"When in office his application was indefatigable; nor was he insensible to the dignity of power. But he did not love politics for their own sake; and when he took office, did so rather from an over-ruling sense of duty than from any liking for his task. But he never neglected business; and the quickness of his parts enabled him to master details in a much shorter space of time than would have been required by ordinary men. His heart, however, was not upon the Treasury Bench; nor had he any taste for those strategical manœuvres which are as necessary in politics as in war. The soul of honour himself, he was incapable of suspecting either falsehood or trickery in others, and was, perhaps, a little impatient of the precautions which are necessary to counteract them."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomUniversity of Oxford alumniConservative Party (UK) politiciansWhig (British political party) politiciansLeaders of the House of Lords (United Kingdom)
Original Language: English
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T. E. Kebbel, A History of Toryism: From the Accession of Mr. Pitt to Power in 1783 to the Death of Lord Beaconsfield in 1881 (1886), p. 332
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Smith-Stanley%2C_14th_Earl_of_Derby
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Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
1805 – 1868
Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby KG GCMG PC PC (Ire) (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869), known as Lord Stanley from 1834 to 1851, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served three times as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. To date, he is the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party. He is one of only four Br
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