first administration Herries was appointed secretary at war (16 Dec. 1834), a post which he held until the overthrow of the ministry in April 1835. He was appointed one of the select committee on metropolitan improvements, and wrote the greater part of the second report for 1838. On 13 Feb. 1840 Herries's motion for returns of the public finances (ib. 3rd ser. lii. 184–201) was carried against the government by a majority of ten. In the following session he took an active part in the debates on the financial and commercial policy of the government. At the dissolution in June 1841 he retired from the representation of Harwich, and at the general election in the following month unsuccessfully contested the borough of Ipswich with Fitzroy Kelly (afterwards lord chief baron) [q. v.] For the next six years Herries remained both out of parliament and of office, but at the general election in July 1847 he was elected to parliament for the borough of Stamford as a protectionist. On his return to parliament Herries strenuously resisted the repeal of the navigation laws (Disraeli, Lord George Bentinck, 1852, p. 558). His decision not to accept office is stated to have been one of the causes of Lord Stanley's failure to form a government in February 1851 (Earl of Malmesbury, Memoirs of an ex-Minister, 1884, i. 278–9). On 28 Feb. 1852, however, he was appointed president of the board of control in Lord Derby's first administration, and retained that post until the overthrow of the administration in December 1852. He was again returned for Stamford at the general election in July 1852, but retired from parliamentary life at the end of the session in the following year. Herries spoke for the last time in the House of Commons on 11 July 1853 on the government of India bill (Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser. cxxix. 43–7), and was succeeded in the representation of Stamford by Lord Robert Cecil (the present marquis of Salisbury), who then entered the house for the first time. Herries died suddenly at St. Julians, near Sevenoaks, on 24 April 1855, aged 77, and was buried in the family vault at Sevenoaks. Herries married, on 8 Feb. 1814, Sarah, daughter of John Dorington, clerk of the fees of the House of Commons. She died on 27 Feb. 1821, leaving three sons—viz. (1) Sir Charles John Herries, K.C.B. [q. v.]; (2) William Robert Herries, brevet major, 43rd light infantry, who was killed at the battle of Moodkee in December 1845; (3) Edward Herries, C.B., formerly secretary of legation at Berne—and three daughters.
Herries throughout his career was a consistent tory, and a worthy and upright politician. He was neither a frequent nor a brilliant speaker, and he owed his position in the House of Commons mainly to his extensive knowledge of finance and his great capacity for work. The account given by Mr. Walpole in his ‘History of England’ (ii. 460–3) of the appointment of Herries to the office of chancellor of the exchequer has been the subject of considerable controversy. Founded as it is on statements in the ‘Life of Lord Palmerston’ and in Greville's ‘Memoirs,’ it cannot be said to be entirely free from political bias, and it certainly gives an erroneous impression of Herries's position. The imputations on his character are not borne out by the evidence when impartially considered, nor was he a mere ‘tory clerk;’ for ‘his position in general repute was such that his appointment to be chancellor of the exchequer excited, and indeed could excite, no surprise whatever on the ground of calibre. His qualifications were eminent’ (Letter of Mr. Gladstone, dated 3 Dec. 1880, to Sir Charles Herries). Herries was a man of singularly retired habits, and never ‘attended a public meeting except at his elections, or spoke at a public dinner—invitations to which he almost invariably declined’ (Memoir, i. [20]). He is said, however, to have been one of the originators of the Carlton Club, the precursor of which was ‘a place of meeting for party purposes, established to a great extent under his auspices in Charles Street, St. James's Square’ (ib. ii. 119). The portrait of Herries by Sir William Boxall, R.A. (now in the possession of Mr. Edward Herries) was exhibited at the Loan Collection of National Portraits at South Kensington in 1868 (Catalogue, No. 398), and has been engraved by Walker. Mr. Herries also possesses a portrait painted by Meyer, which was engraved by S. Freeman for the second series of Ryall's ‘Portraits of Eminent Conservatives and Statesmen.’
