Lord Jersey served as a
Lord-in-waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) between 1875 and 1877 in the
Conservative administration of
Benjamin Disraeli. He returned to the government in 1889 when
Lord Salisbury made him
Paymaster General, which he remained until 1890. and made a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG). He arrived in Australia to take up his position in January 1891. According to the
Australian Dictionary of Biography, there were no major political difficulties during his term. He was described by
Sir Henry Parkes as "amiable and well-intentioned", but "very much occupied with his own family". He "did not excel as a public speaker". He was the official host at the 1891 Australasian National Convention in Sydney. Jersey tendered his resignation already in November 1892 citing pressing business affairs. This did not go down well with the Colonial Office in London. Lord Salisbury thought that Jersey had found that there was "less individual power to his office than he imagined". Jersey himself wrote to the Colonial Secretary: "the duties and responsibilities of a governor can hardly be called serious nowadays being chiefly of a social character". He left Australia in March 1893. Lord Jersey represented the United Kingdom at the
1894 Colonial Conference in
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He also acted as
Agent-General for New South Wales in London between 1903 and 1905 and through his ties with the banking institutions helped the state's loan negotiations. He revisited Australia in 1905 and Prime Minister
Alfred Deakin considered appointing him Australia's first
High Commissioner to London, although nothing came out of this. One of Lord Jersey's godparents was Queen Victoria. The Queen accepted her role as a token of friendship to Robert Peel, Prime Minister, who was Lord Jersey's grandfather (his mother, the 6th Countess, being Julia Peel). ==Other public appointments==