whig premier, was born in 1802, and was educated at Trinity college, Cambridge. He contested his native country of Northumberland at the general election of 1826; but, after a long and severe struggle, he was left at the bottom of the poll. He entered parliament in 1829 as member for Winchelsea under the courtesy title of Viscount Howick, and, at the following election in 1830, was returned for Higham Ferrars (both boroughs were disfranchised by the reform bill). In 1831 he was elected for the county of Northumberland. Upon the formation of his father's ministry in 1830, Lord Howick was appointed under-secretary of state for the colonies, but resigned his office in 1833, in consequence of his disapprobation of Lord Stanley's scheme for the emancipation of the slaves. After the secession of a portion of the cabinet in 1834, Lord Howick became Under-Secretary for the home department. He of course retired on the dismissal of the Melbourne ministry in November of that year; but when they returned to power in April, 1835, he was appointed secretary-at-war. On the downfall of the government in 1841, Lord Howick not only lost his office, but had the mortification of being ejected from his seat for the northern division of Northumberland, which he had represented for nearly ten years. He was soon after, however, elected member for Sunderland, and took a prominent part in the debates in opposition to the measures of Sir Robert Peel's administration. On the death of his father in 1845 Lord Howick was elevated to the upper house; and in the following year he became colonial secretary in the cabinet of Lord John Russell. His administration of our colonies was by no means popular, and frequent misunderstandings and disputes took place between these dependencies of the British empire and the colonial office. On Earl Grey's retirement along with his colleagues in 1852, he prepared a vindication of his colonial policy, which he published in 1853, in two vols. 8vo. He was not included in the coalition ministry of Lord Aberdeen. On its dissolution, however, he was offered, but declined the office of minister-at-war, on the ground that he did not consider the war with Russia "just and necessary." Since that period he has kept aloof both from Lord Derby's and Lord Palmerston's government, and has separated himself from the liberal party on the reform bill of session 1860 and on various other questions. Earl Grey is an able and thoroughly honest and fearless statesman; but his wayward temper and somewhat impracticable turn of mind have materially impaired his usefulness and influence. He is lord-lieutenant and custos rotulorum of the county of Northumberland, and an official trustee of the British Museum.—J. T.
GREY, Lady Jane, the "twelfth-day" queen of England, as renowned for her virtues and accomplishments as for her misfortunes, was a daughter of Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk, and of Frances Brandon, niece to King Henry VIII. She was born in 1537, and educated with strictness in all the learning of the age. Her intellect was equal to the efforts to which it was strained. Besides a perfect acquaintance with the accomplishments usually found in ladies of her rank at that time, she was versed in the Greek, Latin, Italian, and French languages, and had some acquaintance with Hebrew and Arabic. With the learned Roger Ascham she was a favourite scholar. With the reformer Bullinger she corresponded in Latin as good as his own. The ripeness of her understanding, however, and the moral strength of her character, were best seen under the trying circumstances which befel her in the last (the seventeenth) year of her life. She had been brought up in the protestant faith; and when her cousin, King Edward VI., was seized with mortal illness, the ambitious and unprincipled Dudley, duke of Northumberland, who professed to be the most zealous leader of the protestant party in England, and who was all-powerful in the counsels of the young king, resolved on using Lady Jane Grey as a tool for his own aggrandisement, and for the exclusion of the Princess Mary from the throne. The first public step towards the fulfilment of his project was the marriage of his son, Lord Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey on the 25th of May, 1553, when also the lady's two sisters and Lord Guilford's sister were wedded, with the same view of furthering Northumberland's ambitious plans. All this was done with an indecent disregard of the king's illness, the dangerous nature of which had indeed urged on the hasty marriages. In his last hours Edward was so wrought upon by Northumberland, that, contrary to the opinions of his council and the judges, he caused letters patent to be drawn and signed, by which Mary and Elizabeth were excluded from the succession, and the crown was bequeathed to Lady Jane Grey and her heirs. Lady Jane, who knew nothing of the intrigue that was going on, was at her own request and out of consideration to her youth and to the youth of her husband, allowed to reside for a while with her mother in the country. At the approach of Edward's death she was summoned to her father-in-law's house, and informed that the king had appointed her to be heir to the crown. This she did not believe, but deemed it a jest until Lady Northumberland came to her and, after a stormy scene with the duchess of Suffolk, carried off the young bride almost as a prisoner. On the 9th of July, three days after the king's decease, which had been kept secret. Lady Jane was requested to be at Sion House to receive an order from the king. She went alone, and immediately after her arrival was waited upon by Northumberland and other lords, his fellow-conspirators. The duke, as president of the council, announced the demise of the crown and the late king's will that she should succeed him. The lords then knelt and did homage to the lady Jane as queen. Both announcements agitated her deeply. She felt sincere grief for the loss of her royal cousin, whom she loved as a brother, and the burden of the crown greatly oppressed her. She shook, covered her face with her hands, and fell fainting to the ground. Soon, however, resuming her courage, she prayed, that if the throne was justly hers, God would give her grace to govern for his service and for the welfare of his people. The narrative of Queen Jane's nominal reign of ten days must be sought in the history of England. She had no legal title; her cause was not popular; her father-in-law, whose instrument she was known to be, was universally detested; while Mary as the rightful heir enjoyed a large measure of popularity. Northumberland's projects, spite of his advantageous position, fell to ruin in an incredibly short space of time. Lady Jane knew nothing of their nature or extent. When the crown, unasked for, was brought to her to try on, she was informed that another crown must be made for her husband; she started, perceiving, as it would seem, for the first time, that she was to be a puppet in the hands of the Dudleys. She thereupon told Guilford that the consent of parliament must be obtained before he could be crowned. He went whining to his mother, who, finding that nothing could move the firmness of the young queen, bade her son to leave his ungrateful and disobedient wife. On Wednesday the 19th July, when the army had refused to fight against Mary, and the council had turned against their president Northumberland, the duke of Suffolk was required to give up the Tower, where his daughter, the nominal queen, was residing. He yielded, and rushing to her room tore down the canopy under which she was sitting, saying she was no longer queen. She replied that his present words were more welcome than those in which he had advised her to accept the crown; and her reign being at an end, she asked innocently if she might leave the Tower and go home. She did not leave what was now her prison until seven months later, when, on February 12, 1554, she was taken out to die on the scaffold. Queen Mary had no desire to take her young cousin's life, being satisfied with her own bloodless victory and with the punishment of the real conspirators. The emissaries of the Emperor Charles V. strove hard to accomplish the destruction of Lady Jane and her husband. The queen, however, firmly resisted all their suggestions until the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt, in which the duke of Suffolk and his brothers took an active part, touched her on the point that was closest to her heart, her marriage with Phillip of Spain. Then she consented to the death of those who might prove the innocent cause of other rebellions. She endeavoured, first by means of Feckenham, abbot of Westminster, to convert Lady Jane to the Roman catholic faith, but in vain. There was a clear understanding, a heroic courage, and true piety in this young girl of seventeen. Her husband desired an interview on the morning of their execution, but she declined, because "it would only increase their trial; they would meet soon enough in the other world." She saw him alive going to the scaffold, and his headless corpse returning. She went to the scaffold calmly; and having admitted that she had broken the law in accepting the crown, but without any guilt of intention, she died, with these words on her lips—"Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit." In her letters to Bullinger, "she has left a portrait of herself," says Mr. Fronde, "drawn by her own hand, a portrait of piety, purity, and free noble innocence, uncoloured even to a fault with the emotional weaknesses of humanity."—(Froude's History of England, vols. v. and vi. 1860.)—R. H.
