Editing Edward Bulwer-Lytton (section)

==Political career==
[[File:Edward Bulwer-Lytton Vanity Fair 29 October 1870.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Caricature by "[[Carlo Pellegrini (caricaturist)|Ape]]" published in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' in 1870]]
Bulwer began his political career as a follower of [[Jeremy Bentham]]. In 1831 he was elected [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|member]] for [[St Ives, Cambridgeshire|St Ives]], Cornwall, after which he was returned for [[Lincoln (UK Parliament constituency)|Lincoln]] in 1832, and sat in [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] for that city for nine years. He spoke in favour of the [[Reform Act 1832|Reform Bill]] and took the lead in securing the reduction, after he had vainly supported the repeal, of the [[newspaper stamp duties]]. His influence was perhaps most keenly felt after the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig Party]]'s dismissal from office in 1834, when he issued a pamphlet entitled ''A Letter to a Late Cabinet Minister on the Crisis''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Pamphlets and Sketches |chapter=The Present Crisis. A Letter to a Late Cabinet Minister |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/pamphletsandsket00lyttuoft#page/viii/mode/2up |author=Lord Lytton |edition=[[Knebworth House|Knebworth]] |year=1875 |publisher=George Routledge and Sons |location=London |pages=9–48 |access-date=28 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324090403/http://archive.org/stream/pamphletsandsket00lyttuoft#page/viii/mode/2up |archive-date=24 March 2012 |url-status=live }} Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org).</ref> [[William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|Lord Melbourne]], the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]], offered him a lordship of the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]], which he declined as likely to interfere with his activity as an author.{{sfn |Waugh |1911 |p=186}}

Bulwer was created a [[baronet]], of Knebworth House in the County of Hertford, in the [[Baronetage of the United Kingdom]], in 1838.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=19631 |date=3 July 1838 |page=1488}}</ref> In 1841, he left Parliament and spent much of his time in travel.{{sfn |Waugh |1911 |p=186}} He did not return to politics until 1852, when, having differed from [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord John Russell]] over the [[Corn Laws]], he stood for [[Hertfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Hertfordshire]] as a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]. Bulwer-Lytton held that seat until 1866, when he was raised to the [[peerage]] as '''Baron Lytton''' of Knebworth in the County of Hertford. In 1858, he entered [[Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|Lord Derby]]'s [[Second Derby–Disraeli ministry|government]] as [[Secretary of State for the Colonies]], thus serving alongside his old friend [[Benjamin Disraeli]]. He was comparatively inactive in the [[House of Lords]].{{sfn |Waugh |1911 |p=186}}

"Just prior to his government's defeat in 1859 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, notified Sir [[George Bowen|George Ferguson Bowen]] of his appointment as Governor of the new colony to be known as 'Queen's Land'." The draft letter was ranked #4 in the 'Top 150: Documenting Queensland' exhibition when it toured to venues around Queensland from February 2009 to April 2010.<ref>{{cite web |author=corporateName=Queensland State Archives |title=Number 4 – Draft letter from Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor Bowen |url=http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/Researchers/Exhibitions/Top150/001-025/Pages/004.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20150404204257/http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/Researchers/Exhibitions/Top150/001-025/Pages/004.aspx |archive-date=4 April 2015 |access-date=6 August 2020 |website=Number 4 – Draft letter from Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor Bowen |date=5 April 2015 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> The exhibition was part of [[Queensland State Archives]]' events and exhibition program which contributed to the state's Q150 celebrations, marking the 150th anniversary of the [[separation of Queensland]] from New South Wales.<ref>{{Citation |author1=Queensland State Archives |title=Annual report |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/28725413 |date=2014 |publisher=Queensland State Archives |access-date=6 August 2020}}</ref>

===British Columbia===
When news of the [[Fraser Canyon Gold Rush]] reached London, Bulwer-Lytton, as Secretary of State for the Colonies, requested that the War Office recommend a field officer, "a man of good judgement possessing a knowledge of mankind", to lead a Corps of 150 (later increased to 172) Royal Engineers, who had been selected for their "superior discipline and intelligence".<ref name="Jean Barman p. 71">Jean Barman, The West Beyond the West: A History of British Columbia, (Toronto: University of Toronto), p. 71.</ref> The War Office chose [[Richard Clement Moody]], and Lord Lytton, who described Moody as his "distinguished friend",<ref name="Rambling Recollections"/> accepted the nomination in view of Moody's military record, his success as Governor of the Falkland Islands, and the distinguished record of his father, [[Thomas Moody (1779–1849)|Colonel Thomas Moody, Knight]] at the Colonial Office.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=5715 |title=Entry for Richard Clement Moody in Dictionary of Canadian Biography |year=2002 |access-date=11 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011185856/http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=5715 |archive-date=11 October 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> Moody was charged to establish British order and transform the newly established [[Colony of British Columbia (1858–66)|Colony of British Columbia]] into the British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west"<ref>Donald J. Hauka, McGowan's War, Vancouver: 2003, New Star Books, p. 146.</ref> and "found a second England on the shores of the Pacific".<ref name="Jean Barman p. 71"/> Lytton desired to send to the colony "representatives of the best of British culture, not just a police force", sought men who possessed "courtesy, high breeding and urbane knowledge of the world",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scott |first=Laura Elaine |title=The Imposition of British Culture as Portrayed in the New Westminster Capital Plan of 1859 to 1862 |year=1983 |publisher=Simon Fraser University |page=13}}</ref> and decided to send Moody, whom the Government considered to be the archetypal "English gentleman and British Officer"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scott |first=Laura Elaine |title=The Imposition of British Culture as Portrayed in the New Westminster Capital Plan of 1859 to 1862 |year=1983 |publisher=Simon Fraser University |page=19}}</ref> at the head of the [[Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment]], to whom he wrote an impassioned letter.<ref name="Rambling Recollections">{{Cite book |title=Rambling Recollections, Vol. 1 |last=Drummond |first=Sir Henry |page=272 |chapter=XXIII |year=1908 |publisher=Macmillan and Co., London}}</ref>

The former [[Hudson's Bay Company|HBC]] Fort Dallas at [[Camchin]], the confluence of the [[Thompson River|Thompson]] and the [[Fraser River]]s, was renamed in his honour by Governor Sir [[James Douglas (governor)|James Douglas]] in 1858 as [[Lytton, British Columbia]].<ref>{{Cite news |author=The Canadian Press |title=Toff and prof to duke it out in literary slugfest |url= https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/toff-and-prof-to-duke-it-out-in-literary-slugfest-1.707984 |publisher=[[CBC News]] |date=17 August 2008 |access-date=18 August 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090116064940/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/08/17/writing-bad.html |archive-date=16 January 2009 |url-status=live |author-link=The Canadian Press}}</ref>