Bloody balfour
Arthur James Balfour Biography |
| Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (25 July - March 19, ) was a British statesman and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Early Life The eldest son of James Maitland Balfour of Whittingehame, Haddingtonshire, and of Lady Blanche Gascoyne Cecil, he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. In he became Conservative M.P. for Hertford, and represented that constituency until In the spring of Balfour became private secretary to his uncle, Lord Salisbury. Biography of william shakespeare By few Unionist MPs were still free traders Winston Churchill crossed to the Liberals in when threatened with deselection at Oldham , but Balfour's act had drained his authority within the government. See also [ edit ]. It would cost money, but all sides proved amenable. A rebuttal which meant extending the activist campaign for women's rights.In that capacity he accompanied Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin, and gained his first experience of international politics in connection with the settlement of the Russo-Turkish conflict. At the same time, he became known in the world of letters, the intellectual subtlety and literary capacity of his Defence of Philosophic Doubt () suggesting that he might make a reputation as a speculative thinker. Released from his duties as private secretary by the general election of , he began to take a more active part in parliamentary affairs. He was for a time politically associated with Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff and John Gorst, the quartet becoming known as the "Fourth Party," and gaining notoriety by the freedom of the criticisms directed by its leader, Lord Randolph Churchill, against Sir Stafford Northcote, Lord Cross and other prominent members of the "old gang." Balfour was thought to be merely amusing himself with politics. The House did not take him quite seriously. Members looked upon him merely as a young member of the governing classes who remained in the House because it was the proper thing for a man of family to do. These offices, while having few opportunities for distinction, and prepared Balfour for apprenticeship better things. In early Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, resigned because of illness, and Salisbury appointed his nephew in his place. The selection took the political world by surprise, and was much criticized, possibly leading to the British phrase "Bob's your uncle!" Balfour surprised his critics by his ruthless enforcement of the Crimes Act, earning the nickname "Bloody Balfour." Coupled with steady administration, Balfour did much to destroy his reputation as a public lightweight. The disclosures before the Parnell Commission, the O'Shea divorce proceedings, the downfall of Charles Stewart Parnell and the disruption of the Irish party assisted him in reducing crime in Ireland to a vanishing point. He broadened the basis of material prosperity and social progress by creating the Congested Districts Board in During the period - , he developed gifts of oratory that made him one of the most effective of public speakers. Impressive in matter rather than in delivery, and seldom rising to the level of eloquence as had Bright and Gladstone, his speeches were logical and convincing, and delighted a wider audience. H. Smith in , he became First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons. After the fall of the government in he spent three years as leader of the opposition. On the return of the Conservatives to power in , he resumed the leadership of the House, but not at first successfully, his management of the abortive education proposals of being thought to show a disinclination for the continuous drudgery of parliamentary management. After the opening session things went more smoothly, and Balfour regained his old reputation. Arthur james balfour biography of william and mary Early career [ edit ]. I rather think of having a career of my own. Contents move to sidebar hide. ISBNHe had the satisfaction of seeing a bill pass for providing Ireland with an improved system of local government, and took an active share in the debates on the various foreign and domestic questions that came before parliament during - As a member of the cabinet responsible for the Transvaal negotiations in , he bore his full share of controversy, and when the war began disastrously, he was the first to realize the need to put the full military strength of the country into the field. His leadership of the House of Commons was marked by considerable firmness in the suppression of obstruction, but there was a slight revival of the criticisms that had been current in Balfour's inability to get the maximum amount of work out of the House was largely due to the situation in South Africa, which absorbed the intellectual energies of the House and of the country. The new prime minister came into power practically at the same moment as the coronation of Edward VII and the end of the South African War. For a while no cloud appeared on the horizon: and the Liberal party was still disorganized over their attitude towards the Boers. Arthur james balfour biography of william In —22 he represented the British Empire at the Washington Naval Conference and during summer stood in for the foreign secretary, Lord Curzon , who was ill. He then went up to the University of Cambridge, where he read moral sciences at Trinity College — , graduating with a second-class honors degree. He will be terribly disappointed. In office 25 May — 10 DecemberThe two chief items of the ministerial parliamentary program were the extension of the new Education Act to London and the Irish Land Purchase Act, by which the British exchequer should advance the capital for enabling the tenants in Ireland to buy out the landlords. Moreover, the budget was certain to show a surplus and taxation could be remitted. As events proved, it was the budget that was to provide a cause of dissension, bringing a new political movement into being, and an issue overriding all the legislative interest of the session. Ritchie's remission of the shilling import-duty on corn led to Chamberlain's crusade in favor of tariff reform and colonial preference, and as the session preceded the rift grew in the unionist ranks. Balfour eventually resigned in December of , and the Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Liberals at the general election, Balfour himself losing his seat (he quickly found another seat). A notable achievement of his government was the establishment of the Committee on Imperial Defence. Numerous pieces of reforming legislation were vetoed or mangled by amendment between and , leading David Lloyd George to remark that the Lords had become "not the watchdog of the Constitution, but Mr. Balfour's poodle." The issue was eventually forced by the Liberals with Lloyd George's famous People's Budget, provoking the constitutional crisis that eventually led the Parliament Act of , which eliminated the Lord's veto power. Exhausted, Balfour resigned as party leader after the crisis, and was succeeded by Andrew Bonar Law. When Asquith's government collapsed in December, , Balfour became Foreign Secretary in Lloyd George's new war cabinet, but was not included in the Cabinet, and was frequently left out of the loop. Balfour's service as Foreign Secretary was most notable for the issuance of the so-called Balfour Declaration of , a letter to Lord Rothschild promising the Jews a national homeland in Palestine. Balfour resigned as foreign secretary following the Versailles Conference in , but continued on in the government (and now, the cabinet) as Lord President of the Council until , when he, along with most of the Conservative leadership, resigned with Lloyd George's government following the Conservative back-bencher revolt that put Law into office. Balfour died in He was made LL.D. of Edinburgh University in ; of St Andrews University in ; of Cambridge University in ; of Dublin and Glasgow Universities in ; lord rector of St Andrews University in ; of Glasgow University in ; chancellor of Edinburgh University in ; member of the senate London University in ; and DCL of Oxford University in He was president of the British Association in , and became a fellow of the Royal Society in He was known from early life as a cultured musician, and became an enthusiastic golf player, having been captain of the Royal and Antient Golf Club of St Andrews in Hanbury at the Board of Agriculture. Arthur james balfour biography of william hamilton: In other projects. In office 18 December — 8 January Mirrors of Downing Street. In office 27 February — 5 May Chamberlain's successor as Postmaster-General is not in the Cabinet. Alfred Lyttelton succeeds Joseph Chamberlain as Colonial Secretary. William St John Brodrick succeeds Lord George Hamilton as Secretary for India. Hugh Arnold-Forster succeeds Brodrick as Secretary for War. Andrew Graham-Murray succeeds Lord Balfour of Burleigh as Secretary for Scotland.
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