I want rest

‘My work at F.O. is nearly over, and not to my regret: much of it was interesting, but the constant interruption and disturbance from visitors, the tendency of diplomatists to waste time in unnecessary talk, the impossibility, at this time of year, of getting air and exercise without neglecting official duty, and the difficulty of escaping, even for a few hours, from telegrams and despatches, make the post trying to health and temper. I want rest, and feel that I want it.’ This is from the diaries of Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby, a British statesman born 200 years ago today, who served twice as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Stanley was born at Knowsley Hall, Lancashire, the eldest son of Edward Smith-Stanley, the future 14th Earl of Derby, three times prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, and Emma Caroline Bootle-Wilbraham. Raised in one of Britain’s wealthiest political families, he was educated at Eton, Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained a first-class degree in classics and became a member of the Cambridge Apostles, the influential intellectual society. He entered Parliament in 1848 as MP for King’s Lynn while still in his early twenties.

Stanley rapidly established himself as a capable administrator. He served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, Colonial Secretary, President of the Board of Control, and in 1858 became the inaugural Secretary of State for India following the transfer of power from the East India Company to the Crown after the Indian Rebellion. He was twice Foreign Secretary, first under his father and then under Benjamin Disraeli, and later returned to government as Colonial Secretary in Gladstone’s Liberal administration after breaking with the Conservatives over foreign policy. His political journey from Conservative to Liberal and finally Liberal Unionist reflected his independence of mind on questions of diplomacy and empire.

In 1870, Stanley married Lady Mary Sackville-West, daughter of the 5th Earl De La Warr and widow of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. The marriage produced no children. He succeeded to the earldom on his father’s death in 1869 (becoming Lord Derby) and thereafter divided his time between national politics and the management of the extensive Knowsley estates. His health declined after an attack of influenza in 1891, and he died at Knowsley in 1893, aged 63. The title passed to his younger brother, Frederick Stanley, later Governor General of Canada and the donor of the trophy that became the Stanley Cup. Further information is available from Wikipedia. 

Derby’s diaries have become an indispensable primary source for historians of Victorian politics, cabinet government and foreign policy. They have been extensively cited by later scholars, including Geoffrey Hicks, whose Documents on Conservative Foreign Policy, 1852-1878 uses them repeatedly alongside the correspondence of Disraeli and other ministers.

The first substantial publication came with Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative Party: Journals and Memoirs of Edward Henry, Lord Stanley, 1849-1869, edited by John Vincent, Professor of Modern History at the University of Bristol, and published by Harvester Press in 1978 (freely available online at Internet Archive). It was followed by A Selection from the Diaries of Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (1826-93), Between September 1869 and March 1878 (Royal Historical Society, 1994), and The Diaries of Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (1826-93) Between 1878 and 1893: A Selection (Leopard’s Head Press, 2003). Together these three editions make available material spanning more than four decades of Stanley’s political life. Here are several extracts from the first publication.

6 July 1866

‘Friday. Went down to Windsor to be sworn in. . . . Appointed a Mr Sanderson my private secretary.

It is not likely that I shall be able to continue this diary further.

My first official act was, with the consent of Ld D, to telegraph to Florence and Berlin supporting the French proposition of an armistice.’

7 July 1866

‘(Saturday). Restless, up early, hard at work from 8.30 to near 6.30, and again two hours after dinner. Dined Travellers. Cabinet at 3, sat 1½ hour: subjects: supply of needle-guns, Fenians in Canada, a sergeant of one of the Irish regts convicted of treason, whom Sir H. Rose wants to shoot, and whose life I think we saved: foreign affairs, and winding-up of the session.

. . . Cleared the office, having neither letter unanswered nor paper unread when I left off.

Before taking office I wrote to Ld Cowley entreating him to remain at Paris - which he consents to do for the present, though making a favour of it. I have not an idea how he could be effectually replaced. Though not a man of first-rate talent, he knows the country and the people thoroughly, and can be relied on. Moreover, as the place is one not given exclusively to professional diplomatists, there will be a great scramble for it, and many attempts to get it jobbed for the interest of the party.’

8 July 1866

‘Sunday. Hatfield for the morning, where met Lowe. . . . Carnarvon was to have come, but was too busy. . . . No business, except reading up memoranda of subjects now being dealt with at F.O. Pleasant day.’

9 July 1866

‘Busy all day from 8 a.m. At 2 the ministers came according to custom, and were received by me in state. (Levee dress.) About 22 appeared successively. The audience lasted three hours. . . . La Tour d’Auvergne frank and straightforward in his ways: Azeglio more than half an Englishman. Altogether I like the diplomatists better than I had expected to do. Very weary at night.

. . . We learn that Prussia accepts the armistice on conditions. . . . Bulow hopes in the general scramble to get back at least Schleswig in a Congress. Musurus greatly afraid that compensation to Austria will be proposed at expense of Turkey. - I reassure him on that point.

Azeglio believes the Italians would consent to leave the Pope Rome with sovereign power and dignity, provided the territory round it, now held by him, were taken away. This is exactly the compromise I have always suggested.

Italians refuse Venetia as a French gift, and want a piece of the Austrian Tyrol. The fact is, they do not like to leave off beaten, nor to owe anything to France, and they are afraid of French demands. . . . Emp. has protested that he wants no addition of territory. . . . It may be so, but Savoy and Nice recur to the mind.’

7 December 1868

‘. . . La Tour called, uneasy, and reasonably so, at the expected rupture between Greece and Turkey: the Porte having announced that unless the laws of neutrality are better observed in future, and certain definite concessions made, they will break off diplomatic relations, close the ports against Greek ships, and give subjects of Greece notice to quit Turkey. This ultimatum however is not to be sent until Saturday, and it is hoped that meanwhile Greece will give way. In the actual situation of the government, it is difficult to see what can be done: but after consultation with Hammond, considering the urgency of the case, I framed a telegram of warning and advice to the Greek government, which pledges the F.O. to nothing, and may possibly be of some use. It is however on the cards that objection may be taken to my having said anything, when de facto I have ceased to be a minister.

. . . My work at F.O. is nearly over, and not to my regret: much of it was interesting, but the constant interruption and disturbance from visitors, the tendency of diplomatists to waste time in unnecessary talk, the impossibility, at this time of year, of getting air and exercise without neglecting official duty, and the difficulty of escaping, even for a few hours, from telegrams and despatches, make the post trying to health and temper. I want rest, and feel that I want it.

. . . Dined Travellers, where much talk with Lord Clarendon on F.O. matters.’

9 December 1868

‘. . . Windsor by special train . . . Council held, after which we severally gave up our seals. The Queen very civil to me, said ‘she was sorry to take them back, they had never been in better hands.’