1830 - 1834

John Charles Spencer, Viscount Althorp (1830-1834) Although Althorp - the heir to one of the grandest titles and eStates in the country - was elected to Parliament in 1804, he showed little interest in a political career until 1809, when he became involved with a group of radical Whigs known as the 'mountain'. After the defeat of Napoleon he strenuously resisted the attempts of the government to introduce legislation curbing political dissent and became a determined supporter of parliamentary reform. When William IV asked Lord Grey to form a Whig government in 1830, Althorp became the Leader of the Commons and chancellor of the exchequer. He set the terms of the parliamentary Reform Bill, and, following the consolidation of Whig power in the first Reform Parliament, began a series of economic and social reforms, including the reduction of tariff barriers and the abolition of slavery in the British empire. Soon after the Grey ministry's break-up over the question of subsidising the Irish church Althorp inherited the Spencer earldom, taking him out of office, and of politics.

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