He served under Lord Salisbury as Lord Privy Seal from 1886 to 1892 (after 1887 in the Cabinet), and again in the cabinet as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1895 to 1902. In the latter office, he supported the Land Act of 1896 which enabled Irish tenants to buy their homes from their landlords' estates and pressed the Treasury for more liberal terms than initially intended, appointed commissions to investigate intermediate education (1899) and university education (1901), and sponsored the Act of 1899 that created a department of agriculture, industries and technical education for Ireland.