ROSEBERY rEiz'ber-1, Archibald Philip Primrose, 5fla EARL OF, English statesman and author: b. London. 7 May 1847. He was edu cated at Eton and Oxford; became Earl of Rosebery in 1868; as a member of the House of Lords entered his political career without the advantage of a training in the Commons, but soon proved himself a brilliant debater ; in 1872 was a commissioner on Scottish endowments, and was successively rector of the great Scot tish universities of Aberdeen (1878-81) and Edinburgh (1882-83). In 1878 he married Han nah, only daughter of Baron Meyer de Roths child. From August lid to June 1883 he was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Depart ment, in 1884 became First Commissioner of Works and in 1886 was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Gladstone's Home Rule government. He was generally approved for his skilful treatment of the difficult ques tions connected with the war between Bulgaria and Serbia and the coercion by the European cOncert of Greece, then threatening war with Turkey. With the defeat of the Home Rule bill and of the government at the general elec tion he passed from office. He soon, however; entered upon a new activity and one with which up to his time peers had been supposed to have nothing to namely, the municipal govern ment of London. Upon the organization of the London County Council, a representative body chosen by popular suffrage and responsible to the public, he at once enlisted himself in the service of the improved system of government Promised thereby, on 17 Jan. 1::.: became a member of the council and on 12 February was made its chairman. In June 1890 he resigned. Following his example many others of rank and prominence entered the council, whose work was raised to an important position in English public life. For some months in 1892 he was again president of the council. Upon Glad stone's accession to power in that year he once more became Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He maintained continuity in foreign policy; strongly advocated some kind of imperial fed eration; made in September 1894 a notable and characteristic speech before the Lords on the Home Rule bill, which, though passed by the Commons, was thrown out by the Upper House after a four-days' discussion; and brought to a satisfactory end the serious coal strike of ON. When Gladstone retired from. political'
life in 1894 Rosebery was summoned to form an administration, notwithstanding that there were other Liberals whose length of service was *tragglar by any to give them precedence.
any influential Liberals objected, too, it was said, to a Prime Minister without the House of Commons. No remarkable events attended bis administration. The Liberal majority was not large; ant•before long there were evidences of an increasing division within the party, due in large measure to opposition to his imperial istic views. His government was once or twice discomfited, and finally on 21 Jan. 1895 was de feated in the committee on army estimates. He resigned on 22 January and became the leader of the Liberal opposition. In October 1896 he resigned this position, and since that time has continued, to use his own phrase, to "plough his lonely furrow, In May 1898 he spoke on Gladstone before the House of Lords; in 1899 was elected lord rector and in 1908 chan cellor of Glasgow University. In his later years he advocated the elimination of Home Rule from the Liberal program, and opposed Cham berlain's tariff reform scheme. He is distin guished for his many and varied attainments, and as a ceremonial and commemorative orator is unequaled in England. Marked character istics of his speeches are their literary quality, derived from a very extensive reading, and that skilful irony whose presence he has so admir ingly indicated in the writings of Stevenson. As an author he is known for his