ears he had become absorbed in the pastime and fortunes of the
turf, in which his whole being seemed engrossed, and which he pursued on
a scale that perhaps has never been equalled.

Lord George had withdrawn his support from the government of the Duke of
Wellington, when the friends of Mr. Canning quitted that administration;
and when in time they formed not the least considerable portion of the
cabinet of Lord Grey, he resumed his seat on the ministerial benches. On
that occasion an administrative post was offered him and declined; and
on subsequent occasions similar requests to him to take office were
equally in vain. Lord George, therefore, was an original and hearty
supporter of the Reform Bill, and he continued to uphold the Whigs in
all their policy until the secession of Lord Stanley, between whom and
himself there subsisted warm personal as well as political sympathies.
Although he was not only a friend to religious liberty, as we shall have
occasion afterwards to remark, but always viewed with great sympathy
the condition of the Roman Catholic portion of the Irish population, he
shrank from the taint of the ultra-montane intrigue. Accompanying
Lord Stanley, he became in due time a member of the great Conservative
opposition, and, as he never did anything by halves, became one of
the most earnest, as he certainly was one of the most enlightened,
supporters of Sir Robert Peel. His trust in that minister was indeed
absolute, and he has subsequently stated in conversation that when,
towards the end of the session of '45, a member of the Tory party
ventured to predict and denounce the impending defection of the
minister, there was no member of the Conservative party who more
violently condemned the unfounded attack, or more readily impugned the
motives of the assailant.

He was not a very frequent attendant in the House. He might be counted
on for a party division, and when, towards the termination of the
Melbourne ministry, the forces were very nearly balanced, and the
struggle became very close, he might have been observed, on more
than one occasion, entering the House at a late hour, clad in a
white great-coat, which softened, but did not conceal, the scarlet
hunting-coat.

Although he took no part in debate, and attended the House rather as a
club than as a senate, he possessed a great and peculiar influence in
it. He was viewed with interest, and often with extraordinary regard,
by every sporting man in the