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The Da Vinci Code vocabulary

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Earl Grey: tags: [personage]

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Definition:

party to the impeachment of Warren Hastings; tried to impeach Pitt; denounced union with Ireland; became leader of the House of Commons in 1806; carried Act for the Abolition of the African Slave-trade; succeeded to the earldom in 1807, and denounced the Bill against Queen Caroline; becoming Prime Minister in 1830 he was defeated, and resigned twice over the Reform Bill; returning to power in 1832, with permission to make as many peers as might be needed, he succeeded at last in passing the Bill; he was head of a powerful party in the reformed Parliament, and carried the bill abolishing slavery in the Colonies, but resigned over Irish troubles in 1834 (1764-1845).

Rev. James Wood. The Nuttall Encyclopedia (1907)
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the tea named after him

^{painting: by Thomas Phillips, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grey2.jpg}

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Uses:

March 13: Earl Grey's Birthday

In 1830, the Whigs finally returned to power with Grey as Prime Minister. During his role as leader of his party, he is especially noted for passage of the Reform Act of 1832 and the abolition of slavery. [...] [The Reform Act] extended the franchise into the middle-classes, giving greater political influence to urban centers and abolished 56 Pocket Boroughs, [...]

Lester Macklin. Celebrate Around the Calendar: 366 Historical Anecdotes, Affiliated Recipes and a Daily Journal (2007)

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He spoke fiercely against the Boers who rebelled in 1881, but after the defeat of Majuba he concluded a treaty with Transvaal which the English themselves called a cowardly surrender. In his first parliamentary speech he warmly defended against Earl Grey’s accusation of cruelty his own father, a rich slave owner in Demerara who had made two million francs from the sale of human flesh,

James Joyce. The Shade of Parnell (May 16, 1912)

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"Only I want to keep myself independent about Reform, you know; I don't want to go too far. I want to take up Wilberforce's and Romilly's line, you know, and work at Negro Emancipation, Criminal Law—that kind of thing. But of course I should support Grey."

George Eliot. Middlemarch

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Hyacinth: would you like another cup of Earl Grey?

BBC. Keeping Up Appearances: Daddy's Accident (1990)