THE NEW LORD DERBY.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 637, 17 February 1870, Page 4

THE NEW LORD DERBY.

[SPECTTATOB.] Lord Stanley is a man of so very great capacity that if he had not a certain impatience of a great proportion of 1 the Par- : liamentary wrangles which go on- for on« session after another, and a grim pleasure* in standing aloof from therm he might still easily make himself a- power of the- first order in the State,- and not in«pite, so .much as in consequence of, the I'event1 ' event which transfers him to the frigid atmosphere of the House of Lords. Yet no on& will affirm that he enters the Upper House with the full political prestige which he had at one time attained. At the end of. the year 1867, partly in consequence of his success as mediator in the Luxembourg quarrel, partly in consequence of the thoroughly English' compromise 'p:f principle by which he achieved it, and which he frankly avowed to have been forced: upon him as the only means of securing the peace of Europe, Lord Stanley was at- the' zenith of his political reputation. In : the' previous year, he had led the resistance to; Lord Russell's Reform Bill, and gained; general admiration by the perspicuity and vigour of the speech in which he pressed! for a settlement of the" whole question! -by : a single measure.. After the defeat ofLord'RtisseU's Government, Lord Stanley,, taking office as Lord Derby's Foreign Secretary in a very critical and .anxious; time, was enabled by circumstances to: evade, in a very great' degree, any personal for the rapid and ; discreditable changes of • front" by] which- • his colleagues ■ converted = an: ultra-Tory Reform Bill into a" far! stronger democratic measure than any| Liberal Government would" have dared to ; propose. And when the session, of 1867 closed^ there waa : fio man of- the '. Conservative Goveniment who still >oocupiedr so strong a position in the eyes of the coiratry; as Lord Stanley. He was excused f or not keeping its policy more straightfor-* ward and intelligible by his own individual influence, on the ground that he was so completely immersed in . the cares of the 'Foreign Office. He was praised for his personal' Success ; he was excepted from the condemnations poured on his colleagues! But' even then' Lord Stanley was betraying the one peculiar feature of his Wong political character— the feature which seems likely to determine his future career arid to 'limit his influence in the State— his preference for special depart^ mental workj and his disposition to hold aloof from discussions to which he could contribntis only the Ordinary influence of a single vigorous political- judgment.