Wight; but his chief interests were sport and literature. He died 10 Sept. 1841, having lost his wife in 1815. Harris was educated at a private school at Wimborne and at Eton, but was never very studious. In 1825 he proceeded to Oriel College, Oxford, where Copleston was provost, and Newman tutor. (His comments on Newman's conduct as tutor, published in the ‘Memoirs of an Ex-Minister,’ were contradicted by Lord Blachford and the cardinal himself in the ‘Daily News’ of 13 and 28 Oct. 1884.) After taking his degree in 1827 Lord Fitzharris, as he was then styled, travelled abroad, and at Rome made the acquaintance, through the Countess Guiccioli, of Queen Hortense, and her son, Louis Napoleon. He returned to England in 1829. Compelled, owing to his father's wishes, to decline to stand for the Isle of Wight in 1834, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Portsmouth in 1838, and was returned in the conservative interest for Wilton in June 1841, but his father's death in the following September raised him to the upper house. Malmesbury did not at first take an active part in politics, though he possessed considerable knowledge of foreign affairs, gained partly through his wife's relatives, the De Gramonts, and partly through numerous visits to the continent, among which may be mentioned a trip in 1845 to the castle of Ham. where Louis Napoleon was imprisoned (Memoirs, i. 157–60).
On the disruption of the conservatives in 1846 Malmesbury played an important part in rallying the protectionists, and became their whip in the House of Lords, where Lord Stanley (afterwards earl of Derby), whose friendship he had formed in 1834, was speedily established as leader of the party. In 1848 he published a letter on ‘The Revision of the Game Laws,’ addressed to the home secretary, Sir George Grey. In 1851, when Stanley attempted in vain to form a government, he offered Malmesbury the colonial office. In the following year Malmesbury and Disraeli failed in their efforts to induce Lord Derby to meet the government measure by a counter Reform Bill. The whigs, however, were defeated on the Militia Bill, the conservatives came into office, and Malmesbury was appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs 22 Feb. 1852.
He had gained some accidental education for his work through preparing for publication ‘The Diplomatic Journal and Correspondence of the first Lord Malmesbury,’ which appeared in 1844. He also acknowledged much good advice from the queen and the prince consort, and from his predecessors, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Palmerston, and Lord Granville. Though comments were passed on the badness of his grammar (Bulwer, Palmerston, ii. 236) it was not long before Greville, the diarist, learnt that he was doing very well, and displaying great firmness (Journals, 2nd part, iii. 472–3). The Austrian ambassador, Count Buol, attempted in vain to play on his inexperience (Memoirs, i. 313, 320). Among the congratulations he received was one from his friend the prince president of the French republic, and Malmesbury, who stood almost alone in believing in the pacific intentions of Napoleon, was the first to recognise officially the creation of the second empire after raising some difficulties about the numeral adopted in the emperor's title. Another important event was the signature of the treaty of London, guaranteeing the Danish possessions to Prince Christian of Glücksburg, but in signing Malmesbury was only endorsing Palmerston's diplomacy, as the arrangement was based on the protocol of 1850 (Count Vitzthum, St. Petersburg and London, ii. 222, English trans.). But, able though his management of affairs was, it was violently attacked. The Peelites were annoyed at his prompt recognition of the empire, and Lord John Russell made party capital out of the case of a Mr. Mather, who stood in the way of some Austrian soldiers in Florence, and was cut over the head by their officer. Both Lord Derby and Disraeli amply defended him, and the former paid a handsome compliment to his diligence, ability, and good judgment when the ministry resigned (20 Dec. 1852). In March 1853 Malmesbury was once more in Paris, and had some interesting audiences with the emperor (Memoirs, i. 387–96). During the session he made a curiously violent speech on the Succession Duties Bill, but appeared to greater advantage in March 1854, when he ably defended one of his former subordinates, accused by Lord Aberdeen of official indiscretions.
When Lord Derby, on the resignation of Lord Aberdeen, attempted to form a government (February 1855), he offered Malmesbury the foreign office a second time, but Derby's negotiations broke down, and Disraeli rather absurdly attempted to fix the responsibility on Malmesbury, whom he accused of forsaking Derby at the critical moment. In the same year he declined to entertain suggestions for making Disraeli or Lord Stanley leader of the party. On 5 May he opened the debate on the treaty of Paris in the House of Lords, and during the next two years spoke frequently on foreign and Indian topics. In February 1858 Palmerston was overthrown on the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, and the conservatives coming into power Malmesbury was again appointed foreign secretary. His
