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the House of Commons from 1839 to 1857, when, on his retirement, 

 he was raised to the Peerage under the title of Viscount Eversley. 



The second son, John, was born in 1797, and was educated at Eton 

 and Cambridge. At the University his career was most honourable ; 

 though of feeble health, which at that time never permitted him to 

 work for more than six hours a day, he was Senior Wrangler in 1818, 

 a year remarkable for the number of men of ability who passed in 

 honours and who subsequently distinguished themselves ; he was 

 elected Fellow of Trinity in the following year, and was called to the 

 Bar by the Inner Temple in 1824. For some years he practised as a 

 conveyancer with success ; but after a time was gradually drawn away 

 into political employment. In 1832 he was employed by the Govern- 

 ment of the day to arrange the divisions of counties for representa- 

 tion under the Reform Act. In the same year he was elected 

 member for Petersfield by a majority of one, but was unseated on a 

 scrutiny. Shortly after he was appointed Under Secretary of State 

 for the Colonies, by the Secretary of State, Mr. Stanley, after- 

 wards Earl of Derby. In 1834 he undertook the work of Poor 

 Law Commissioner, under the Act passed in that session for the 

 amendment of the Poor Law. His work involved the entire organisa- 

 tion of the new system, the arrangement of Poor Law Unions over 

 the whole country, and the building of workhouses, in the face of 

 vehement opposition from a large part of the Press and the public. 

 He held this post for seven years, till 1841, when the work began to 

 tell upon his health, he then exchanged this office for that of 

 Secretary of the Board of Trade, which he held till the year 1848, 

 when he was appointed Clerk of the Parliaments, an office which he 

 held till his final retirement in 1875, four years before his death. His 

 official duties connected with these offices formed, however, but a 

 small part of his work ; he was employed by successive Governments 

 in a great number of Commissions and Inquiries involving great 

 labour. In 1834 he was one of the Commissioners entrusted by Lord 

 Glenelg with the foundation of the Colony of South Australia ; he 

 was also one of the Founders of the University of London, and in 

 1842 succeeded the late Sir John Lubbock as Vice- Chancellor of the 

 University, a post which he filled for twenty years till 1862. In 1842 

 he was a member of a Commission to inquire into the recent losses of 

 Exchequer Bills ; in 1843 he was appointed member of the Emigra- 

 tion Commission ; in 1846 he was employed by the Government on 

 a mission to Edinburgh, which resulted in founding the National 

 Academy in that city ; in the same year he was employed as 

 arbitrator to settle the questions in dispute between the Colonial Office 

 and the New Zealand Company. About the same time he contested the 

 representation of the University of Cambridge in the Liberal interest, 

 but without success. Shortly afterwards he was appointed a member 



