The Story of the Parnell Commission. Michael Hicks-Beach, but, after a brief period, he was obliged to resign, owing to defective eyesight, and Mr. Arthur James Balfour, M.P. for East Manchester, and then Secretary of State for Scotland, suc ceeded him. The rise of Mr. Balfour has been one of the most remarkable episodes in mod ern political history. He is a son of Lord Salisbury's sister and of Mr. Balfour of Whittin g h a m e, in the Lothians of Scot land. During the last years of the Glad stone ministry of 1880 to 1885, he had belonged, with Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir John Gorsh, and Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, to what was known as " the Fourth Party," which occupied the anom alous position of independent critics both of the opposi tion and of the gov ernment, but he took no very active part in its Parliamentary do ings, an d in 18 84 CHARLES when " Soc ie ty in London " was written by an eminent, though anonymous, American " Resident," Mr. Balfour only received a line or two's notice from the pen of the accomplished writer as a young man of indolent habits, of a metaphysical turn of mind, and with much of his noble uncle's power of literary expression. As secretary for Scotland Mr. Balfour extorted a good deal of conscious and unconscious admiration by his coolness and readiness in debate and by the firm ness which characterized his conduct in the crofters' agitation; and public opinion in
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Scotland insisted on his receiving a seat in the cabinet. But no one regarded him as a statesman of the front rankor as likely to become one, and when his appointment as Irish Secretary was announced, the politi cal welkin rang with shouts of laughter at the expense of "the silken aristocrat" who was to succeed where the experience of Mr. Forster and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach had failed. Mr. Bal four soon changed these notes of ex pectant triumph into a shriller and less jubilant key. His adversaries discov ered that " the silken aristocrat" had a nerve of iron and — in so far at least as what he considered the spurious indigna tion and wrongs of Ireland were con cerned — a heart of steel. He never blustered, or talke'd, like one of his pre decessors, Sir George Trevelyan, about be ing an English gen tleman, though he was an Irish Secre rARXELL. tary. He never lost his temper in debate, or swerved one hair's breadth from his resolu tion to make Irishmen, even if they were members of Parliament, respect the law. He remained impervious to perhaps the foulest abuse that has ever been poured on the head of any public man in England in this century. He was " the bloody Bal four," the "murderer of Mandeville," — an Irishman whose death was caused not by his imprisonment, but by a cold caught in the exposure incident to an Irish political agitation — and so on. Christian ladies
