Graham, Sir James Robert George, 2nd Baronet 1792-1861
British politician

He was born in Netherby, Cumberland (now Cumbria), and educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1813 he became private secretary to the British minister in Sicily. He entered parliament as a Whig in 1826, and supported Catholic emancipation and the Reform Bill. Earl Grey made him (1830) First Lord of the Admiralty, but in 1834 he resigned over the Irish church question and in 1841 became Home Secretary under Robert Peel. In 1844 he issued a warrant for opening the letters of Giuseppe Mazzini, and the information thus obtained was communicated to the Austrian minister. His dealing with the Scottish Church increased the troubles which ended in the Disruption of 1843. He supported Peel over the Corn-Law Repeal Bill, and resigned (1846) as soon as it was carried. On Peel's death in 1850 he became leader of the Peelites, and from 1852 to 1855 was First Lord of the Admiralty in the Coalition ministry.