common-law procedure (17 & 18 Vict. cap. 125); but neither the Testamentary Jurisdiction Bill nor the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Bill, which he introduced, passed into law (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. cxxx. 702–720, cxxxiv. 1–12). Cranworth continued in his post on the formation of Lord Palmerston's administration in February 1855, in which year he was also appointed a governor of the Charterhouse. He introduced a bill to facilitate leases and sales of settled estates on 11 May following (ib. cxxxviii. 398–9), but it failed to pass through the House of Commons. The delay of the ministerial measures of legal reform in this session was the occasion of an attack on Cranworth by Lord Lyndhurst, who pointed out ‘the want of cordial co-operation between the lord chancellor and the law officers of the crown in the other house’ (ib. cxxxix. 1189–96). Cranworth took part in the debate on Lord Wensleydale's patent on 7 Feb. 1856 [see Parke, Sir James]. He defended the action of the government, and insisted that ‘the legality of life peerages was perfectly clear’ (ib. cxl. 314–27). The bill to facilitate leases and sales of settled estates passed through both houses in this session (19 & 20 Vict. cap. 120); but neither the Appellate Jurisdiction Bill nor the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Bill passed the commons. In the session of 1857 the government measures for the establishment of the probate and divorce court passed through both houses (20 and 21 Vict. caps. 77 and 85). Cranworth, however, refused to distribute any of the patronage under these acts, and gave the whole of it to Sir Cresswell Cresswell [q. v.], the first judge in ordinary. He resigned office on the accession of Lord Derby to power in February 1858. On 23 March following he moved the second reading of a Land Transfer Bill and a Tenants for Life Bill, but neither of them became law during that session (Parl. Debates, clxix. 559–63). Cranworth was not offered the great seal on Lord Palmerston's return to office in June 1859, as ‘his reputation had been so much damaged while chancellor by allowing Bethell to thwart and insult him’ (Life of John, Lord Campbell, ii. 368). He moved the second reading of the Endowed Schools Bill on 9 Feb. 1860 (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. clvi. 689–95). This bill, which enabled the children of dissenters to enjoy the benefit of the King Edward's schools, received the royal assent on 31 March following (23 & 24 Vict. cap. 11). ‘Cranworth's Act,’ by which his name is remembered, became law during the session (23 & 24 Vict. cap. 145). Its object was the shortening of conveyances, and it has now been superseded by Lord Cairns's Conveyancing and Law of Property Act. He differed with Lord Westbury with regard to the Bankruptcy Bill of 1861, and opposed the appointment of a chief judge (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. clxiii. 1223–5). In the session of 1862 he introduced a bill for obtaining a declaration of title, as well as a Security of Purchasers Bill (ib. clxv. 373, 897–903, clxvi. 1190–1). The former became law (25 & 26 Vict. cap. 67), but the latter was dropped in the House of Commons. On Lord Westbury's retirement Cranworth was reappointed lord chancellor (7 July 1865), and at the opening of parliament on 1 Feb. 1866 he again took his seat on the woolsack (Journals of the House of Lords, xcviii. 7). On 1 May 1866 he moved the second reading of the Law of Capital Punishment Amendment Bill (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. clxxxiii. 232–41), which passed through the lords, but was withdrawn in the commons. In the following month he introduced a Statute Law Revision Bill (ib. clxxxiv. 210), but withdrew it before the second reading. He resigned the great seal on the formation of Lord Derby's second administration in July 1866. In the session of 1867 he took charge of Russell Gurney's Criminal Amendment Bill, and safely piloted it through the House of Lords (ib. clxxxvii. 933–4). In the session of 1868 he took charge of two other bills which had been sent up from the House of Commons, viz. the Religious Sites Bill and a Bankruptcy Amendment Bill, both of which passed into law (ib. cxcii. 233–4, cxciii. 866). Cranworth spoke for the last time in the House of Lords on 20 July 1868 (ib. cxciii. 1474). He died after a short illness at No. 40 Upper Brook Street, London, on 26 July 1868, aged 77, and was buried in the churchyard of Keston, the parish where his seat, ‘Holwood Park,’ was situate, and where there is a monument to his memory. He married, on 9 Oct. 1845, Laura, daughter of Thomas Carr of Frognal, Hampstead, Middlesex, and of Esholt Heugh, Northumberland, who died in Upper Brook Street on 15 Feb. 1868, in her eighty-first year, and was buried at Keston. There were no children of the marriage, and the peerage became extinct upon Cranworth's death.
Cranworth was a man of high personal character and strong common-sense. He was a sound lawyer, and an acute and patient judge. He was not a successful speaker in parliament; but, though destitute of eloquence and wit, his speeches were always listened to with respect. Owing to his extreme caution and timidity, Cranworth failed as a law reformer. He had ‘an unhappy
