SOME OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE SOCIETY. 
43 
member for Yorkshire, he nevertlieless commanded public attention, 
and exercised considerable influence by the very decided opinions 
that he held on the national interests of the day, and the boldness 
with which he expressed them. 
This was made especially apparent in 1832, when Lord Grey 
resigned the premiership, on the King refusing to create some fifty 
peers to secure the passing of his great Reform Bill in the House of 
Lords. There was so much indignation in the country against both 
King and Lords, that the Duke of Wellington came to the rescue, and 
offered to serve either as the head, or a subordinate in a government, 
which would provide a majority of peers that would pass a Reform Bill, 
which would be Lord Grey's own measure, with some amendments. 
This loyal effort on the Duke's part, to stand by the King in an 
emergency, was interpreted by Lord Fitzwilliam as a concession made 
to obtain place and power for himself and party, and he denounced 
the proceedings, as a change of policy suggested by a desire for 
personal advantage. But of such conduct the Duke was quite 
incapable ; and the occurrence is only mentioned as an instance of 
the independence and purity of Lord Fitzwilliam's own political life. 
In fact, being a Whig trained in the political school of Burke, he 
shared in that statesman's horror of the excesses of the great French 
Revolution, and was not at first eager for any sweeping reform of 
parliamentary representation ; but there was ample room for improve- 
ment, and for this his lordship strove. 
As early as in the year 1820, he was both a Free Trader and a 
Reformer, but he knew where to stop ; and when, in 1831, he 
published " An Address to the landowners of Great Britain on the 
Corn Laws," it was against a sliding scale that he principally 
combated ; and after Peel's measure for a total repeal of the duty 
on the importation of foreign corn had been passed, he maintained 
that a moderate fixed duty would have been preferable. The Dissen- 
ters having their disabilities removed in 1828, and the Roman Catholics 
being relieved in 1829, had his hearty approval ; and a fairer and 
more honourable representative of the old Whig school of politicians 
than the late Earl Fitzwilliam, it would be difficult to select. 
Reverting to the early life of the noble Earl, it may be said, that 
