Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/56

 tentious, is a purist in literature, recites verses, and has a grating voice, all of which are antipathetic to me’ (Correspondence of Princess Lieven and Earl Grey, iii. 24, 43; cf. Memoirs, iv. 39).

In addition to his high offices of state Lord Harrowby was at different times high steward of Tiverton, a commissioner for building churches, a trustee of the British Museum, a governor of Charterhouse, and was made D.C.L. of Oxford on 16 June 1814, and LL.D. of Cambridge in 1833. He died at Sandon Hall, Staffordshire, on 26 Dec. 1847. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Dudley, second earl of Harrowby [q. v.]

Harrowby married, on 30 July 1795, Lady Susan Leveson-Gower, sixth daughter of the first Marquis of Stafford, by whom he had four sons and five daughters. Greville describes her as superior to all the women he had ever known, praising her noble, independent character, her sound judgment, vigorous understanding, and brilliant conversation. She died on 26 May 1838 (Gent. Mag. 1838, ii. 106).

[In addition to the references given in the text see Gent. Mag. 1848, pt. i. 198, and Correspondence of William IV and Earl Grey, i. 437, 464; Burke's Peerage, 1895.] 

RYDER, DUDLEY, second (1798–1882), born at the army pay office, Whitehall, London, on 19 May 1798, was the eldest son of Dudley, first earl [q. v.], by his wife, Lady Susan Leveson-Gower, sixth daughter of the first Marquis of Stafford. He was known until his father's death as Viscount Sandon. At first privately educated, he matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 19 Oct. 1816, and in 1819 secured a ‘double-first.’ He graduated B.A. on 10 Feb. 1820, M.A. on 21 June 1832, and was created D.C.L. on 5 July 1848. Among his personal friends at Oxford were the fourteenth Earl of Derby, Henry Labouchere (afterwards Lord Taunton) [q. v.], Lord Ossington, and Lord F. Egerton (afterwards Lord Ellesmere). In 1819 he was elected to parliament as member for the family borough of Tiverton [see ]. He was re-elected in 1820, 1826, and 1830.

In 1827 Lord Sandon was appointed a lord of the admiralty in Lord Liverpool's administration, but resigned next year, believing that the Duke of Wellington, who then became premier, would oppose catholic emancipation. Though a conservative, he held, like his father, many liberal opinions. He voted for the inquiry into the civil list which overturned the Wellington administration (1830). But on 18 Dec. in the same year he again accepted office under Wellington as secretary to the India board, and retained that post till May 1831. At the dissolution in this year Lord Sandon did not again contest Tiverton, but, accepting an invitation from Liverpool, he was duly returned, and thus at the age of thirty-three became one of the representatives of that great commercial town. Its business interests largely engrossed his time for eighteen years, and made official work difficult. He had many memorable contests for this seat, but was always returned by triumphant majorities, being re-elected in 1832, 1835, 1837, and 1841. He supported the Reform Bill ‘as a measure of peace’ (Address to Liverpool Electors, 1834).

In 1835, when Sir Robert Peel was prime minister, Lord Sandon was appointed commissioner for inquiring into army punishments, a subject then attracting much attention. Again, in the events which led to the dissolution of 1841, he took a prominent part. The whig ministry of Lord Melbourne, to regain its waning popularity, proposed to abolish the sliding scale and impose a fixed duty on corn, and no longer to prohibit the importation of slave-grown sugar. A resolution to this effect was brought before the House of Commons by Lord John Russell; but Sandon moved an amendment which, being carried, virtually turned out the whig government. The general election which ensued made Sir Robert Peel prime minister (, Lord G. Bentinck, p. 329). Sandon followed Peel in his adoption of free-trade principles in 1845, not because he was convinced by Peel's arguments, but because he considered that the policy was no longer a matter for discussion now that the leaders on both sides of the House were hostile to protection. He was by temperament indisposed to support unreservedly any tory dogma. He had already voted, though a conservative and strong protestant, for the repeal of the Test Acts and for the grant to Maynooth; he further, aided by his friend Lord Ashley (afterwards Lord Shaftesbury), was active in supporting philanthropic measures, such as the emancipation of negroes, and the shortening of work-time in factories.

When parliament was dissolved in 1847, Sandon did not seek re-election. He was appointed an ecclesiastical commissioner on 18 Dec., and on the 26th he succeeded his father as second Earl of Harrowby. In the House of Lords his liberal sympathies enabled him in 1852 to act successfully as mediator between Lord Derby and the free-traders. On 31 March 1855 he became chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in