Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/357

 the Hindus, were unfit for self-government. The electorate returned a majority of 118 for the maintenance of the union. In the hope of including liberal-unionists in the administration, Salisbury expressed his readiness to leave the premiership to Hartington, but the offer was declined. He therefore took office on 26 July 1886, and formed a conservative ministry dependent on a unionist majority. He himself became first lord of the treasury; Iddesleigh foreign secretary under his supervision; and Lord Randolph Churchill, chancellor of the exchequer and, through Sir Michael Hicks Beach's self-abnegation, leader of the House of Commons. Churchill, whose speeches were perfectly attuned to the year of the new electorate, and who by virtue of them had become the best known of the unionist leaders, was not slow to try conclusions with the premier. He had already, in 1884, made a vigorous though, on the whole, unsuccessful attack upon his chiefs with the view of democratising the party organisation, and his attitude had facilitated the passage of the franchise bill through the commons. In the next year he had made his power felt by compelling the withdrawal of Northcote to the House of Lords, and he now took exception to Iddesleigh's foreign policy, threatening to resign unless the military estimates which that policy necessitated were reduced. Deeper differences lay in the antagonism between the spirit of the new tory democracy, of which Churchill was the exponent, and that of the old conservatism of opinion and method, which Salisbury represented. The prime minister made no effort to retain his rebellious lieutenant at the price of concession, and Churchill left the government in December 1886. Salisbury, after again ineffectually offering to serve under Hartington, induced [q. v. Suppl. II] to fill the breach and take the exchequer, and in the ensuing shuffle of places, necessitated by the transfer to W. H. Smith of the treasury with the leadership of the house (Life of Lord Cranbrook, ii. 273), himself took the foreign office, a little brusquely, out of Iddesleigh's hands into his own. It must be remembered, however, that Iddesleigh had volunteered to resign, and had refused any other office.

Subsequent events showed that the cabinet had disliked Churchill's dictation more than his policy. Not only the service estimates of Goschen's budget, but the greatest legislative achievement of the administration (the Local Government Act, 1888) and the new Closure Act regulating parliamentary procedure were framed in accordance with his ideas. But the prime minister, even though he had in his own department been content with less interference in the Near East than had commended itself to Iddesleigh, could never be induced to recall him (Life of Lord Randolph Churchill, p. 776).

More lasting interest attaches to Salisbury's African policy. By granting a royal charter to the British East Africa Co. (1888), lately founded by Sir [q. v. Suppl. I], he recovered for England the hold over the upper sources of the Nile which Iddesleigh by an agreement with Germany in 1886 had nearly lost. It was not, however, until 1890 that, after the fall of Bismarck, the Kaiser relinquished any claim to this region and to Uganda, and acknowledged a British protectorate over Zanzibar. In return for this Salisbury gave up Heligoland and, to the dismay of constitutional theorists, invited the consent of parliament to the surrender (see Law and Custom, ii. 299). It was characteristic of his diplomacy that he never regarded concessions 'graceful concessions,' as his critics called them as a heavy price to pay for a good understanding, and there is little doubt that, in the belief that the Triple Alliance furnished the best guarantee for European peace, his policy was at this time governed by the idea of a good understanding with Germany. But beyond a good understanding he was not disposed to go. Like all the great English foreign ministers from Wolsey downwards, he saw that England's true function and strength consisted in maintaining the balance of power. The charter granted to the British East Africa Company was followed in 1889 by one in favour of the British South Africa Company which, under the guidance of Cecil Rhodes, was to colonise what is now Rhodesia. This occasioned trouble with the Portuguese, who raised a shadowy claim to Matabeleland. Salisbury sent an ultimatum to Lisbon, requiring their withdrawal from the British sphere of influence. Portugal was obliged to yield, and shortly afterwards a treaty delimiting the frontiers of Rhodesia was concluded. Trouble had also arisen with France in the same region in 1888, but in 1890 the French protectorate in Madagascar was acknowledged by England in return for a recognition of the English protectorate in Zanzibar. At the same time the British sphere of influence in Bornu was admitted and the French were