the treatment of negroes. He published in 1790 'A Letter to Burke, containing a Short Answer to his Late Speech on the French Revolution,' which went into a second edition and was translated into French in that year. Mrs. Macaulay addressed to Stanhope her 'Observations on the Reflections of Mr. Burke on the Revolution in France.'
Stanhope, during 1791 and 1792, supported Fox's libel bill for maintaining the rights of juries, and published his arguments with a catena of legal authorities in their support. By letter to Lord Grenville, with whom he was still on friendly terms, and by speeches in parliament, he consistently opposed the war with France. On 23 Jan. 1794 he moved to acknowledge the French republic, and on 4 April 1794 he brought forward a motion 'against any interference in the internal government of France,' which provoked his fellow-peers, at Lord Grenville's instance, to order the entry of it to be expunged from their journals. Both of these speeches were printed separately. Next month he opposed the Habeas Corpus Suspension Bill, and on 6 Jan. 1795 he introduced a second motion against interfering with the internal affairs of France. On this occasion he was 'in a minority of one,' and after entering a protest against the defeat of his motion, which he subsequently published, he withdrew from further attendance in parliament. A medal was struck in his honour with the motto 'The minority of one, 1795,' and he was long known by that title or as 'Citizen' Stanhope. From 1791 to 1808 he was a frequent figure in the caricatures of Gillray. One satiric print was entitled 'Scientific Researches, New Discoveries in Pneumatics.' When he declared himself a sans-culotte, a ballad, with a rough caricature of him by another satirist, was scattered broadcast.
Owing to his revolutionary sympathies, Stanhope's house in Mansfield Street was attacked by rioters and set on fire at different times on the night of 11-12 June 1794. He believed, and declared in an advertisement, that the mob had been paid. The Rev. Jeremiah Joyce [q.v.], his private secretary and the tutor to his sons, was on 4 May 1794 arrested at Chevening on a charge of 'treasonable practices.' To celebrate his acquittal Stanhope on 23 Dec. 1794 gave a grand entertainment at Chevening to his neighbours and tenants (Gent. Mag. 1795, i. 73). At a very large meeting at the Crown and Anchor tavern on 4 Feb. 1795, in honour of the acquittal, he was called to the chair and delivered an animated speech, which, when published, enjoyed great popularity. In this year of 1795 Walter Savage Landor printed anonymously 'A Moral Epistle to Earl Stanhope,' a poem of twenty pages, which contrasted him with Pitt, much to the commoner's disadvantage (Foster, Landor, i. 68-71).
Stanhope's secession from the House of Lords lasted from 6 Jan. 1795 to 20 Feb. 1800. In the beginning of 1799 he addressed to the people of Great Britain and Ireland a pamphlet 'On the Subject of an Union,' which was reprinted and circulated by the anti-union party of Dublin. His first motion on reappearing among the peers was to propose a peace with Napoleon; but he acted without concert, and only one peer, Lord Camelford, supported him. In 1808 he took a very strong part against the Indictment Bill, as interfering with the liberty of the subject, and at all times spoke strongly against the slave trade. He advocated a reduction of fiscal duties as tending to an increase in the revenue, and was earnest for education on a comprehensive basis. On 27 June 1811 he introduced a 'gold coin and bank-note' bill, making it illegal to pay a larger sum than 21s. for a guinea, and for preventing any note issued by the Bank of England from being accepted at a discount. It passed through both houses. In the last year of his life he carried through the lords two motions for the appointment of committees one for a revision of the statute-book, and the other for the adoption of a uniform system of weights and measures.
Throughout his life Stanhope deservedly enjoyed a great reputation for his discoveries in science, to the prosecution of which he devoted much time and money. He was elected F.R.S. on 19 Nov. 1772, but through absence from England was not admitted until 12 Jan. 1775 (Records of Royal Soc.), and he was a member of the Philadelphia Philosophical Society. It is believed that Richard Varley, father of John Varley [q. v.] the artist, was his tutor in mechanics. His principal experiments related to the safeguarding of buildings against fire by means of 'stucco,' in which he endeavoured to bring to perfection the plans of David Hartley the younger [q. v.] He took out patents for steam-vessels in March and August 1790, and in February 1807. It was announced in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for 1792 (ii. 956) that his experiments for propelling vessels by the steam-engine without masts or sails had been so satisfactory that a ship of two hundred tons was being built under his direction on this principle. His inventions received the approval of the lords of the admiralty in 1795 and 1796. An
