During the American Civil War, Granville was non-interventionist along with the majority of Palmerston's cabinet. His memorandum against intervention in September 1862 drew Prime Minister Palmerston's attention. The document proved to be a strong reason for Palmerston's refusal to intervene and for Britain's relations with the North to remain basically stable for the rest of the conflict despite tensions. From 1866 to 1868, he was in opposition, but in December 1868 he became
Colonial Secretary in
Gladstone's first ministry. His tact was invaluable to the government in carrying the Irish Church and Land Bills through the House of Lords. On 27 June 1870, on
Lord Clarendon's death, he became foreign secretary. With war clouds gathering in Europe, Granville worked to authorise preliminary talks to settle American disputes and in appointing the British High Commission to sail to the United States and negotiate the most comprehensive
treaty of the nineteenth century in Anglo-American relations with an American commission in Washington. Lord Granville's name is mainly associated with his career as foreign secretary (1870–1874 and 1880–1885). It brought better relations with the United States, and it was innovative in supporting Gladstone's wish to settle British-American fisheries and Civil War disputes over the Confederate cruisers built in Britain, like the
Alabama, through international arbitration in 1872. For example, the long-standing
San Juan Island Water Boundary Dispute in
Puget Sound, which had been left ambiguous in the
Oregon Treaty of 1846 to salve relations and get a treaty sorting out the primary differences, was arbitrated by the
German Emperor also in 1872. In putting British-American relations up to the world as a model for how to resolve disputes peacefully, Granville helped create a breakthrough in international relations. The
Franco-Prussian War of 1870 broke out within a few days of Lord Granville's quoting in the House of Lords (11 July 1870) the opinion of the
permanent under-secretary (
Edmund Hammond) that "he had never known so great a lull in foreign affairs." Russia took advantage of the situation to denounce the
Black Sea clauses of the
Treaty of Paris, and Lord Granville's protest was ineffectual. In 1871 an intermediate zone between Asiatic Russia and
Afghanistan was agreed on between him and
Shuvalov; but in 1873 Russia took possession of the
Khanate of Khiva, within the neutral zone, and Lord Granville had to accept the aggression (See also:
The Great Game). When the Conservatives came into power in 1874, his part for the next six years was to criticise
Disraeli's "spirited" foreign policy, and to defend his own more pliant methods. He returned to the foreign office in 1880, only to find an anti-British spirit developing in German policy which the temporising methods of the Liberal leaders were generally powerless to deal with. Lord Granville failed to realise in time the importance of the
Angra Pequena question in 1883–1884, and he was forced, somewhat ignominiously, to yield to
Bismarck over it. Finally, when Gladstone took up
Home Rule for Ireland, Lord Granville, whose mind was similarly receptive to new ideas, adhered to his chief (1886), and gave way to
Lord Rosebery when the latter was preferred to the foreign office; the Liberals had now realised that they had lost ground in the country by Lord Granville's occupancy of the post. He went into Colonial Office service for six months, and in July 1886 retired from public life. ==Family==