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SALISBURY, ROBERT ARTHUR TALBOT GASCO...
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See also:SALISBURY, See also:ROBERT See also:ARTHUR See also:TALBOT GASCOYNECECIL, 3RD See also:MARQUESS OF (1830-1903) , See also:British statesman, second son of See also: He also charged Lord John Russell with adopting " a sort of See also:tariff of insolence " in his dealings with See also:foreign See also:Powers, strong and weak.
It was not, however, till the See also:death of See also:Palmerston and the removal of Lord John Russell to the House of Lords had brought See also:Gladstone to the front that Lord Robert Cecil—who became Lord Cranborne by the death of his See also:elder brother on the 14th of See also:June 1865—began to be accepted as a politician of the first See also:rank. His emergence coincided with the opening of the new See also:area in British politics; ushered in by the See also:practical steps taken to extend the parliamentary See also:franchise. On the 12th of
See also: measure—a measure based upon a £6 franchise; but their own See also:side did not like it, the Opposition were furious, and the moral sense of the country was revolted by the undisguised See also:adoption of almost the very Bill which the Conservatives had refused to accept from their opponents only a year before. The result was that the Government reverted to measure A, and the three ministers again handed in their resignations. In the debate on the third See also:reading of the Bill, when its passage through the House of Commons without a See also:division was assured, Lord Cranborne showed with caustic See also:rhetoric how the " precautions, guarantees, and securities " with which the Bill had bristled on its second reading had been dropped one after another at the bidding of Gladstone. In countries where politics are conducted on any other than the give-and-take principles in See also:vogue in See also:England, such a See also:breach as that which occurred in 1867 between Lord Cranborne In the and his former colleagues, especially Disraeli, would House of Lords. have been beyond repair. But Cranborne, though an aristocrat both by See also:birth and by conviction, was not impracticable; moreover, Disraeli, who had himself risen to See also:eminence through invective, admired rather than resented that See also:gift in others; and their See also:common opposition to Gladstone was certain to reunite the two colleagues. In the session of 1868 Gladstone announced that he meant to take up the Irish question, and to See also:deal especially with the celebrated " See also:Upas See also:tree," of which the first See also:branch was the Established Church. By way of giving full See also:notice to the electorate, he brought in a series of resolutions on this question; and though the attitude adopted' by the See also:official Conservatives towards them was not one of serious antagonism, Lord Cranborne vigorously attacked them. This was his last speech in the House of Commons, for on the 12th of April his See also:father died, and he became 3rd marquess of Salisbury. In the House of Lords the new Lord Salisbury's See also:style of eloquence —terse, incisive and wholly See also:free from false See also:ornament—found an even more appreciative See also:audience than it had met with in the House of Commons. The questions with which he was first called upon to deal were questions in which his See also:interest was keen—the recommendations of the See also:Ritual See also:Commission and, some time later, the Irish Church Suspensory Bill. Lord Salisbury's See also:argument was that the last session of an expiring parliament was not the time in which so See also:grave a matter as the Irish Church See also:Establishment should be judged or prejudged; that a Suspensory Bill involved the question of disestablishment; and that such a principle could not be accepted by the Lords until the country had pronounced decisively in its favour. Even then there were those who raised the cry that the only business of the House of Lords was to See also:register the decisions of the Commons, and that if they refused to do so it was at their peril. Lord Salisbury met this cry boldly and firmly: " When the See also:opinion of your countrymen has declared itself, and you see that their convictions—their See also:firm, deliberate, sustained convictions—are in favour of any course, I do not for a moment deny that it is your duty to yield." In the very next session Lord Salisbury was called upon to put his view into practice, and his See also:influence went far to persuade the peers to pass the Irish Church Disestablishment Bill. In his opinion the general See also:election of the autumn of 1868 had been fought on this question; his See also:friends had lost, and there was nothing for them to do but to See also:bow to the necessities of the situation. The See also:story of his conduct in the matter has been told in some fulness in the See also:Life of See also:Archbishop See also:Tait, with whom Salisbury acted, and who throughout those See also:critical See also:weeks played a most important part as mediator between the two extreme parties—those of Lord See also:Cairns (representing See also:Ulster) and Gladstone. See also:October 1869 saw the death of the old Lord Derby, who was still the titular See also:leader of his party; and he was succeeded as leader of the House of Lords by Cairns. For the dignified See also:post of See also:chancellor of the university of Oxford See also:Convocation unanimously See also:chose as Derby's successor the marquess of Salisbury. Derby had translated the Iliad very well, but his successor was far more able to sympathize with the See also:academic mind and See also:temper. He • was at See also:heart a student, and found his best See also:satisfaction in scientificresearch and in scientific See also:speculation; while still a See also:young See also:man he had made useful contributions to the investigation of the See also:flora of See also:Hertfordshire, and at Hatfield he had his own laboratory, where he was able to satisfy his interest in chemical and See also:electrical See also:research. As regards his connexion with Oxford may be mentioned in particular his See also:appointment, in 1877, of a second University Commission, and his See also:appearance, in See also:September 1894, in the Sheldonian See also:Theatre as See also:president of the British Association. It is not necessary to dwell at any length upon the part taken by Lord Salisbury between 1869 and 1873 in respect of the other great See also:political measures of Gladstone's Government—the Irish See also:Land See also:Act, the Act Abolishing See also:Purchase in DtsraeB the See also:Army, See also:Forster's Education Act, &c. Nor does of 1874. his attitude towards the Franco-See also:German See also:War of 187o–71 See also:call for any remark; a British leader of Opposition is See also:bound, even more than a minister, to preserve a discreet silence on such occasions. But early in 1874 came the See also:dissolution, suddenly announced in Gladstone's famous See also:Greenwich See also:letter, with the promise of the abolition of the income-tax. For the first time since 1841 the Conservatives found themselves in See also:office with a large See also:majority in the House of Commons. In Disraeli's new Cabinet in 1874 Salisbury accepted his old position at the India Office, The first task with which the new secretary of state had to deal was one of those periodical famines which are the great See also:scourge of India; he supported the action of Lord See also:Northbrook, the See also:viceroy, and refused to interfere with private See also:trade by prohibiting the export of See also:grain. This attitude was amply justified, and Lord Salisbury presently declared that the action of the Government had given so much confidence to private traders that, by their means, " grain was pouring into the distressed districts at a greater See also:rate than that which was being carried by the public agency,- the amount reaching nearly 2000 tons a day." The Public See also:Worship Regulation Bill of 1894 was the occasion of a famous passage of arms between Salisbury and his See also:chief. The Commons had inserted an See also:amendment which, on See also:consideration by the Lords, Salisbury opposed, with the remark that it was not for the peers to attend to the " bluster " of the See also:lower House merely because a small majority there had passed the amendment. The new clause was accordingly rejected, and the Commons eventually accepted the situation; but Disraeli, banteringly criticizing Salisbury's use of the word " bluster," alluded to him as " a man who does not measure his phrases. He is one who is a great See also:master of gibes and flouts and jeers." From the See also:middle of 1876 the Government was occupied with foreign affairs. In regard to the stages of Eastern See also:fever through which the nation passed between the occurrence of the Bulgarian " atrocities" and the See also:signature of See also:Item the Treaty of See also:Berlin, the part played by Salisbury question. was considerable. The excesses of the Bashi-Bazouks took See also:place in the early summer of 1876, and were recorded in See also:long and highly-coloured despatches to See also:English See also:newspapers; presently there followed Gladstone's pamphlet on Bulgarian Horrors, his speech on See also:Blackheath and his enunciation of a " bag-and-baggage " policy towards See also:Turkey. The autumn went by, See also:Servia and See also:Montenegro declared war upon Turkey and were in imminent danger of something like extinction. On the 31st of October See also:Russia demanded an See also:armistice, which Turkey granted; and Great See also:Britain immediately proposed a See also:conference at See also:Constantinople, at which the powers should endeavour to make arrangements with Turkey for a genera) pacification of her provinces and of the inflammable communities adjoining. At this conference Great Britain was represented by Lord Salisbury. It met early in See also:December, taking for its basis the British terms, namely, the status quo ante in Servia and Montenegro; a self-denying See also:ordinance on the part of all the powers; and the See also:independence and territorial integrity of the See also:Ottoman See also:empire, together with large administrative reforms assured by guarantees. General Ignatieff, the See also:Russian See also:ambassador, was effusively friendly with the British See also:envoy; but though the See also:philo-See also:Turkish party in England professed themselves scandalized, Salisbury made no improper concessions to Russia, and departed in no way from the agreed policy of the British Cabinet. On the loth of See also:January the conference See also:broke up, Turkey having declared its recommendations inadmissible; and See also:Europe withdrew to await the inevitable See also:declaration of war. Very early in the course of that war the intentions of Great Britain were clearly indicated in a despatch of Lord Derby to the British representative at St See also:Petersburg, which announced that so long as the struggle concerned Turkish interests alone Great Britain would be neutral, but that such matters as See also:Egypt, the See also:Suez See also:Canal, the regulations affecting the passage of the See also:Dardanelles, and the See also:possession of Constantinople itself would be regarded as matters to which she could not be indifferent. For some nine months none of these British interests appeared to be threatened, nor had Lord Salisbury's own See also:department to concern itself very directly with the progress of the belligerents. Once or twice, indeed, the See also:Indian secretary committed himself to statements which laid him open to a See also:good deal of attack, as when he rebuked an alarmist by bidding him study the Central Asian question " in large maps. " But with the advance of Russia through See also:Bulgaria and across the Balkans, British anxiety See also:grew. In See also:mid-December explanations were asked from the Russian Government as to their intentions with regard to Constantinople. On the 23rd of January the Cabinet ordered the See also:fleet to See also:sail to the Dardanelles. Lord Carnarvon resigned, and Lord Derby handed in his resignation, but withdrew it. The Treaty of See also:San Stefano was signed on the 3rd of March; and three weeks later, when its full See also:text became known, the succeeds Cabinet decided upon measures which finally induced Lord Derby Lord Derby, at the end of the See also:month, to retire from as Foreign the Foreign Office, his place being immediately filled Minister. by Lord Salisbury. The new foreign secretary at once issued the famous " Salisbury ;circular" to the British representatives abroad, which appeared in the newspapers on the 2nd of April. This elaborate and dignified State paper was at once a clear exposition of British policy, and practically an invitation to Russia to reopen the negotiations for a See also:European See also:congress. These negotiations, indeed, had been proceeding for several weeks past; but Russia having declared that she would only discuss such points as she pleased, the British Cabinet had withdrawn, and the matter for the time was at an end. The bulk of the document consisted of an examination of the Treaty of San Stefano and its probable effects, Lord Salisbury justifying such an examination on the ground that as the position of Turkey and the other countries affected had been settled by Europe in the Treaty of See also:Paris in 1856, the powers which signed that treaty had the right and the duty to see that no modifications of it should be made without their consent.
The effect of the circular was great and immediate. At
See also:home the Conservatives were encouraged, and many moderate
Liberals rallied to the Eastern policy of the Govern-
ment. Abroad it seemed as if the era of divided
See also:councils was over, and the Russian Government
promptly recognized that the circular meant either a congress
or war with Great Britain. For the latter alternative it was by
no means prepared, and very soon negotiations were reopened,
which led to the meeting of the congress at Berlin on the 13th
of June. The See also:history of that famous gathering and of its results
is narrated under EUROPE. Lord See also:Beaconsfield on two or three
subsequent occasions referred to the important part that his
colleague had played in the negotiations, and he was not using
merely the See also:language of politeness. Rumours had appeared
in the London press as to a supposed Anglo-Russian agreement
that had been signed between Salisbury and the Russian
ambassador, See also:Count Shuvaloff, and these rumours or statements
were described by the foreign secretary in the House of Lords,
just before he See also:left for Berlin, as " wholly unauthentic." But
on the 14th of June what purported to be the full text of the
agreement was published by the Globe newspaper through a
certain See also: Great, however, as was the work done at Berlin, and marked the See also:relief to all Europe which was caused by the See also:signing of the treaty, much work, and of no pleasant kind, remained for the British Foreign Office and for the Indian Government before the Beaconsfield parliament ended and the Government had to render up its accounts to the nation. Russia, foreseeing a possible war with Great Britain, had during the See also:spring of 1878 redoubled her activity in Central See also:Asia, and, almost at the very time that the treaty was being signed, her See also:mission was received at See also:Kabul by the See also:Amir Sher See also:Ali. Out of the Amir's refusal to receive a counterbalancing British mission there grew the Afghan War; and though he had ceased to See also:control the India Office, Salisbury was naturally held responsible for some of the preliminary steps which, in the See also:judgment of the Opposition, had led to these hostilities. But the Liberals entirely failed to See also:fix upon Salisbury the blame for a series of events which was generally seen to be inevitable. A See also:defence of the foreign policy of the Government during the year which followed the Berlin Treaty was made by Salisbury in a speech at See also:Manchester (October 1879), which had a great effect throughout Europe. In it he justified the occupation of See also:Cyprus, and approved the beginnings of a league of central Europe for preserving See also:peace.
In the spring of 188o the general election overthrew Beacons-See also: In 1884 a new Reform Bill was introduced, extending See also:household See also:suffrage to the counties; this was met in the Lords by a See also:resolution, moved by Cairns, that the peers could not pass it unaccompanied by a Redistribution Bill. The Government, therefore, withdrew their measure. In the summer and autumn there was a good deal of agitation; but in See also:November a redistribution See also:scheme was settled between the leaders of both parties, and the Bill passed. When, in the summer of 1885, Gladstone resigned, it became necessary for the country to know whether Salisbury or Northcote was the real Conservative leader; and
At Berlin Congress.
the See also:Queen settled the matter by at once sending for Lord Salisbury, who became See also:prime minister for the first time in 1885.
The " Forwards " among the Conservatives, headed by Lord See also:Randolph See also:Churchill, brought so much pressure to See also:bear that
Northcote was induced to enter the House of Lords
Prime minister,
as See also:earl of See also:Iddesleigh, while Sir See also:Michael See also:Hicks See also:Beach 18(5. was made leader of the House of Commons, Lord
Randolph Churchill secretary for India, and Mr Arthur See also:Balfour president of the See also:Local Government See also:Board. The new Government had only to prepare for the general election in the autumn. The ministerial programme was put forward by Salisbury on the 7th of October in an important speech addressed to the Union of Conservative Associations assembled at See also:Newport, in See also:Monmouthshire; and in this he outlined large reforms in local government, poured scorn upon Mr See also: Salisbury at once offered to make way for Lord Hartington, but the See also:suggestion that the latter should form a Government was declined; and the Conservatives took office alone, with an Irish policy which might be summed up, perhaps, in Salisbury's words as " twenty years of resolute government." For a few months, until just before his sudden death on the 12th of January 1887, Lord Iddesleigh was foreign secretary; but Salisbury, who meantime had held the post of lord privy See also:seal, then returned to the Foreign Office. Meanwhile the increasing See also:friction between him and Lord Randolph Churchill, who, amid many qualms on the part of more old-fashioned Conservatives, had become chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons, had led to the latter's resignation, which, to his own surprise, was accepted; and from that date Salisbury's effective primacy in his own party was unchallenged. Only the general lines of Salisbury's later political career need here be sketched. As a consequence of the practical 1886-1902 See also:monopoly of political power enjoyed by the Unionist party after the Liberal disruption of 1886—for even in the years 1892–1895 the situation was dominated by the permanent Unionist majority in the House of Lords—Salisbury's position became unique. These were the long-looked-for days of Conservative reaction, of which he had never despaired. The situation was complicated, so far as Salisbury personally was concerned, by the See also:coalition with the Liberal Unionists, which was confirmed in 1895 by the inclusion of the See also:duke of See also:Devonshire, Mr Chamberlain, and other Liberal Unionists in the Cabinet. But though it appeared anomalous that old antagonists like Lord Salisbury and Mr Chamberlain should be working together in the same ministry, the prime minister's position was such that he could disregard a superficial See also:criticism which paid too little heed to his political See also:faculty and his patriotic regard for the requirements of the situation. Moreover, the practical work of reconciling Conservative traditions with domestic reform depended rather on Salisbury's See also:nephew, Mr Balfour, who led the House of Commons, than on Salisbury, who devoted himself almost entirely to foreign affairs. The new Conservative See also:movement, moreover, in the country at large, was, in any See also:case, of a more constructive type than Salisbury himself was best fitted to lead, and he was not the real source of the politicaiinspiration even of the Conservative wing of the Unionist party during this See also:period. He began to stand to some extent outside party and above it, a See also:moderator with a keenly See also:analytic and rather sceptical mind, but still the recognized representative of the British empire in the councils of the See also:world, and the trusted adviser of his See also:sovereign. Though himself the last man to be selected as the type of a democratic politician–for his references to extensions of popular government, even when made by his own party, were full of mild contempt—Salisbury gradually acquired a higher place in public opinion than that occupied by any contemporary statesman. His speeches—which, though carelessly composed, continued to See also:blaze on occasion with their old See also:fire and their some-what See also:mordant cynicism—were weightier in See also:tone, and became European events. Without the See also:genius of Disraeli or the See also:personal See also:magnetism of Gladstone, he yet inspired the British public with a quiet confidence that under him things would not go far wrong, and that he would not act rashly or unworthily of his country. Even political opponents came to look on his cautious and balanced conservatism, and his intellectual aloofness from interested motives or vulgar ambition, as See also:standing between them and something more distasteful. Moreover, in the matter of foreign affairs his See also:weight was supreme. He had lived to become, as was indeed generally recognized, the most experienced working diplomatist in Europe. His position in this respect was shown in nothing better than in his superiority to criticism. In foreign affairs many among his own party regarded him as too much inclined to " split the difference " and to make " graceful concessions "—as in the case of the cession of See also:Heligoland to See also:Germany—in which it was complained that Great Britain got the worst of the bargain. But though occasionally, as in the withdrawal of British See also:ships from See also:Port Arthur in 1898, such criticism became acute, the See also:plain fact of the preservation of European peace, often in difficult circumstances, reconciled the public to his conduct of affairs. His See also:patience frequently justified itself, notably in the case of British relations with the See also:United States, which were for a moment threatened by President See also:Cleveland's See also:message concerning See also:Venezuela in 1895. And though his See also:loyalty to the European See also:Concert in connexion with Turkey's dealings with See also:Armenia and See also:Crete in. 1895–1898 proved irritatingly ineffectual—the See also:pace of the concert, as Lord Salisbury explained, being rather like that of a See also:steam-See also:roller—no alternative policy could be contemplated as feasible in any other statesman's hands. Salisbury's personal view of the new situation created by the methods of the See also:sultan of Turkey was indicated not only by a See also:solemn and unusual public warning addressed to the sultan in a speech at See also:Brighton, but also by his famous remark that in the See also:Crimean War Great Britain had " put her See also:money on the wrong See also:horse. " Among his most important strokes of See also:diplomacy was the Anglo-German agreement of 189o, delimiting the British and German See also:spheres of influence in See also:Africa. The See also:South See also:African question from 1896 onwards was a matter for the Colonial Office, and Salisbury left it in Mr Chamberlain's hands.
A peer premier must inevitably leave many of the real problems of democratic government to his colleagues in the House of Commons. In the Upper House Lord Salisbury was See also:paramount. Yet while vigorously opposing the Radical agitation for the abolition of the House of Lords, he never interposed a ,non possumus to schemes of reform. He was always willing to consider plans for its improvement, and in May 1888 himself introduced a bill for reforming it and creating life peers; but he warned reformers that the only result must be to make the House stronger. To abolish it, on the other See also:hand, would be to take away a necessary safeguard for protecting " See also: 1861), who entered the house of commons for the See also:Darwen division of See also:Lancashire (1885-1892) and since 1893 had been member for See also:Rochester. The new marquess had been under-secretary for foreign affairs since 1900, and in October 1903 he became lord privy seal in Mr Balfour's ministry. Of the other four sons, Lord See also:Hugh Cecil (b. 1869) became a prominent figure in parliament as Conservative member for Greenwich (1895-1906), first as an ardent and eloquent High Churchman in connexion with the debates on education, &c., and then as one of the leaders of the Free-Trade Unionists opposing Mr Chamberlain; and his elder brother Lord Robert Cecil (b. 1864), who had at first devoted himself to the See also:bar and become a K.C., entered parliament in 1906 for Marylebone, holding views in sympathy with those of Lord Hugh, who had been defeated through the opposition of a Tariff Reform Unionist in a triangular contest at Greenwich, which gave the victory to the Radical See also:candidate. In the elections of January 1910 Lord Robert Cecil resigned his candidature for Marylebone, owing to the strong opposition of the Tariff Reformers, which threatened to See also:divide the party and lose the seat; he stood for See also:Blackburn as a Unionist Free Trader and was defeated. On the other hand Lord Hugh Cecil was returned for Oxford University in place of the Rt. Hon. J. G. Talbot. Lord Hugh's candidature, which was announced in 1909 simultaneously with the resignation of the sitting member, was opposed by many who disagreed with his fiscal views and his attitude on Church questions; but it was found that he had the support of the great majority of the See also:electors, and he was ultimately returned unopposed. (H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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