June 1844, Egerton's eldest son George came of age, and a rumour was promptly reported that Egerton was soon to be made Duke of Bridgewater, with George then to stand for South Lancashire. (However Egerton was not the nearest descendant of the last Duke and it was therefore unlikely that that title would be revived for him.) Later in the year, the electoral register was revised; consequently the Anti-Corn Law League which had coordinated a registration drive of voters favouring repeal of the Corn Laws became confident that they had secured a majority for 'free trade' in South Lancashire, and that Egerton would not be re-elected. When in 1845 Egerton voted for an increase in the Maynooth Grant, he received many letters from his constituents complaining, and accusing him of betraying all he had stood for. He wrote to a Manchester paper to defend himself. His views had been consistent throughout his career, as witness his 1825 motion; nor had he sought to hide them - in 1835 he had drawn attention to having been nominated by a Catholic. He had no intention of changing his views: he would not seek re-election. However, he was not a martyr to Maynooth, but to disease: at the moment he was unable to write with his right hand. He regretted that his views differed from those of his constituents, but if "government was to be administered on the basis that our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens were idolaters", he would be glad to be free of any responsibility for the consequences. Peel, who had decided upon the repeal of the Corn Laws against the previous policy of the Conservatives (and against the wishes of many Conservative MPs), chose Egerton to move the Loyal Address in January 1846. Doing so, Egerton admitted his views had changed; he now supported free trade. He did so not on any theoretical basis but from his own experience: "I myself have been compelled to be a somewhat close observer of the connexion between the prices of provisions, and the employment and happiness of the people. Accident has cast my lot in the midst of a dense population, with respect to a large portion of which, this accident has made me a distributor of work and wages; and I have seen the operation of what I believe to be the connexion between the prices of provisions, and the happiness and employment