Considering Grey's importance, and the prominence of the family he helped to found, it is surprising that he has been neglected by history. Only a short sketch in the Dictionary of National Biography, and an article by Sir John Fortescue in the Edinburgh Review have ever attempted even perfunctory assessments of his life. As a man and an army officer, Grey represented some of the best qualities of eighteenth-century British civilization. In America, he fought during the War of American Independence and in 1794 in the West Indies against France. Hence, as Nelson shows, his career is important in American History. Given his long service to the British nation in all her wars from 1744 to 1800, it is clear from Nelson's account that Grey is an important character in British history as well. During his lifetime, Grey proved himself a reliable and successful soldier, earning and deserving all his honors: Knight of the Bath in 1782, baron in 1801, viscount and earl in 1806.

This is a fresh study of Charles, Earl Grey. It provides a more critical account of Grey than previous books, stressing the traditionalism of his outlook, and his retention of an aristocratic set of values throughout his long political career. Earl Grey is famous as the author of the Great Reform Bill, the achievement which crowned his premiership. The author shows how this followed years of political frustration and disappointment, and that the Reform Bill can only be understood when it is placed in its historical and political context. John Derry describes the reaction in England to the French Revolution, the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and the Irish crisis, and their effect on Grey as a politician. He also focuses on such important influences in Grey's life as his commitment to civil and religious liberties, his devotion to Fox, his disdain for Pitt and detestation of Canning, and his loyalty to Grenville. This penetrating and lucid biography of one of the most influential parliamentary reformers of the nineteenth century reveals the impact of personality on the political events of the period. It also sheds much fascinating light on the nature and practice of politics between the end of the War of American Independence and the accession of Queen Victoria.

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It was a happy chance that caused the authorized life of the second Earl Grey to be left half finished. And that induced the Lord Grey to assign the task to Mr. George Trevelyan.