Editing Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey (section)

==Parliamentary and administrative career==
Grey stood for parliament at [[South Northumberland (UK Parliament constituency)|South Northumberland]] in 1878 (at the age of 28). He received the same number of votes as his opponent [[Edward Ridley]], but Grey declined a scrutiny and was not returned.<ref>{{Cite book| title=Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench| publisher=London Dean| year=1886| location=London| pages=65| url=https://archive.org/stream/debrettshouseo1886londuoft#page/n7/mode/2up}}</ref> It was not until the [[1880 United Kingdom general election|general election of 1880]] that Grey, the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] candidate, was elected as a member of parliament (MP) for South Northumberland, a seat he held until it was replaced under the [[Redistribution of Seats Act 1885]] and he moved to be the MP for [[Tyneside (UK Parliament constituency)|Tyneside]], following [[1885 United Kingdom general election|that year's election]]. In 1884 he wrote to the Manchester-based ''[[Women's Suffrage Journal]]'' declaring his support for women's suffrage, writing that "[t]here are no questions which receive so little attention, or which, in my opinion, so urgently call for the close and serious consideration of social reformers, as those affecting the condition of women. The possession of a vote by women who are heads of households will lead to the formation of associations and unions for the protection and advancement of the interests of their sex."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Grey|first=Albert|date=2 June 1884|title=Letters from Members of Parliament: Hon. Albert Grey, M.P.|url=https://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CAGEVIS172098748|journal=Women's Suffrage Journal|volume=XV|pages=124|via=Nineteenth Century Collections Online}}</ref>

Another reform he supported was electoral reform, favoring [[proportional representation]] and [[Single transferable voting]]. He was active in the Proportional Representation Society of Britain. (At the time of his passing, he was its president).<ref>Proportional Representation Review October 1917, p. 9-10</ref> He organized a model STV election in Northumberland in 1885, remarkably using untrained coal miners as staff to conduct it successfully.<ref>Humphreys, Proportional Representation (1911), p. 129-130</ref>

Inspired by the theories of [[Giuseppe Mazzini]], Grey became an advocate of [[imperialism]] and was one of the founders of the [[Imperial Federation League]], which sought to transform the [[British Empire]] into an [[Imperial Federation]]. Grey thus split with Prime Minister [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]] in 1886 over [[Irish home rule]] and became a [[Liberal Unionist Party|Liberal Unionist]], but the shift was short-lived as Grey failed to win his constituency again in the [[1886 United Kingdom general election|1886 general election]].<ref>{{hansard-contribs | mr-albert-grey| Albert Grey }}</ref>

Eight years later, in October 1894,<ref name=GG /> Grey succeeded his uncle, [[Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey|the 3rd Earl Grey]], as the 4th [[Earl Grey]] and returned to Parliament when taking his seat in the [[House of Lords]]. As a friend of [[Cecil Rhodes]], Lord Grey became one of the first four trustees responsible for the administration of the scholarship funds which established the [[Rhodes Scholarship]] and he was invited by Rhodes to be a member of the board of directors and director of the [[British South Africa Company]], coming to serve as the main liaison between Rhodes and the [[Secretary of State for the Colonies]], [[Joseph Chamberlain]], in the periods immediately before and after the [[Jameson Raid]] on the [[South African Republic|Transvaal]]. As the [[Administrator of Southern Rhodesia]], [[Leander Starr Jameson|Sir Leander Starr Jameson]], was disgraced by the Jameson Raid, the British government, then headed by [[Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|the Marquess of Salisbury]], in 1896 asked Lord Grey to serve as Jameson's immediate replacement, staying in that role until 1897.<ref name=GG /> Two years later, Grey was also appointed as [[Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland]] and published a brief biography of a young relative,<ref name=LG27062>{{London Gazette| issue=27062 |date=14 March 1899 |page=1756}}</ref> Hubert Hervey, who was killed in the [[Second Matabele War]].<ref>{{citation |author=The Earl Grey| title=Hubert Hervey, Student and Imperialist| year=1899| location=London| publisher=Edward Arnold| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUNCAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>