Salisbury Robert

Salisbury, ROBERT, third MARQUIS OF (b., 1830), as Lord Robert Cecil made an early reputation as a brilliant writer and speaker. He was born at Hatfield and educated at Eton and Oxford, and in 1853 became MP. for Stamford. He married the daughter of Baron Alderson in 1857, and was long a leading contributor to the Saturday Review. In 1865, on the death of his elder brother, he became Lord Cranborne and heir to the marquisate, and in the following year was made Secretary of State for India in Lord Derby's Ministry, retiring in 1867 in consequence of Disraeli's Franchise Bill. Succeeding to the marquisate in 1868, he went to the House of Lords, and in 1874 was again Secretary for India and later Foreign Secretary. He had been sent just before to Constantinople on an important mission, and in 1878 accompanied Disraeli to the Berlin Conference. He became Premier in 1885, and again after the defeat of the Home Rule Bill in 1892, and once more in 1895, when he was also Foreign Secretary. His Speeches have been collected and published.