Sir James Robert George Graham, 2nd Baronet GCB PC (1 June 1792 – 25 October 1861) was a British statesman, who notably served as Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty.

He left Oxford after two years and while travelling for his pleasure abroad, he took up a position of private secretary to Lord Montgomerie, British diplomat in Sicily, during the period of the Napoleonic Wars.

At Westminster, Graham maintained his campaign for economy, generally opposing the Government's proposed increase in the Royal Family's Civil List.

High duties on foreign corn had failed to help British agriculture and should be cut to a level where they simply balanced the landowner's taxes and rates.

Whereas high prices increased rents to the benefit of the landowners they conferred no advantage to the labourer and were an injury to the productive and a tax on the unproductive classes of the community.

At the general election of 1826, Graham, who stood upon principles identical to those advocated when contesting Hull, became the senior member for the city of Carlisle.

When Sir Philip Musgrave, 8th Baronet (1794–1827), the Tory candidate, ventured into one of the poorest districts of the city, he was confronted by a group of non-electors seeking his opinions relating to the Corn Laws.

[12] Since Graham believed that the union of the two countries principally rested on the church and that any meddling with the establishment would inevitably lead to its downfall he resigned from the government.

In January 1835, notwithstanding criticism from significant parts of the Cumbrian electorate, Graham reassured his supporters that he still favoured peace, retrenchment and reform and in consequence he was returned unopposed at the general election.

[21] The letters from Emilio and Attilo Bandiera (residing at the time in Corfu) to Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian freedom fighter, disclosed their intention to take part in an armed insurrection upon the coast at Calabria.

The events haunted Graham for the rest of his life; as he told his nephew, "he knew, when he was gone, none of his reforms would be recollected, but that he would only be remembered as the man who opened the letters of the Italians.

"[22] Notwithstanding his apparent support for a degree of relaxation in the Corn Law legislation as stated 'Corn and Currency', Graham remained hostile to major reform.

Henceforth he played a leading role in planning a policy which began by including the introduction of a sliding scale for a levy on the price of corn, the reintroduction of income tax, and a massive change in overall tariffs.

In 1845, with Graham's support, 430 of the remaining 813 dutiable articles were freed, and other duties lowered, all export taxes abolished, payments on raw cotton and glass ended and timber and sugar preferences modified.

In early 1846, Peel proposed, in a three-hour speech, that the Corn Laws would be abolished on 1 February 1849, after three years of gradual reductions of the tariff, leaving only a 1 shilling duty per quarter.

On that same night Graham's Preservation of Life Bill (Irish Coercion) was defeated in the Commons by 292 to 219 by 'a combination of Whigs, Radicals, and Tory protectionists'.

He had resigned from the Carlton Club, and although he received offers of cabinet positions from both sides of the political spectrum, he remained loyal to Peel and hostile to any reversal of Free Trade legislation.

[28] At the victory dinner, Graham mocked protection calling it 'outdoor relief to distressed landlords', he also reaffirmed is support for restrained reform.

[29] In December that year the Tory government resigned and Lord Aberdeen became prime minister of a Whig, Peelite, Radical, Liberal alliance.

Sir Charles did not relish the inactivity to which he was reduced by the strength of the fortresses of Kronstadt and Sveaborg, which he was forbidden to attack, except in conjunction with the French fleet.

It does not seem that Graham was to blame; the shutting up of the Russian fleet was a service of sufficient importance without the glory of an attack upon fortresses which would have cost much bloodshed without an adequate return.

On 29 January 1855, John Arthur Roebuck carried a motion demanding an inquiry into the conduct of the war[31] and three weeks later Aberdeen and Graham tendered their resignations.

Later that year a group of 280 like minded members, including Graham and Lawson, met in Willis's Rooms to form the Liberal Party.

[32] At the time of his death the Oxford dandy, the amateur diplomat, and the glamorous parliamentarian had served in many fields, and become an important force in the creation of Victorian Britain.

In 1852, he reminded the Carlisle electorate of his past achievements: I helped, when out of office, to secure for a large body of my fellow subjects in the United Kingdom a perfect equality of civil rights without regard to religious distinction.

In power I was a party to the issuing of that commission of inquiry from which emanated the great measure of municipal reform that established the principle of self-government in the corporations of the kingdom.

Then, I am sure there is not a popular assembly in the kingdom in which the name I am about to mention will not be received with silence and respect, in conjunction with my departed friend Sir Robert Peel.

Still more I did my best, and not unsuccessfully, to establish peace in Europe on a rock of safety, by leading to those amicable relations with all the foreign powers, which free trade and extended commerce never fail to bring in their train.

[12]His nephew offered a fitting tribute: It seemed to me that Sir James Graham's actions, often wrong no doubt, were ever actuated by a deesire for his country's and not for his own, advancement, and what higher credit can there be for a statesman?

I believe he was the principal factor (after Cobden and Bright in converting Sir Robert Peel to Free Trade, the only great political reform which in my day has been an absolute and complete success.