SALISBURY, MARQUIS OF. 



721 



By the close of the year the work of delimita- 

 tion had been completed in the debated zone 

 between Zulfikar and Meruchak. 



The island of Saghalien has been made a 

 penal and agricultural colony, and many politi- 

 cal prisoners have been transported thither. 



The general government of Turkistan now 

 embraces an area of 611,000 square versts, with 

 a population of 2,335,000 souls, including 905,- 

 000 nomads. Silk is the leading commercial 



product. The cultivation of American cotton 

 is extending. Dried fruits and animal products 

 are other exports. The exports to Russia are 

 valued at 10,800,000 and the imports from Rus- 

 sia at 12,000,000 rubles annually. The Russi- 

 fication of the province is to be accelerated by 

 colonization. The nomads are to pay a tax of 

 four rubles per kibitka, but those who settle in 

 a fixed domicile are exempted from the ordi- 

 nary land-tax. 



SALISBURY, ROBERT ARTHUR TALBOT GAS- 

 COYiXE CECIL, Marquis of, Prime Minister of 

 Great Britain in 1885, born at Hatfield in Feb- 

 ruary, 1830, a younger son of James, the sec- 

 ond Marquis of Salisbury, by his marriage with 

 a daughter of Mr. Bamber Gascoyne, M. P. 

 He was educated at Eton and Oxford, where 

 for some time he was a fellow of All Souls 

 College. Lord Robert Cecil became noted in 

 journalism by his contributions to the " Satur- 

 day Review," written in the caustic and witty 

 vein that characterized that journal, of which 

 his brother-in-law, Beresford Hope, M. P., is 

 the proprietor. He became one of the princi- 

 pal writers on the staff of the "Standard," 

 and was also a frequent contributor to the 

 " Quarterly Review. 1 ' He was elected a mem- 

 ber of Parliament for Stamford ; and sat for 

 that borough from 1853, until he entered the 

 House of Lords in 1868. He became the cham- 



, pi on of High Tory principles, and clung with 

 logical consistency and conscientious fidelity 

 to the doctrines of Conservatism. The Liberal 

 tendencies of the time he denounced as a de- 

 viation from the historical order of develop- 

 ment of the British Constitution. Being a foe 

 to every political shift and compromise, he was 

 deemed unpractical and deficient in the quali- 

 ties of a statesman, though his oratorical tal- 

 ents, his brilliant wit, and cutting sarcasm, his 

 dialectic powers and shrewd acumen in detect- 

 ing the logical inconsistencies of his opponents, 

 made him an invaluable supporter of the Con- 

 servative cause, except when he turned his 

 rhetorical weapons against the leaders of his 

 own party. When Mr. Disraeli assumed the 

 leadership of the Conservative party, and be- 

 gan to educate them in the new school of To- 

 ryism, Lord Cranborne (which was the title 

 that legally belonged to Lord Robert Cecil aft- 

 er the death of his elder brother) decried the 

 new politics, and stigmatized their author as 

 an adventurer. He entered the Cabinet as 

 Secretary of State for India in 1866, but when 

 Disraeli brought in his reform bill he resigned 

 in angry indignation, declaring that such an 

 act of political treason had no historical par- 



' allel. Yet, in 1874, Lord Salisbury took office 

 under Disraeli, becoming again Indian Secre- 

 tary. From that time he has been a more pli- 

 ant and practical politician, though oftentimes 

 his old spirit of uncompromising adherence to 

 TOL. xxv. 46 A 



his political ideas has brought him into open 

 conflict with his ministerial colleagues. Dis- 

 raeli recognized the services and great abilities 

 of his insubordinate lieutenant, and with good- 

 humored sarcasm sought to depreciate the sig- 

 nificance of these awkward collisions, charac- 

 terizing Lord Salisbury as "a great master of 

 quips, and flouts, and jeers." The Marquis of 

 Salisbury came to entertain cordial and friendly 

 relations with the statesman he had formerly 

 censured so unsparingly. In 1876 Lord Salis- 

 bury went to Constantinople as special ambas- 

 sador to the conference held in November of 

 that year. He was persuaded to approve Ig- 

 natieff's proposal for an international guardian- 

 ship over Turkey, a scheme that facilitated the 

 outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War. In 1878, 

 on the retirement of Lord Derby, he became 

 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He 

 mastered the business of the office with a ra- 

 pidity unexampled in the traditions of the 

 place, and soon launched out on an independ- 

 ent and original course, for which he and Lord 

 Beacon sfield are held jointly responsible, and 

 which brought upon them the anathemas of 

 the opposite party. The cordial relations with 

 Germany, established at the Berlin Conference, 

 and cultivated after the formation of the Aus- 

 tro-German alliance, enabled them to pursue 

 an ambitious Continental and Indian policy 

 without encountering formidable resistance, 

 except at home. They are credited with hav- 

 ing conceived the scheme of sundering the 

 coast states of northern Africa from the Turk- 

 ish Empire and establishing British supremacy 

 in Egypt. The costly wars in South Africa 

 and Afghanistan furnished Mr. Gladstone with 

 the matter for an eloquent assault, under which 

 the imperial policy went down in the popular 

 elections of 1880. In opposition, and deprived 

 of the mollifying influence of his deceased 

 chief, Lord Salisbury again displayed an im- 

 politic vehemence and an uncompromising ob- 

 stinacy on questions of domestic policy, which 

 seemed to render him impossible as a party 

 leader or Cabinet chief. With the Tory ma- 

 jority in the House of Lords at his back, he 

 resisted Gladstone's Irish legislation until the 

 abolition of the House of Peers was earnestly 

 discussed by the Radicals and found a popular 

 echo. He yielded at last on .the Irish land 

 bill, but would accept no compromise on the 



