The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-12-28
BRITISH PREMIER.
At One Time Salisbury Followed Journal
ism for Money.
{ From Spare Moments. }

The present prime minister is man
who would have succeeded in almost any
walk of life he had chosen to follow. The
head of an historical family, and possessed
OF great wealth, his opportunities have
no doubt been great; and for all that it
is to his great natural abilities that he
mainly owes his success 1t must be re
membered that he had made figure in
the world when he was plain Lord
Robert Cecil, and before there was any
likelihood of his coming into the family
title and estates.
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne- Cecil
was horn in 1880, and was educated at
Eaton and Christ Church, Oxford. At
the university he was frequent and
effective speaker at the Union Debating
Society, and i'll 1858 he was elected a
member of parliament for the family bor-
ough of Stamford. Four years later he
married Miss Anderson, daughter of the
judge of that name Her parents were
opposed to the union, not considering
match. Lord Robert Cecil was then
younger son, and with very little money
at his disposal. Indeed, in the year of
his marriage he took to journalism in or
der to supply the deficiency of some
what inadequate allowance.
In that year the Saturday Review was
started and soon became famous by the
cleverness and wit of its articles. Lord
Robert Cecil was one of it's earliest and
most valued contributors It was be-
tween 1859 and 1865 that he made mis-
mark in the commons. This was milford
was in 1865 that his elder brother died,
and he became Lord Gran borne and heir
to the marquisate. In the following year,
on the formation of Lord Derby's third
administration, he was appointed secre-
tary of state for India. His father died
in 1857, and he came into the title and
entered the house of lords. He soon es-
tablished reputation as foremost debater
in the upper house. In 1874 he took Office,
under Mr.. Disraeli, and in 1876 was sent
to Constaninople to try and help settle
the dispute between Russia and Turkey.
He also went with Lord Beaconsfeld TO
the Berlin congress, and rendered great
assistance in that affair.
On the dsath Lof Lord Beaconsfield in
1880, Lord Salisbury became the recog
nized leader of the conservative party.
He became premier in June, 1885, on the
resignation of Mr.. Gladstone, and again
after the general election of 1886. The
present is therefore, Lord Salisbury's
third administration. The Marquis Of
Salisbury has, perhaps, won more laurels
by his management of foreign affairs than
by his domestic policy. Rightly or
wrongly, he is credited with great diplo-
matic skill. When not in London OF
abroad, Lord Salisbury spends most of
his time at his magnificent and historical
country seat at Hatfield. Hatfield House
is one of the finest of the ancestral homes
of the English nobility. 1t was built in
the reign of James l, and the date of it's
completion, 1911, stands over the princi-
pal entrance. 1t is noble mansion, and
it's superb park, intersected by avenues of
oaks and beeches, almost unequaled in
their magnitude and beauty, is one of
the most beautiful scenes in the country.
Hatfield is crowded with objects of his
torical interest, not the least remarkable
of which are those connected with Queen
Elizabeth, Of whom there are four or five
portraits in the collection. Here we see
the Queens silk stockings, deliberately
embroidered the first of their kind ever
brought to this country; her garden hat
of plated straw or cane work which she
Is said to have worn while sitting under
an oak Che remains Of which i'll stand
in the park, carefully preserved and sur
rounded by railing) when the news
was brought to her that she had succeed
ell to tho throne; her pedigree from
Adam, long roll of parchment richly
illuminated; her jewel cases. inlaid with