[2] He was close enough to be singled out for ridicule in the Rolliad: When Pitt strayed from the Liberal principles of his early days, his brother-in-law severed their political connection and opposed the arbitrary measures which the ministry favoured.

In 1794 Stanhope supported Thomas Muir, one of the Edinburgh politicians who were transported to Botany Bay; and in 1795 he introduced into the Lords a motion deprecating any interference with the internal affairs of France.

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society so early as November 1772, and devoted a large part of his income to experiments in science and philosophy.

His principal labours in literature consisted of a reply to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution (1790) and an Essay on the rights of juries (1792), and he long meditated the compilation of a digest of the statutes.

[2] By her he had three sons:[7] Lord Stanhope died at the family seat of Chevening, Kent, and was succeeded by his eldest who shared much of his father's scientific interest but is known also for his association with Kaspar Hauser.