with Murat' which separated that general from Napoleon. In 1818 he was returned for Hull on Whig principles; but in 1820 lost his seat. In 1824 he succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father. In 1826 he was re turned for Carlisle as a Whig, and a warm sup porter of Catholic emancipation. In 1830 he be came First Lord of the Admiralty, with a seat in the Cabinet, and was one of the committee ap pointed to discuss and settle the provisions of the first Reform Bill. In 1834 he seceded from the Government with Mr. Stanley, on the ap propriation clause of the Irish Church Tempo ralities Act. In 1838 he was elected lord rector of the University of Glasgow. In 1841 he 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 a
warrant issued for opening the letters of Maz zini, and the communication of their contents to the Austrian Minister involved Graham in great obloquy. He also incurred displeasure by his high-handed dealing with the Scottish Church troubles which ended in the formation of the Free Church. He gave Peel warm support in the Corn Law Repeal Bill, and resigned office with his chief as soon as that measure was carried. On the death of Peel in 1850 he became leader of the Peelite Party in the Lower House, and led the opposition to the Ecclesiastical Bill. From December, 1852, he held his old office of First Lord of the Admiralty in the coalition Min istry of the Earl of Aberdeen, until his retire ment in February, 1855. He died from heart dis ease, October 25, 1861. His commanding stature, fine personal presence, ripe wisdom, and calm and impressive eloquence made him the Nestor of the House of Commons. But his changes of opinion, from the Whiggism of his youth to the Conserva tism of his manhood, and the Radicalism of his old age, exposed him to well-founded charges of political inconsistency. For his life, consult: Torrens (London, 1863) ; and Lonsdale in The Worthies of Cumberland, vol. ii. (London, 1867 75).