VOL. XII.

THE

HERE is a suggestive commentary upon the permanence of English institutions in the fact that the Prime Minister of Queen Victoria is the direct descendant of the great Minister of Queen Elizabeth. More than three hundred and thirty years have passed away since the young Queen, in the hall of Hatfield Palace, chose William Cecil for her Secretary of State. The dynasties of Tudor and Stuart have given place to the Guelph, but the House of Cecil, like the social fabric of England, remains, and Robert Cecil, ninth Earl and third Marquis of Salisbury, tenth in direct descent from Elizabeth's Secretary, is the chief adviser of the English Sovereign during the closing years of the nineteenth century.

The personality and the career of the Prime Minister reflect the influences of family tradition and of English history. He possesses the characteristics of his own day in aptitude for public affairs, in the gift of oratory, in keen appreciation of the industrial and social revolution which is silently effected by science. The spirit of the past is reflected in a steady resistance to constitutional change, in successful efforts to moderate the violence of new movements, in a quiet acquiescence in what appears to be the inevitable extension of democratic powers. The modern Tory party of England, by its fusion with Whigs and Radicals is, however reluctantly, in essence a progressive constitutional party, and of

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this new, vigorous, and authoritative element, Lord Salisbury is at once the safest, most sagacious, and most brilliant exponent.

Concerning few men who have held for such a lengthy period the highest offices of state has so little been written. No biography worthy the name has yet been attempted. His speeches have not been collected. The memoirs of his principal contemporary associates are not available. A man

of singular reserve, with a dignified indifference to mere popular adulation, he has escaped thus far in large measure the doubtful attentions of the diarist and the press gossips. The desire to know something of the inner life and private occupations of the men who lead us and shape public policy is not wholly idle curiosity, and a correct knowledge of Lord Salisbury's calibre as a statesman is, in some degree, dependent upon an appreciation of his scholarly tastes, his alertness of mind, and his fine social qualities. The splendid hospitality of Hatfield House and the courtesy of its host and hostess, have often been the theme of praise. Mr. Gladstone once said, after a visit to Hatfield: "I never saw a more perfect host," and Bishop Wilberforce recorded somewhere in that inconvenient diary of his, after a few days at Hatfield: "Salisbury is a very fine fellow; such a clear grip of intellect, and so highminded in everything." It was in much the same spirit that the Comte de Paris wrote when he referred to