Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
When Gladstone came out in favour of Home Rule for Ireland later that year, Salisbury opposed him and formed an alliance with the breakaway Liberal Unionists, winning the subsequent 1886 general election.Paul Smith characterises his personality as "deeply neurotic, depressive, agitated, introverted, fearful of change and loss of control, and self-effacing but capable of extraordinary competitiveness.This wealth increased sharply in 1821, when his father married his mother, Frances Mary Gascoyne, heiress of a wealthy merchant and Member of Parliament who had bought large estates in Essex and Lancashire.[6]: 10 In December 1847, he went to Christ Church, Oxford, where he received an honorary fourth class in Mathematics, conferred by nobleman's privilege due to ill health.Ten thousand miners were policed by four men armed with carbines and, at Mount Alexander, 30,000 people were protected by 200 policemen, with over 30,000 ounces (850,000 g) of gold mined per week.Holding from a supposed right (whether real or not, no matter)" and from "the People the source of all legitimate power,"[6]: 18 Cecil said of the Māori of New Zealand: "The natives seem when they have converted to make much better Christians than the white man".[6]: 39–40 Salisbury criticised the foreign policy of Lord John Russell, claiming he was "always being willing to sacrifice anything for peace... colleagues, principles, pledges... a portentous mixture of bounce and baseness... dauntless to the weak, timid and cringing to the strong".The lessons to be learnt from Russell's foreign policy, Salisbury believed, were that he should not listen to the opposition or the press otherwise "we are to be governed... by a set of weathercocks, delicately poised, warranted to indicate with unnerving accuracy every variation in public feeling".[6]: 40–42 In 1866 Cecil, now known by the courtesy title Viscount Cranborne after the death of his brother, entered the third government of Lord Derby as Secretary of State for India.Utilising the Blue Books, Cranborne criticised officials for "walking in a dream... in superb unconsciousness, believing that what had been must be, and that as long as they did nothing absolutely wrong, and they did not displease their immediate superiors, they had fulfilled all the duties of their station".The famine left Cranborne with a lifelong suspicion of experts and in the photograph albums at his home covering the years 1866–67 there are two images of skeletal Indian children amongst the family pictures.[6]: 90 On 23 February Cranborne protested in Cabinet and the next day analysed Baxter's figures using census returns and other statistics to determine how Disraeli's planned extension of the franchise would affect subsequent elections.The same day he met Carnarvon and they both studied the figures, coming to the same result each time: "A complete revolution would be effected in the boroughs" due to the new majority of the working-class electorate.Cranborne's resignation speech was met with loud cheers and Carnarvon observed that it was "moderate and in good taste – a sufficient justification for us who seceded and yet no disclosure of the frequent changes in policy in the Cabinet".I entreat honourable Gentlemen opposite not to believe that my feelings on this subject are dictated simply by my hostility on this particular measure, though I object to it most strongly, as the House is aware.Also, the annals of modern parliamentary history could find no parallel for Disraeli's betrayal; historians would have to look "to the days when Sunderland directed the Council, and accepted the favours of James when he was negotiating the invasion of William".[6]: 303–4 The Carlton Club met to discuss the situation, with Salisbury's daughter writing: The three arch-funkers Cairns, Richmond and Carnarvon cried out declaring that he would accept no compromise at all as it was absurd to imagine the Government conceding it.In the November 1883 issue of National Review Salisbury wrote an article titled "Labourers' and Artisans' Dwellings" in which he argued that the poor conditions of working-class housing were injurious to morality and health.Maintaining the alliance forced Salisbury to make concessions in support of progressive legislation regarding Irish land purchases, education, and county councils."[17] Salisbury once again kept the foreign office (from January 1887), and his diplomacy continued to display a high level of skill, avoiding the extremes of Gladstone on the left and Disraeli on the right.Three weeks later, Salisbury delivered a speech at Scarborough, where he denied that "the word "black" necessarily implies any contemptuous denunciation: "Such a doctrine seems to be a scathing insult to a very large proportion of the human race...It included the following quotation, "Of course the parsees are not black men, but the purest Aryan type in existence, with an average complexion fairer than Lord Salisbury's; but even if they were ebony hued it would be grotesque and foolish for a Prime Minister of England [sic] to insult them in such a wanton fashion as this.In Europe, Germany was worrisome regarding its growing industrial and naval power, Kaiser Wilhelm's erratic foreign policy, and the instability caused by the decline of the Ottoman Empire.[35] An Anglo-German agreement (1890) resolved conflicting claims in East Africa; Great Britain received large territories in Zanzibar and Uganda in exchange for the small island of Helgoland in the North Sea.Transvaal and its sister republic the Orange Free State were small, rural, independent nations founded by Afrikaners, who descended from Dutch immigrants to the area before 1800.The Boers with about 33,000 soldiers, against 13,000 front-line British troops, struck first, besieging Ladysmith, Kimberly, and Mafeking, and winning important battles at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg in late 1899.[47] Strong public demand for news coverage meant that the war was well covered by journalists – including young Winston Churchill – and photographers, as well as letter-writers and poets.[51] The most important development was unveiled – after Salisbury's death – the entry of HMS Dreadnought into service in 1906, which rendered all the world's battleships obsolete and set back German plans.[61] Many historians portray Salisbury as a principled statesman of traditional, aristocratic conservatism: a prime minister who promoted cautious imperialism and resisted sweeping parliamentary and franchise reforms."[66] One admirer, conservative historian Maurice Cowling, largely agrees with the critics and says Salisbury found the democracy born of the 1867 and 1884 Reform Acts as "perhaps less objectionable than he had expected—succeeding, through his public persona, in mitigating some part of its nastiness.
Marquess of SalisburyThe Most HonourablePrime Minister of the United KingdomVictoriaEdward VIIThe Earl of RoseberyArthur BalfourWilliam Ewart GladstoneLord Keeper of the Privy SealThe Viscount CrossForeign SecretaryThe Earl of KimberleyThe Marquess of LansdowneThe Earl of IddesleighThe Earl GranvilleThe Earl of BeaconsfieldThe Earl of DerbySecretary of State for IndiaThe Duke of ArgyllThe Viscount CranbrookThe Earl de GreySir Stafford NorthcoteLeader of the OppositionMember of the House of LordsLord TemporalHereditary peerageThe 2nd Marquess of SalisburyThe 4th Marquess of SalisburyMember of ParliamentStamfordJohn Charles HerriesCharles Chetwynd-TalbotHatfield, HertfordshireSt Etheldreda's Church, HatfieldConservativeGeorgina AldersonMaud, Countess of SelborneLady GwendolenJames, 4th Marquess of SalisburyWilliam, Bishop of ExeterRobert, 1st Viscount Cecil of ChelwoodLord EdwardHugh, 1st Baron QuickswoodJames Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of SalisburyEton CollegeAlma materChrist Church, Oxfordsplendid isolationHouse of CommonsLord DerbyDisraeliCongress of BerlinHome Rule for IrelandLiberal Unionistssubsequent 1886 general electionScramble for AfricaIrish nationalists1892 general election1895 general electionbitter, controversial war against the BoersHouse of LordsPaul Smithreactionarydemagogicranked in the upper tier of British prime ministersHatfield House2nd Marquess of SalisburyLord Burghley1st Earl of SalisburyElizabeth IHertfordshireDorsetbulliedOxford movementOxford UnionAll Souls College, OxfordLincoln's InnCape ColonyTasmaniaBendigoMount AlexanderHatfieldMāoriAucklandsecular educationultramontaneChurch of EnglandEustaceSaturday ReviewQuarterly ReviewJohn Douglas CookWilliam ScottLord John RussellSermon on the Mountpoint d'appuiJohn Stuart Millproportional representationOrissa famineBlue BooksReform Act 1867Robert Dudley BaxterLord CarnarvonLord StanleyCarlton ClubLord John Mannerspolitical ethicslegerdemainSunderlandWilliamMarquessate of SalisburyChancellor of the University of OxfordFellow of the Royal SocietyGreat Eastern RailwayChanceryHertfordshire Militia4th (Militia) Battalion, Bedfordshire RegimentSecond Boer WarBenjamin DisraeliConstantinople ConferenceMytileneOrder of the GarterAlec Douglas-HomeRichard ShannonRepresentation of the People Act 1884Reform BillMalcolm MacColl