Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/580

 since Sir Robert had come into office professing contrary principles, there ought to be a special appeal to the constituencies upon the issue. He told the electors of Newark that he would in that event seek their suffrage as a free trader. When it became evident that no such reference was to be made, Manners by way of protest joined the protectionist party. George Smythe accepted free trade: Disraeli allied himself with Lord George Bentinck in opposition to free trade, and the 'Young England party' was thereupon dispersed.

Manners, at the general election in Aug. 1847, retired from Newark, where as a protectionist he had no chance of re-election, and stood for Liverpool without success. In 1849 he was again defeated in the City of London by Baron Lionel de Rothschild; but in 1850 he was returned for Colchester in the protectionist interest. This seat he exchanged for North Leicestershire in 1857, and he represented that constituency until 1885; after the Redistribution Act, he sat for the Melton Division of the county until he succeeded his brother in the dukedom in 1888. Manners quickly filled a prominent place in the conservative party and in the House of Commons. His parliamentary gifts were not those of an orator but of a dexterous and resourceful debater. His wisdom in council was of greater value than his capacity for action.

In February 1852, when Lord Derby formed his first administration, Manners became first commissioner of works, with a seat in the cabinet, and was made a privy councillor. The government only lasted till 16 Dec. During the administrations of Lord Aberdeen (1852–5) and Lord Palmerston (1855–8) he took his share in the opposition's criticism of the conduct of the Crimean war and the Indian Mutiny campaign, but he refrained from seeking party advantage in national troubles, although he fell under that suspicion through a question which he put with a view to fixing upon government the responsibility for Lord Dalhousie's annexation of Oude (Feb. 1866; Hansard, cxl. 1856).

In Feb. 1858, on the formation of the second Derby ministry. Manners resumed his former office. He thus superintended the unveiling in St. Paul's Cathedral of Stevens's monument to the duke of WeUing- ton, for which preparations had been begun under his authority in 1862. The government survived little more than a year, and Lord John was again in opposition until July 1866, when he returned for the third time to the office of works under Lord Derby, and retained the post under Disraeli (Feb.-Dec. 1868). In spite of his tory principles, he accepted Disraeli's reform bill of 1867, when General Peel, Lord Carnarvon, and Lord Cranborne (Lord Salisbury) retired rather than support the measure. The government resigned after their defeat at the general election of 1868 (Dec. 2), and Lord John was in opposition with his party until Feb. 1874. Throughout Disraeli's second government (1874–80) Manners held the office of postmaster-general, again with a seat in the cabinet. It was the most important political post that fell to him. He returned to it during Lord Salisbury's short first administration (June 1885 to Feb. 1886). No important reforms distinguished his career at the post office, but under his regime the minimum telegram charge was reduced from a shilling to sixpence (Oct. 1885). During his first tenure of the postmastership he was chairman of the copyright commission (1876–8).

Meanwhile Manners, while staunch to the essentials of the conservative faith, showed no unreadiness to consider impartially the practical application of some democratic principles. In 1875, while he opposed Sir George Trevelyan's abortive household franchise (counties) bill, he based his opposition on the argument that an extension of the electorate would diminish the opportunity for the entry into the House of Commons of men of small or moderate means, and would render it more accessible to men of wealth and influential local position {Hansard, ccxxv. 1119). During the controversy over the liberal government's proposals for an extension of the franchise, 1884–5, Manners only resisted the proposals as originally set forth on the ground that no extension of the franchise was equitable in the absence of a scheme for the redistribution of seats (Hansard, ccxciii. 1468).

Lord John's last period of office was from 1886 to 1892, when he joined the cabinet as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster during Lord Salisbury's second administration. In March 1888 he succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his brother, and he was made K.G. in 1891. When Lord Salisbury's government left office in the summer of 1892, Lord John's official career came to an end. But he never ceased to take an interest in public affairs. In 1903 he welcomed Mr. Chamberlain's