PARLIAMENTARY OBITUARY.
Earl Grey occupied too remarkable a position ill the history of the country, for the usual newspaper practice, of briefly reviewing the lives of public men, to be omitted. There are, however, in his case some peculiar difficulties in the task. The events in which he was a conspicuous agent were so momentous, that a sketch of his life would be a sketch of English history for more than half a century, in a time of the greatest political , vicissitude that the world ever saw; while, on the other hand, the Earl's own character was marked with so moderate a share of originality that it is difficult to impart to history the character of biography. Again, there • were in his character traits so contradictory, that the most opposite judg- ments are formed: although his mind may be called essentially common- place, and therefore strongly imbued by the prejudices belonging to his circumstances and his social class—or, as he said " his order "—he had so much self-reliance, courage, and generous impulse, that he hesitated not to brave the displeasure and prejudices of others in the pursuit of what he accounted to be his duty. Personally his deportment was dis- tinguished by that amiability and considerateness which are not inconsistent with an excessive sense of high station and pride scarcely disguised in deference or condescension; but in public his independence assumed an air of arrogance, which, while it perhaps bent a little lower the respect of those who were willing to bow to him, exasperated his opponents. Two opposite parties, therefore, represent him severally as the father of Libe- ralism—proud, but consistent, the model of a virtuous statesman; while others, not in terms, but indirectly, represent him as a person of almost insignificant character, whom a fortuitous combination raised to an un- merited station, and thus exposed to be the sport of an overweening pride and self-sufficiency. None deny him the respect of a virtuous life, poli- tical as well as private. This glance at his characteristics is almost neces- sary to explain why a sketch of Lord Grey's biography may be little more than an enumeration of dates, unless it were extended to the historical dimensions of quarto volumes. Lord Grey's father' Charles Grey, member of a very ancient Northum- brian family, was an officer in the Army: he served with distinction in the .
American war, and in some subsequent contests in which this country was engaged; and attained the rank of General, with the titular honours of C.B., a Barony as Lord Grey de Howick, in 1802, and a Viscounty and Earl- dom in 1806. He was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. George Grey, of Southwick; by whom he had seven children; and he died in November 1807.
His eldest son, Charles Grey, was born at Fallowden, near .Alnwick, in Northumberland, on the 13th March 1764. He was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge; and at the age of eighteen he set out on the "grand tour' of Europe, which he completed in two years. In his travels, he met with the Duke and Dutchess of Cumberland at Rome; and obtaining the Duke's favour, he was appointed to a post in his household. After his return to England, he was elected to Parliament, for his native county, in 1786. He attached himself closely to Mr. Fox; and their friendship lasted throughout the life of that statesman. In February 1787, Mr. Grey made his maiden speech; which surprised even a House of Com- mons accustomed to the oratory of Fox and Pitt, Sheridan and Burke. The subject was the commercial treaty with France, then proposed by Mr. Pkt ; which the young Member opposed, on the ground of the inveterate hostility of France, and the risk that its terms, so favourable to that coun- try, would tend to separate England from her old and faithful allies. The force, fluency, and copiousness of his eloquence, were unquestionable, and he was hailed as a great accession to the Whig party. From this time his Parliamentary life was active: he took so prominent a part as one of the leading Members in Opposition, and one so distinctly recognized, tAlta in 1788, while yet only twenty-four years of age, he was appointed one of the Committee to manage the impeachment of Warren Hastings. His position, however, was plainly acknowledged long before that; and it is attested by an interesting anecdote of his conduct while energetically supporting the measure for settling the Prince of Wales's debts, in his first Parliamentary year, 1787. "Mr. Fox, being authorized by the Prince, had denied the marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert. The lady was naturally offended; and to appease her, the Prince tried to restore the matter to the uncertainty which had previously hung over it. He wished, therefore, to have some ambiguous or equivocating remarks made, as if from authority, In the House of Commons; and, with singular want of discrimination, Mr. Grey was applied to for the purpose. The unaccommodating young sena- tor spurned the dishonourable office; and gave offence which was never forgotten or forgiven." In the year 1792, was formed the association called "the Friends of the People," of which Mr. Grey was a founder. The society was intended to advocate practical reform, in opposition alike to the predominant Toryism of that day and to the extreme Republican opinions of the French school in politics. The society numbered among its members, Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Lambton, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Erskine, Mr. Byng, Sir Philip Francis, Major Cartwright, and others of note; but Fox held aloof from it. As spokesman for the Friends of the People, in April 1192, Mr. Grey introduced a motion for Parliamentary Reform; which did not of course succeed. When he reintroduced it, in 1797, with a specific plan, it was negatived by 258 to 93. In disgust, Mr. Grey and some other Whig Members withdrew for a time from the House. In the former debate, Mr. Grey declared, that rather than continue the present system, he would be ready to adopt universal suffrage, though it was the mode of _reform of which he least approved. The society to which he belonged was not popular, and it incurred some danger from the Ministerial attempts to suppress it; but that only served Mr. Grey with occAsion to display his in- domitable firmness and courage. On the death of Pitt, our hero, who now bore the title of Lord Howick, joined the Government of Mr. Fox, as first Lord of the Admiralty; and on the death of Fox, the young statesman, who was regarded as his successor, became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Leader in the House of Commons. By the Whig Cabinet was carried the law for abolishing the British slave-trade. It was the last act of Lord Grenville's Administration; their determination to open the Army and Navy to Roman Catholic officers provoking their dismissal by the King, who had affected to approve of that measure. Lord Howick succeeded to the Peerage, as Lord Grey de Howick, on the death of his father, in November 1807. Invitations to accept office were suc- cessively made to him, by Mr. Peineval in 1809, and by the Prince Regent in 1812: but the insincerity with which the Prince evaded the connexion of his former political friends is well known, and the invitation to Lord Grey and Lord Grenville was put in such a shape that they could only reject it: they were to nominate four out of a Cabinet of twelve, the remainder to be of the party opposed to them! Lord Grey's rejection was Indignant and peremptory. In the turbulent days of 1819, Lord Grey appeared as the determined opponent of the arbitrary measures which fear suggested to Lord Sidmouth: he denounced what has since been called the Peterloo massacre, and the Six Acts. When George the Fourth succeeded to the throne, and prosecuted his Queen, Lord Grey defended the ill-used Caroline, and powerfully contributed to her escape. Thenceforward, he took a somewhat less active part in politics. When Mr. Canning was deserted by his own party, in 1827, and invited the aid of the Whigs, Lord Grey was singular in bolding back. He couched his refusal to accept office with his inviter in terms of polished contempt. Mr. Canning had made statesmanship a profession; Lord Grey had been in circumstances which renderedhim independent, and he had enjoyed his independence to the full: a difference in their position which made him regard with supercilious dislike what he accounted inconsistencies in the conduct of Canning, even when they led the Minister from what Lord Grey must have accounted a worse to a better policy. His behaviour, in thus contributing to the unfair and coarse opposition which Canning encountered, not more from dislike to his Liberal measures than from aristocratic jealousy at the elevation of the political adventurer, has been much blamed even by the Earl's admirers. In the course of the same session, Lord Grey made that celebrated decla- ration to which reference has since been made as a commentary on the im- perfections of the Reform Bill: apropos to a measure for relaxing the Corn- laws, which he supported the Duke of Wellington in resisting, Lord Grey said—" If 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; I will maintain to the last hour of my exist- ence the privileges and independence of this House." The few next years witnessed a great political advance: the Catholic Emancipation of 1829, the French Revolution of 1830, the growing sense of disgust at the rotten borough system, made the demand for Reform become a loud and peremp- tory popular cry; and the Duke of Wellington having definitively declared against such a measure, Earl Grey was called to office, in November1830, atf First Lord of the Treasury. The measure of Reform, it is scarcely needed to remind the reader, was vehemently and obstinately opposed: in May 1832, Lord Grey was for a few days out of office; but no Tory Cabinet could be formed, Earl Grey resumed his post, and the bill was carried. "Finality," incompatible with the unceasing "pressure from without" to follow up Reform with further changes, induced Lord Grey to retire from office in 1834; and not long after, he withdrew almost entirely from public life. His vigorous constitution had now begun to yield to the encroachments of time; and for the last year or two life struggled with ac- cumulated infirmities, until he sank under a paralytic stroke, on the 17th of July 1845. The Globe gives a personal description of Earl Grey in the vigour of his days. "His port and bearing were strikingly dignified. The volto sciolto, which men almost instinctively associate with high birth, was legible in every lineament of his features, and his whole exterior was decidedly patrician. The expression of his countenance when in repose was some- what penserose and meditative—the forehead lofty and well developed, as beseemed a temple sacred to noble thoughts.' His figure was stately and commanding; his action graceful and animated; and his voice strong, flexible, and sonorous. As an orator, he was ready and correct—his style classically pure, and void. of affectation—his delivery such as to fix, and even fascinate, the attention." It was, however, in his own house that Lord Grey was seen to the best advantage: aeravisit to Howick Hall,
Sir Samuel Rorailly made an entry in his y, in which he speaks of Lord Grey as one "who, to be properly kwn, must be seen as we saw him in his retirement, surrounded by his f ', his servants, and his tenants, and appearing to be an object of love and admiration to all who are about him."
In November 1794, Lord Grey was married to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the Right Honourable William Brabazon Ponsonby, afterwards first Lord Ponsonby; who survives the Earl. They had the patriarchal number of ten sons and six daughters; of whom the eldest son, Lord Howick, succeeds to the Earldom; his elevation leaving a vacancy in the representation of Sunderland.
The town next learned the death of Lord Canterbury; who expired, after a short illness, on Monday. Lord Canterbury travelled from Exeter to London on Saturday night, by the mail-train. A passenger in the same carriage, who did not know him, observed that he appeared to be in good health and quite cheerful until the train reached Slough, on Sunday morn- ing; when he looked at his watch very often, seemed lost in thought, and leaned back as if to sleep. At Paddington, the porter demanded his ticket, without an answer; and it was then discovered that Lord Canterbury was ill, having sustained a stroke of apoplexy. He was carried to the station; medical assistance was summoned; his pockets were searched, his card was discovered, and after a delay of about two hours he was conveyed to the house of his son, in Southwick Crescent.. There he died, on Monday afternoon.
Charles Manners Sutton was the second child and the eldest son of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, by Mary, daughter of Mr. Thomas Thoroton, the descendant of an ancient Nottinghamshire family. He was born on the 20th January 1780; his school-days were passed at Eton, and his education was completed at Trinity College Cambridge. In 1805, he was called to the bar as a member of the Society of Lincoln's Inn; in 1807, he was returned for Scarborough, by the interest of his relative the Duke of Rutland; and in 1809, he took office under Mr. Pereeval, as Judge- Advocate-General. He continued to fill the same office under Lord Liver- pool, until elected Speaker of the House of Commons. in 1817. Mr. Manners Sutton was distinguished in that elevated post for his commanding presence, fine voice, and graceful deportment; but in other respects he was not remarkable. When Lord Grey resigned in 1832, Mr. Sutton was engaged in attempting to form a Ministry for the Duke of Wellington; but the undertaking was defeated by the debate on the Speakership, which had the effect of reinstating the former Government in office. There is every reason however, to believe that King William the Fourth felt peculiarly obliged to Mr. Manners Sutton on account of the share which he had taken in those proceedings; for, by the express desire of the King, he was invested with the Order of the Bath—an honour never enjoyed by any of his predecessors, with the exception of Sir Spencer Compton, after. wards Earl of Northampton. This active interference in party politics, however, was held by many to disqualify Mr. Sutton for the Speakership; and in February 1835, his opponent, Mr. Abercromby, was chosen Speaker, by 316 to 306. After some delay, he was called to the Upper House, by the titles of Viscount Canterbury and Baron Bottesford. Not much later, he was selected to fill the important and delicate office of High Commissioner for adjusting the claims of Canada: but he ultimately resigned without having ever entered upon its du- ties: and here may be said to have closed his public life, for his subsequent appearances in Parliament were in no way remarkable. Lord Canterbury was twice married; first in July 1811, to Charlotte, eldest daughter of Mr. Dennison, of Denbies, in Surrey, whom he had the misfortune to lose in December 1815. By this first marriage he had three children: his eldest son of course succeeds to his title; and the second is well known as Member for the borough of Cambridge, and Under-Secretary in the Home Department. On the 6th December 1828, he married, secondly, Ellen, daughter of Mr. Edmund Power, of Curragheen, in the county of Waterford, widow of Mr. John Hume Purvis, and sister of the Countess of Blessington.
A third Peer died on Tuesday morning, Lord Bateman. His health had always been delicate; and some increased indisposition, which created no great alarm, terminated rather unexpectedly in death, on Tuesday morn- ing, at his residence in Portman Square. William Henry Bateman Hanbury, son of Mr. William Hanbury of Kiln:tenth, was born in June 1780; and married, in August 1822, Elizabeth, second daughter of Lord Spencer Stanley Chichester, brother to the late Marquis of Donegal; by whom he had three sons and four daughters. He represented Nottingham in several Parliaments, as a Whig; but being defeated in 1835, by Mr. Maunsell, he was created, in 1837, a Peer, by the title of Baron Bateman of Shobdon in Hereford. Soon afterwards, he succeeded his second cousin in the Vis- county of Bateman and the accompanying estates: He is himself suc- ceeded in titles and estates by his eldest son, the Honourable William Bateman Hanbury, who is in his twentieth year.
Death has also been busy in the House of Commons; having carried off - Mr. Murray, the Member for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and Mr. Bolton Clive, Member for the City of Hereford—both Whigs.
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