The New Student's Reference Work/Salisbury, Robert A. T. Gascoyne Cecil, Marquis of

MARQUIS OF SALISBURY

Salisbury, Robert A. T. Gascoyne Cecil, Marquis of, English statesman and prime minister, was born at Hatfield, Herts, Feb. 3, 1830, and educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford. In 1866 he entered Lord Derby's ministry as secretary of state for India (under the title of Lord Cranbourne). On the death of his father in 1867, he entered the house of lords and took rank as the foremost debater in the upper chamber. In 1878 he acted as joint plenipotentiary of Great Britain at the Congress of Berlin, and two years later became secretary of state for foreign affairs. When the Earl of Beaconsfield died in 1881, Lord Salisbury became the recognized leader of the Conservative party. When the Gladstone ministry resigned in 1885, he became premier and secretary for foreign affairs. Owing to feeble support received by his government he resigned affairs to Mr. Gladstone, but, on the latter being defeated on the second reading of the Irish Home-Rule bill, he again returned to power. In 1892 Mr. Gladstone and he once more exchanged the premiership, and in 1895, on the resignation of Lord Rosebery, Lord Salisbury formed his third administration, in coalition with Liberal-Unionists, from which he retired in 1902. In 1864 he was elected chancellor of the University of Oxford. In his younger days he was a contributor to The Quarterly Review, but later found relaxation from the cares of office in his laboratory, where he experimented in chemistry and electricity. He died on Aug. 22, 1903.