Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/579

 views, were always close, and he was one of the pall-bearers at Gladstone's funeral in Westminster Abbey in 1898. In parliament Lord John at once associated himself with George Smythe, Alexander Cochrane-Baillie (afterwards first Baron Lamington), and Benjamin Disraeli, and was prominent in the literary and artistic society which Lady Blessington gathered about her. As in the case of his friends, a love of history and literature was combined with zeal for the regeneration of the labouring classes. Disraeli exerted a powerful influence on him, and largely under Disraeli's guidance Manners and his political friends gradually formed themselves into the 'Young England party.' The party sought to supplant whig and middle-class predominance in politics and society by setting the aristocracy at the head of a movement for raising the condition of the proletariat intellectually and materially. The church too and the government of Ireland were to be recovered from Whig influences. During 1843 and 1844 the party played an active part within and without the House of Commons, and was free in its criticism of Peel's administration. Manners mainly identified himself with the Young England party's advocacy of social reform. In 1843 he supported Viscount Howick's motion for an inquiry into the condition of England and the disaffection of the working classes. He sought to establish public holidays by Act of Parliament, publishing 'A Plea for National Holidays' in 1843. In 1844 he associated himself with Lord Ashley, who was devoting himself to factory reform, in endeavouring to secure a ten hours' day for labour {Hansard, 22 March 1844). The measure, which the Manchester school stoutly opposed, became law in May 1847. Manners urgently advocated the allocation of waste lands for the use of the agricultural population, and of a general system of allotments such as already existed on the Belvoir property. In the autumn of 1844 he accompanied Disraeli and Smythe on a tour through Lancashire and other manufacturing districts with a view to promulgate the principles of the party, and to ascertain the facts of current industrial depression. At Birmingham on 26 Aug. 1844 he declared that his friends and himself were seeking to 'minister to the wants, direct the wishes, listen to the prayers, increase the comfort, diminish the toil, and elevate the character, of the long-suffering, industrious, and gallant people of England.' On 3 Oct. he was on the platform with Disraeli at the Manchester Athenæum when that stateman gave a famous lecture on the acquirement of knowledge, and both he and Disraeli spoke at Bingley in Yorkshire on 11 October.

The chivalrous and romantic mould in which Manners's political views were oast led George Smythe when dedicating to him his 'Historic Fancies' in 1844 to described him as 'the Philip Sidney of our scneration.' Disraeli authoritatively defined the principles of the 'Young England party' in 'Coningsby,' also in 1844. In that novel Manners figured as Lord Henry Sydney, who was shocked at the substitution of the word 'labourers' for 'peasantry' and who was charged by his critics with thinking to make people prosperous by setting up village maypoles. In Disraelli's 'Sybil' (1845) and in 'Endymion' (1880) many of Lord John's views are placed on the lips of Egremont and Waldershare respectively.

The 'Young England party' was not destined to five long. Religious and political differences led to its dissolution. Manners, like many of his colleagues, while strong in his attachment to the Church of Eagland, was disposed to sympathise with Newman and the 'Tractarians.' Frederick William Faber [q. v.] became his intimate friend, and strongly influenced his views. He gave no sign of joining the Church of Rome, but he advocated a generous treatment of the Roman priesthood in Ireland, the maintenance of friendly relations with the Vatican, and the dis-establishment of the Irish Church. In 1845 he supported the proposed grant to Maynooth College; Smythe voted with him, but Disraeli and other of his friends opposed the grant. The 'Young England party' was thereby divided. In the same year Faber with James Hope, afterwards Hope-Scott [q. v.] of Deepdene, and others followed Newman into the communion of Rome, and Manners's friendships and sympathies were further shaken.

A larger disturbance of social and political ties attended Peel's change of attitude towards the Corn Laws. Manners was no thick and thin supporter of protection. Although his first cosiderable speech in parliament was delivered against a motion by C. P. Villiers for the total repeal of the Corn Laws (18 Feb. 1842), he made no emphatic profession of opinion. He 'did not say that the Corn Laws might not be improved. . . but he felt that hon. members were wrong in attributing distress enirely to the Corn Laws' (Hansard, lxt711). On Peel's sudden adoption of the principle of free trade he maintained that