Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/192

  his seat at Devonport to contest North Northumberland, in which the influence of the Percies had hitherto been supreme. Grey's personal popularity enabled him to win an election victory, which was felt to be important. In the course of 1848 Grey's good sense and coolness were severely taxed in dealing with the chartists, who threatened to march in force to Westminster bearing a monster petition. It was a year of revolution, and there was much excitement in England. The chartists were kept in order, and London remained quiet on 10 April, the day of their threatened meetings but this result was owing to the excellent precautions taken by Grey, who, without producing any irritation, outmanœuvred the chartist leaders. On the same evening Grey moved the second reading of a bill for preventing crimes in Ireland, which was opposed by Smith O'Brien, who was disappointed at the small effect of the chartist demonstration. Grey's reply was a scathing denunciation of O'Brien, and led to an ovation in the excited condition of the house. For some time after this Grey was the most popular man in England. His duties for the next two years were mainly concerned with the repression of Irish discontent.

In the dissolution of 1852 Grey lost his seat in North Northumberland, on which thirteen thousand working men presented him with a testimonial. He preferred to remain for a time out of parliament, but was elected for Morpeth in the beginning of 1853. At first he declined to take any part in the coalition ministry, but in June 1854 he thought it his duty to accept the colonial office, because at a time when war was imminent personal predilections had to give way to public considerations. Grey's presence was much desired in the cabinet. His moderation, good sense, and gentleness made him a useful link in holding together a ministry which was by no means at one. When the coalition government fell, Lord Palmerston transferred Grey to his old post at the home office (1855), where again he was mostly employed in keeping internal order and reorganising the police. In 1858 Lord Palmerston's government was defeated, and Grey was out of office; but on Lord Palmerston's return to power in 1859 he was chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and in 1861 returned to the home office, wherein 1866 he had the responsibility of dealing with the cattle plague. In the same year his tenure of office came to an end. Earl Russell resigned, and when the liberal party returned to power under Mr. Gladstone, Grey did not take office. He contented himself with helping on parliamentary business by his knowledge on general points. With the dissolution in 1874 his parliamentary career ended. The borough of Morpeth had been enlarged by taking in a district inhabited by miners, and the miners being in a majority decided to elect a member from their own number. Grey readily retired in favour of Mr. Thomas Burt, and spent the remainder of his life with perfect happiness as a benevolent and philanthropic country gentleman. He died in his eighty-fourth year on 9 Sept. 1882. His only child, George Henry, died in 1874, and Grey was therefore succeeded by his eldest grandson, Edward.

Few statesmen in modern times have had more friends and fewer enemies than Grey. His moral excellence and social charm were obvious to all who met him. In politics he was content to remain an administrator without aspiring to be a statesman. Entering parliament just after the passing of the Reform Bill, he took the work of the whig party to be the adjustment of the rest of the institutions and organisation of the country to the level of the ideas which the Reform Bill expressed. Beyond this he did not attempt to go. He was singularly free from personal ambition, and gave himself entirely to the work of carrying on the business of his department. His moral qualities made him a valuable member of a cabinet where he was skilful in composing differences. He is a rare instance of a man who retired from politics without bitterness, and was to the end of his life a valued counsellor to statesmen of different opinions from himself.

 GREY, HENRY,, third (d. 1554), father of Lady Jane Grey, oldest son of  [q. v.], by Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Wotton, succeeded to the title as third marquis in 1530. He owed his high position at court chiefly to his rank and wealth. With the approval of Henry VIII Dorset married in 1533-4 Frances, the elder daughter of [q. v.], duke of Suffolk, by [q.v.], younger sister of Henry VIII. By his father's wishes he had previously been contracted, and probably married, to a daughter of Lord Arundel, but with some difficulty, and by the payment of a large sum of money, he managed to free himself from his first wife. Dorset took a prominent part in all the great court ceremonials of his day. He is said to have carried the sceptre at Anne Boleyn's coronation (1533); he and his mother, who complains that she was 'unkindly and