¹ The first published was Vincent, John (ed), Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative Party. Journals and Memoirs of Edward Henry, Lord Stanley 1849–1869. Hassocks, Sussex: The Harvester Press, 1978Google Scholar. This was followed by a selection from Derby's diaries after he finally left office, The Later Derby Diaries. Home Rule, Liberal Unionism, and Aristocratic Life in Late Victorian England. Selected Passages edited by John Vincent, Professor of Modern History, University of Bristol. Printed and published by the author … 1981. (An unpublished selection by the same editor for the years 1878–85 exists in typescript.)

² Speeches and Addresses of Edward Henry XVth Earl of Derby K.G. Selected and Edited by Sir T.H. Sanderson, KCB and E.S. Roscos. With a Prefatory Memoir by W.E.H. Lecky (2 vols, 1894).Google Scholar

³ Jones, W.D., Lord Derby and Victorian Conservatism (1956).Google Scholar

⁴ A Great Lady's Friendships. Letters to Mary, Marchioness of Salisbury, Countess of Derby, 1862–1890. With Introductions and Notes by The Lady Burghclere (Macmillan: London, 1933).Google Scholar

⁵ M. and B. vi 266 (diary for cabinet of 27 March 1878).

⁶ In that respect at least this text may add to the most exhaustive modern work on the Eastern Question, Millman, Richard, Britain and the Eastern Question 1875–1878 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979).Google Scholar

⁷ 29 Jan., 10, 21, 22, 24 Feb. 1871; 24 Jan., 26 May, 17 June 1873.

⁸ 26 May 1873.

⁹ Professor Linda Colley, then a Bristol student, first drew my attention to the early diaries at Liverpool, for which I am grateful: see Colley, L. and Vincent, J., ‘Disraeli in 1851; “Young Stanley” as Boswell’, Historical Studies, vol 15, no. 59 (10 1972), pp. 447–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰ When, by coincidence, over 50 volumes of diaries by another Lancashire Conservative magnate were awaiting editing, at the request of the family: see Vincent, John (ed.) The Crawford Papers. The journals of David Lindsay, twenty-seventh Earl of Crawford and tenth Earl of Balcarres 1871–1940 during the years 1892 to 1940. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.)Google Scholar

¹¹ See Powell, John, Liberal by PrincipleGoogle Scholar London, The Historians' Press, forthcoming, for Kimberley.

¹² See Later Diaries, 90–91.Google Scholar

¹³ Whibley, Charles, Lord John Manners and his Friends. William Blackwood and Sons: Edinburgh and London, 1925. 2 vols.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Johnson, Nancy E. (ed.) The Diary of Gathorne Hardy, later Lard Cranbrook, 1866–1892: Political Selections. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁵ The Cabinet Journal of Dudley Ryder, Viscount Sandon (later third Earl of Harrowby) 11 May–10 August 1878. Edited by Howard, Christopher and Gordon, Peter. Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research. Special Supplement No. 10 (11 1974).Google Scholar

¹⁶ See ‘Cabinet Reports from Prime Ministers to the Crown 1868–1916’ (Harvester microform), reel 2. No full comparison of Derby's and Disraeli's version has been made, but whereas Derby reports virtually all meetings listed by Disraeli, a check on the microform index for 1874 suggests that Disraeli may have reported only about half the meetings mentioned by Derby. Disraeli tends to report cabinet decisions even if trivial, whereas Derby reports discussions even where indecisive. A full collation should produce results very different from either source on its own, with Derby's version probably omitting or being very cursory with minor items of business in which he was uninterested.

¹⁷ Speeches, xxxix.Google Scholar

¹⁸ 31 Aug. 1871

¹⁹ 17 July 1873

²⁰ Derby offered £500 if there was a contest, and £100 if not (27 Jan., 3 Feb. 1874). Cross was staying at Knowsley, 19–24 Jan. 1874, on the eve of his promotion to the cabinet.

²¹ ‘Every conversation that I have with Cross raises my opinion of his judgement and good sense’ (7 10 1871).Google Scholar

²² See below, 1875 flyleaf.

²³ 1 Jan, 1874

²⁴ 19 Jan. 1874

²⁵ 21 July, 15 Aug., 25 Sep. 1871

²⁶ 1 Nov. 1869

²⁷ 16 Aug. 1872

²⁸ 2 Nov. 1869

²⁹ 5 Nov. 1869

³⁰ 12 Mar 1870

³¹ 6 Nov. 1869

³² 3 Nov. 1869

³³ 12 Aug. 1872

³⁴ 31 Dec. 1873

³⁵ 5 Feb. 1874

³⁶ 14 Sept. 1873

³⁷ 1 June 1872

³⁸ Derby however retained a strong personal tie with Ireland through his cousin Augusta, Lady Dartrey (nééStanley), wife of the whig lord-lt, of Monaghan and a friend of Derby since he was eighteen. On her death in 1887, her husband returned to Derby ‘a vast bundle of letters written by me …’ (Later Diaries, 122).Google Scholar

³⁹ 24 June 1871

⁴⁰ 20 Nov. 1873

⁴¹ 9 Mar. 1871

⁴² 23 Sept. 1871

⁴³ 11, 15 Nov. 1871

⁴⁴ H, 16 June 1870

⁴⁵ H, 6 Feb. 1873

⁴⁶ H, 16 June 1870

⁴⁷ Later Diaries, 92–96.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ 3 Feb. 1870

⁴⁹ 1 Apr. 1873

⁵⁰ 24 Oct. 1870

⁵¹ 1 Jan. 1871, 1 Jan. 1872. ‘He withdraws more & more & feels his unfitness to lead men’, Hardy noted (GH, 12 07 1876).Google Scholar

⁵² 17 July 1873

⁵³ 10 Jan. 1870, 23 Apr. 1873; finally losing a son, to a wife from the middle classes (17 July 1873).

⁵⁴ In 1881 it was a matter for remark that ‘no word ever reaches us of what goes on inside the cabinet’ (Derby, Lady to Halifax, , 4 02 1881, Hickleton MSS).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ e.g. 12 Jan. 1873 (at Knowsley), 25 Jan. 1874 (in London).

⁵⁶ Later Diaries, 23Google Scholar

⁵⁷ 14 Feb. 1870

⁵⁸ Later Diaries, 84Google Scholar

⁵⁹ He admired Mill, especially his On Liberty, ‘one of the wisest books of our time’; Mill, whom Stanley tried to appoint to the Indian Council, spoke admiringly of the diarist (Speeches, xvii).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ 20 July, 19 Nov. 1874

⁶¹ 2 Dec. 1874

⁶² 10 Feb. 1870

⁶³ 29 Mar. 1870

⁶⁴ 8 Nov. 1872

⁶⁵ 8, 11 Apr. 1873

⁶⁶ 20 Nov. 1871

⁶⁷ 19 Jan. 1872

⁶⁸ 20 Nov. 1871

⁶⁹ 27 Feb. 1870

⁷⁰ Yet Lecky described him as ‘among the best-read men I have ever known. His private library was one of the finest in England …’ (Speeches, xlii.)Google Scholar

⁷¹ 20–29 Feb. 1872; 14 Feb.–14 Mar. 1873 (missing the Irish Universities crisis); and 6–30 Nov. 1873. In addition, Derby was abroad 24 Mar.–10 Apr. 1876 in attendance upon the Queen at Baden, whence he returned via Paris where he spent a day on private visits.

⁷² 24 Feb. 1873. The diarist was author of Six Weeks in South America (1850)Google Scholar, Claims and Resources of the West Indies (1850)Google Scholar, and Further Facts connected with the West Indies (1851).Google Scholar

⁷³ 26 Oct. 1869

⁷⁴ 5 Nov. 1869

⁷⁵ 1 Jan. 1870

⁷⁶ 17 Feb. 1870

⁷⁷ 26, 27, 29 July, 6, 15 Oct. 1871

⁷⁸ As a member of five or six housing associations, returning about 5%.

⁷⁹ Speech to Liverpool Conservative Working men's Association, 7 Jan. 1872

⁸⁰ 25 Mar. 1873

⁸¹ In late Feb. or early March 1874 a ‘happy, amiable, and confidential’ Derby told his aunt Lady Cowper that ‘Dizzy is a changed man’ with ‘a cabinet of the wisest people he can find and none of them subservient’ (Earl Cowper, K.G. A Memoir. Printed for Private Circulation, 1913, 254, 265.)Google Scholar

⁸² Derby himself noted, of 1873, that he had delivered ‘a fair number of speeches on public occasions and have on the whole been as much before the public eye as in 1872’ (1 Jan. 1874). Much more than most front-benchers, Derby had something to say to the new working-man elector of 1867.

⁸³ 20 May 1875

⁸⁴ The improvement was foreseen at the start of the year; see 1875 initial flyleaf.

⁸⁵ 12 Sept. 1875

⁸⁶ 26 June 1875

⁸⁷ 22 Nov. 1875

⁸⁸ 5 Oct. 1875

⁸⁹ 20 Sept. 1875

⁹⁰ 12 May 1875

⁹¹ 5 Jan., 7 Jan. 1875

⁹² 2 Jan. 1875. ‘I rather like shooting’, Derby told Lecky, ‘it prevents the necessity of general conversation.’ (Speeches, xliii.Google Scholar) Lady Derby's view of Knowsley was that ‘I always have the steady conviction that people must be so bored there’ (to Halifax, 5 Nov. 1881).

⁹³ e.g. 8 Jan. 1875, following Disraeli's near-retirement.

⁹⁴ 28 Nov. 1875

⁹⁵ 10 Dec. 1875

⁹⁶ 21 July 1875

⁹⁷ 6 Sept. 1875

⁹⁸ 20 Feb. 1875

⁹⁹ 21 Aug., 29 Aug., 30 Aug., 15 Oct. 1875

¹⁰⁰ 29 Nov. 1875

¹⁰¹ First hinted at in the diary, 17 Mar. 1875

¹⁰² 12 Mar. 1875

¹⁰³ 20 Apr. 1875

¹⁰⁴ 15 July 1875

¹⁰⁵ 4 Aug. 1875

¹⁰⁶ Münster, an English diplomatist told Derby, was ‘no friend to Bismarck’ and ‘sent here to get him out of the way’ (27 May 1875).

¹⁰⁷ 23 Mar. 1875

¹⁰⁸ 10 July 1875

¹⁰⁹ e.g. 27 Jan. 1875

¹¹⁰ 20 Mar. 1875

¹¹¹ 15 July 1875

¹¹² 27 Jan. 1875

¹¹³ 10 Jan. 1875

¹¹⁴ 6 Feb. 1875

¹¹⁵ 5 Sept. 1875

¹¹⁶ 17 July 1875

¹¹⁷ 17 Mar. 1875

¹¹⁸ 1 Sept. 1875

¹¹⁹ 28 May 1875

¹²⁰ 31 Dec. 1875

¹²¹ 12 Sept. 1875

¹²² 1 Nov. 1875

¹²³ 17 Mar. 1875

¹²⁴ 24 Aug. 1875

¹²⁵ 25 Nov. 1869

¹²⁶ 11 Mar. 1876

¹²⁷ 24 May 1875

¹²⁸ 22 Feb. 1875

¹²⁹ 26 Dec. 1875

¹³⁰ 27 Oct. 1869

¹³¹ One of Lady Derby's correspondents. On his departure for India, he wrote to her outlining his expectations of a great historic role.

¹³² 27 July 1874

¹³³ 12 Apr. 1870

¹³⁴ 2 Mar., 8 June 1873

¹³⁵ 25 Aug. 1873

¹³⁶ 2 Dec. 1873

¹³⁷ H, 6 Feb. 1873

¹³⁸ 9 Sept. 1873

¹³⁹ 9 Nov. 1873

¹⁴⁰ 23 Feb. 1874

¹⁴¹ 8 July 1874

¹⁴² 21 Apr. 1875

¹⁴³ 21 Apr. 1875

¹⁴⁴ 13 July 1875

¹⁴⁵ 9 Aug. 1875

¹⁴⁶ 16 Jan. 1875

¹⁴⁷ 17 Apr. 1875

¹⁴⁸ e.g. 10 Feb., 13 Apr. 1875. For Disraeli, see 10 Sept. 1875

¹⁴⁹ 10, 11, 12 Nov. 1875

¹⁵⁰ Especially 28 Aug.–14 Oct. 1875

¹⁵¹ 7 June 1875

¹⁵² 1 Jan. 1875; also 25 Jan. 1875

¹⁵³ 29 May 1875

¹⁵⁴ 23 June 1875

¹⁵⁵ 7 Aug. 1875

¹⁵⁶ 10 Sept. 1875

¹⁵⁷ 6 Nov. 1875

¹⁵⁸ 24 Dec. 1869

¹⁵⁹ 26 Aug. 1870

¹⁶⁰ 17 Oct. 1870

¹⁶¹ 13–15 Oct. 1873

¹⁶² 3 Nov. 1873

¹⁶³ In 1875, on 25 Jan., 1 Feb., 17 Feb., 18 Feb., 18 Mar., 13 May., 5 June, 12 Aug., 10 Sept., 3 Nov., 12 Nov., and 13 Dec.

¹⁶⁴ 21 Jan. 1875

¹⁶⁵ 6 Mar. 1875

¹⁶⁶ 16 Mar. 1873

¹⁶⁷ 17 Aug. 1875

¹⁶⁸ e.g. 1 May, 25 June, 12 July 1875

¹⁶⁹ 10 Apr. 1875

¹⁷⁰ 1 May 1875

¹⁷¹ 13 Jan. 1875

¹⁷² The first news reached Derby on 15 and 16 Nov. 1875. Cabinets followed on 17, 18, 19, 22, 23 and 24 Nov. 1875; Derby missed the cabinet of 22 Nov., and the Canal shares are not mentioned in his report of 19 Nov. 1875. See Rothschild, Lord, ‘You Have It, Madam’. The purchase, in 1875, of Suez Canal shares by Disraeli and Baron Lionel de Rothschild. (London, 1980)Google Scholar

¹⁷³ 10 Feb., 13 Apr., 28 Apr., 10 Sept. 1875

¹⁷⁴ 7 Oct. 1875

¹⁷⁵ 11 Feb. 1875

¹⁷⁶ 17 Feb. 1875

¹⁷⁷ 21 Mar. 1875

¹⁷⁸ 10 Sept. 1875

¹⁷⁹ 3 Nov. 1875

¹⁸⁰ 1 Aug. 1875

¹⁸¹ 13 Mar., 4 Nov. 1875

¹⁸² 26 May, 12, 14, 16 June 1875

¹⁸³ 11 Nov. 1875

¹⁸⁴ 10 Nov. 1875

¹⁸⁵ 19 June 1875

¹⁸⁶ 14 Aug. 1875

¹⁸⁷ 27 Feb., 3, 26 June 1875

¹⁸⁸ 5, 9, 26 June, 3, 7, 14 July 1875

¹⁸⁹ e.g. 13 Feb., 5 June 1875

¹⁹⁰ 13 Mar. 1875

¹⁹¹ 14 Apr. 1875

¹⁹² 7, 11 Aug. 1875

¹⁹³ 8 Apr. 1875

¹⁹⁴ 13, 17 Feb. 1875

¹⁹⁵ e.g. 17 Feb., 27 Feb., 16 June, 19 June, 7 Aug. 1875

¹⁹⁶ 11 Nov. 1875

¹⁹⁷ 7 Aug. 1875

¹⁹⁸ 29 Mar. 1875

¹⁹⁹ 16 Sept. 1875

²⁰⁰ Derby gave the Inaugural Address at the 1881 Leeds Co-operative Congress.

²⁰¹ The theme of his speech (17 Dec. 1875) to the City of Edinburgh Working-Men's Conservative Association, when he addressed 2000 in the Corn Exchange.

²⁰² 13 May, 18 Aug. 1875

²⁰³ 31 July, 20 Aug. 1875

²⁰⁴ 22 Dec. 1875

²⁰⁵ 28 Aug. 1875

²⁰⁶ 12 May 1875

²⁰⁷ Speeches, xliiGoogle Scholar

²⁰⁸ 17 June 1875

²⁰⁹ Derby initially suspected that the Daily News report of ‘the massacre of 30,000 Bulgarians by Turkish troops’ was ‘one of those fictions by which insurgent leaders try to keep up the spirit of their followers.’ (Derby, to Ponsonby, , 3 07 1876, Derby MSS.)Google Scholar

²¹⁰ 9 Jan., 8 Feb., 23 Feb., 7 Mar. 1876

²¹¹ e.g. 23 Mar. 1876

²¹² 10, 24 Mar. 1876

²¹³ 12 Apr. 1876

²¹⁴ 12 Jan. 1876

²¹⁵ 28 July 1876

²¹⁶ Speeches, xxxviGoogle Scholar

²¹⁷ 16 Aug. 1876

²¹⁸ 25 Jan. 1876

²¹⁹ 6 Mar., 7 May, 24 June 1876

²²⁰ 3 Apr. 1876

²²¹ 21 Mar. 1876

²²² 26, 28 June, 15 July 1876

²²³ 1 June 1876

²²⁴ 8 Aug. 1876

²²⁵ 4 Jan. 1876

²²⁶ GH, 22 01 1878Google Scholar

²²⁷ Cecil, 209–11Google Scholar

²²⁸ Rupp, G.H., A Wavering Friendship: Russia and Austria, 1876–78 (Cambridge, Mass., 1941).Google Scholar

²²⁹ M. and B. 252

²³⁰ For the development of policy, especially at military and expert level, see Lee, Dwight E., Great Britain and the Cyprus Convention Policy of 1878 (Cambridge, Mass., 1934).Google Scholar