His brother and Lord Carnarvon had left the government owing to differences with their colleagues on their anti-Russian policy in Eastern Europe,; and Gathorne-Hardy (created Viscounf^ Cranbrook) left the war^oflfice vacant on his transference to the India office. Stanley's appointment was popular in the army. The duke of Cambridge wrote to Gathorne-Hardy : 'No one that I could think of in political life would be equally acceptable to me' (ibid. ii. 60). The crisis with Russia which had caused the schism in the cabinet soon ended, and Stanley's two years of office were not eventful. Like his predecessor, he was content to carry on the policy of Cardwell (1868-74) without introducing any novel schemes of reform. In the autumn of 1878 he and W. H. Smith, first lord of the admiralty, paid an official visit to Cyprus, which Turkey had recently ceded to Great Britain. After the defeat of the tory government at the general election of April 1880, Stanley resigned office with his colleagues and was created a G.C.B. During Lord Salisbury's short first administration of 1885-6 Stanley was again in high office, becoming secretary of state for the colonies. The recall of Sir
Charles Warren from Bechuanaland was the chief fruit of his brief tenure of the post. In Feb. 1886 he retired on the change of ministry. In August he left the House of Commons on being created Baron Stanley of Preston, and joined Lord Salisbury's new (second) administration as president of the board of trade.
On 1 May 1888 Lord Stanley was nominated to succeed Lord Lansdowne as governor-general of Canada. He was well fitted for the post. Of retiring disposition, and without any pretensions to oratory, there lay behind his natural modesty a firm mind and strong common sense. His patrician lineage gave him an instinctive habit of command, and his manner had a pecuUar charm. In Canada Stanley won much popularity ; he encouraged the imperial sentiment in the dominion, and although the course of affairs was unexciting, he had full scope for the exercise of his judgment and tact. When he retired, the secretary of state (Lord Ripon) wrote in a despatch : 'In dealing with the many difficult and delicate questions which have arisen in connection with Canada during your term of office, it has been the greatest satisfaction to Her Majesty's government to have the services of a statesman of your lordship's experience and attainments' (22 June 1893).
On 21 April 1893 Stanley succeeded, on the death of his brother, to the earldom and the family estates. The heavy domestic responsibilities compelled him to resign his post in Canada. Thenceforward he held no official post, although he did not neglect politics. In Jan. 1895 he presided over a demonstration at St. Helens in honour of the duke of Devonshire, whom as Lord Hartington he had opposed in North Lancashire in 1868. He fully recognised the value of the alliance of liberal unionists with conservatives in Lord Salisbury's third administration of 1895. He consistently urged the strengthening of the ties between England and the colonies and in 1904 he succeeded the duke of Devonshire as president of the British Empire League. At the Mansion House on 15 March 1904 he spoke of the desirability of bringing representative colonial opinion into efficient touch with the mother country.
Derby performed with dignity and zeal the local civil and social duties attaching to his position. In Liverpool he was a prominent and active figure. In 1895-6 he was first lord mayor of greater Liverpool, and the freedom of the city was conferred on him in 1904. He was chancellor of Liverpool University from its foundation in 1903. In 1902 he was guild mayor of Preston. He entertained largely at his chief country seat at Knowsley, where King Edward VII was regularly among his later guests. He had on his father's death in 1869 inherited a property at Witherslack in Westmorland ; he built a country residence there, and gave his neighbours a public hall in 1886. In 1897 he became lord-lieutenant of Lancashire. On succeeding to the title in 1893 he resumed the connection with racing for which his father had been famous. He joined the Jockey Club in the same year. His two greatest successes were in 1893 and 1906, when he won the Oaks with Canterbury Pilgrim and Keystone II respectively. In the latter year he won altogether forty-four races. He was a prominent figure at all Liverpool race meetings.
Derby, who was made K.G. in 1897 and G.C.V.O. in 1905, was active in London in both social and philanthropic affairs. He was a vice-president and benefactor of the Middlesex Hospital, and was president of the Franco-British Exhibition of 1907 at Shepherd's Bush. Early in 1908 Lord Derby's health gave cause for uneasiness, and he died on 14 June at his house. Holwood in Kent. He was buried at Knowsley.
