El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-23
Balfour Is Strong Leader
For Opposition In England
XVIII.-THE BRITISH CRISIS.

ONDON, England, July 23-Ar-
thur James BalfOur, leader of the
opposition in parliament, captain
| of the Conservative party. and the po-
litical head of the Cezil family, is the
incarnation of all that one has been
] taught to believe goes 10 makes up an
J English gentleman. As a matter of fact
! he is not English at all, but Scotch. He
was born in 1S4S in a house hard by
| Castle Douglas, where the sad tragedy
of Mary Queen of SCOTS was enacted
On one side lies the picturesque slope
OF the Lamermoor, and on the other
the banks of the Firth of Fourth,
which flows toward the North Sea, to be
seen in the distance. 1t has been said
! that this birthplace with its historic and
! aristOcratic traditions has had much 20
Go with shaping the intellectual per-
sOnality of the great Tory statesman.
Mr. BalfOur is d strange combination
| OF strong man of action, positive
and determined; and a dreaming phil
Osopher, never quite sure of anything.
These traits may have come to him
| when he breathed in the Scottish mists
burdened with tales of romance and
| strength, stories of mysticism and
/ fanaticiSm.
Trained For Public Service.
| But if he owes his mental makeup
| to HIS Scottish birthright, itA is certain
l
| to the fact that his mother was a Cecil,
a daughter of the second Marquis Of
| Salisbury Mr.. Balfours mother be-
! fore her son was out of kits, began to
/ train him for the public service in that
practical fashion practiced only by
! British women of the ruling classes"
| From the time he could talk he was
| made to take interest in agriculture
and his duties and responsibilities as
| landlord were never forgotten.
| When he was II years old, young Bal
| four delivered his first speech-an ad-
/ dress TO his tenants. He never has
! progressed beyond the precepts of his
| mother, and his HOtions concerning
| the relation of land owners to the
nation are the same which he expressed
! in that first speech when he was
| lad of II This fact, in itself, is an
| indication of Mr.. Balfour's fitness to
command the complete and unquestion-
ing loyalty of every British Tory
His mother possessed the highest ideals
! of her class, and while insisting al
ways upon her peculiar privileges, she
never forgot, nor did she permit her
son TO forget. the debt owed to the
| lower classes. During the terrible cot
ton famine caused by the Civil war in
| the United States, she made her son
Arthur do the work of the house,
black the boots and clean the knives
This was TO show her sympathy for the
starving labOrers
But only British mind, Tory al
! that. can explain why, when half of
England was starving because there
was no work for the workmen, Lady
Blanche Balfour should have econ
omized by making her son. do the work
Of the servants. Nevertheless the
story is told to show the keen SYM
pathy of the Balfour tribe for the |
unemployed.
Studious as Youth
Young Balfour " ent to Elton where. |
curiously enough, he was fag to Lord |!
Lansdowne, who now is the Conserva-
tive leader in the house of lords |
second in command to Balfour in the |!
Tory ranks. At IS BaIfour entered /
Cambridge. His health was delicate |
and he took no part in the college |
sports, this being the only blot on the |
record of his youth which even Tory
enthusiasm cannot wipe out He be- !
came recluse and devoted himself 10 J
the study of philosophy and the writ
ing OF sOnnets.
When he became 81, according to !
ancient custom, he gave a great feast
for his tenants at the Manor of Whit
tinghame- At that festival the late !,
Lord Salisbury, Mr.. Balfour's uncle. |
was present Young Balfour made a |
typical speech to his tenants, and then, |
stiH according to custom, the spok es-
man for the tenantry humbly thanked !
the young squire for his gracious words
and prayed that the young man would
follow in the footsteps Of his father
and take the first opportunity of
entering parliament This appeal of
the tenantry was seconded by Lord
Salisbury, still according to custom.
But young Balfour's tastes were not
POLITICAL and parliamentary life held
no charm for him
Maiden Speech Disappointing.
However. Lord Salisbury, whatever
he may have thought of the divine
right of kings. had an abiding faith
in the peculiar fitness of the Cecil |
family TO rule over England. He con-
tinued to insist that his nephew enter
politics and at last, in 1878. Mr. Bal
four yielded and was returned without
opposition as member for Hartford.
During the first two years he rarely
attended the sittings of the house and
spent most of his time in taking a
trip around the world. 1t was not
until the third session Of his member
ship that he made his maiden speech.
His proud uncle gathered all the
members together to hear Arthur in
auSurate his great career. The young
man arose and read a long and dismal
treatise on bimetallism His friends
were grievously disappointed and his
uncle WAS all but furious. He con-
tinued to do nothing until 1879, when