Page:Biographical catalogue of the portraits at Weston, the seat of the Earl of Bradford (IA gri 33125003402027).pdf/126



No. 13.

EDWARD STANLEY, FOURTEENTH EARL OF DERBY, K.G.

''Black frock-coat. White waistcoat. Right hand on a table. Left holds the string of eye-glass.''

BORN 1799, DIED 1869.

He was the eldest son of Edward, Lord Stanley, afterwards thirteenth Earl of Derby by Charlotte, second daughter of the Rev. Geoffrey Hornby.

The subject of this notice was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where in 1819 he gained the Chancellor's prize for Latin verse for his poem of Syracuse. In 1821 he entered the House of Commons as member for Stockbridge, and sat subsequently for Preston, Windsor, and North Lancashire. He was Under-Secretary for the Colonies from 1830 to 1833, Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1833 to 1834, and again from 1841 to 1845. In 1844 he was summoned to the House of Lords in his father's barony of Stanley, and in 1859 was made a K.G. He was First Lord of the Treasury in 1852, 1858, and 1866. He was a strenuous opposer of Free-trade and the Repeal of the Corn Laws, and his name is invariably connected with 'Protection.' Lord Derby was remarkable as a statesman, a scholar, a wit, and an orator. In the latter capacity his enthusiasm and eloquence gained him the sobriquet of 'the Rupert of Debate.' In society his brilliant conversation, keen sense of humour, and genial disposition, made him a favourite with men and women of all classes and opinions, and his death was as much deplored in private as in political circles.