298 THE CECILS
concerned, but he cannot avoid some share of responsibility for the early disasters of the war. Had he exercised a stricter supervision over his colleagues, he would have been able to insist that the information supplied to the War Office by the Intelligence Department and from other sources was not ignored and that adequate preparations were made. But when once hostilities broke out he did signal service to the nation by making it clear to other Powers that no intervention would be allowed.
To this public anxiety was added an over- whelming private sorrow the death of his wife (November 2Oth, 1899). To Lady Salisbury he was united in the closest bonds of affection and comradeship. He gave her his unreserved con- fidence, and looked to her for encouragement and help in political and other matters, relying on her alert intelligence, her keen sense of humour, her sound common sense and her ability to see the bright side of things. Though little known outside a select circle, she was the object of deepest affection to her friends and her family, and her influence on all who were admitted to her intimacy is known to have been extraordinary. How much Lord Salisbury himself owed to her, politically, was shown at the time of his election as leader of the party in the House of Lords, when the Duke of Richmond said to him : "If Lady Salisbury were the Duchess of Richmond, you would never have been leader." J
1 Life of Lord Cranbrook, II. 163.
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