In March 1848 he unsuccessfully contested the
borough of
Lancaster, and then made a long tour in the
West Indies,
Canada and the
United States. During his absence, he was elected member for
King's Lynn, which he represented till October 1869, when he succeeded to the peerage. He took his place, as a matter of course, among the
Conservatives, and delivered his
maiden speech in May 1850 on the sugar duties. Just before, he had made a very brief tour in
Jamaica and
South America. In 1852 he went to
India, and while travelling in that country, he was appointed under-secretary for foreign affairs in his father's first administration. On 11 March 1853, he was commissioned as a captain in the
3rd Royal Lancashire Militia. From the outset of his career, he was known to be more politically sympathetic to the
Liberals rather than the Conservatives, and in 1855
Lord Palmerston offered him the post of
Secretary of State for the Colonies. He was much tempted by the proposal, and hurried down to Knowsley to consult his father, who called out when he entered the room, "Halo, Stanley! what brings you here?—Has
Dizzy cut his throat, or are you going to be married?" When the object of his sudden appearance had been explained, the Conservative chief received the courteous suggestion of the prime minister with anything but favour, and the offer was declined. On 13 May 1856, he was appointed to the
Royal Commission on the
purchase of commissions in the British army. In his father's second administration Lord Stanley held, at first, the office of Secretary of State for the Colonies (1858), but became
President of the Board of Control on the resignation of
Lord Ellenborough. He had the charge of the
India Bill of 1858 in the
House of Commons, became the first
Secretary of State for India, and left behind him in the India Office an excellent reputation as a man of business. He arranged the collective guarantee of the neutrality of Luxembourg in 1867, likely to be a theatre of war with the conflict between France and Prussia growing ever more likely. He also negotiated a convention with the USA about the
CSS Alabama, which, however, was not ratified, and refused to take any part in the troubles in Crete. Derby acquiesced in Disraeli's purchase of the
Suez Canal shares, a measure then considered dangerous by many people, but ultimately most successful. He accepted the
Andrassy Note, but declined to accede to the
Berlin Memorandum.
Robert Blake commented that "Derby surely must be the only Foreign Secretary in British history to reveal the innermost secrets of the Cabinet to the ambassador of a foreign power in order to frustrate the presumed intentions of his own Prime Minister." Derby resigned in January 1878 when the Cabinet resolved to send the British fleet through the Dardanelles, but when that action soon proved unnecessary, Derby was allowed to withdraw his resignation. However, he resigned again and finally in the same year when the Cabinet agreed to call up the reserve. By October 1879, it was clear enough that he had thrown in his lot with the
Liberal Party, but it was not till March 1880 that he publicly announced this change of allegiance. He did not at first take office in the second
Gladstone government, but became Colonial Secretary in December 1882, holding this position till the fall of that government in the summer of 1885. In 1886 the Liberal party split; Lord Derby became a
Liberal Unionist, and took an active part in the general management of that party, leading it in the House of Lords till 1891, when
Lord Hartington became Duke of Devonshire. In 1892 he presided over the Labour Commission. He served as
President of the first day of the 1881
Co-operative Congress. ==Personal life==