Constituency : Roscommon 1860-80
Charles chalked up another gain for the Liberals when the election of the Tory Thomas Goff was voided.
Charles was a Catholic educated at Downside School in England and London university.
Charles became President of the Royal Irish Academy and the Society for the Preserving of the Irish Language. He supported separate education for Catholics. He opposed Gladstone's University Bill of 1873 and in 1879 he brought forward his own proposal for a "St Patrick's" university. He withdrew it when the government introduced the University of Ireland Bill
Charles was a proponent of state purchase and resale of land. He made a speech in the Commons in 1876, rebutting the idea that Ireland was favoured by the tax system when in fact the reverse was true. He declared his support for home rule in 1872 and supported Butt's move for an inquiry into constitutional relations in 1874.
In 1874 Charles was elected as a supporter of home rule but refused to take the party pledge demanded by Parnell. He was defeated by the Home Rule League in 1880 and unsuccessfully stood for Wexford in a by-election in 1883. He sat on the Senate of the new University of Ireland. He took over the chairmanship of the royal commission on fiscal relations when Hugh Childers died in 1894.
He died in 1906 aged 68.
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