Abstract

Arthur James Balfour

This article presents the author's views on the earl of Balfour, Arthur James Balfour. The Earl, whose death at the age of eighty-one was announced on March 19, 1930 was the last of a type of leader in British politics which the rise of democracy in the second quarter of the twentieth century seems to have swept aside-the last aristocrat to be Prime Minister, the fast aristocrat indeed to be leader of the Conservative Party. His was mother, Lady Blanche Cecil, so he belonged to the Cecil clan and had Cecil characteristics. His brilliance and subtlety of mind were recognized early. He gained experience in the art of parliamentary sharp-shooting when with Lord Randolph Churchill and Drummond Wolff he formed the little band of relentless critics which came to be known as the "Fourth Party."