The Third Earl Spencer. 
148 
jealousy, no envy, and perhaps too little ambition. He often said that he 
had hoped the many votes he had given in favour of motions which were 
supported by small minorities would have prevented any proposal to him 
to accept office. But when he was told by Lord Grey th&t the formation 
of the Ministry depended upon his decision, he felt he could no longer 
hesitate." 
Although Lord Althorp's first budget was, in some respects, 
a failure, his natural clear-headedness and sound common-sense 
soon made him more successful in the management of financial 
matters ; and, in the far more difficult task of piloting the 
Reform Bill through Parliament, in which he had so important 
a share, in conjunction with Lord John Russell, his patience 
and candour (and complete command of temper) became con- 
spicuously manifest. At an early period of his official life, 
Francis Jeffrey — then new to the House of Commons — was 
struck with admiration of the man, and wrote of him : " There is 
something to me quite delightful in his calm, clumsy, courageous, 
immutable probity and well-meaning, and it seems to have a 
charm with everybody." 
On the death of his father, in November, 1834, Lord Althorp 
(now Earl Spencer) was called to the Upper House, and the King 
made use of this event as a pretext for dismissing the Ministry, 
on the ground that it was so much weakened as to become 
incapable of conducting the business of the country. But 
whilst this use of his elevation to the peerage caused no little 
vexation to Lord Spencer, his return to the quietude of private 
life was a source of unmixed satisfaction. It is, indeed, stated 
on the authority of Lord Lyttelton, that he spoke of it as " the 
cessation of acute pain to him." 1 He was, as a matter of course, 
pressed to return to office in Lord Melbourne's second Adminis- 
tration, in 1835 ; and it is said that when Lieutenant Drummond 
went down to Althorp on this errand, he found Lord Spencer 
sitting at an open window, looking at the sheep and young- 
lambs, and he protested that nothing should induce him to 
leave them. No persuasion, indeed, could avail to call him 
back to the cares of office, for his love of the country and its 
pursuits was as fresh and as intense as when he was a boy at 
Harrow. But it is well observed by his colleague, Lord 
Brougham, in the introduction to his " Dialogues on Instinct," 
supposed to be carried on between himself and Lord Althorp, 
that " those pursuits had never interfered with the duty which 
1 In a letter addressed to his daughter. Mrs. Butler. Mr. Grey of Dilston 
says : " I often think of dear Lord Althorp's saying to me, when in office at 
the passing of the Reform Bill : ' If I were once out, they'll never catch me 
again: 1 just know every Monday morning, on coming to Downing Street, 
the feeling that makes a man throw himself over London Bridge I '" 
