Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
ROSEBERY, ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE, 5TH
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: RON-SAC
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:ROSEBERY, See also:ARCHIBALD See also: On his return he acquired an See also:English See also:country house called The Durdans, See also:Epsom, which he largely rebuilt and adorned with some of the finest See also:turf portraits of George See also:Stubbs. Following the example, as he declared, of See also:Oliver See also:Cromwell (for whom he showed an admiration in other respects—culminating in 'goo in the erection of a statue outside See also:Westminster See also: He and his wife utilized the See also:interval to make a trip See also:round the See also:world, being most warmly received in See also:Australia, and returning by way of See also:India. At the See also:close of 1884 he resumed office as first commissioner of See also:works with a seat in the See also:cabinet, and his adherence carried with it a distinct See also:accession of strength to the Liberal See also:ministry, which was much discredited by the tragedy attached to the See also:fate of See also:Gordon. The attitude of the See also:government on the Afghan question and generally in regard to See also:Russia was held by many to have been perceptibly stiffened owing to Lord Rosebery's See also:influence. In June 1885 the Liberal See also:administration See also:broke up, but Lord See also:Salisbury's ministry, which succeeded, was beaten See also:early in February 1886, and when Mr Gladstone adopted Home See also:Rule,. Lord Rosebery threw in his See also:lot with the old See also:leader, and was made secretary of See also:state for See also:foreign affairs during the brief Liberal ministry which followed. He rather distinguished himself in the See also:Lucia See also:Bay negotiations then being carried on with See also:Germany. If See also:Busch is to be believed, See also:Prince See also:Bismarck's view was that Lord Rosebery had " quite mesmerized " See also:Count See also:Herbert Bismarck; and the latter, from his See also:father's standpoint, conceded too much to Lord Rosebery, who proved himself to be, in Bismarck's See also:language, " very See also:sharp." His views on foreign policy differed materially from those of See also:Granville and Gladstone. His mind was dwelling constantly upon the political See also:legacy of the two Pitts; he was a reader of Sir John See also:Seeley; he had him-self visited the colonies; had predicted that a See also:war would not, as was commonly said, disintegrate the empire, but rather the See also:reverse; had magnified the importance of taking colonial See also:opinion; and had always been a convinced See also:advocate of some See also:form of Imperial Federation. He was already taunted with being an Imperialist, but his See also:independent attitude won public approval. See also:Cambridge gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1888; in See also:January 1889 he was elected a member of the first See also:county See also:council of London, and on the 12th of February he was elected chairman of that See also:body by 104 votes to 17. The tact, assiduity and dignity with which he guided the deliberations of the council made him exceedingly popular with its members. In the See also:spring of 1890 he presided over the Co-operative Congress, but with a view to the impending political campaign he found it necessary to resign the chairmanship of the county council in June. In November of this year, however, Lady Rosebery died, and he withdrew for a See also:period from public business. In 1891 he made some brief See also:continental visits, one to See also:Madrid, and in See also:October he saw through the See also:press his little monograph upon William Pitt, in the Twelve English Statesmen See also:Series, of which it may be said that it competes in See also:interest with See also:Viscount See also:Morley's See also:Walpole. In January 1892, upon a new See also:election, he again for a few months became chairman of the county council. It was already recognized that in him the country possessed not only a public man of exceptionally attractive See also:personality, but one whose See also:literary tastes were combined with a See also:gift for expression which was at once original and fluent. In October the Garter was conferred upon him by Queen Victoria. Meanwhile, in August, upon the return of Gladstone to See also:power, he was induced with some difficulty (for he was suffering at the See also:time from See also:insomnia) to resume his position as foreign minister. His See also:acceptance was construed as a See also:security against the suspicion of weakness abroad which the Liberal party had incurred by their foreign policy during the 'eighties. He strongly opposed the evacuation of See also:Egypt; he insisted upon the exclusive See also:control by Great See also:Britain of the Upper See also:Nile Valley, and also upon the retention of See also:Uganda. In 1893 the question of See also:Siam came near to causing serious trouble with See also:France, but by the exercise of a See also:combination of firmness and forbearance on Lord Rosebery's See also:part the crisis was averted, and the lines were laid down for pre-serving Siam, if possible, as a buffer state between the English and See also:French frontiers in Indo-See also:China. In the spring of 1895 he was clear-sighted enough to refuse to join the See also:anti-See also:Japanese See also:League of Russia, France and Germany at the end of the China-See also:Japan War. Lord Rosebery's See also:personal popularity had been increased at home by his successful intervention in the See also:coal strike of December 1893, and when in March 1894 the resignation of Gladstone was announced, his selection by Queen Victoria for the premiership was welcomed by the public at large and by the See also:majority of his own party. On all hands he was then considered dignus imperio—it was only as the new administration went to pieces that See also:people began to add nisi imperasset. The conditions he had to See also:face were by no means hopeful. The Liberal majority of 44 was already dwindling away, and the malcontents, who considered ' that Sir William Harcourt should have been the prime minister, or who were perpetually intriguing against aleader who did not satisfy their See also:idea of Radicalism, made Lord Rosebery's personal position no easy one. A systematic policy of detraction was pursued by the small See also:section of the See also:Radical party who objected to a peer premier as such, and a great See also:deal of adverse See also:criticism was also aroused by a speech in which the prime minister, taunted for not again bringing forward a Home Rule measure, insisted upon the truism that the See also:conversion of England, the " predominant partner," was a necessary condition of success. The support of the Irish Nationalists was by no means secure. Lord Rosebery's foreign policy, moreover, was too Tory for his Radical followers; he insisted upon " continuity of policy in foreign affairs," which meant carrying on the Conservative policy and not upsetting it. The premier was thought to have shown a restlessness and a rawness at the See also:touch of censure which did not increase his reputation for reserve power or strength, but this was undoubtedly due in large measure to the recrudescence of the insomnia from which he had suffered in 1891. The government effected little. In Mr See also:Asquith's phrase, it was " ploughing the sands." The See also:Parish See also:Councils See also:Act was only passed by compromising with the Opposition. See also:Local See also:Veto and Disestablishment of the Welsh Church were put in the forefront of the party See also:programme, but the government was already to all appearances See also:riding for a fall, when on the 24th of June 1895 it was beaten upon an adverse See also:vote in the Commons in regard to a question of the See also:supply and reserve of small arms See also:ammunition. The See also:general election which followed after Lord Salisbury had formed his new ministry was remarkable for the undisciplined state of the Liberal party. At the Eighty See also:Club and the See also:Albert Hall Lord Rosebery advised them to concentrate upon the reform of the House of Lords, that See also:assembly being, as he said, a foremost obstacle to the passing of legislation on the lines of the See also:Newcastle programme; but he was unable to suggest in what direction it should be reformed. Sir William Harcourt and Mr John Morley, on the other See also:hand, concentrated respectively upon Local See also:Option and Home Rule. The Liberals were quarrelling among themselves, and the result was an overwhelming defeat. In Opposition Lord Rosebery was now at a serious disadvantage as See also:head of a See also:parliamentary party; for in any See also:case he could not rally them as a loyally followed leader in the House of Commons might have done. But his followers were not all loyal, and his rivals in leadership were themselves in the House of Commons. Added to this there was still in the background the See also:veteran statesman to whom Liberalism owed an -unequalled See also:obligation. When the " Armenian atrocities " became a burning question in the country in 1896, and Mr Gladstone himself emerged from his retirement to advocate intervention, Lord Rosebery's difficulties had taken their final form. He declined to support this demand at the See also:risk of a See also:European war, and on the 8th of October 1896 he announced to the Liberal See also:whip, Mr See also: Again, after Mr See also:Kruger's See also:ultimatum in October 1899, Lord Rosebery spoke upon the See also:necessity of the nation closing its ranks and supporting the government in the See also:prosecution of war in South See also:Africa. After See also:Nicholson's Nek he reiterated the See also:resolution of the country " to see this thing through." Nevertheless, in a See also:letter to See also:Captain
Lambton, an unsuccessful Liberal See also:candidate for Newcastle, in September 'goo, he condemned the general conduct of affairs by Lord Salisbury's government, while in several speeches in the House of Lords he strongly urged the necessity of See also:army reform. Since his See also:abandonment of the leadership in 1896, the lack of coherence in the Liberal party had become more and more See also:manifest. The war had brought to the front a See also:pro-See also:Boer section, who seemed gradually to be compromising the whole party, and had apparently succeeded in winning the support of Sir Henry See also: This utterance led to an idea that he was inclined to consider favourably the proposal for a preferential tariff, his earlier See also:enthusiasm for Imperial Federation making his support an interesting political possibility. But this idea was quickly dispelled; on the 22nd he expressed his surprise that anybody should have thought he intended to approve of Mr Chamberlain's See also:plan; he was not prepared to dismiss in advance a proposal for the consolidation of the empire made by the responsible government, but he believed that the objections to a policy of preference were insurmountable. The fact, no doubt, was that Mr Asquith, Lord Rosebery's chief See also:lieutenant in the Liberal League, made himself from the outset a determined champion of free trade in opposition to Mr Chamberlain; and Lord Rosebery quickly came into See also:line with the See also:rest of the Liberal party on this question. On the 12th of June, addressing the Liberal League, he admitted that as a lifelong Imperialist it was with See also:pain and grief that he could not support Mr Chamberlain's See also:scheme, but the empire had been built upon free trade, and he only saw danger to the empire in these new proposals. Speaking at See also:Sheffield on the 13th of October he criticized the scheme in more detail, and, as an Imperialist; warned the country against it, emphasizing his own ideal of the future of the empire—" a strong mother with strong See also:children, each working out his own political and fiscal salvation." Hisattitude on the new issue undoubtedly affected public opinion, and helped to draw him closer to the great body of the Liberal party, who saw that their See also:identification with the cause of free trade was doing much to remove the public distrust associated with their support of Home Rule. On the 7th of November at See also:Leicester Lord Rosebery insisted that what the country wanted was not fiscal reform but commercial reform, and h. appealed to the free-trade section of the Unionist party t join the Liberals in a united See also:defence,—an appeal incidentally for Liberal unity which was warmly seconded ten days later by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. On the 26th of November Lord Rosebery's speech on the same lines at a meeting in South London resulted in a powerful demonstration in favour of his resuming the Liberal leadership, but he made no public response. On the loth of June 1904 he addressed a meeting of the Liberal League at the Queen's Hall, London, and sketched a programme of " sane and See also:practical Imperialism "; but he irritated the Home Rulers by again repudiating a See also:parliament in See also:Dublin, and he perplexed the public generally by his adverse criticism on the popular Anglo-French Agreement, which he was the only English statesman to oppose, on the ground of its handing over See also:Morocco to France. At Glasgow on the 5th of December he again outlined a Liberal programme, this and other speeches all leading to the See also:assumption that his return to active co-operation with the Liberal party in the general election—which could not be See also:long delayed—was fairly certain. Early in 1905 this impression gained such strength and such polite references were. made to one another in public by Lord Rosebery and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, that his assumption of office in a Liberal ministry, possibly presided over by Earl Spencer, was confidently anticipated. But these forecasts were ultimately upset, not only by Lord Spencer's illness and his removal from the See also:list of possible Liberal prime ministers, but by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's pronouncement at Stirling in November on the subject of Irish Home Rule. Lord Rosebery had just gone down to See also:Cornwall to make a series of speeches in support of the Liberal programme, now fairly well mapped out as regards those items which represented the strong public opposition to what had been done by the Unionist government. It was believed that an understanding had been come to between his Liberal League henchmen (Mr Asquith, Sir E. Grey and Mr See also:Haldane) and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and that Lord Rosebery's co-operation was to be secured by the See also:adoption of some See also:formula which would temporarily take Home Rule out of the See also:official programme as a question of practical politics. But to the general surprise and Lord Rosebery's own very evident See also:mortification Sir Henry went a long way in his Stirling speech to See also:nail the Home Rule See also:colour to the See also:mast; he did not indeed propose to introduce a Home Rule Bill, but he declared his determination to proceed in Irish legislation on lines which would See also:lead up to the same result. Lord Rosebery abruptly broke off his campaign, declaring at See also:Bodmin (26th of November) that he would never " fight under that banner. " From the moment the apparent recrudescence of the Liberal split over this question seemed to have misled Mr Balfour, who resigned office on the 4th of December, into thinking that difficulties would arise over the formation of a Liberal cabinet; but, whether or not the rumour was correct that a blunder had been made at Stirling and that explanations had ensued which satisfied Mr Asquith and Sir Edward Grey, this anticipation proved unjustified. Lord Rosebery himself, it is true, held aloof; his protest had been publicly made and he adhered to it in the See also:absence of any public withdrawal by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman; but he encouraged his Liberal League supporters to be loyal to the new prime minister, and Mr Asquith, Sir E. Grey and Mr Haldane were included in the Liberal cabinet. The overwhelming Liberal and Labour victory at the general election of 1906 began a new era in the fortunes of the party, and Lord Rosebery's individuality once more sank back from any position of prominence in regard to its new programme. He remair;ed outside party politics,
emerging only in 1909, first to attack Mr See also:Lloyd George's See also:budget in the country as a " revolution," and then—to the general surprise—to condemn the House of Lords in debate for rejecting it; and in 1910 (see PARLIAMENT) he appeared once more to be coming to the front, by the resolutions he carried in regard to the remodelling of the Upper Chamber, when the death of See also: No public man of his time was more fitted to act as unofficial national orator; none more happy in the touches with which he could adorn a social or literary topic and See also:charm a non-political See also:audience; and on occasion he wrote as well as he spoke. His Pitt has already been mentioned; his Appreciations and Addresses and his See also:Peel (containing a remarkable comment on the position of an English prime minister) were published in 1899; his See also:Napoleon: the Last Phase—an ingenious, if paradoxical, See also:attempt to justify Napoleon's conduct in See also:exile at St See also:Helena—in 1900; his Cromwell in the same year. In 1906 he published an appreciation of his old friend Lord Randolph Churchill, inspired by the publication of Mr Winston Churchill's Life of his father. In its detached yet intimate way, this is a See also:model of the See also:art by which a See also:good See also:judge of men, possessed at the same time of a just See also:historical sense, may, from the point of view of a contemporary on the opposite side in politics, correct the See also:perspective of an official See also:biography written under the limitations of filial obligation, and give See also:tone and value to the picture of an interesting personality. Lord Rosebery's family consisted of two sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Lord Dalmeny (b. See also:Jan. 1882), who in 1909 married a daughter of Lord Henry Grosvenor, 3rd son of the 1st duke of Westminster, entered parliament in 1906 as Liberal member for Mid Lothian, but retired in 191o; he was well known as a cricketer, captaining the See also:Surrey eleven in 1905 and 1906. The younger son, the Hon. Neil Primrose (b. Dec. 1882), took more actively than his See also:brother to a political career, and in January 1910 was returned as a Liberal for the See also:Wisbech See also:division of See also:Cambridgeshire. The See also:elder daughter, Lady Sybil, in 1903 married Captain See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] ROSE, WILLIAM STEWART (1775-1843) |
[next] ROSECRANS, WILLIAM STARKE (1819-1898) |