ment to accept the terms originally furnished as a basis for peace. Though not responsible specially for the abortive expeditions to Constantinople and to South America, he also had to bear his share of the unpopularity caused by them; but his term of office was too short to test his capacity. Howick had long been a supporter of the catholic claims, and was anxious to conciliate the agitators, though emancipation was admittedly impracticable for the moment. In 1807, after vainly attempting through Lord Ponsonby to moderate the activity of the Irish catholic leaders, he moved on 5 March for leave to bring in a bill for the admission of catholics to the army and navy. The first night's debate was successful, but the court began to assume an attitude of opposition to the measure, and by 12 March Howick already foreboded the break-up of the ministry. Before introducing the bill Howick had informed the king of its scope, both verbally and in writing. The king, however, had not understood the explanation, and when it at last became clear to him he insisted upon the withdrawal of the bill. The cabinet yielded (15 March), but thought it their duty to avow their own sentiments. The king then insisted that they should promise not to introduce any more measures of this disturbing character. The ministry refused to give a pledge which they regarded as unconstitutional. On the 15th they were dismissed, and Howick remained out of office for twenty-four years.
The new ministry dissolved parliament before the end of the month. Lord Howick had been led by the Duke of Northumberland to suppose that his return for Northumberland would not be opposed, and had delayed his departure from London accordingly. To his surprise he found that Lord Percy was to be suddenly brought forward against him. The expense of a contest would be enormous, the issue very doubtful. He abandoned the contest, and for a few months sat for Lord Thanet's borough of Appleby; but his father died on 16 Nov., and he succeeded to the peerage as second Earl Grey. He took his seat in January 1808. For some years he had little personal influence. He exerted himself to control Whitbread and his friends, who were anxious to see peace concluded upon any terms. Ponsonby, in concert with him and Lord Grenville now in perfect agreement, followed Whitbread's speech on his peace resolutions by immediately moving the previous question. The disunion became in this way so patent that Grey no longer dissuaded Grenville from abandoning his attendance in parliament, and only pressed him not to formally disband the opposition. He used his influence to restrain the opposition from a merely factious antagonism. He made his first speech in the House of Lords on 27 Jan. 1808 on the motion for a vote of thanks to the forces engaged at Copenhagen, and moved for papers on 11 Feb.; but he left town in April, when his uncle, Sir Harry Grey, died, and did not appear in parliament again during the session. His letters, however, show how strongly he deprecated the untimely activity of the catholics in presenting their petition, and how indignant he was when the veto, which Lord Grenville had been authorised to accept on their behalf, was repudiated by the Irish prelates in the autumn. He was anxious that the whigs should announce that they would regard this concession as a condition of their support to the catholic cause; but in this he was overruled by Grenville, Whitbread, and the Duke of Bedford. In 1809 he attended the House of Lords, but the conduct of the opposition in the House of Commons, and in especial Wardle's attacks on the Duke of York, keenly disgusted him, and led him to hold himself aloof. By May 1809 he considered the opposition practically disbanded by its own conduct. On 23 Sept., when Perceval found the government also disunited, he wrote to Grey and Grenville to request a conference with a view to a coalition, but Grey rejected the overture (see Colchester, Diaries, ii. 215-317; Twiss, Eldon. ii. 97: Rose, Diaries, ii. 381). In 1810 he presented the petition of the English catholics in the House of Lords, and supported Lord Donoughmore's motion to refer the Irish petition to a committee, and on 13 June he moved an address to the king on the state of the nation, in which he reiterated his adherence to parliamentary reform. At the end of the year, when the return of the king's madness raised again the question of the regency, there was some disagreement between Grey and Grenville, who had taken opposite sides upon the question in 1788. Grey, however, took no part in the debates as to the terms upon which the prince was to assume the regency, and, having gone to town on the first announcement of the king's illness, returned to Northumberland on 29 Nov., when it was reported to be passing off; but the amendments to the resolutions of the ministry, proposed by Lord Holland in the House of Lords, were almost entirely his composition. He did not return to town till January 1811, and learnt on the way that the prince had at last sent for Lord Grenville. The prince commissioned the two lords to draft his reply to the address of parliament. This they did, only to see it set aside in favour
