GEOFFREY SNIITII SiANLEY. fourteenth Earl of 11799-1';91. An statesman. Be was born at Knowsley Park. in Lancashire, on March 29. 1790. educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford. and in 1820. immediately after leaving the university, he was made a member of Parliament. In 1330 he became Irish Secretary in the Whig Ministry of Earl Grey, and by his ability as a debater he rendered very material assistanee in the passage of the P,e form Bill of 1832. Among his Irish measures were the Editention Act. establishing a national board. and admitting all children to the schools, but providing for Protestant religious instrue tion : t he Irish Chureh Tem pora lit les Act, abolishing ten Idshopries, and removing the grievanees of first fruits and church rates; and a coercion bill for the trial of Irish rioters by courts-martial. This last measure rendered him unpopular with the advanced Liberal,, and he was transferred to the Colonial Secretaryship in 1833. In that year he distinguished himself by securing the passage of the bill for the abolition of slavery in the West Indies. Beeoming alarmed at the intention of the Whigs to appropriate the surplus of the Irish Church revenues to pur poses of secular education, he left the party in 18:34. lie soon united with the Tories. and in 1841 he became Colonial Secretary in Peel's Min istry. This position he held until 1843. when he resigned because he was opposed to the repeal of the eons laws. Ile was the recognized head of the Protectionist opposition in the House of Lords, which he had entered as Ilaron Stanley in 1344, and soon becam• the leader of the Conservative Party. In 1831 he succeeded his father as Earl of Derby. In 1852 the first Derby Ministry was formed. But it was of short
duration, as were also his second term of ()thee (1853-59) and his third (1366-681. and Disraeli (q.v.) was the leading spirit in all of them. In 1868 he resigned the Premiership to Disraeli. and in the following year he died.
• Derby was a typical Lancashire magnate of the old school. Traditionally Whig, he left that party beeanse of his repugnance to the rising democracy. While not a statesman of the first rank, he was nevertheless possessed of great ability. Ins doctrine of free trade with the colonies alone anticipates Conservative doctrine of our own day, and to him, as \yell as to Dis raeli, is due the transformation of the Tories into the modern Conservative Party. He was a debater of great ability, excelling especially in invective. His passages with O'Connell on the repeal of the Union and the disestablishment of the Irish Church are well known. He was a man of high scholarly attainments, who distinguished himself at the university, and was afterwards famous for his Latin speeches. He was elected chancellor of Oxford in 1352, and devoted the leisure of his later years to a metrical transla tion, or rather paraphrase, of the Iliad (pub lished in 1364).
For Derby's speeches, consult: Hansard, Par liamentary Debates (London, 1303, et seq.). For his Life, 1:ebbel, English Slot es man the Peace of 18.1.5: Derby (London, 1369) ; and Saintsbury. in Reid, Prime Ministers of Queen Victoria (New York, 1392). Consult. also, Keb bel, History of Toryism (London. 1366) ; and Hamilton. in the Dictionary of National Biog raphy, vol. liv. (London, 1393).