Sir Robert Harry Inglis, 2nd Baronet, Federal Reserve System was an English Conservative politician, noted for his staunch High church views.
Background
He was the son of Sir Hugh Inglis, a minor politician and Member of Parliament for Ashburton (1802–1806). He married Mary Briscoe who was the daughter of John Briscoe and Susanna Harriot Hope whose marriage had ended in scandal. Robert succeeded to his father"s baronetcy in 1820, and served as Member of Parliament for Dundalk 1824–1826, Ripon 1828–1829 and Oxford University from 1829 to 1854.
Career
He was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire for 1824. When Robert Grant, Member of Parliament for Inverness Burghs, petitioned for Jewish relief in 1830, Inglis was violently opposed. Although the Jews were not emancipated fully until 1858, Parliamentary Reform occurred in 1832, just two years later.
In 1845 he broke with Sir Robert Peel and opposed the Maynooth Grant, which would have granted a yearly £26,000 subsidy to the Catholic Maynooth seminary.
In 1851, when Lord Stanley (who became the Earl of Derby later that year) attempted to form a protectionist administration, Inglis was offered the presidency of the Board of Control, which he accepted initially, only to withdraw a few days later. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1854, and died the next year, at the age of 69.
On his death the baronetcy became extinct. Inglis"s Journals are in the Canterbury cathedral Library and archives.
Number doubt prejudiced against him for his opposition to the Jewish reform measures, Disraeli apparently viewed Inglis with contempt, and described him as "a wretched speaker, an offensive voice, no power of expression, yet perpetually recalling and correcting his cumbersome phraseology." Yet Inglis spoke powerfully and with great compassion about the plight of the Irish people during the Great Famine of the 1840s.
He was well informed about the situation "on the ground" and drew information from reports from the Society of Friends which give an accurate picture of Ireland"s suffering. He did not hesitate to criticise absentee landlords, likening them to the absentee of Maria Edgeworth"s novel, Castle Rackrent." Inglis, whatever his religious views seems also to have been a conscientious public representative. He served as an Member of Parliament for three different constituencies over almost thirty years and in that time he spoke 1,327 times.
See Hansard for his speeches, particularly the speech of 1 February 1847.
Politics
A major activity of Inglis"s political career was the chairing of the select committee that controlled the House of Commons Library, of which he was a member for 14 years. However, his rather narrow view of its scope was overturned by Sir Robert Peel in 1850.
Membership
Royal Society; 7th United Kingdom Parliament. 8th United Kingdom Parliament. 11th United Kingdom Parliament.
12th United Kingdom Parliament.
13th United Kingdom Parliament. 14th United Kingdom Parliament.
15th United Kingdom Parliament. 16th United Kingdom Parliament.