MANNERS, Lord Charles Henry Somerset (1780-1855), of Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire; 28 Sackville Street, London

A Tory nominee of the Rutland interest, Manners, who was ‘an excellent horseman’, had sat for Cambridgeshire, where his family possessed extensive landholdings, with the support of his brother, John Henry Manners (1778-1857), 5th duke of Rutland, from 1802-1830.1Gent. Mag. (1855), ii. 89. He was slightly more attentive in the reformed House than previously, during which time he had continued to pursue a military career, which included action in the Peninsula. His daring escape from a French ambush, using riding skills honed over many seasons with the Belvoir Hunt to jump over a brook, before bidding ‘adieu’ to his enemies, inspired an 1811 Rowlandson etching.2Hardwicke’s annual biography (1856), 145-6; T. Rowlandson, English manners and French prudence; or French dragoons brought to a check by a Belvoir leap, pub. Hannah Humphrey, 25 Nov. 1811, etching, British Museum Catalogue of Personal and Political Satires 11743. Inattention to his parliamentary duties had contributed to Manners’ increasing unpopularity in Cambridgeshire, where he was defeated in 1830, and an attempt to regain his seat the following year was unsuccessful.3HP Commons, 1820-32, vi. 326-8.

In late 1835 Manners filled the vacancy for North Leicestershire, in which the family seat, Belvoir Castle, was situated, after the sudden death of his brother, Lord Robert, who was also a soldier, huntsman and indifferent parliamentarian. After expressing his ‘fear and apprehension’ about the Whigs’ Irish policy, Manners was returned unopposed.4The Times, 31 Dec. 1835. Although Manners is not known to have spoken in debate, he surpassed, even if only marginally, his late brother in the quality and quantity of speeches at local Conservative meetings. (On one occasion, justifying his opposition to Irish municipal reform, he asked whether it could be ‘justice to Ireland to abolish Protestant corporations?’5Derby Mercury, 28 Dec. 1836.) Returned unopposed at the 1837 general election, Manners renewed his attacks on the Whigs as ‘inefficient, and leagued with a violent and unprincipled faction’.6Derby Mercury, 2 May 1838. At another meeting he described the secret ballot as contrary to ‘English character’.7Derby Mercury, 30 Jan. 1839.

In Parliament, Manners supported the new poor law, but unlike other Leicestershire MPs, such as Edward Basil Farnham or Henry Halford, he did not favour weakening the Commission. He remained committed to agricultural protection, and at the 1841 general election, at which he was again returned unopposed, he argued that a graduated scale of duties was the ‘fairest and most impartial arrangement’ for producers and consumers, and he supported Peel’s revised corn law of the following year.8The Times, 7 July 1841. On factory regulation, as with the new poor law, Manners tended to vote with the party leadership rather than with Tory paternalists, although he did support Halford’s attempts to achieve legislative redress for Leicestershire’s framework knitters, 9 June 1847. Clerical constituents urged Manners to reverse his vote in favour of the Maynooth college bill, 18 Apr. 1845, warning him that ‘if fresh encroachments on ancient foundations are contemplated by you, you must not look for us amongst your supporters’.9F. Merewether, A respectful letter to Lord Charles S. Manners, MP, on the impending dissolution of Parliament (1846), 30. However, the repeal of the corn laws necessitated a closing of ranks within local Conservatism and as Manners reiterated his support for protection his Maynooth vote proved to be no obstacle to his return, without opposition, at the 1847 general election.10The Times, 13 Jan. 1846, 4 Aug. 1847.

Manners, who was always a lax attender, resisted the repeal of the navigation laws, 12 Mar. 1849, and supported Disraeli’s motions to relieve agriculture, 15 Mar. 1849, 13 Feb. 1851, before retiring at the 1852 general election, when he was replaced by his nephew, Charles Cecil John Manners, marquis of Granby (1815-88).11In 1836 Manners voted in 33 out of 195 divisions (17%), ten years later his record was 24 out of 106 (22.6%): An Atlas of the divisions of the House of Commons, 1836 (1836); R. O’Byrne, jun., The parliamentary vote-book; containing the divisions of the House of Commons in the session of 1846 (1847), 136. On his death three years later, shortly after returning to London from Belvoir, Lord Charles, who never married, was fairly described as a ‘consistent politician’.12Hull Packet, 8 June 1855.