EDWARD HENRY STANLEY, 15th earl of Derby (1826-1893), eldest son of the i4th earl, was educated at Rugby and Trinity college, Cambridge, where he took a high degree and became a member of the society known as the Apostles. In March 1848 he unsuccessfully contested the borough of Lancaster and then made a long tour in the West Indies, Canada and the United States. During his absence he was elected member for King's Lynn, which he represented till October 1869, when he succeeded to the peer age. He delivered his maiden speech in May 185o on the sugar duties. Just before, he had made a very brief tour in Jamaica and South America. In 1852 he went to India, and while travel ing in that country he was appointed under-secretary for foreign affairs in his father's first administration. From the outset of his career he was known to be a most Liberal Conservative, and in 1855 Lord Palmerston offered him the post of colonial secretary. He was much tempted by the proposal, and hurried down to Knowsley to consult his father, who called out when he entered the room, "Hallo, Stanley ! what brings you here?—Has Dizzy cut his throat, or are you going to be married?" The offer was declined. In his father's second administration Lord Stanley held, at first, the office of secretary for the colonies, but became presi dent of the Board of Control on the resignation of Lord Ellen borough. He had the charge of the India Bill of 1858 in the House of Commons, became the first secretary of state for India, and left behind him in the India Office ,an excellent reputation. When the Greeks were looking round for a king after the death of King Otho, and the crown was refused by Queen Victoria for her son Alfred, there was some idea of inviting Stanley to take the vacant throne, but the offer was never formally made. After the fall of the Russell government in 1866 he became foreign secretary in his father's third administration. He compared his conduct in that great post to that of a man floating down a river and fending off from his vessel, as well as he could, the various obstacles it encountered. He thought that that should be the normal attitude of an English foreign minister, and probably under the circum stances of the years 1866-1868 it was the right one. He arranged the collective guarantee of the neutrality of Luxemburg in 1867, negotiated a convention about the "Alabama," which, however, was not ratified, and refused to take any part in the Cretan troubles. In 1874 he again became foreign secretary in Disraeli's government. He acquiesced in the purchase of the Suez canal shares; he accepted the Andrassy Note, but declined to accede to the Berlin Memorandum. His part in the later phases of the Russo-Turkish struggle has never been fully explained, for he declined to gratify public curiosity at the cost of some of his colleagues. He resigned, and was prepared to explain in the House of Lords the course he had taken if those whom he had left challenged him to do so, but from that course they consistently refrained. By Oct. 1879 it was clear enough that he had thrown in his lot with the Liberal party, but it was not till March 188o that he publicly announced this change of allegiance. He did not at first take office in the second Gladstone government, but be came secretary for the colonies in Dec. 1882, holding this position till the fall of that government in the summer of 1885. In 1886 Derby joined the Liberal Unionists, and took an active part in the general management of that party, leading it in the House of Lords till 1891, when Lord Hartington became duke of Devon shire. In 1892 he presided over the labour commission. He died at Knowsley on April 21, 1893.
During a great part of Derby's life he was deflected from his natural course by the accident of his position as the son of the leading Conservative statesman of the day. From first to last he was at heart a moderate Liberal. In one of the highest qualities of a statesman, "aptness to be right," he was surpassed by none of his contemporaries, or—if by anybody—by Sir George Corne wall Lewis alone. His chief defect as a statesman was that in his anxiety to arrive at the right conclusions he sometimes turned and turned and turned a subject over till the time for action had passed. Although he cared but little for what is commonly known as society—the society of crowded rooms and fragments of sentences—he very much liked conversation. During the many years in which he was a member of "The Club" he was one of its most assiduous frequenters, and his loss was acknowledged by a formal resolution. His talk was generally grave, but every now and then was lit up by dry humour. The late Lord Arthur Russell once said to him, after he had been buying some property in southern England : "So you still believe in land, Lord Derby." "Hang it," he replied, "a fellow must believe in something !" He did much work outside politics. He was lord rector of the Uni versity of Glasgow from 1868 to 1871, and later held the same office in that of Edinburgh. From 1875 to 1893 he was president of the Royal Literary Fund, and attended most closely to his duties there. He succeeded Lord Granville as chancellor of the University of London in 1891, and remained in that position till his death. He lived much in Lancashire, managed his enormous estates with great skill, and did a great amount of work as a local magnate. He married in 1870 Maria Catharine, daughter of the 5th earl de la Warr, and widow of the 2nd marquess of Salis , bury.
The best account of the i Sth Lord Derby is that which was prefixed by W. E. H. Lecky, who knew him very intimately, to the edition of his speeches outside parliament, published in 1894.
The earl left no children and he was succeeded as i6th earl by his brother FREDERICK ARTHUR STANLEY (1841-1908), who had been made a peer as Baron Stanley of Preston in 1886. He was secretary of state for war and for the colonies and president of the board of trade; and was governor-general of Canada from 1888 to 1893. He died on June 14, 1908.