Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour,
KG,
OM,
PC (
25 July 1848–
19 March 1930) was a
British statesman and
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was one of the more intellectual prime minsters of the 20th century, and is perhaps best remembered as author of the
Balfour Declaration of
1917, promising a
homeland for the
Jewish people.
The eldest son of
James Maitland Balfour of
Whittingehame,
East Lothian,
Scotland, and of
Lady Blanche Gascoyne-Cecil, Arthur Balfour was born at Whittingehame. He was educated at
Eton (1861-1866) and
Trinity College, Cambridge (1866-1869), where he received a
Second-Class Honours Degree. In 1874 he became
Conservative MP for
Hertford and represented that constituency until 1885. In the spring of 1878 Balfour became
Private Secretary to his uncle,
Lord Salisbury. 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 academic subtlety and literary achievement of his
Defence of Philosophic Doubt (1879) suggested that he might make a reputation for himself as a philosopher.
Balfour divided his time between the political arena and the study. Released from his duties as private secretary by the general election of 1880, 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. This quartet became known as the "Fourth Party" and gained notoriety for leader Lord Randolph Churchill's free criticism of
Sir Stafford Northcote,
Lord Cross and other prominent members of the "old gang". Balfour was thought to be merely amusing himself with politics at the time. 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.
Lord Salisbury disagreed, and made Balfour
President of the Local Government Board (1885 - 1886), and later
Secretary for Scotland (1886) with a seat in the cabinet. These offices, while having few opportunities for distinction, served as a sort of apprenticeship for Balfour. In early 1887 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". Balfour's skill for steady administration did much to dispell his reputation as a public lightweight.
In Parliament he resisted any overtures to the
Irish Parliamentary Party on
Home Rule, and strongly encouraged
Unionist activism in Ireland. Balfour also broadened the basis of material prosperity to the less well off by creating the
Congested Districts Board in 1890. It was during this time (1886-1892) that he sharpened his gift of oratory and gained a reputation as one of the most effective public speakers of the age. 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 an ever wider audience.
On the death of
W. H. Smith in 1891, he became
First Lord of the Treasury and
Leader of the House of Commons. After the fall of the government in 1892 he spent three years as
Leader of the Opposition. On the return of the Conservatives to power in 1895, he resumed the leadership of the House -- but not at first successfully. His management of the abortive education proposals of 1896 were thought to show a disinclination for the continuous drudgery of parliamentary management. After the opening session Balfour regained his old reputation. He had the satisfaction of seeing a bill pass for providing Ireland with an improved system of local government, and took an active role in the debates on the various foreign and domestic questions that came before parliament between 1895 to 1900.
During the illness of Lord Salisbury in 1898, and again in Lord Salisbury's absence abroad, he was in charge of the
Foreign Office, and it was his job to conduct the critical negotiations with Russia on the question of railways in North China. As a member of the cabinet responsible for the
Transvaal negotiations in 1899, 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, yet there was a slight revival of the criticisms of 1896. However, it should be noted that Balfour's inability to get the maximum amount of work out of the House was largely due to the situation in
South Africa, a crisis that absorbed the intellectual energies of the House and of the United Kingdom as a whole.
On Lord Salisbury's resignation on
11 July 1902, Balfour succeeded him as Prime Minister, with the approval of all sections of the unionist party. 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. The Liberal party was still disorganized over their attitude towards the Boers. The 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 would advance the capital for enabling the tenants in Ireland to buy out the landlords. A notable achievement of Balfour's government was the establishment of the
Committee on Imperial Defence.
The budget was certain to show a surplus and taxation could be remitted. As events proved, it was the budget that would sow dissension, override all other legislative problems of the session, and bring a new political movement into being.
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 proceded the rift grew in the unionist ranks.
The debate over
Imperial Preference and the subsequent split of the Conservative-Unionist Party dominated the three years of Balfour's premiership. Balfour eventually resigned in December of 1905, and the Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Liberals at the general election, Balfour himself losing his seat at
Manchester East, though he quickly won another seat.
After the disaster of 1905 Balfour remained party leader, and made the controversial decision, with
Lord Lansdowne, to use the heavily Unionist
House of Lords as an active check on the Liberal party. Numerous pieces of reforming legislation were vetoed or altered by amendments between 1906 and 1909, 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 so-called
People's Budget, provoking the constitutional crisis that eventually led to the
Parliament Act of 1911, which eliminated the Lord's veto power. Exhausted, Balfour resigned as party leader after the crisis, and was succeeded by
Andrew Bonar Law.
He remained an important figure within the party, however, and when the Unionists joined
Asquith's coalition government in May 1915, Balfour succeeded
Winston Churchill as
First Lord of the Admiralty. When Asquith's government collapsed in December, 1916, Balfour became
Foreign Secretary in Lloyd George's new war cabinet, but was not actually included in the Cabinet, and was frequently left out of the inner workings of the government. Balfour's service as Foreign Secretary was most notable for the issuance of the
Balfour Declaration of 1917, a letter to Lord Rothschild promising the Jews a "national home" in
Palestine. Balfour resigned as Foreign Secretary following the
Versailles Conference in 1919, but continued on in the government (and now, the Cabinet) as
Lord President of the Council until 1922, when he, along with most of the Conservative leadership, resigned with Lloyd George's government following the Conservative back-bench revolt that put Law into office.
In 1922 Balfour was created
Earl of Balfour and in 1925 once again returned to the Cabinet, serving as
Lord President of the Council in
Stanley Baldwin's second government. Balfour died in 1930.
Lord Balfour's estate was probated 76,433 pounds sterling on
August 27,
1930.
Balfour's other publications include:
Essays and Addresses (1893),
The Foundations of Belief, being Notes introductory to the Study of Theology (1895), and
Questionings on Criticism and Beauty (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1909), and the
Romanes Lecture for 1909.
He was made LL.D. of the
University of Edinburgh in 1881; of the
University of St Andrews in 1885; of
Cambridge University in 1888; of Dublin and Glasgow Universities in 1891; lord rector of St Andrews University in 1886; of Glasgow University in 1890; chancellor of Edinburgh University in 1891; member of the senate London University in 1888; and DCL of Oxford University in 1891. He was president of the British Association in 1904, and became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1888. He was known from early life as a cultured musician, and became an enthusiastic golf player, having been captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1894-1895.
 |
Arms of Arthur Balfour |
*Arthur Balfour -
First Lord of the Treasury and
Leader of the House of Commons*
Lord Halsbury -
Lord Chancellor*
The Duke of Devonshire -
Lord President of the Council and
Leader of the House of Lords*
Lord Londonderry -
Lord Privy Seal and
President of the Board of Education*
Aretas Akers-Douglas -
Secretary of State for the Home Department*
Lord Lansdowne -
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs*
Joseph Chamberlain -
Secretary of State for the Colonies*
St John Brodrick -
Secretary of State for War*
Lord George Hamilton -
Secretary of State for India*
Lord Selborne -
First Lord of the Admiralty*
Charles Thomson Ritchie -
Chancellor of the Exchequer*
Gerald Balfour -
President of the Board of Trade*
Sir William Hood Walrond -
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster*
Lord Balfour of Burleigh -
Secretary for Scotland*
George Wyndham -
Chief Secretary for Ireland*
Walter Hume Long -
President of the Local Government Board*
Robert William Hanbury -
President of the Board of Agriculture*
Lord Ashbourne -
Lord Chancellor of Ireland*
Lord Windsor -
First Commissioner of Public Works*
Austen Chamberlain -
Postmaster-GeneralChanges*May
1903 -
Lord Onslow succeeds R.W. Hanbury at the Board of Agriculture.
*September-October
1903 -
Lord Londonderry succeeds the
Duke of Devonshire as Lord President, while remaining also President of the Board of Education. Lord Lansdowne succeeds Devonshire as Leader of the House of Lords, remaining also Foreign Secretary.
Lord Salisbury succeeds Londonderry as Lord Privy Seal.
Austen Chamberlain succeeds
Ritchie at the Exchequer. Chamberlain's successor as Postmaster-General is not in the Cabinet.
Alfred Lyttelton succeeds
Joseph Chamberlain as Colonial Secretary.
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.
*March
1905 -
Walter Hume Long succeeds
George Wyndham as Irish Secretary.
Gerald Balfour succeeds Long at the Local Government Board.
Lord Salisbury, remaining Lord Privy Seal, succeeds Balfour at the Board of Trade.
Lord Cawdor succeeds
Lord Selborne at the Admiralty.
Ailwyn Fellowes succeeds Lord Onslow at the Board of Agriculture.
* Piers Brendon,
Eminent Edwardians (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980) ISBN 0-395-29195-X
