Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
“Laissez-faire is an admirable doctrine but it must be applied on both sides”
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, known as Lord Salisbury, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a total of over thirteen years. He was also Foreign Secretary before and during most of his tenure. He avoided international alignments or alliances, maintaining the policy of "splendid isolat…
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politics · British statesman (1830–1903) · politician · diplomat · also Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoigne Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury, Salisbury
Born 3 February 1830 · Died 22 August 1903 · Q243705
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2026· 4 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
“the employment of mobs as an instrument of public policy is likely to prove a sinister precedent”
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
“imagine that thirty thousand Radicals going to amuse themselves in London on a given day expresses the public opinion of the day...they appeal to the streets, they attempt legislation by picnic”
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
“The natives seem when they have converted to make much better Christians than the white man”
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1978· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
That "historical inattention" to Salisbury "involves wilful dismissal of a Conservative tradition which recognizes that threat to humanity when ruling authorities engage in democratic flattery and the threat to liberty i
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1977· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
The Salisbury Group was founded, chaired by Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury and named after the 3rd Marquess
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1967· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Clement Attlee (Labour Party prime minister, 1945–1951) was asked who he thought was the best prime minister of his lifetime
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1906· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Which rendered all the world's battleships obsolete and set back German plans
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1903· 4 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Died 1903-08-22.
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
“The fact was, that articles of prime necessity, such as tea and sugar, were adulterated to such an extent as materially to affect the health of an enormous portion of the population, and, the poor man being unable to protect himself, he contended that it was the duty of this House to step in and protect him.”
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
“That great moral teacher, Mr. Punch, some years ago proclaimed a society which he called "The Anti-meddling-in-other-people's-business Society." Now, he sometimes wished in private that Her Majesty's Government belonged to that society. (Laughter and cheers.)”
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
“We are not the same people that we have been, either in our social characteristics, in our patriotic sentiments, or in the tone of our moral and religious feelings.”
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1899· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
And for a few months it seemed the Boers were winning
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1898· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Securing complete control of that troublesome region
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1897· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz became German Naval Secretary of State and began the transformation of the Imperial German Navy from a small, coastal defence force to a fleet meant to challenge British naval power
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1895· 6 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Leader of the House of Lords (1895–1902).
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1895–1900).
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1895–1902).
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
The Venezuelan crisis with the United States erupted
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
And 1900 he was honoured with appointments as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and High Steward of the City and Liberty of Westminster, which he held for life
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (1895–1903).
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1894· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Salisbury also became president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, presenting a notable inaugural address on 4 August of that year
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1892· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Leader of the Opposition (1892–1895).
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
And Salisbury invited him to become a Governor of the Imperial Institute, which he accepted
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1891· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
And other atrocities carried out against women and children in the Niger Delta by Consul George Annesley and his soldiers but took no action against Annesley, who was "quietly pensioned off
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1890· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
After a deal exchanged German holdings in East Africa for an island off the German coast
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1889· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Salisbury set up the London County Council and then in 1890 allowed it to build houses
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1888· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
The New York Times published an article that was extremely critical of Lord Salisbury's remark
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
After Gainsford Bruce had won the Holborn by-election for the Unionists, beating the Liberal Lord Compton
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1887· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Was: "the prime minister most accessible to the press
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1886· 5 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Leader of the House of Lords (1886–1892).
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
And 1892, but declined both offers, citing the prohibitive cost of the lifestyle dukes were expected to maintain and stating that he would rather have an ancient marquessate than a modern dukedom
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1886–1892).
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Enabled him to return to power with a majority, and, excepting a Liberal minority government (1892–95), to serve as prime minister from 1886 to 1902
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
As a harbinger of a new and more popular Conservatism, Salisbury longed to return to the stability of the past, when his party's main function was to restrain what he saw as demagogic liberalism and democratic excess
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1885· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1885–1886).
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Leader of the House of Lords (1885–1886).
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1884· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Gladstone introduced a Reform Bill which would extend the suffrage to two million rural workers
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1881· 3 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Salisbury emerged as the Conservative leader in the House of Lords, with Sir Stafford Northcote leading the party in the Commons
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
And which was commanded in South Africa during the Second Boer War by his eldest son
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
The Conservatives entered a period of turmoil
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1878· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Salisbury became foreign secretary in time to help lead Britain to "peace with honour" at the Congress of Berlin
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1874· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Serving once again as Secretary of State for India in the government of Benjamin Disraeli, and Britain's Ambassador Plenipotentiary at the 1876 Constantinople Conference
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Under Disraeli, Salisbury returned as Secretary of State for India, and, in 1878, was appointed foreign secretary, and played a leading part in the Congress of Berlin
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1869· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: Chancellor of the University of Oxford (1869–1903).
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
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1868· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
On the death of his father, he inherited the Marquessate of Salisbury, thereby becoming a member of the House of Lords
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
And it was not contested during his time as its representative
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1867· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
John Stuart Mill proposed a type of proportional representation, Cranborne argued that: "It was not of our atmosphere—it was not in accordance with our habits; it did not belong to us
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
After his brother Eustace complained of being addressed by constituents in a hotel, Cecil responded: "A hotel infested by influential constituents is worse than one infested by bugs
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1866· 3 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Yet the next year introduced a Bill more extensive than the one rejected
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Cecil, now known by the courtesy title Viscount Cranborne after the death of his brother, entered the third government of Lord Derby as Secretary of State for India
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Cranborne studied the census returns to see how each clause in the Bill would affect the electoral prospects in each seat
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1865· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: member of the 19th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1865–1868).
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1861· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury (23 October 1861 – 4 April 1947); he married Lady Cicely Gore on 17 May 1887.
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1859· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Cecil was a founding co-editor of Bentley's Quarterly Review, with John Douglas Cook and Rev
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1859–1865).
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1857· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Defied his father and instead married Georgina Alderson, the daughter of Sir Edward Alderson, a moderately notable judge of lower social standing than the Cecils, outside the aristocracy or landed gentry
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1857–1859).
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1854· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
And served as Secretary of State for India in Lord Derby's Conservative government 1866–1867
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1853· 2 entries
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Was elected a prize fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Career landmark: member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1853–1857).
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1840· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Went to Eton College, where he did well in French, German, Classics, and Theology, but left in 1845 because of intense bullying
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1830· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Born 1830-02-03.
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1821· 1 entry
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
When his father married his mother, Frances Mary Gascoyne, heiress of a wealthy merchant and Member of Parliament who had bought large estates in Essex and Lancashire
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