Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/266

 252 GREY 1871, 59,395, of whom 23,511 were of Irish, 17,551 of Scotch, 11,283 of English, 4,702 of German, and 426 of French origin. The land is rough, sandy, and stony, but supports a val- uable growth of pine. The county is inter- sected by the Toronto, Grey, and Bruce rail- way. Capital, Owen Sound. GREY. I. Charles, earl, an English states- man, born at Fallowden, Northumberland, March 13, 1704, died at Howick house, July 17, 1845. He entered parliament as member for Northumberland in 1786, and attached himself to the whig party, then under the leadership of Fox. In 1788 he was appointed one of the managers of the trial of Warren Hastings. In 1792 he was one of the founders of the "Society of the Friends of the People," whose object was to obtain a reform in parlia- ment. About this time he attempted to miti- gate the law of imprisonment for debt. Being in opposition, he was unsuccessful in his en- deavor to obtain a committee of inquiry into the conduct of ministers, in his plan of parlia- mentary reform, and in his proposal to abolish a number of Irish rotten boroughs. Pitt hav- ing died in 1806, a new ministry was formed under Lord Grenville, and Grey, now Baron Howick, was appointed first lord of the admi- ralty, Fox being secretary for foreign affairs. Fox dying in September, Grey took his place. Lord Grenville and he were now the recog- nized leaders of the whig party, Grenville in the house of lords and Grey in the commons. During this session Grey carried through the bill for the abolition of the slave trade, and moved the abolition of the oath which excluded Roman Catholics from rank in the army and navy. His proposal was met with violent op- position by the Protestant interest, and the king exacted from his ministers a written pledge that they would not press a measure which he considered perilous to church and state. Grey declined to give such a promise, resigned, and the cabinet was broken up. The death of his father in the succeeding year called him as Earl Grey to the house of lords. For the 18 years succeeding the death of Per- ceval (1812-'30) Earl Grey ably led the opposi- tion. The chief events of his career during this period were his opposition to a renewal of the war in 1815 ; his condemnation of the coercive measures of the government against the people in the depression and restlessness which followed the peace; his opposition to every attempt to abridge the right of public meeting, and to the bill of pains and penalties against Queen Caroline; his support of Hus- kisson's measures of commercial reform ; and his vehement hostility to Canning's adminis- tration. He had the satisfaction in 1829 of seeing the Catholic emancipation act passed. The French revolution of 1830 and other causes having given a new impulse to the agitation for reform, the tory ministry under Welling- ton was ohliged to retire, and William IV. requested Earl Grey to form a government; he consented only on condition that the reform of the parliamentary representation should be brought forward as a cabinet question. In November, 1830, the new premier announced in the house of lords that the policy of his ad- ministration would be "peace, retrenchment, and reform ;" and in March, 1831, the first re- form bill was introduced. On May 7, 1832, a motion having been carried which was con- sidered hostile to the reform measure, the min- istry resigned, and the duke of Wellington un- dertook to form a new administration. On May 17, however, Earl Grey returned to power; on June 4 the reform bill passed the house of lords, and three days afterward it received the royal assent. He resigned in July, 1834, in consequence of Irish difficulties. II. Henry George, earl, an English statesman, son of the preceding, born Dec. 28, 1802. He entered parliament in 1826. On the formation of the reform ministry by his father in 1830, Lord Howick, as he was then called, was appointed under secretary for the colonies, but resigned in 1833 in consequence of his disapproving the details of the measure for negro emancipation. For a few months of 1B34 he was under secre- tary for the home department. He was secre- tary at war in the Melbourne administration from 1835 to 1839. When the Peel adminis- tration came in, he earned the reputation of being one of the most brilliant men of the op- position. On his father's death, in July, 1845, he took his seat in the house of lords as Earl Grey, and in the succeeding year was appoint- ed secretary for the colonies in the administra- tion of Lord John Russell. On his retirement with his colleagues in 1852, he published in two volumes a defence of his colonial policy, and in 1858 an " Essay on Parliamentary Gov- ernment as to Reform " (2d ed., 1864). GREY, Sir George, a British author, born at Lisburn, Ireland, in 1812. He was educated in the military college at Sandhurst. In 1837, being then a captain, he asked and received permission to explore the interior of Australia. . In 1838, with another expedition, he explored the Swan river district. He returned to Eng- land in 1840, and in 1841 was appointed gov- ernor of South Australia, in 1846 of New Zea- land, in 1854 of Cape Colony, and in 1861 again of New Zealand. He returned to Eng- land in 1867. He has published " Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in N. W. and W. Australia " (2 vols., London, 1841) ; " Poly- nesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race" (1855); and " Proverbial Sayings of the Ancestors of the New Zealand Race " (1858). He possessed a celebrated library, especially rich in geo- graphical and ethnological works. Dr. II. J. Bleck published in 1859 a critical list of the works on African and Polynesian languages. GREY, Lady Jane, a noble English lady, born at Bradgate, her father's estate in Leicester- shire, in 1537, beheaded in the tower of Lon- don, Feb. 12, 1554. She was the great-grand-