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second Duke, was born on the 17th of April 1785. He received his 

 education at Eton, and in his seventeenth year vras entered at St. 

 John's College, Cambridge, where he passed through his college 

 career with considerable distinction, having stood high in the first 

 class at every examination ; so much so, indeed, that at his final 

 examination, in June 1805, it was considered right by the Master 

 and Examiners to notice his exertions by a recorded entry, convey- 

 ing " their highest approbation of Earl Percy's uniform and success- 

 ful application to the subjects of all the six examinations, when from 

 his rank he might have declined attending the two last." In July 

 of the same year, he took his degree as Master of Arts without fur- 

 ther examination, as was then the universal custom. Very soon 

 after quitting College and attaining his majority, he entered on pub- 

 lic life as Member for Buckingham in 1806, and continued to sit as 

 Member successively for Westminster, Launceston, and finally for 

 the county of Northumberland till 1812, when he was called to the 

 House of Lords by writ. 



In 1817 he married the Lady Charlotte Clive, second daughter of 

 Earl Powis, and his father dying shortly after this event, he suc- 

 ceeded to the dukedom on the 10th of July 1817. 



Of his public and political life this is not the occasion to speak at 

 length. Sufiice it to say, that although taking generally little part 

 in the management of afi^airs, and avoiding rather than courting 

 political power, he was on more than one occasion selected as the 

 representative of his Sovereign in situations of high dignity and im- 

 portance. On the occasion of the coronation of Charles X. he was 

 invested with the character of Ambassador Extraordinary at the 

 French Court, the whole charges of which mission, though sustained 

 with very extraordinary magnificence, he insisted on defraying from 

 his private resources. In 1829, he was also appointed as the suc- 

 cessor of the Marquis of Anglesea in the Lord Lieutenancy of Ire- 

 land, where, though of decidedly conservative politics and thoroughly 

 protestant principles, his gentle and conciliatory disposition secured 

 him general respect and good- will even from those opposed to his 

 views of government. 



In the year 1834, he became High Steward of the University of 

 Cambridge, and in 1840, was elected as successor to His Royal 

 Highness the late Duke of Gloucester in the Chancellorship of that 

 venerable institution, which ofiice he filled during the remainder of 

 his life. 



In the year 1823, his Grace w^as elected a Fellow of the Society 

 of Antiquaries and of the Linnsean and Geological Societies, as well 

 as a Trustee of the British Museum, attending the meetings of the 

 Board of Trustees with great regularity and assiduity, even while 

 sulFering severely from attacks of gout, which during many years of 

 his life afforded him little respite. In 1839, he filled the office of 

 President at the Newcastle Meeting of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science. The Observatory of Cambridge owes 

 to his munificence the large and excellent equatoreal telescope, by 

 Cauchoix, which is one of its most efficient instruments, and of 



