The statue of Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby is a memorial
statue that was unveiled 1874. It was sculpted by Mathew Noble. Bronze standing
figure on granite pedestal with bronze bas-reliefs representing scenes from the
Prime Minister's life including the interior of the old House of
Commons.
The inscription at the top of the plinth immediately below
the front of the statue, reads:
"1799 DERBY 1869"
The statue shows Derby standing, wearing a cloak and tight
breeches that were fashionable in his time. He is bare headed and has a beard
but no moustache. His right hand is extended slightly out to the right with
fingers almost straight. His left had is clutched at hid chest as if holding a
lapel.
The Victorian Web website (visit link) has a
biography of Derby. It reads:
"Edward Stanley served as Prime Minister three times —
from 23 February to 17 December 1852, 20 February 1858 to 1 June 1859, and 28
June 1866 to 25 February 1868. Stanley, the 14th Earl of Derby, was born at
Knowsley Hall, Prescot, Lancashire on 29 March 1799. He was the eldest son and
first of seven children born to Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby, and
his wife Charlotte Margaret Hornby. The family was able to date its noble
ancestry from the elevation of the second Baron Stanley to an earldom in return
for his belated support for Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August
1485 when Stanley and his brother failed to fight for the rightful king, Richard
III, to whom they owed their allegiance.
The fourteenth Earl (hereafter, Stanley) was educated at
Eton between 1811 and 1817; then he was admitted to Christ Church College,
Oxford. In 1819 he was awarded the Chancellor's Latin verse prize for his poem
Syracuse. Stanley did not take his Degree but in 1824 travelled to Canada and
the United States of America where he visited several of the east coast
states.
In July 1822, Stanley, who saw himself as a
'constitutional Whig' at that point in his political career, took his seat in
parliament as the MP for Stockbridge, a seat bought for him by his grandfather,
the 12th Earl of Derby. He finally made his maiden speech, on the Manchester Gas
Light Bill, in March 1824: the speech was noted for its clarity and Derby for
his oratorical abilities. Soon after the speech, he travelled to North America;
he married Emma Caroline Bootle-Wilbraham on 31 May 1825 after his return to
England and they had two sons and one daughter. He held minor office in the
ministries of Canning and Goderich and in 1828 he supported the unsuccessful
attempt to transfer the East Retford seat to Birmingham in opposition to the
government; he voted for Catholic Emancipation in 1829, and spoke briefly in
favour of parliamentary reform in 1830. At the general election on the death of
George IV he was re-elected for Preston, but having accepted office as Grey's
Chief Secretary for Ireland, he was defeated at the by-election by Henry
'Orator' Hunt. A vacancy was made for him at Windsor in February
1831.
One of his measures as Chief Secretary of Ireland was to
introduce the Irish Education Act, which created the Irish Board of National
Education. Under the auspices of this Board, children of all denominations were
admitted to schools receiving government grants; religious education was to be
of an 'uncontroversial' nature. The Act was unusual in that it had the approval
of the Catholic Church in Ireland. This legislation was introduced some sixty
years before anything comparable was to be found in England. In 1833 Stanley
introduced a Coercion Act for Ireland to replace the Insurrection Acts, even
though his efforts in this area brought him into direct conflict with Daniel
O'Connell. Althorp, the Home Secretary, wanted to resign rather than be
responsible for such a radical proposal but Stanley insisted that the
legislation had to be passed so that order could be restored to Ireland. It was
apparent that the resignation of either man would break up the ministry, so
Althorp gave way. However, he introduced it so poorly that a defeat became
highly likely. Stanley then decided to take responsibility for the legislation
and made a brilliant speech that was so hostile to the Irish party that he
silenced O'Connell and ensuring the passing of the Bill by huge majorities. His
powers of oratory were famous and he was labelled the 'Rupert of Debate' by
Bulwer-Lytton. In April, Stanley was moved from his post to that of Colonial
Secretary.
During this time the debates on the Bill for the
Abolition of Slavery were proceeding and Stanley introduced five motions calling
for the emancipation of all slaves in the British colonies within one year. He
also presented the final Bill to parliament which gave slaves their freedom on 1
August 1834. He was also responsible for the introduction of a series of
measures intended to reform the system of tithes in Ireland and for dealing with
the revenues of the Irish Church. Stanley opposed the alienation of Church
property but Lord John Russell was determined to reduce the amount of land owned
by the Anglican Church in Ireland. Stanley resigned his post as Colonial
Secretary before the seriousness of government splits became too obvious. He
then led a small group of MPs that became known as the 'Derby Dilly': Sir James
Graham and the Duke of Richmond were among his colleagues; eventually, they
joined Peel's group in parliament.
In 1837, Stanley joined the Tory party and was appointed
as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in Peel's second ministry. He
took over the responsibility for the conduct and conclusion of the Opium Wars
with China and concluded the Treaty of Nanking in August 1842. Britain was ceded
Hong Kong as part of this settlement. Stanley worked towards it being a free
port. In November 1844 he was elevated at his own request to the House of Lords
as Lord Stanley of Bickerstaff. . He said that he was tired of the House of
Commons and that his health was breaking down but the change was probably due to
the fact that he did not get on well with Peel. At any rate dissensions between
them became visible. Stanley opposed immediate free trade and though he
eventually agreed to the suspension of the corn laws but resigned when Peel
demanded their complete and immediate repeal. When Peel resigned in December
1845 and Russell failed to form a ministry, Stanley was invited to take over. He
declined to even attempt to carry on the government as a
protectionist.
Although Derby maintained a parliamentary role, he was
more interested in his racehorses and gambling. He played whist and billiards
and kept a stud. He had a reputation for following the 'gentlemanly sports' of
hunting, shooting and fishing; he was also a member of the Jockey
Club.
Stanley's father died on 30 June 1851 and Stanley
inherited the title of 14th Earl of Derby. He headed his first administration as
such from 23 February 1852. The ministry has gone down in history as the '"Who?
Who" ministry' thanks to the Duke of Wellington. Derby was forced to rely on
loyal but totally inexperienced men for his ministers and when the list was read
out in the House of Lords, Wellington - who was deaf, but did not recognise any
of the names - kept calling out, 'Who?', 'Who?'. Derby called a general election
in July and won about twenty-five more supporters but was still dependent on the
Peelites. He appointed Disraeli as his Chancellor of the Exchequer; the budget
was defeated by a combination of Whigs, Peelites, radicals and Irish MPs. Derby
was obliged to resign and the Earl of Aberdeen formed a ministry that fell over
the mis-handling of the Crimean War. Palmerston's first ministry ended in 1858
at which point Derby formed his second ministry.
The main work of Derby's second ministry were the
passing of the India Act that transferred control of India from the East India
Company to the British government; the ministry also passed the Jews Relief Act
that ended the exclusion of Jews from taking their seats in Parliament. Derby
lost a vote of 'no confidence' in June 1859 and resigned, to be replaced by
Palmerston. During the American Civil War, in which Britain took a neutral
stance, Derby was chairman of the Central Executive Committee that worked to
alleviate the distress being experienced by the Lancashire textile workers
because of the cotton famine.
In 1866 Derby formed his third ministry on the
resignation of Lord John Russell; in February 1867, Disraeli introduced his
Reform Bill. He had amended it to remove the proposal for household suffrage in
the face of opposition from the rest of the Cabinet but in the Commons he found
MPs demanding a more radical measure. Derby returned to Disraeli's original
proposals and the legislation was passed on 9 August 1867. In his speech
following the third reading of the Bill in the House of Lords, Derby
said:
'No doubt we are making a great experiment and taking
'a leap in the dark' but I have the greatest confidence in the sound sense of
my fellow-countrymen, and I entertain a strong hope that the extended
franchise which we are now conferring upon them will be the means of placing
the institutions of this country on a firmer basis, and that the passing of
this measure will tend to increase the loyalty and contentment of a great
proportion of Her Majesty's subjects.'
However, he resigned soon afterwards because of
ill-health. In his late 30s, he had been by stricken by gout. As a means of
obtaining relief from the pain, he took opium; there were suggestions that the
illness and treatment had also affected his mental state. . His final speech to
the House of Lords was against the disestablishment of the Irish Church, in
which he said:
'My Lords, I am now an old man, and like many of your
Lordships, I have already passed the three score years and ten. My official
life is entirely closed; my political life is nearly so; and, in the course of
nature, my natural life cannot now be long. That natural life commenced with
the bloody suppression of a formidable rebellion in Ireland, which immediately
preceded the Union between the two countries. Any may God grant that its close
may not witness a renewal of the one and the dissolution of the
other!'
Derby continued to attend the House of Lords until his
death on 23 October 1869. He died at Knowsley and was buried in St. Mary's
church there. He was 70 years old."