Constituency : South Wiltshire 1832-46 (Tory) 1846-61
We conclude our look at the class of 1859 with an important figure who was instrumental in the founding of the party and could have ended up its leader had fate not decreed otherwise. Sidney was a younger son of the Earl of Pembroke. He was educated at Harrow and Oxford where he made his name in debate. He started life as a Tory in South Wiltshire when he was just 22. Peel recognised his abilities and made him Joint Secretary to the Board of Control in his short ministry of 1834-5. When Peel returned to power in 1841 he made Sidney First Secretary of the Admiralty and in 1845 promoted him to Secretary at War. Sidney followed Peel into exile and resumed his previous office under Aberdeen. He was responsible for the War Office during the Crimean War. As Gladstone described it "Herbert strained himself morning, noon and night to invent wants for the army and according to his best judgement or conjecture to supply them". He sent Florence Nightingale out to Scutari and became her parliamentary champion thereafter. He relinquished the post to Lord Newcastle in 1854 but was restored to the Cabinet by Palmerston in 1855 as Colonial Secretary. In 1855 he resigned with the rest of the Peelites from Palmerston's first ministry over the Crimean War enquiry but regretted it almost immediately and spent the next few years urging his colleagues to throw their lot in with Palmerston particularly after the 1857 election reduced the Peelites to a few chiefs with no Indians. He thought it would take longer than Palmerston's remaining lifetime for the Tories to regenerate themselves and rejected Derby's suggestion of a pact before the election. He understood Palmerston's appeal to the country gentlemen who made up most of the party ; they were " very independent in habits and feelings and the time is gone by when they will vote like a flock of sheep for whatever some half dozen men may concoct in a library." In his own constituency he found that Palmerston was more popular amongst Tory voters than amongst professed liberals. He was the main organising force behind the Willis's Tea Room Meeting and spoke for the Peelite position ( not at that point including Gladstone ) there.
Palmerston rewarded Sidney with a return to the War Office and the two men became close friends and allies. In 1860 he backed Palmerston to the hilt over the militia ; he believed that the advent of steam and iron required a change in defence policy : "We must look at our Army now altogether from a different point of view. Our insular security as such is lost . No mere preponderance of our fleet in the Channel can insure perfect security". He threatened to resign if Gladstone got his way on cutting defence spending. Palmerston commented " We must not part with him for so small a sum. He is by far the best administrator of Army Matters I have ever known". Palmerston came to see Sidney as a possible successor but the younger man's health began to fail and he had to resign from his post in July 1861.
He was created Baron Herbert of Lea but died just a month later of Bright's disease. The Tories finally reclaimed the seat at the by-election.
Speaking of by-elections we now move on to those Liberals who entered Parliament during the life of the 1859-65 Parliament. These will be covered in chronological order.
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