Page:Anglo-American relations during the Spanish-American war (IA abz5883.0001.001.umich.edu).pdf/48

32 power. The natural sources for such a combination were to be found in the loyalty of the British colonies and in the United States.

The new Government included a group of men of varied interests and unusual political ability. Mr. Arthur Balfour became first lord of the treasury and leader of the House of Commons, Sir Michael Hicks Beach was chancellor of the exchequer; Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, colonial secretary; and Lord Salisbury, prime minister. So far as the United States was concerned the last two appointments were by far the most significant. In general, those people of the United States who know Lord Salisbury both feared and hated him. They thought him reactionary, conservative, autocratic, and aristocratic. At the same time, they considered him not only the greatest man of his own party, but by far the most influential British citizen of the time. Furthermore, as a firm believer in an aggressive foreign policy, it was inevitable that he should influence Anglo-American relations in the Pacific.

Mr. Chamberlain, a Liberal Unionist in politics, was the most energetic, the most dynamic, and probably the most popular member of the cabinet, Coming as he did from Birmingham, a manufacturing centre, and considered the friend of all British manufacturing interests, he spoke for British trade the world over. As early as 1888 he had stated publicly that the future of Great Britain was inseparably bound up with that