Connected through his mother with the leading Irish Whig family, Lismore obtained a viscountcy soon after the Whigs came to power in 1806. He was anxious to be in Parliament, preferably as an Irish representative peer, but if necessary as a Member of the Commons. On 4 Nov. 1806 Viscount Howick, advised by Tierney two weeks before that he must answer ‘for Lord Lismore, and his money’, wrote of him:
His seat is secured, but it must be by a new arrangement at the time that his brother (in the event of Lord Lismore becoming a representative peer) can be returned in his room. No such bargain could be made at present except under more extravagant terms than the business is now concluded upon.
Nevertheless, Lismore was returned for one of Lord Mount Edgcumbe’s Cornish boroughs in a seat made available to friends of government the same day.
Lismore made no mark in the Commons. On 4 Mar. 1807 he was among the Irish defaulters ordered to attend on 26 Mar. He was still in the running for a representative peerage, but nothing came of it.
After Lord Lismore’s note to me about Appleby, that he could not spare £4,000, a note written within ten days after he had authorized me to give 5,000 guineas for him, I dare not undertake anything for him without the money is paid down. If you had not lost your election he would have been returned for Appleby, and I should have been in a scrape.
Grey mss.
Lismore died 30 May 1857.