In the early 1840s Manners was a leading figure in the Young England movement, led by Benjamin Disraeli. This party sought to reduce the predominance of the middle class "bourgeoisie", and to re-create the political prestige of the aristocracy by proving its capacity to ameliorate the social, intellectual, and material condition of the peasantry and the labouring classes. At the same time its members looked for a regeneration of the Church, and the rescue of both the Church and Ireland from the troubles inherited from the Whig predominance of the 18th century. Manners made an extensive tour of inspection in the industrial parts of northern England, in the course of which he and his friend George Smythe, later 7th Viscount Strangford, gave well-received speeches. In 1843 he supported Lord Grey's motion for an inquiry into the condition of England, the serious disaffection of the working classes of the north being a subject to which he was constantly drawing the attention of parliament. Among other measures that he urged were the disestablishment of the Irish Church, the modification of the Statutes of Mortmain, and the resumption of regular diplomatic relations with the Vatican. In the same year he issued in pamphlet form a strong "Plea for National Holydays".