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 watchful and satirical criticism of Disraeli's foreign policy, which was often very effective. The letter in which Mr. Gladstone announced his retirement from public life in 1874 had been addressed to him, and he shared with Lord Hartington the leadership of the liberal party. On the defeat of the conservative ministry at the general election of 1880 Granville was again sent for by the queen, but Mr. Gladstone was ultimately entrusted with the task of forming an administration, in which Granville resumed charge of the foreign office. His second tenure of the post of foreign secretary presented no greater appearance of strength or success than his first. For errors in his treatment of the difficulties in the Soudan his colleagues were as responsible as himself, but, face to face with new questions, Granville adhered too closely to notions derived from the state of Europe as it was at the time of the Second Empire. His dislike of Prussia led him to resist rather purposelessly the policy of Prince Bismarck, yet did not preserve him from friction with the French republic. Ilia Suez Canal convention of 1883 provoked so much hostility among English shipowners that parliament never ratified it. When various European powers claimed unoccupied African territory, in policy led to the recognition of 'spheres of influence' in Africa by which large tracts were prematurely placed beyond the reach of English annexation. Angra Pequeñn and the Cameroons in Africa, and part of New Guinea in Polynesia, were allowed to slip out of the possession of Great Britain. On the other hand, by his handling of the Montenegrin question he helped to preserve the peace of Europe, and his despatches on the occupation of Tunis were generally approved. In disposition at all times somewhat indolent, he was during his second term at the foreign office unable to cope with the enormous increase in the bulk of its business—an increase in twenty years of from seventeen thousand to seventy thousand despatches per annum. In negotiation he was still supple, and was a master of the art of diplomatic conversation with ambassadors, but he was by nature too weak to treat successfully with the powerful statesmen who directed in his day the policy of the great European powers. Accordingly, having resigned with the rest of the liberal ministry in 1885, and having adhered to Mr. Gladstone on the home rule question in 1886, he did not return to the foreign office in Mr. Gladstone's short third administration, but held the colonial office till the foil of the ministry in the summer. From that time until his death, though he continued to lead his party in the House of Lords, failing health withdrew him more and more from public life. He died in South Audley Street, London, of gout and an abscess in the face on 31 March 1891, and was buried at in Staffordshire.

He was created a knight of the Garter in 1867, was elected chancellor of the university of London in 1856, was a fellow of the Royal Society, and received the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford in 1865.

He married, first, on 25 July 1840, Maria Louisa, only child and heiress of Emeric Joseph, duc de Dalbera, and widow of Sir Ferdinand Acton of Aldenham, Shropshire, who died childless on 14 March 1860; and secondly, on 25 Sept. 1665, Castalia Rosalind, youngest daughter of Walter Frederick Campbell of Islay, Argyllshire, by whom he had two sons, of whom the eldest, Granville George, succeeded him, and three daughters.

 LEVESON-GOWER, HARRIET ELIZABETH GEORGIANA. (1806–1866), third daughter of George Howard, sixth earl of Carlisle, and Lady Georgiana Dorothy Cavendish, eldest daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonshire, was born 21 May 1806. On 28 May 1823 she was married to her cousin George Granville Leveson-Gower, earl Gower (1786–1861), who had been elected M.P. for St. Mawes, Cornwall, in 1808, and succeeded his father as second Duke of Sutherland in 1833. He had previously been debarred from matrimony by a romantic attachment for Louise, the unfortunate queen of Prussia; but the union with Lady Harriet Howard proved one of affection. By the duchess's influence Stafford House, St. James's Palace, became an important centre of society (, Reminiscences, vol. i. chap. i.), and the starting-point of various philanthropic undertakings. There the protest of the English ladies against American slavery was framed in 1853. On the accession of Queen Victoria the duchess was appointed mistress of the robes, and held that post when the whigs were in office until her husband's death (August 1837 to September 1841, July 1846 to March 1852, January 1853 to February 1856, June 1859 to April 1861). From the queen's refusal to part with the duchess and her other ladies arose the bedchamber crisis of 1639, with the result that the whigs returned to office. 