BALFOUR, Arthur James, English states man: b. Set:Aland (son of James Maitland Bal four of Whittinghame, Hadclingtonshire, and a daughter of the 2d Marquis of Salisbury), 25 July 184& He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his M.A. degree in 1873. He entered the House of Commons in 1874 as member for Hertford, which constituency he represented until 1885. He acted as private secretary to his uncle, the Marquis of Salisbury, at the Foreign Office 1878430, and accompanied him to Berlin in the negotiations leading up to the Berlin Treaty. He was president of the Local Government Board of 1885-86, was secretary for Scotland 1886-87, and secretary for Ireland 1887-91. His selection by his uncle for the difficult and thankless position of Irish Secretary was regarded as an altogether mistaken choice, and was hailed by the Irish Na tionalists with derision, the current opinion then being that he was an indolent, cultured man of fashion who was quite out of his sphere in public life. No idea could have been more mistaken. At the Irish Office he showed that, though far from robust physically, he possessed nerves of iron; the continuous contest of wits that went on between him and the Irish mem bers on the floor of the House appeared to act as a tonic to him; and he developed a debating talent that presently brought him into front rank in public life. He administered the re pressive Crimes Act with a vigor that engen dered an embittered opposition; and he suc ceeded in passing several ameliorative measures which later culminated in the Land Purchase Act of 1904. So strongly did he increase his hold on his party during his tenure of the Irish Office that, on the retirement of Mr. W. H. Smith, Mr. Balfour was called on to succeed him as First Lord of the Treasury and leader of the House of Commons. He led the opposition during the Liberal administration of 1892-95. On the return of the Unionist party to power in 1895 he resumed his former place in the government On the resignation of Lord Salis bury in July 1902 he succeeded to the premier ship. As Premier he carried through the com prehensive Education Act of 1902 and the Irish Land Act of 1904 and he created the Commit tee of National Defense. He was singularly unfortunate in the period of his premiership. The South African War had just concluded, and inquiry showed contract irregularities on a Large scale. In 1903 he was confronted with a grave and unexpected crisis in the Unionist party, when Joseph Chamberlain resigned as Colonial Secretary in order to conduct a tariff campaign in the country which aimed at colonial preference and the reversal of the British free trade fiscal policy. Mr. Balfour, desirous of pre
serving the party unity, took a middle course, declanng that he regarded free trade not as a principle but as a matter of expediency. Many of the free traders took alarm and withdrew their support, and lively controversies were en gaged in, especially by the opposition, as to whether Mr. Balfour was or was not a free trader. His position of open-mindedness Mr. Balfour defended throughout the long financial controversies with unshaken serenity of temper and superb dialectical skill. But his government was wrecked on the fiscal issue; in an appeal to the country in January 1906 the Unionist party was °snowed under,p and Mr. Balfour lost the seat he had held in East Manchester since 1885. He was immediately thereafter returned for the City of London. In the succeeding sessions he led an attenuated body of followers com posed of not more than one-fourth of the mem bership of the whole House; but by common consent in no Parliament did he give greater proofs of the personal hold he possesses over the House of Commons. In 1911 he resigned from the leadership of the opposition and was succeeded by Mr. Bonar Law. In June 1915 he was one of the °elder statesmen') who were invited to join the National Ministry formed by Mr. Asquith at that time, and succeeded Mr. Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Ad miralty. On the reorganization of the coalition cabinet in 1916, with Lloyd George as Premier, Mr. Balfour assumed the portfolio of Minister of Foreign Affairs and in April-May 1917 visited America as head of the British Commis sion to the United States to secure unity of effort in prosecuting the war against Germany. Possessed of a remarkable charm of manner, and seeking in music and golf solace and recreation, no man in British politics approaches him not only in sheer debating skill, but in the art of clothing his most impromptu utterances in almost perfect literary form. He has also the unique power of. raising every debate in which he takes part to a higher plane of discus sion, and this has made him the exponent of the general mind of the House on many im portant occasions. Mr. Balfour is distinguished as a thinker as well as a politician, was-a mem ber of the Gold and Silver Commission of 1887 88, and was president of the British Association in 1904. His works include (A Defence of Philosophic Doubt) (1879) ; (Essays and Ad dresses' (1893; new ed., enlarged, 1905) ; (The Foundations of Belief) (1895) ; 'Insular Free Trade' (1903) ; (Criticism and Beauty) (Ronanes Lecture, 1909) ; (Theism and Human ism) (Gifford Lectures, 1914; 1915).