User:Wehwalt/sandbox/Salisbury

First term as prime minister (1885–1886)
The lack of certainty as to who led the Conservative Party after the death of Lord Beaconsfield, and who would become prime minister if the Conservatives returned to power, continued into 1885. Many speculated that were the Conservatives to return, the Queen would send for Northcote, the leader in the Commons, and at one point she privately told him that she would do so. Nevertheless, when the time came, she would find Salisbury better-suited to fend off her nightmare—another term with Gladstone as prime minister.

The government was defeated on an amendment to the budget on 9 June, and Gladstone announced his intention to resign. A new electoral register was being compiled after the passage of the Reform Bill, so no general election could be held until November 1885. The Conservatives were reluctant to take office with a minority and no possibility of a dissolution for months, not wishing to jeopardise their chances of victory in the general election with a few months in office. The Queen, who was at Balmoral, sent for Salisbury, who had both to build a government and get what assurances he could from Gladstone, who declined to reconsider his resignation. Eventually, after negotiation, Gladstone wrote a letter to the Queen with assurances, the gist of which was then published in The Times.

Churchill, deemed indispensable to any government, would not serve under Northcote in the Commons. Northcote understood that a Tory government would not be seen as credible without Churchill, and agreed to accept a peerage as Earl of Iddesleigh and the position of First Lord of the Treasury, a post usually held by the prime minister, and with power over patronage. He would also reside at 10 Downing Street, small sacrifice to Salisbury who much preferred his own town house. Salisbury also became Foreign Secretary, Churchill took the India Office, Hicks-Beach became Chancellor of the Exchequer, Cross was Home Secretary, and Lord George Hamilton First Lord of the Admiralty.

Before Parliament prorogued in August (the Commons did not meet again until dissolution in November), it passed a modest land reform measure for Ireland, the Ashbourne Land Act, which set up a £5 million fund that allowed tenants to buy land from willing sellers, with 20% security paid at the start and the remainder over 49 years. The Government also announced it would not seek to extend Coercion, citing a steep decline in agrarian crime. On 1 August, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Carnarvon, secretly met with Parnell in London. They discussed a range of issues, including the chance of Irish Home Rule, but Parnell assumed that Carnarvon spoke for the Government when he discussed such a possibility, when in fact he did not. The two men took different interpretations of what was said and what it meant, and the meeting, and whether Salisbury had known about it, caused him trouble for years afterwards.

Foreign policy became an issue in Salisbury's first government, as the agreement to prevent a Russian-dominated big Bulgaria threatened to come undone. In September, a revolution in Eastern Roumelia led to Prince Alexander of Bulgaria proclaiming the union of the two Bulgarian provinces. Salisbury recognised that the Treaty of Berlin would have to be modified, and sought the smallest possible change, proposing that Alexander rule over both provinces in a personal union. Alexander was popular in Britain, and with a general election pending, Salisbury was limited in what action he could take. The matter was not settled until he left office in the New Year, but Alexander's rule in Eastern Roumelia, subject to nominal Turkish sovereignty, was recognised.

Although Salisbury predicted a short life for his government, he did not see it as merely a caretaker, but as an opportunity to set forth an alternative to the Liberals to the new, broader, electorate. After gaining the support of his cabinet, he gave a major policy speech at Newport in October 1885. According to David Steele in his account of Salisbury's political career, the speech "may be said to have brought together Gladstonian populism, Disraelian imperialism, and the social radicalism of Chamberlain's "'Unauthorized Programme'". Salisbury opposed Chamberlain's plan for free elementary education as too costly, but was willing to provide financial help with school fees. He spoke against Gladstone's foreign policy. Salisbury decried the "lifeless" Anglican education taught in the schools, and hinted that Gladstone might disestablish the Church—which the Liberal leader denied the following week. Salisbury admitted that Ireland presented difficulties, and settled for ambiguous statements that according to Parnell "suggested much and proposed nothing".

In the general election in November, the Liberals gained 334 seats to the Tories's 249, with the Irish Nationalists holding 85 seats. Given the uncertain result, Salisbury held to power pending the meeting of Parliament in January 1886, hoping to arrange an alliance with Parnell. On 12 December, however, a short letter appeared in The Times under the signature of Herbert Gladstone, the leader's son, promoting Home Rule for Ireland. Thrilled by the "Hawarden Kite", Parnell's men voted with the Liberals when Parliament met, and the Government was defeated by a margin of 79. Sixteen Liberals voted with the Government, and 76 abstained or were absent. Declining the Queen's offer of a dukedom, Salisbury resigned, along with his Government, on 6 February 1886.

Return to opposition; 1886 election
With the Tories again in opposition, Gladstone faced the task of fashioning a Home Rule bill that satisfy his new-found Irish Nationalist supporters without alienating Liberals who favoured Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom. He faced divisions even within his own government; Joseph Chamberlain later admitted to using the question of whether Irish members should remain at Westminster if they had their own parliament in Dublin as a means of killing the bill, prior to his resignation from Gladstone's government early in March 1886.