"Derby's reputation as a statesman suffers from the fact that he changed front so often. A whig, a Canningite, a strenuous whig leader, a strenuous conservative leader, the head of the protectionists, the opponent of democracy, and the author of the change which upset his own policy of 1832 and committed power to democracy in 1867, all these parts he filled in turn. He was not a statesman of profoundly settled convictions or of widely constructive views. He was a man rather of intense vitality than of great intellect, a brilliant combatant rather than a cautious or philosophic statesman. The work with which he was most identified, the re-creation of the conservative party after its disintegration on the fall of Peel, was Disraeli's rather than his own; and the charge of a timid reluctance to assume the responsibilities and toil of office is one that may fairly be made against him."
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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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John Andrew Hamilton, 'Stanley, Edward George Geoffrey Smith', Dictionary of National Biography, Volume LIV. Stanhope—Stovin, ed. Sidney Lee (1898), pp. 59-60
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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