Grey Charles

Grey, Charles, 2nd Earl (1764-1845), statesman, belonged to a Northumberland family. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge. Entering Parliament in 1786, he attached himself to the party of Fox, and took part in the impeachment of Warren Hastings. He gave his support to the Society of the Friends of the People, which advocated Parliamentary reform; but his motion for inquiry into the matter in 1792 and 1793, and his scheme of reform in 1797, all fell to the ground. Meanwhile he maintained a constant opposition to Pitt's Government, and brought forward a motion for his impeachment. In 1806 Grey, now Lord

Howick, became First Lord of the Admiralty in the Fox-Grenville Ministry, a post which he soon exchanged for that of Foreign Secretary, becoming at the same time Leader of the House of Commons.

He succeeded in passing a Bill abolishing the slave trade; but the difficulties that arose in regard to the Catholic Relief question resulted in the fall of the Ministry (1807). During the same year he succeeded to his father's earldom. After refusing to join Canning in 1827, he became Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury in the reforming Cabinet formed on the accession of William IV. The first Reform Bill, brought forward in March, 1831, was rejected in the Commons; the second passed safely through the new House, which met in June, but was thrown out by the Lords in October; in 1832 the third was read a second time in the Upper House, but, in consequence of the success of Lord Lynclhurst's motion to postpone the disfranchising clauses until the enfranchising clauses had been discussed, the Ministry resigned. On the failure of Wellington to construct a Cabinet, Grey returned to office, the king having given a written promise to create enough new peers to pass the Bill, and Wellington baring withdrawn his opposition. On June 4th the Bill was accepted by the Lords. The passing of this Bill was the crowning achievement of Grey's political life, which derives its main interest, from his unswerving fidelity to the cause of Parliamentary reform. Henceforward he found himself out of sympathy with the advanced views of his more Radical colleagues; and, after passing an Act for the abolition of negro slavery in the colonies, he resigned in July, 1834.