[1] On the death of his father in January 1830, he succeeded as second baron, but took little part in the debates of the House of Lords until 1837, when he began to interest himself in the wording and detail of Parliamentary bills.

Redesdale was especially severe on the drafting of railway bills, and in 1867 threatened to hale a contractor named France to the bar of the house for expressions reflecting on him as chairman.

[1] Redesdale was also a frequent speaker on general topics, e.g. the Reform Bill of 1867, when he opposed the Earl Grey's amendment for the disfranchisement of certain boroughs, on the ground that the matter was beyond the proper jurisdiction of the peers, and that it was a mistake to make the franchise a party question.

[1] In 1874, appeared 'Reasoning on some Points of Doctrine,' and in 1875 Redesdale entered into a controversy with Cardinal Manning in The Daily Telegraph on the subject of communion in both kinds.

Redesdale displayed considerable ingenuity in forcing the cardinal to base his arguments on authorities whose cogency he had denied, but, as might be expected from the predispositions of the dialecticians, the dispute led to no practical result.

On 14 June, he called attention in the House of Lords to a manual entitled 'The Priest in Absolution,' published privately for the use of the clergy by the Society of the Holy Cross, and elicited a strong condemnation of its doctrines from Archbishop Archibald Tait.