Politics in Parliament
In December 1832 Ward entered the House of Commons, elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for St Albans, and sitting for that seat until 1837; and then for Sheffield from 1837 to 1849. His reputation was as an advanced liberal, and he regarded classical economics as authoritative, as witnessed by his opposition to the Ten Hours Bill.
Ward's career in Parliament was marked by his hostility to the Church of Ireland, on which he moved a yearly resolution. The first occasion for this motion, that "That the protestant episcopal establishment in Ireland exceeds the spiritual wants of the protestant population", was 27 May 1834, and it was particularly significant in British politics: it was brought at a time when the cabinet of Earl Grey was deeply divided on Irish issues. The timing owed to the prompting of Lord Durham, who wished to see an administration of a more Radical complexion. On the same day Lord Ripon, Edward Stanley, Sir James Graham, and the Duke of Richmond resigned office because they could not support the appointment of an Irish church commission. Ward had given notice of the motion, but behind the scenes the Cabinet could not agree a common approach, and a number of them had audiences with the King. A group around Edward Ellice saw this as the occasion for Stanley and Graham to quit the administration. The outcome was only resolved late in the evening, when Stanley and Graham were already gone, and the Marquess of Lansdowne threatened to resign himself unless Viscount Althorp did as he was told by Grey, moving an adjournment of the motion in the Commons, while proposing an enquiry into the Irish church. On 2 June Ward's motion was voted down by 396 to 120.
Ward was strongly opposed to Chartism, which he saw starkly in terms of class conflict; but also took up the cause of the secret ballot, one Chartist demand. George Grote had introduced a motion on it in 1833, and up to 1839 there had been increasing support, with Thomas Babington Macaulay arguing on its side. Ward continued the series of motions in 1842, when Grote no longer was an MP.
Ward was First Secretary of the Admiralty from 1846 to 1849. He spoke in Parliament in defence of William Symonds, attacked in 1848 by the Radical MPs John MacGregor and Joseph Hume on grounds of profligate expenditure, putting the case that dockyard spending had seen retrenchment.
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