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The Right Honourable Arthur James Balfour, 1st
Earl of Balfour, Order of the Garter|KG, Order of
Merit|OM, Privy Council of the United Kingdom|PC
(25 July 1848–19 March 1930) was a United
Kingdom|British statesman and the thirty-third
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

==Early Life==
The eldest son of James Maitland Balfour of
Whittingehame, Haddingtonshire, and of Blanche
Mary Harriet Gascoyne-Cecil|Lady Blanche Gascoyne
Cecil, he was educated at Eton College|Eton and
Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1874 he became
Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative member of
parliament|M.P. for Hertford, and represented that
constituency until 1885. In the spring of 1878
Balfour became private secretary to his uncle,
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess
of Salisbury|Lord Salisbury. In that capacity he
accompanied Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin,
and gained his first experience of international
politics in connection with the settlement of the
Russo-Turkish conflict. At the same time, he
became known in the world of letters, the
intellectual subtlety and literary capacity of his
Defence of Philosophic Doubt (1879) suggesting
that he might make a reputation as a speculative
thinker. 

Balfour divided his time between the political
arena and the study. Released from his duties as
private secretary by the general election of 1880,
he began to take a more active part in
parliamentary affairs. He was for a time
politically associated with Lord Randolph
Churchill, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff and John
Gorst, the quartet becoming known as the "Fourth
Party," and gaining notoriety by the freedom of
the criticisms directed by its leader, Lord
Randolph Churchill, against Stafford Henry
Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh|Sir Stafford
Northcote, Richard Assheton Cross, 1st Viscount
Cross|Lord Cross and other prominent members of
the "old gang." Balfour was thought to be merely
amusing himself with politics.  The House did not
take him quite seriously. Members looked upon him
merely as a young member of the governing classes
who remained in the House because it was the
proper thing for a man of family to do.

==In Lord Salisbury's Governments==
Lord Salisbury disagreed, and made Balfour
President of the Local Government Board (1885 -
1886), and later Secretary for Scotland (1886)
with a seat in the cabinet. These offices, while
having few opportunities for distinction, served
as a sort of apprenticeship for Balfour. In early
1887 Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, the Chief Secretary
for Ireland, resigned because of illness, and
Salisbury appointed his nephew in his place. The
selection took the political world by surprise,
and was much criticized, possibly leading to the
British phrase "Bob's your uncle!" Balfour
surprised his critics by his ruthless enforcement
of the Crimes Act, earning the nickname "Bloody
Balfour."  Coupled with steady administration,
Balfour did much to destroy his reputation as a
public lightweight.

He broke down the Plan of Campaign in Ireland, and
in parliament he not only withstood the Irish
nationalists, but also waged successful warfare
with the entire Home Rule party. The disclosures
before the Parnell Commission, the O'Shea divorce
proceedings, the downfall of Charles Stewart
Parnell and the disruption of the Irish party
assisted him in reducing crime in Ireland to a
vanishing point. He broadened the basis of
material prosperity and social progress by
creating the Congested Districts Board in 1890.
During the period 1886 - 1892, he developed gifts
of oratory that made him one of the most effective
of public speakers. Impressive in matter rather
than in delivery, and seldom rising to the level
of eloquence as had John Bright|Bright and William
Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone, his speeches were
logical and convincing, and delighted a wider
audience. 

On the death of William Henry Smith|W. H. Smith in
1891, he became First Lord of the Treasury and
Leader of the House of Commons.  After the fall of
the government in 1892 he spent three years as
leader of the opposition. On the return of the
Conservatives to power in 1895, he resumed the
leadership of the House, but not at first
successfully, his management of the abortive
education proposals of 1896 being thought to show
a disinclination for the continuous drudgery of
parliamentary management. After the opening
session things went more smoothly, and Balfour
regained his old reputation. He had the
satisfaction of seeing a bill pass for providing
Ireland with an improved system of local
government, and took an active share in the
debates on the various foreign and domestic
questions that came before parliament during 1895
- 1900. 

During the illness of Lord Salisbury in 1898, and
again in Lord Salisbury's absence abroad, he was
in charge of the foreign office, and it was his
job to conduct the critical negotiations with
Russia on the question of railways in North China.
As a member of the cabinet responsible for the
Transvaal negotiations in 1899, he bore his full
share of controversy, and when the war began
disastrously, he was the first to realize the need
to put the full military strength of the country
into the field.  His leadership of the House of
Commons was marked by considerable firmness in the
suppression of obstruction, but there was a slight
revival of the criticisms that had been current in
1896. Balfour's inability to get the maximum
amount of work out of the House was largely due to
the situation in South Africa, which absorbed the
intellectual energies of the House and of the
country.

==Balfour as Prime Minister==


On Lord Salisbury's resignation on 11 July 1902,
Balfour succeeded him as prime minister, with the
approval of all sections of the unionist party.  
The new prime minister came into power practically
at the same moment as the coronation of Edward VII
of the United Kingdom|Edward VII and the end of
the South African War.  For a while no cloud
appeared on the horizon: and the Liberal party was
still disorganized over their attitude towards the
Boers.   The two chief items of the ministerial
parliamentary program were the extension of the
new Education Act to London and the Irish Land
Purchase Act, by which the British exchequer
should advance the capital for enabling the
tenants in Ireland to buy out the landlords.
Moreover, the budget was certain to show a surplus
and taxation could be remitted. As events proved,
it was the budget that was to provide a cause of
dissension, bringing a new political movement into
being, and an issue overriding all the legislative
interest of the session. Charles Thomson
Ritchie|Ritchie's remission of the shilling
import-duty on corn led to Joseph
Chamberlain|Chamberlain's crusade in favor of
tariff reform and colonial preference, and as the
session preceded the rift grew in the unionist
ranks.  

The debate over Imperial Preference (see article
for detailed explanation) and the subsequent split
of the Conservative-Unionist Party dominated the
three years of Balfour's premiership.  Balfour
eventually resigned in December of 1905, and the
Conservatives were soundly defeated by the
Liberals at the general election, Balfour himself
losing his seat (he quickly found another seat). 
A notable achievement of his government was the
establishment of the Committee on Imperial
Defence.

==Later Career==
After the disaster of 1905 Balfour remained party
leader, and made the controversial decision, with
Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of
Lansdowne|Lord Lansdowne, to use the heavily
Unionist House of Lords as an active check on the
Liberal party.  Numerous pieces of reforming
legislation were vetoed or mangled by amendment
between 1906 and 1909, leading David Lloyd George
to remark that the Lords had become "not the
watchdog of the Constitution, but Mr. Balfour's
poodle."  The issue was eventually forced by the
Liberal Party (UK)|Liberals with Lloyd George's
famous People's Budget, provoking the
constitutional crisis that eventually led the
Parliament Act of 1911, which eliminated the
Lord's veto power.  Exhausted, Balfour resigned as
party leader after the crisis, and was succeeded
by Andrew Bonar Law.

He remained an important figure within the party,
however, and when the Unionists joined Herbert
Asquith|Asquith's coalition government in May
1915, Balfour succeeded Winston Churchill as First
Lord of the Admiralty. When Asquith's government
collapsed in December, 1916, Balfour became
Foreign Secretary in Lloyd George's new war
cabinet, but was not included in the Cabinet, and
was frequently left out of the loop. Balfour's
service as Foreign Secretary was most notable for
the issuance of the so-called Balfour Declaration
of 1917, a letter to Lord Rothschild promising the
Jews a national homeland in Palestine
(region)|Palestine. Balfour resigned as foreign
secretary following the Versailles Conference in
1919, but continued on in the government (and now,
the cabinet) as Lord President of the Council
until 1922, when he, along with most of the
Conservative leadership, resigned with Lloyd
George's government following the Conservative
back-bencher revolt that put Law into office. 

In 1922 Balfour was created Earl of Balfour and in
1925 once again returned to the Cabinet, serving
as Lord President of the Council in Stanley
Baldwin's second government. Balfour died in 1930.

==Writings==
Balfour's other publications, not yet mentioned,
include Essays and Addresses (1893) and The
Foundations of Belief, being Notes introductory to
the Study of Theology (1895). He was made LL.D. of
Edinburgh University in 1881; of St Andrews
University in 1885; of Cambridge University in
1888; of Dublin and Glasgow Universities in 1891;
lord rector of St Andrews University in 1886; of
Glasgow University in 1890; chancellor of
Edinburgh University in 1891; member of the senate
London University in 1888; and DCL of Oxford
University in 1891. He was president of the
British Association in 1904, and became a fellow
of the Royal Society in 1888. He was known from
early life as a cultured musician, and became an
enthusiastic golf player, having been captain of
the Royal and Antient Golf Club of St Andrews in
1894-1895.

==Arthur James Balfour's Government, July 1902 -
December 1905==

*Arthur James Balfour - First Lord of the Treasury
and Leader of the House of Commons
*Hardinge Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury|Lord
Halsbury - Lord Chancellor
*Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of
Devonshire|The Duke of Devonshire - Lord President
of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords
*Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of
Londonderry|Lord Londonderry - Lord Privy Seal and
President of the Board of Education
*Aretas Akers-Douglas - Secretary of State for the
Home Department
*Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of
Lansdowne|Lord Lansdowne - Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs
*Joseph Chamberlain - Secretary of State for the
Colonies
*William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of
Midleton|William St John Brodrick - Secretary of
State for War
*Lord George Hamilton - Secretary of State for
India
*William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of
Selborne|Lord Selborne - First Lord of the
Admiralty
*Charles Thomson Ritchie - Chancellor of the
Exchequer
*Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl Balfour|Gerald
William Balfour - President of the Board of Trade
*William Hood Walrond, 1st Baron Waleran|Sir
William Hood Walrond - Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster
*Alexander Bruce, 6th Lord  Balfour of
Burleigh|Lord Balfour of Burleigh - Secretary for
Scotland
*George Wyndham - Chief Secretary for Ireland
*Walter Hume Long - President of the Local
Government Board
*Robert William Hanbury - President of the Board
of Agriculture
*Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne|Lord Ashbourne
- Lord Chancellor of Ireland
*Robert Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth|Lord
Windsor - First Commissioner of Public Works
*Austen Chamberlain - United Kingdom Postmaster
General|Postmaster-General
Changes
*May 1903 - William Hillier, 4th Earl of
Onslow|Lord Onslow succeeds R.W. Hanbury at the
Board of Agriculture.
*September-October 1903 - Charles
Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of
Londonderry|Lord Londonderry succeeds the Spencer
Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire|Duke of
Devonshire as Lord President, while remaining also
President of the Board of Education.  Lord
Lansdowne succeeds Devonshire as Leader of the
House of Lords, remaining also Foreign Secretary. 
James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of
Salisbury|Lord Salisbury succeeds Londonderry as
Lord Privy Seal.  Austen Chamberlain succeeds
Charles Thomson Rictchie|Ritchie at the Exchequer.
 Chamberlain's successor as Postmaster-General is
not in the Cabinet.  Alfred Lyttelton succeeds
Joseph Chamberlain as Colonial Secretary.  William
St John Brodrick, 1st Earl Middleton|William St
John Brodrick succeeds Lord George Hamilton as
Secretary for India.  Hugh Arnold-Forster succeeds
Brodrick as Secretary for War.  Andrew Murray, 1st
Viscount Dunedin|Andrew Graham-Murray succeeds
Lord Balfour of Burleigh as Secretary for
Scotland.
*March 1905 - Walter Hume Long succeeds George
Wyndham as Irish Secretary.  Gerald William
Balfour succeeds Long at the Local Government
Board.  James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of
Salisbury|Lord Salisbury, remaining Lord Privy
Seal, succeeds Balfour at the Board of Trade. 
Frederick Campbell, 3rd Earl Cawdor|Lord Cawdor
succeeds William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of
Selborne|Lord Selborne at the Admiralty.  Ailwyn
Fellowes succeeds Lord Onslow at the Board of
Agriculture.

==Succession==
start box
succession box |
 before=Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet|Sir
Charles Dilke |
 title=President of the Local Government Board |
 years=1885–1886 |
 after=Joseph Chamberlain

succession box |
 before=John William Ramsay, 13th Earl of
Dalhousie|The Earl of Dalhousie |
 title=Secretary for Scotland |
 years=1886–1887 |
 after=Schomberg Henry Kerr, 9th Marquess of
Lothian|The Marquess of Lothian

succession box |
 before=Michael Hicks-Beach, 1st Earl St
Aldwyn|Sir Michael Hicks-Beach |
 title=Chief Secretary for Ireland |
 years=1887–1891 |
 after=William Lawies Jackson, 1st Baron
Allerton|William Lawies Jackson

succession box one by three to two |
 before=William Henry Smith |
 title1=Leaders of the Conservative
Party|Conservative Leader in the Commons |
 title2=First Lord of the Treasury |
 title3=Leader of the House of Commons |
 years1=1891–1911 | 
 years2=1891–1892 |
 years3=1891–1892 | 
 after1=Andrew Bonar Law |
 after2=William Ewart Gladstone

succession box three by five to three |
 before1=Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of
Rosebery|The Earl of Rosebery |
 title1=First Lord of the Treasury |
 years1=1895–1905 |
 after1=Henry Campbell-Bannerman|Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman |
 before2=William Vernon Harcourt (politician)|Sir
William Harcourt |
 title2=Leader of the House of Commons |
 years2=1895–1905 |
 before3=Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of
Salisbury|The Marquess of Salisbury |
 title3=Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime
Minister |
 years3=1902–1905 |
 title4=Lord Privy Seal|
 years4=1902–1903|
 after2=James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of
Salisbury|The (4th) Marquess of Salisbury |
 title5=Leaders of the Conservative Party|Leader
of the British Conservative Party |
 years5=1902–1911 |
 after3=Andrew Bonar Law
and Henry
Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne|The
Marquess of Lansdowne

succession box |
 before=Winston Churchill |
 title=First Lord of the Admiralty |
 years=1915–1916 |
 after=Edward Carson|Sir Edward Carson

succession box |
 before=Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of
Fallodon|The Viscount Grey of Fallodon |
 title=Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs|Foreign Secretary |
 years=1916–1919 |
 after=George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess
Curzon of Kedleston|The Earl Curzon of Kedleston

succession box |
 before=George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess
Curzon of Kedleston|The Earl Curzon of Kedleston |
 title=Lord President of the Council |
 years=1919–1922 |
 after=James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th
Marquess of Salisbury|The Marquess of Salisbury

succession box |
 before=George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess
Curzon of Kedleston|The Marquess Curzon of
Kedleston |
 title=Lord President of the Council |
 years=1925–1929 |
 after=Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron
Parmoor|The Lord Parmoor

end box

start box
succession box |
 title=Earl of Balfour |
 years=1922–1930 |
 before=New Creation |
 after=Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of
Balfour|Gerald William Balfour

end box
wikisource author

==Reference==
1911

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

The Right Honourable Arthur James Balfour, 1st
Earl of Balfour, Order of the Garter|KG, Order of
Merit|OM, Privy Council of the United Kingdom|PC
(25 July 1848–19 March 1930) was a United
Kingdom|British statesman and the thirty-third
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

==Early Life==
The eldest son of James Maitland Balfour of
Whittingehame, Haddingtonshire, and of Blanche
Mary Harriet Gascoyne-Cecil|Lady Blanche Gascoyne
Cecil, he was educated at Eton College|Eton and
Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1874 he became
Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative member of
parliament|M.P. for Hertford, and represented that
constituency until 1885. In the spring of 1878
Balfour became private secretary to his uncle,
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess
of Salisbury|Lord Salisbury. In that capacity he
accompanied Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin,
and gained his first experience of international
politics in connection with the settlement of the
Russo-Turkish conflict. At the same time, he
became known in the world of letters, the
intellectual subtlety and literary capacity of his
Defence of Philosophic Doubt (1879) suggesting
that he might make a reputation as a speculative
thinker. 

Balfour divided his time between the political
arena and the study. Released from his duties as
private secretary by the general election of 1880,
he began to take a more active part in
parliamentary affairs. He was for a time
politically associated with Lord Randolph
Churchill, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff and John
Gorst, the quartet becoming known as the "Fourth
Party," and gaining notoriety by the freedom of
the criticisms directed by its leader, Lord
Randolph Churchill, against Stafford Henry
Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh|Sir Stafford
Northcote, Richard Assheton Cross, 1st Viscount
Cross|Lord Cross and other prominent members of
the "old gang." Balfour was thought to be merely
amusing himself with politics.  The House did not
take him quite seriously. Members looked upon him
merely as a young member of the governing classes
who remained in the House because it was the
proper thing for a man of family to do.

==In Lord Salisbury's Governments==
Lord Salisbury disagreed, and made Balfour
President of the Local Government Board (1885 -
1886), and later Secretary for Scotland (1886)
with a seat in the cabinet. These offices, while
having few opportunities for distinction, served
as a sort of apprenticeship for Balfour. In early
1887 Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, the Chief Secretary
for Ireland, resigned because of illness, and
Salisbury appointed his nephew in his place. The
selection took the political world by surprise,
and was much criticized, possibly leading to the
British phrase "Bob's your uncle!" Balfour
surprised his critics by his ruthless enforcement
of the Crimes Act, earning the nickname "Bloody
Balfour."  Coupled with steady administration,
Balfour did much to destroy his reputation as a
public lightweight.

He broke down the Plan of Campaign in Ireland, and
in parliament he not only withstood the Irish
nationalists, but also waged successful warfare
with the entire Home Rule party. The disclosures
before the Parnell Commission, the O'Shea divorce
proceedings, the downfall of Charles Stewart
Parnell and the disruption of the Irish party
assisted him in reducing crime in Ireland to a
vanishing point. He broadened the basis of
material prosperity and social progress by
creating the Congested Districts Board in 1890.
During the period 1886 - 1892, he developed gifts
of oratory that made him one of the most effective
of public speakers. Impressive in matter rather
than in delivery, and seldom rising to the level
of eloquence as had John Bright|Bright and William
Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone, his speeches were
logical and convincing, and delighted a wider
audience. 

On the death of William Henry Smith|W. H. Smith in
1891, he became First Lord of the Treasury and
Leader of the House of Commons.  After the fall of
the government in 1892 he spent three years as
leader of the opposition. On the return of the
Conservatives to power in 1895, he resumed the
leadership of the House, but not at first
successfully, his management of the abortive
education proposals of 1896 being thought to show
a disinclination for the continuous drudgery of
parliamentary management. After the opening
session things went more smoothly, and Balfour
regained his old reputation. He had the
satisfaction of seeing a bill pass for providing
Ireland with an improved system of local
government, and took an active share in the
debates on the various foreign and domestic
questions that came before parliament during 1895
- 1900. 

During the illness of Lord Salisbury in 1898, and
again in Lord Salisbury's absence abroad, he was
in charge of the foreign office, and it was his
job to conduct the critical negotiations with
Russia on the question of railways in North China.
As a member of the cabinet responsible for the
Transvaal negotiations in 1899, he bore his full
share of controversy, and when the war began
disastrously, he was the first to realize the need
to put the full military strength of the country
into the field.  His leadership of the House of
Commons was marked by considerable firmness in the
suppression of obstruction, but there was a slight
revival of the criticisms that had been current in
1896. Balfour's inability to get the maximum
amount of work out of the House was largely due to
the situation in South Africa, which absorbed the
intellectual energies of the House and of the
country.

==Balfour as Prime Minister==


On Lord Salisbury's resignation on 11 July 1902,
Balfour succeeded him as prime minister, with the
approval of all sections of the unionist party.  
The new prime minister came into power practically
at the same moment as the coronation of Edward VII
of the United Kingdom|Edward VII and the end of
the South African War.  For a while no cloud
appeared on the horizon: and the Liberal party was
still disorganized over their attitude towards the
Boers.   The two chief items of the ministerial
parliamentary program were the extension of the
new Education Act to London and the Irish Land
Purchase Act, by which the British exchequer
should advance the capital for enabling the
tenants in Ireland to buy out the landlords.
Moreover, the budget was certain to show a surplus
and taxation could be remitted. As events proved,
it was the budget that was to provide a cause of
dissension, bringing a new political movement into
being, and an issue overriding all the legislative
interest of the session. Charles Thomson
Ritchie|Ritchie's remission of the shilling
import-duty on corn led to Joseph
Chamberlain|Chamberlain's crusade in favor of
tariff reform and colonial preference, and as the
session preceded the rift grew in the unionist
ranks.  

The debate over Imperial Preference (see article
for detailed explanation) and the subsequent split
of the Conservative-Unionist Party dominated the
three years of Balfour's premiership.  Balfour
eventually resigned in December of 1905, and the
Conservatives were soundly defeated by the
Liberals at the general election, Balfour himself
losing his seat (he quickly found another seat). 
A notable achievement of his government was the
establishment of the Committee on Imperial
Defence.

==Later Career==
After the disaster of 1905 Balfour remained party
leader, and made the controversial decision, with
Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of
Lansdowne|Lord Lansdowne, to use the heavily
Unionist House of Lords as an active check on the
Liberal party.  Numerous pieces of reforming
legislation were vetoed or mangled by amendment
between 1906 and 1909, leading David Lloyd George
to remark that the Lords had become "not the
watchdog of the Constitution, but Mr. Balfour's
poodle."  The issue was eventually forced by the
Liberal Party (UK)|Liberals with Lloyd George's
famous People's Budget, provoking the
constitutional crisis that eventually led the
Parliament Act of 1911, which eliminated the
Lord's veto power.  Exhausted, Balfour resigned as
party leader after the crisis, and was succeeded
by Andrew Bonar Law.

He remained an important figure within the party,
however, and when the Unionists joined Herbert
Asquith|Asquith's coalition government in May
1915, Balfour succeeded Winston Churchill as First
Lord of the Admiralty. When Asquith's government
collapsed in December, 1916, Balfour became
Foreign Secretary in Lloyd George's new war
cabinet, but was not included in the Cabinet, and
was frequently left out of the loop. Balfour's
service as Foreign Secretary was most notable for
the issuance of the so-called Balfour Declaration
of 1917, a letter to Lord Rothschild promising the
Jews a national homeland in Palestine
(region)|Palestine. Balfour resigned as foreign
secretary following the Versailles Conference in
1919, but continued on in the government (and now,
the cabinet) as Lord President of the Council
until 1922, when he, along with most of the
Conservative leadership, resigned with Lloyd
George's government following the Conservative
back-bencher revolt that put Law into office. 

In 1922 Balfour was created Earl of Balfour and in
1925 once again returned to the Cabinet, serving
as Lord President of the Council in Stanley
Baldwin's second government. Balfour died in 1930.

==Writings==
Balfour's other publications, not yet mentioned,
include Essays and Addresses (1893) and The
Foundations of Belief, being Notes introductory to
the Study of Theology (1895). He was made LL.D. of
Edinburgh University in 1881; of St Andrews
University in 1885; of Cambridge University in
1888; of Dublin and Glasgow Universities in 1891;
lord rector of St Andrews University in 1886; of
Glasgow University in 1890; chancellor of
Edinburgh University in 1891; member of the senate
London University in 1888; and DCL of Oxford
University in 1891. He was president of the
British Association in 1904, and became a fellow
of the Royal Society in 1888. He was known from
early life as a cultured musician, and became an
enthusiastic golf player, having been captain of
the Royal and Antient Golf Club of St Andrews in
1894-1895.

==Arthur James Balfour's Government, July 1902 -
December 1905==

*Arthur James Balfour - First Lord of the Treasury
and Leader of the House of Commons
*Hardinge Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury|Lord
Halsbury - Lord Chancellor
*Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of
Devonshire|The Duke of Devonshire - Lord President
of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords
*Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of
Londonderry|Lord Londonderry - Lord Privy Seal and
President of the Board of Education
*Aretas Akers-Douglas - Secretary of State for the
Home Department
*Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of
Lansdowne|Lord Lansdowne - Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs
*Joseph Chamberlain - Secretary of State for the
Colonies
*William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of
Midleton|William St John Brodrick - Secretary of
State for War
*Lord George Hamilton - Secretary of State for
India
*William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of
Selborne|Lord Selborne - First Lord of the
Admiralty
*Charles Thomson Ritchie - Chancellor of the
Exchequer
*Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl Balfour|Gerald
William Balfour - President of the Board of Trade
*William Hood Walrond, 1st Baron Waleran|Sir
William Hood Walrond - Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster
*Alexander Bruce, 6th Lord  Balfour of
Burleigh|Lord Balfour of Burleigh - Secretary for
Scotland
*George Wyndham - Chief Secretary for Ireland
*Walter Hume Long - President of the Local
Government Board
*Robert William Hanbury - President of the Board
of Agriculture
*Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne|Lord Ashbourne
- Lord Chancellor of Ireland
*Robert Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth|Lord
Windsor - First Commissioner of Public Works
*Austen Chamberlain - United Kingdom Postmaster
General|Postmaster-General
Changes
*May 1903 - William Hillier, 4th Earl of
Onslow|Lord Onslow succeeds R.W. Hanbury at the
Board of Agriculture.
*September-October 1903 - Charles
Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of
Londonderry|Lord Londonderry succeeds the Spencer
Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire|Duke of
Devonshire as Lord President, while remaining also
President of the Board of Education.  Lord
Lansdowne succeeds Devonshire as Leader of the
House of Lords, remaining also Foreign Secretary. 
James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of
Salisbury|Lord Salisbury succeeds Londonderry as
Lord Privy Seal.  Austen Chamberlain succeeds
Charles Thomson Rictchie|Ritchie at the Exchequer.
 Chamberlain's successor as Postmaster-General is
not in the Cabinet.  Alfred Lyttelton succeeds
Joseph Chamberlain as Colonial Secretary.  William
St John Brodrick, 1st Earl Middleton|William St
John Brodrick succeeds Lord George Hamilton as
Secretary for India.  Hugh Arnold-Forster succeeds
Brodrick as Secretary for War.  Andrew Murray, 1st
Viscount Dunedin|Andrew Graham-Murray succeeds
Lord Balfour of Burleigh as Secretary for
Scotland.
*March 1905 - Walter Hume Long succeeds George
Wyndham as Irish Secretary.  Gerald William
Balfour succeeds Long at the Local Government
Board.  James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of
Salisbury|Lord Salisbury, remaining Lord Privy
Seal, succeeds Balfour at the Board of Trade. 
Frederick Campbell, 3rd Earl Cawdor|Lord Cawdor
succeeds William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of
Selborne|Lord Selborne at the Admiralty.  Ailwyn
Fellowes succeeds Lord Onslow at the Board of
Agriculture.

==Succession==
start box
succession box |
 before=Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet|Sir
Charles Dilke |
 title=President of the Local Government Board |
 years=1885–1886 |
 after=Joseph Chamberlain

succession box |
 before=John William Ramsay, 13th Earl of
Dalhousie|The Earl of Dalhousie |
 title=Secretary for Scotland |
 years=1886–1887 |
 after=Schomberg Henry Kerr, 9th Marquess of
Lothian|The Marquess of Lothian

succession box |
 before=Michael Hicks-Beach, 1st Earl St
Aldwyn|Sir Michael Hicks-Beach |
 title=Chief Secretary for Ireland |
 years=1887–1891 |
 after=William Lawies Jackson, 1st Baron
Allerton|William Lawies Jackson

succession box one by three to two |
 before=William Henry Smith |
 title1=Leaders of the Conservative
Party|Conservative Leader in the Commons |
 title2=First Lord of the Treasury |
 title3=Leader of the House of Commons |
 years1=1891–1911 | 
 years2=1891–1892 |
 years3=1891–1892 | 
 after1=Andrew Bonar Law |
 after2=William Ewart Gladstone

succession box three by five to three |
 before1=Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of
Rosebery|The Earl of Rosebery |
 title1=First Lord of the Treasury |
 years1=1895–1905 |
 after1=Henry Campbell-Bannerman|Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman |
 before2=William Vernon Harcourt (politician)|Sir
William Harcourt |
 title2=Leader of the House of Commons |
 years2=1895–1905 |
 before3=Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of
Salisbury|The Marquess of Salisbury |
 title3=Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime
Minister |
 years3=1902–1905 |
 title4=Lord Privy Seal|
 years4=1902–1903|
 after2=James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of
Salisbury|The (4th) Marquess of Salisbury |
 title5=Leaders of the Conservative Party|Leader
of the British Conservative Party |
 years5=1902–1911 |
 after3=Andrew Bonar Law
and Henry
Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne|The
Marquess of Lansdowne

succession box |
 before=Winston Churchill |
 title=First Lord of the Admiralty |
 years=1915–1916 |
 after=Edward Carson|Sir Edward Carson

succession box |
 before=Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of
Fallodon|The Viscount Grey of Fallodon |
 title=Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs|Foreign Secretary |
 years=1916–1919 |
 after=George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess
Curzon of Kedleston|The Earl Curzon of Kedleston

succession box |
 before=George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess
Curzon of Kedleston|The Earl Curzon of Kedleston |
 title=Lord President of the Council |
 years=1919–1922 |
 after=James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th
Marquess of Salisbury|The Marquess of Salisbury

succession box |
 before=George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess
Curzon of Kedleston|The Marquess Curzon of
Kedleston |
 title=Lord President of the Council |
 years=1925–1929 |
 after=Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron
Parmoor|The Lord Parmoor

end box

start box
succession box |
 title=Earl of Balfour |
 years=1922–1930 |
 before=New Creation |
 after=Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of
Balfour|Gerald William Balfour

end box
wikisource author

==Reference==
1911