Page "Arthur Balfour" Paragraph 12

On the death of W. H.

Smith in 1891, Balfour became First Lord of the Treasury — the last one in British history not to have been concurrently Prime Minister as well — and Leader of the House of Commons.

After the fall of the government in 1892 he spent three years in opposition.

When the Conservatives returned to power, in a coalition with the Liberal Unionists, in 1895, Balfour once again assumed the positions of Leader of the House and First Lord of the Treasury.

His management of the abortive education proposals of 1896 were thought to show a disinclination for the continuous drudgery of parliamentary management, yet he had the satisfaction of seeing the passage of a bill providing Ireland with an improved system of local government, and took an active role in the debates on the various foreign and domestic questions that came before parliament between 1895 to 1900.