politician prime minister statesman
Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley was born on 29 March 1799, the eldest son of Edward Smith Stanley, the thirteenth Earl of Derby, and of Charlotte Margaret Hornby. He was heir to some of the largest estates in the country; but his father and he were so generous to the workers on their estates that they left debts of more £500,000 and £680,000, respectively, on their deaths. Edward, the fourteenth Earl, admittedly also incurred debts as a result of his extensive racing interests.
Edward was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford.
Stanley began his political career as a Whig committed to reform and to the monarchy working through Parliament, serving as M.P. for Stockbridge between 1822 and 1826. He was, successively, M.P. for Preston between 1826 and 1830, M.P. for Windsor from 1831 to 1832, and M.P. for North Lancashire between 1832 and 1844. As a parliamentarian he was considered a fine orator, “the ‘Darling of Debate,’ and a Whig liberal and an ‘old constitutional Whig’”. His early posts in government were all in the service of Whig administrations. He was undersecretary of state for the colonies in George Canning's administration in 1827 and served as chief secretary for Ireland (1830-1833) and secretary of state for the colonies (1833-1834) in Earl Grey’s ministry.
He refused an offer to join Sir Robert Peel’s Tory/Conservative ministry in 1835 but gravitated toward the Conservative Party as time went on. He sat with the Conservative opposition in the House of Commons from 1835 and was eventually rewarded with the post of secretary of state for the colonies in Peel’s ministry, fulfilling this role from 1841 to 1844. His main concern seemed to be to support the Canadian Corn Bill of 1844, which did not please the protectionist section of the Conservative Party. He gave up his ministerial post after being raised to the House of Lords in 1844, as Baron Stanley. He remained politically active and opposed Peel’s decision to repeal the Corn Laws in 1845 and 1846, although he agreed they should be temporarily suspended because of the Irish famine.
Lord (Baron) Stanley emerged as a leader of the new, protectionist Conservative Party in 1846. Since he was in the House of Lords, he found it difficult to control affairs in the House of Commons; but in 1849, Benjamin Disraeli began to perform that role. Stanley gradually moved the Conservative Party away from its staunchly protectionist stance, recognizing that this stance was unlikely to generate broad support. There were moments, as in 1851, when he might have cooperated with the Peelite free traders to become prime minister, but this did not occur. However, in 1852, the collapse of Lord Russell’s Whig administration allowed the Earl of Derby—as he was commonly known after the death of his father in 1851—to operate a government between February and December 1852. It was a minority government and remained so even after the general election of July, and it soon collapsed. It was replaced by Lord Aberdeen’s Whig and Peelite coalition, the forerunner of the Liberal Party.
Derby became prime minister once again, from February 1858 until June 1859, as a result of Palmerston’s defeat on the Conspiracy to Murder Bill provoked by the Orsini plot against the French emperor, which had been hatched in Britain. Derby operated from the House of Lords, and Disraeli acted as leader of the House of Commons and chancellor of the exchequer. However, as in 1852, Derby’s Conservative government was a minority one, remained in the minority after the June 1859 general election, and failed to achieve much. Having suffered frequent bouts of gout, Derby resigned shortly after the 1859 general election.
Palmerston was prime minister from 1859 until 1865, maintained in power by an annual agreement with Derby not to challenge him unless his policies diverged significantly from those acceptable to the Conservative Party. This arrangement lasted until 1865 when Palmerston increased his majority at the general election. However, Palmerston’s unexpected death in October 1865 led to the formation of the short-lived government of Lord Russell, which foundered in June 1866 over the issue of parliamentary reform. As a result, Derby formed his third and last government, which would last until 1868.
As chief secretary for Ireland, Stanley’s main task was to construct an Irish policy in the wake of the Catholic emancipation of 1829, by which Catholics were allowed to stand for the House of Commons and to join public bodies. His greatest success here was the passing of the Irish Education Act of 1831, which permitted children of all religious persuasions to attend government- funded schools. As secretary of state for the colonies his main achievement was laying the groundwork for the abolition of slavery, which occurred in August 1833, shortly after he had left office as a result of Lord John Russell’s intention to appropriate Irish church lands for nonreligious purposes. At that point he abandoned the Whigs and voted on independent lines.
On becoming prime minister, Derby announced that “nothing, certainly, would give him greater pleasure than to see a very considerable portion of the class now excluded admitted to the franchise,” but stressed the need for caution. In failing health, Derby passed on the responsibility for passing the Reform Act of 1867 to Disraeli, whose brief was to bring about household suffrage rather than the manhood suffrage demanded by the National Reform League. Derby realized that only a bill offering householders the vote could pass through both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. His proposal was moderate, giving all taxpaying householders the vote, along with £10 lodgers in the boroughs and £12 occupants (that is, those paying rates on these levels of assessment) in the counties; still, this reform was, as he said in the House of Lords, “a great experiment” and a “leap in the dark.” Derby was replaced as prime minister by William Ewart Gladstone, the Liberal leader, in 1868, at which time he also retired as Conservative leader in favor of Disraeli.
Quotes from others about the person
When Benjamin Disraeli unveiled a statue dedicated to Derby in Parliament Square in 1874, he summed up Derby’s career with a pithy comment that went straight to the point: “He abolished slavery, he educated Ireland, he reformed Parliament.”
In 1825 Edward married to Emma Caroline, second daughter of Edward Bootle Wilbraham, later the first Lord Skelmersdale.
