This thesis seeks to identify how the Conservative Party of the 1850s, and morespecifically its leadership, approached foreign policy: what ideas it had about foreignaffairs; what it did to put them into practice; and how it opposed alternative ideas andpolicies. It focuses on the fourteenth Earl of Derby's minority administrations of 1852and 1858-9, whilst also examining the Conservative role in opposition to the Russell,Aberdeen and Palmerston governments. It examines in detail the way in which thethird Earl of Malmesbury, directed by Derby, managed foreign policy. It suggests thatthe Derbyite Conservatives had a clearly identifiable foreign policy stance, differentfrom both Palmerston's 'liberal' policy and, increasingly, from the policies advocatedby Disraeli. It incorporates a detailed analysis of the growing tension between Disraeliand his colleagues over foreign policy between 1855 and 1859