GRET. 275 GREY. Fox died in September, and was succeeded by Grev as Seci-etaiy of State for Koreign Affairs and" leader of the House of Connnons. The Cabi- net was broken up in 1807. but not before it had carried the abolition of the slave trade and the enlistment of soldiers for a limited period instead of for life. By the decease of his father in 1S07 he was removed from the House of Commons to the Upper House. Grey and Lord Grenvillc. as the leaders of the Wliig opposition, were more than once desired by the Prince of Wales, after he had become re<i;ent. to coalesce with the Tory Ministry, but their overtures were firmly rejectee!. Grey actively opposed the bill of pains and penal- ties against Queen Caroline. During the long period in which he remained in opposition, from 1807 to 1830, he gave a strenuous support to the abolition of religious tests, the removal of Roman Catholic disabilities, and the amelioration of the criminal code. When Parliament met in No- vember, 1830, he again urged the adoption of measures of temperate refonn. In answer to this the Duke of Wellington declared against any reform, and affirmed his devoted allegiance to existing conditions; a position which caused the overthrow of his Administration, put the Whigs in power, and permitted them to fix the character and extent of reform. Grey now became Prime Minister, and March 1, 1831, his Ministry presented a bill, prepared by a sub-committee of the Cabinet led by Lord .John Russell (q.v.), which provided for moderate yet extensive changes: (1) in the distribution of seats in the Commons (disfranchising many 'rot- ten boroughs' and increasing the representation of the northern cities and boroughs) ; (2) in ex- tending and simplifying the suffrage: and (3) in equalizing conditions in many other ways. The bill was fiercely opposed, and upon the motion of General Gascoyne amended, an act which caused Grey to advise William IV. to dissolve Parliament and appeal to the people. When the new Parlia- ment met, the bill was carried through the Lower House by large majorities. The second reading was moved by Grey in the House of Lords, Octo- ber 3, 1831. After five nights the bill was thrown out by 199 votes against 1.58. The reply of the House of Commons was an immediate vote of confidence in the Ministers. The King pro- rogued Parliament in order that after the short- est possible interval the bill might lie again introduced. Riots took place at Nottingham, Derby, and Bristol. At Birmingham a large mob threatened to march upon I.,ondon. A second re- form bill passed the House of Commons, which also passed a second reading in the House of Lords, the Tories being determined to mutilate it in committee. Lord Lyndhurst moved the postponement of the disfranchising clauses, and, the Whigs being beaten. Grey resorted to the extreme remedy of demanding from the King a new and large creation of peers. Consent to this was refused, and Grey resigned. The King there- upon sent for the Duke of Wellington, but. Sir Robert Peel refusing to join the Duke in the at- tempt to form a Government, Grey again returned to office, armed with the written authority of the King to create as many peers as luight be neces- sary' to secure the safetv of the bill, and on June 4, 'lS32, the Reform Bill passed the House of Lords. Grey took office on the principles of peace, retrenchment, and reform. His Government, how- ever, lost a good deal of its popularity in Eng- land by his deference to the Lords, and his at- tempts to conciliate his opponents by a division of patronage. In Ireland, Stanley's quarrels with O'Connell and the Irish repealers also tended to weaken the Government. JIany important meas- tires were, however, passed — as the nK'asire for national education in Ireland, the Irish Church Temporalities Bill, and the bill for abolishing slavery in the West Indies. In December, 1834, the Grey Ministry fell to pieces on the Irish Coercion Act. Grey retired from the ])ost of First Lord of the Treasury Aith the respect and es- teem of the entire nation. He jinssed the last ten years of his life in comparative retirement, and died at his family mansion, Howick Iltnise, .July 17, 1845. For the' life of Grey, consult: Lord Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Pnrtii (London, 1842-54) : Roebuck, History of the n'hi;/ Miiiifitry (London, 1890). For his letters and corre- spondence, see Strange, Correspondence of Prin- cess Liercn and Earl Grey, lS2Jt-3-'t (London, 1890), and The Correspondence of William IV. end Earl Vrey (London, 18G7). Some valuable material may also be found in Molesworth, His- tory of England, lS30-7-'i (London, 1874). GREY, Sir George (1812-98). A British colonial governor and author, in his later years popularly known as 'the veteran colonial admin- istrator,' and 'the foxmder of the British South African Empire.' The son of Lieutenant-Colonel Grey, who fell at Badajos, he was bom at Lis- burn, Ireland, in 1812. He was educated at Sand- hurst Military College, and on attaining his captaincy he received an official counnission, on application, to explore interior Australia. He started on his journey in 1837, and the fol- lowing year organized another expedition to explore the Swan River District. The results were embodied in two books published on his re- turn to England in 1840. His enterprise and ability obtained for him. unasked, in 1841, the post of Governor of South Australia. In 1846 he was made Governor of New Zealand. Both here and in Australia his first task was to acquire the language of the natives, with whom he be- came vein- jiopular. His government was so wise and conciliatory that in 1848 he was made K.C.B. (civil), and in 1854 was appointed Governor of Cape Colony. Tlte task of allaying the irrita- tion left by the Kaffir War demanded high powers of statesmanship, and Grey was equal to the oc- casion. In 1858, however, the Colonial Office inter- fering with measures which he considered neces- sary, he threw up his post and came to England. Puiilic opinion at the Cape was so strongly mani- fested in his favor that he was requested by the Government to resume his Governorship. On the breaking out of the Indian Mutiny Grey sent every soldier he cotild spare to the assistance of the Indian Government. In 18G1 he was again appointed Governor of New Zealand, in the hope that he would bring the war then raging there to a satisfactory conclusion, and he succeeded in bringing abovtt pacific relations with the Mauris. He resigned his office and returned to England in ]8fi7: but afterwards resided in New Ze:iland, and from 1877 to 1891 was Premier of the col- ony. He revisited England in 1894, and resigned his seat in the New Zealand Parliament in 1895. He died in London, September 10, 1898. Grey was the author of: Journals of Discovery in Aus-
