Edmund Phipps (ed.), Memoirs of the Political and Literary Life of Robert Plumer Ward, Esq., with Selections from his Correspondence, Diaries and Unpublished Literary Remains (2 volumes, London, John Murray, 1850)

Robert Plumer Ward was a lawyer, politician and writer, born in London and educated at Oxford. He began his career as a lawyer in 1790 and five years later published his first book, on international law. In 1796 he married Catherine Maling and became a relative by marriage of Henry Phipps, the 1st Earl of Mulgrave. Ward’s diary throws an interesting light on the young Palmerston. His own view, that Palmerston should accept the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer rather than that of Secretary at War, carried no weight with the young man, whose fear of failure seems a long way removed from the confident character of later years. Lord Palmerston told the author he had declined the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, but was ready to take the place of Secretary at War, if the person it now was with declined.