Examining a range of topics in domestic and foreign policy, this collection brings a fresh approach to the political history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through a series of essays. It is suitable for those with an interest in the decline of the aristocracy, Victorian high politics and the politics of the regions. '... reveal[s] the hidden forces behind British foreign policy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and examine the false impressions that have occurred. ... deserve[s] to be read widely ...' Victorian Studies 'Collectively, the essays offer a further corrective to a historiography of British foreign policy during the nineteenth century, dominated by Palmerston and Disraeli. Students and teachers of British foreign policy will derive much benefit from reading it.' History