Balfour, Arthur James, 1st Earl

Balfour, Arthur James, 1st Earl (1848–1930) British statesman, nephew of Lord SALISBURY. As Chief Secretary of Ireland (1887–91) he was an opponent of HOME RULE and earned from the Irish the nickname “ Bloody Balfour”. He served as Prime Minister (1902–05) but his government was undermined by his vacillation over tariff reform. His Education Act (1902) established a national system of secondary education. He created a Committee of Imperial Defence (1904), and helped to establish the ENTENTE CORDIALE (1904) with France. The Conservatives were crushingly defeated in the 1906 general election. Balfour then used the House of Lords, described by Lloyd George as “ Mr Balfour's poodle”, to attempt to block contentious Liberal legislation. He resigned the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1911. As Foreign Secretary in Lloyd George's war cabinet, he is associated with the BALFOUR DECLARATION (1917) promising the Jews a national home in Palestine. The Statute of WESTMINSTER owed much to his inspiration.