ROSEBERY, EARL OP. 



ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA GEORGINA. 701 



appointed chairman of the committee appointed 

 for this object, to whose labors the removal of 

 the taxes on horses was due. In 1874 he was 

 named as chairman of a committee on Scotch 



!!* 



ARCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE ROSEBERY. 



and Irish representative peerages that was ap- 

 pointed on his motion. In that year he presided 

 over the Social Science Congress, which met at 

 Glasgow on Oct. 1. In 1876 he established a 

 reputation as a public lecturer by literary ad- 

 dress, and enhanced greatly his reputation as a 

 political speaker by his handling of questions of 

 foreign policy in the House of Lords. On Nov. 

 16, 1878, he was elected to succeed William E. 

 Forster as Lord Rector of the University of 

 Aberdeen, and in November, 1880, he was 

 elected to the same honorary position in the 

 University of Edinburgh. In August, 1881, 

 Lord Rosebery took office under Mr. Gladstone 

 as Under Secretary of State for the Home De- 

 partment, succeeding Leonard Courtney. He 

 resigned this post in June, 1883, and in Novem- 

 ber, 1884, he was appointed, in succession to Mr. 

 Shaw-Lefevre, First Commissioner of Works. He 

 moved the reform of the House of Lords in a 

 witty speech in 1884. He was made also Lord 

 Privy Seal, and as such he was a member of the 

 Cabinet from February to June, 1885. 



When the Liberals returned to power in 1886, 

 Lord Rosebery was appointed Secretary of State 

 for Foreign Affairs. The suppression of the 

 military ambition of the Hellenes when they 

 were eager for a war with Turkey, and the es- 

 tablishment of friendly relations between the 

 Porte and Prince Alexander, the acceptance of 

 the fait accompli in Roumelia, and the preven- 

 tion of untoward consequences of the Servian 

 war with Bulgaria were largely due to his 

 diplomacy. On Jan. 17, 1888, Lord Rosebery 

 was elected, with Sir John Lubbock, a member 

 for the city division in the newly constituted 

 London County Council. On Feb. 12 the Council 

 elected him its chairman. The industry, tact, 

 and decision that he displayed in this difficult 



position, and his action in promoting the reform 

 and the enlightened organization of the metro- 

 politan government, greatly extended his reputa- 

 tion and his popularity among the masses. 



When a Liberal Cabinet was again constituted, 

 on Aug. 18, 1892, Lord Rosebery returned to his 



6>st as Secretary of State for "Foreign Affairs, 

 is imperialistic views of foreign and colonial 

 policy made the Cabinet more acceptable to a 

 large section of its supporters, and when Mr. 

 Gladstone retired from office, in 1894 (see GREAT 

 BRITAIN), he was succeeded as Prime Minister 

 by Lord Rosebery. 



The Earl of Rosebery married, on March 20, 

 1878, Hannah, the only child of Baron Meyer de 

 Rothschild. His wife died in November, 1890. 

 The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him in 

 1888 by the University of Cambridge. 



ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA GEORGINA, an 

 English poet, born in London, Dec. 5, 1830; 

 died there, Dec. 29, 1894. She was the young- 

 est of the gifted family of the Rossettis. Her 

 father was Gabriele Rossetti, a Neapolitan pa- 

 triot and poet, who fled from Naples in the 

 days of the early struggle for independence, 

 made his escape in the uniform of an English 

 soldier, and, arriving in London, soon gained a 

 place as teacher of Italian at King's College. 

 He married Francesca Maria Virginia Polidori, 

 whose father, Gaetana Polidori, was likewise an 

 exile, and had been the secretary of the poet Al- 

 fieri. The mother of Mrs. Rossetti was the daugh- 

 ter of an English father and an Italian mother, so 

 that there was a slight strain of English blood 

 in the remarkable family of the Rossettis, which 

 can hardly be said to have colored it in any per- 

 ceptible degree. There were 4 children of this 

 marriage. The eldest was Maria Francesca, a 

 scholarly and accomplished woman, who wrote 

 " The Shadow of Dante " and some verse, but 

 became a religious, and died a member of a sister- 

 hood; then came Gabriel Charles, who after- 

 ward called himself, and is known as Dante 

 Gabriel; William Michael followed; and last 

 Christina Georgina. 



The Italian character dominated in all these 

 save only the surviving brother, the critic, Wil- 

 liam Michael Rossetti, who has a truly English 

 poise of judgment, joined with a sympathetic 

 touch of Italian ardor. But Maria Francesca, 

 as well as Dante Gabriel, the imaginative poet 

 and artist, and the youngest sister, in their dis- 

 tinguishing qualities belong to Italy. Thence 

 they all drew the religious mysticism that con- 

 stitutes the bond of union between them. There 

 is no other similarity between the poetry of 

 Dante Gabriel and Christina's than this. The 

 woman's genius was higher in spiritual reach and 

 of a passionate sincerity ; it was introspective and 

 not sensuous ; it gave to womanhood profound 

 and tender expression, and it divined child nature 

 with rare insight. The resemblances to her 

 brother's extraordinary genius were rather those 

 of influence and association than of soul. 



The life of Christina Rossetti was chiefly one 

 of self-sacrifice. She began writing verse when 

 she was not more than twelve years old, and 

 when she was sixteen her grandfather Polidori 

 printed a book of her verses on his private press. 

 When the preraphaelite brotherhood was formed 

 in her brother Dante's studio with Holman 



