of one prepared by Sheridan and Adam, which they in consequence refused to have anything to do, and on 11 Jan. they wrote to the prince declining to offer any opinions upon it. Their ground was that it was impossible to undertake the responsibility of advising the prince if their advise was to be afterwards submitted to the alteration of secret and irresponsible counselors. The prince next day employed Lord Holland to effect a reconciliation, and Grey and Grenville again undertaking the task, on 21 Jan. returned an answer to the question which the prince had put to them, and advised `an immediate and total change of public councils, and announced that they were prepared to make the necessary arrangements. Difficulties, however, soon arose owing to the prince's desire to designate particular persons for particular places, and on 2 Feb.Grey announced that the prince did not intend to change his ministers, a fact which he had had learned the night before from Lord Hutchinson and Adam. At the close of the year of restrictions upon the regency the prince again expressed an intention of turning to the whig leaders; but the result of the negotiation, which he entrusted to the Duke of York, was that Grey and Grenville declined to attempt any union with the existing ministry. Thus at the beginning of 1812 it appeared that there was no longer any prospect of Grey's assuming office. Upon the death of Perceval, however, in May fresh negotiations took place for the reconstruction of the regent's ministry. Lord Wellesley; was commissioned to form an administration, and applied to Grey on 23 May, and they had already almost arrived at an agreement when other difficulties put an end to Wellesley's attempt. The overtures were renewed on 1 June, but Grey and Grenville refused to join a cabinet which was to be based upon a system of counteraction, the representatives of one party balancing those of another. Lord Moira then undertook the task, but failed, owing to the refusal of the whig lords to enter any administration unless it was protected from intrigue by an entire change in the household, where the Yarmouth influence was sovereign. Upon this the prince was stubborn, all the more because he had bitterly resented Grey's allusion to this subject after the failure of negotiations in January in a speech in the House of Lords, in which he attacked Lady Hertford as 'an unseen and pestilent secret influence which lurked behind the throne.' Accordingly all attempts at a coalition having failed. Lord Liverpool became first lord of the treasury on 8 July. Grey was fiercely attacked in debate for his conduct towards the prince regent, and though he defended himself firmly, many of the whigs thought that he had been too unbending in the matter (see Buckingham, Courts and Cabinets of the Regency).
For some years he played no very conspicuous part in politics. He continued to support the catholic claims, deprecated the assumption by England of the post of principal in the Spanish war, and protested against the principal expressed in the Swedish treaty of 1813, and afterwards in the treaty of Vienna by which the great powers arrogated to themselves the right of disposing at will of the fortunes and territory of smaller but independent states. After the conclusion of the peace and the downfall of the catholic hopes he began to slowly sever himself from Lord Grenville. Their separation dated from the congress of Vienna, when Grey maintained that the allies had no right to interfere with the internal affairs of France. They continued to act together in opposition to the new corn laws after the peace, though upon the abstract justice and expediency of protection Grey's opinion was never definitely formed. But in 1817 he condemned the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act and the other acts of the same character, which Grenville supported. Grey was, however, left in a very small minority against the government. On 12 May he brought before the House of Lords Lord Sidmouth's circular of 27 March, advising the lord-lieutenant that persons publishing or selling seditious libels might be arrested and held to bail, and attacked it in a speech which occupied four hours in the delivery, and was a model of legal argument. He afterwards corrected and printed it. From this time, without any formal severance, he and Grenville ceased to act together. When the bill for the queen's divorce was introduced in 1820 he was active in opposition to it, having, indeed, while its introduction was as yet uncertain, assured Lord Liverpool that, should the tories be dismissed for refusing to bring in a divorce bill, he would not take their place, and though he won the respect of the nation he also became so hateful to the king that his exclusion from office during the king's life was absolute. Upon the death of Castlereagh there was some expectation that he might be sent for to form a ministry, and he actually placed himself in communication with Brougham upon the subject, but the expectation never was realized. When Canning came into power, though the whigs generally supported him, Grey refused any co-operation, and delivered an elaborate attack upon him, especially upon his conduct in foreign affairs and in regard to the catholic claims, and again
