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 candour and pacific spirit of the Russian emperor excited such general opposition that the vote was not pressed. In similar fashion in 1857 he condemned the Chinese policy of the government, maintaining that from the first it should have been conciliatory, but his views were not accepted in the House of Lords. He vigorously pronounced against the annexation of Nice and Savoy by France, and urged the government to do their utmost to prevent a course so pregnant with evil for the future.

On the Fenian outbreak in Ireland and consequent suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, 26 Feb. 1866, Lord Grey propounded a series of resolutions on Irish grievances, and he insisted on the necessity of remedial measures. He urged the injustice of appropriating Irish church revenues for the exclusive benefit of a minority, and demanded security for permanent improvements by occupiers of land. His motion was negatived without a division, but his early sympathy with Irish grievances was not forgotten, and rendered the voice that he subsequently raised against Gladstone's policy of home rule the more influential.

Ever critical and independent in attitude, he opposed the ministerial Ballot Act in 1872, urging the need for facilities of discovering on scrutiny how each elector had voted. Although he fell foul of conservative foreign policy, complaining of the want of candour in Lord Salisbury in the conduct of the Anglo-Russian treaty arranged with Count Schouvaloff in May 1878, and protesting against the 'spoliation' of Roumania and the retrocession of Bessarabia (Times, May 1878), yet at the general election of 1880 he supported the conservative candidates for the north division of Northumberland, addressing a letter on the subject to Mr. G. A. Grey. Always a supporter of the established church he took the lead in November 1885 in framing a declaration by liberal peers and others against disestablishment (, Personal and Political Memorials, ii. 181). The home-rule policy developed by Gladstone in 1885–6 he uncompromisingly opposed, and his letters in the 'Times' on this subject, as well as on English policy in Africa and Egypt, housing of the poor, bimetallism, and tithes, were always clearly written and decided in tone.

Grey died on 9 Oct. 1894 at Howick in Northumberland, where he was buried. He married, on 9 Aug. 1832, Maria, third daughter of Sir Joseph Copley, bart., of Sprotborough; she died on 14 Sept. 1879. He left no issue, and was succeeded by his nephew, Albert Henry George Grey, fourth Earl Grey.

As a statesman Grey's critical faculty, never dormant, interfered alike with his usefulness and his advancement. He was equal to any office he undertook, and an indefatigable worker (Melbourne Papers, ed. Lloyd Sanders, p. 381), but in the opinion of Greville, who did not like him, was mainly characterised by 'his contempt for the opinion of others, and the tenacity with which he clung to his own' (Memoirs, 2nd part, iii. 303). Sir Charles Wood, however, thought him one of the pleasantest colleagues he had ever had (, Recollections, p. 270), and the Prince Consort found him open to argument and, if worsted, ready to own it at once, though very positive in his views and fond of discussion (, Life of Prince Consort).

A portrait of Grey in oils by Saye is at Howick in the possession of the present Earl Grey.

In addition to the work mentioned in the text, Lord Grey wrote: 1. 'Parliamentary Government considered with reference to Reform of Parliament,' 1858. 2. 'Free Trade with France, comprising Letters from the "Times,"' 1881. 3. 'Ireland, the Causes of its Present Position,' 1888. 4. 'The Commercial Policy of British Colonies and the McKinley Tariff,' 1892.

Ten of his speeches between 1831 and 1877 were published in pamphlet form.

 GROSART, ALEXANDER BALLOCH (1827–1899), author and editor, was born on 18 June 1827 at Stirling, where his father, William Grosart, was a builder and contractor. His mother was Mary Balloch. He was educated at the parish school of Falkirk and privately. At the age of twenty-one (November 1848) he entered the university of Edinburgh with the view of preparing for the ministry. Already he had acquired a taste for literary and antiquarian studies, and, although he failed to take any degree, his studies lay in the direction of the special work to which in after life his energies were devoted. While still a student he published an edition of the poems of Robert Ferguson (1851). He entered the theological hall of the United Presbyterian Church in 1851, and after the usual curriculum was licensed by the presbytery of Edinburgh in January 1856. Having 