Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/347

 a government which he (Salisbury) should form. Hartington declined, for he considered that such a step would break up the liberal party and probably lead to a reversion of part of it, in time, to the Gladstonian standard, thus imperilling the legislative union. Salisbury renewed the proposal in January 1887, after the crisis due to the sudden resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill, then leader of the House of Commons; but Hartington again, for the same reasons, declined. Thus he three times declined to be prime minister, in 1880, in 1886, and in 1887. During the next five years he sat upon the front opposition bench, giving an independent support to the government, who were largely kept in power by the aid of the liberal unionists. His breach with Gladstone continued to widen under the influence of events in Irish history, and of the policy and tone adopted by that statesman. During this period Hartington presided over two royal commissions, one, constituted in 1890, upon the 'civil and professional administration of the naval and military departments, and their relation to each other, and to the treasury'; the other, constituted in 1891, upon the 'relations between employers and employed, the combination of employers and employed, and the conditions of labour.'

On 21 Dec. 1891 Lord Hartington, now aged fifty-eight, became eighth duke of Devonshire on his father's death and left the House of Commons after thirty-four years of service there. The elections of 1892 produced a small majority of forty for the liberal-Irish alliance. Gladstone, now in his eighty-third year, once more took office, and in 1893 introduced a second home rule bill, differing in some respects from the first (notably in its retention of the existing number of Irish members in the House of Commons), but not more acceptable to the duke. The bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons on 29 July, but the duke on 5 Sept. moved its rejection in the House of Lords in a lucid and able speech, and it was thrown out on 8 Sept. by 419 to 41. On 21 June 1895 Lord Rosebery, who had succeeded Gladstone as prime minister in March 1894, resigned upon a defeat in the House of Commons, and Lord Salisbury, called upon to form his third administration, invited the liberal-unionist leaders to accept office. A coalition government was formed. The duke of Devonshire became president of the council, to which office at that time the educational departments were attached. He showed interest in the development of technical education, but had small acquaintance with educational duties. He also presided over the cabinet 'defence committee' as it then existed. This government, which lasted till 11 July 1902, was remarkably strong and upon most points harmonious, and under it the limits of the Empire in north-east, west, and south Africa were widely extended.

When Lord Salisbury resigned on 11 July 1902 and Mr. Balfour became prime minister, the duke continued to hold the office of president of the council, but surrendered his functions in connection with the education departments, which were now placed under a distinct board and a minister of education. The duke also succeeded Lord Salisbury as government leader in the House of Lords. But his connection with Mr. Balfour's government was a short one. In the session of 1902, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, then chancellor of the exchequer, with the assent of the cabinet, had imposed a small duty on all corn stuffs imported, partly with a view to the expenditure due to the war, but chiefly, he explained, as a permanent source of revenue. Mr. Chamberlain, in the autumn of 1902, proposed to the Cabinet that advantage should be taken if this tax to give to the colonies the preference in British markets, for which they had asked at the conferences of 1887 and 1897. He left for Africa, thinking that the cabinet had accepted his proposal, but on his return, early in 1903, he found that the new chancellor of the exchequer, Charles Thomson Ritchie (afterwards Baron Ritchie of Dundee) [q. v. Suppl. II], proposed to repeal this unpopular tax. Mr. Chamberlain, then, in speeches, publicly declared his views in favour of duties for the sake of preference; his movement was supported by a majority of the unionist party and opposed by a minority. The government at first set on foot an inquiry into statistics, and the duke of Devonshire supported this course in a speech on 15 June 1903 in the House of Lords. It was, however, found to be impossible to stave off a schism later than September 1903. On 14 Sept. took place a cabinet meeting, the result of which was the resignation of three cabinet ministers, Mr. Ritchie, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, and Lord George Hamilton, who took strongly the free-trade view. The duke was acting in unison with these ministers, and would have resigned at the same moment, had not Mr. Balfour informed him that Mr. Chamberlain had also resigned in order