Lord Salisbury led theGovernment from 1895–1902 and was succeeded byArthur Balfour.

Balfour led the Government from 1902 before resigning in 1905. TheLiberals formed a government thereafter.

A coalition of theConservative andLiberal Unionist parties took power in theUnited Kingdom shortly before the1895 general election. Conservative leaderLord Salisbury was appointedPrime Minister and his nephew,Arthur Balfour, becameLeader of the House of Commons, but various major posts went to the Liberal Unionists, most notably theLeader of the House of Lords, the Liberal UnionistSpencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire, who was madeLord President, and his colleague in the Commons,Joseph Chamberlain, who becameColonial Secretary. It was this government which would conduct theSecond Boer War from 1899–1902, whichhelped them to win a landslide victory at the1900 general election.

The government consisted of three ministries, the first two led by Salisbury (from 1895–1902) and the third by Balfour (from 1902 onwards).

Lord Salisbury was thesecond and last person to be head of government while not simultaneously holding the title ofFirst Lord of the Treasury. It was said that there were some attempts to distinguish between the two offices, but in the century or more since, they have remained one and the same.

Balfour succeeded Salisbury as prime minister in 1902. Eventually, the Unionist government would falter after Chamberlain proposed his scheme fortariff reform, whose partial embrace by Balfour led to the resignation of the more orthodox free traders in the Cabinet.

After the conclusion of the Boer War, the British government sought to rebuild the South African economy which had been devastated by the war. An important part of the rebuilding effort was to get the gold mines of theWitwatersrand, the richest in history and a major cause of the war, back in production as soon as possible. Because the government decreed that white labour was too expensive and black labourers were reluctant to return to the mines,^[1] the government decided to import over 60,000 contracted workers fromChina.^[2]

This was deeply unpopular at the time, as popular opinion in much of theWestern world, including Britain; washostile to Chinese immigration. It also happened at a time when poverty and unemployment amongst working-class British people was at very high levels.^[3] On 26 March 1904, a demonstration againstChinese immigration to South Africa was held inHyde Park and was attended by 80,000 people. The Parliamentary Committee of theTrade Union Congress then passed a resolution declaring that:

That this meeting consisting of all classes of citizens of London, emphatically protests against the action of the Government in granting permission to import into South Africa indentured Chinese labour under conditions of slavery, and calls upon them to protect this new colony from the greed of capitalists and the Empire from degradation.

With his majority greatly reduced and defeat in the next election seeming inevitable, Balfour resigned as prime minister in December 1905, leading to the appointment of aminority Liberal government under SirHenry Campbell-Bannerman. In thegeneral election which followed in 1906, all but three members of Balfour's cabinet lost their seats, including Balfour himself.

Salisbury ministries
Unionist coalition of theUnited Kingdom
1895–1900 1900–1902
Salisbury (1897)
Date formed	Third: 25 June 1895 (1895-06-25) Fourth: 24 October 1900 (1900-10-24)[4]
Date dissolved	Third: 24 October 1900 (1900-10-24)[4] Fourth: 11 July 1902 (1902-07-11)
People and organisations
Monarch	Victoria (1895–1901) Edward VII (1901–1902)
Prime Minister	Lord Salisbury
Prime Minister's history	1895–1902
Member parties	Conservative Party Liberal Unionist Party (1895–1902)
Status in legislature	Minority (1895) Majority (coalition) (1895–1902)
Opposition party	Liberal Party
Opposition leaders	Sir William Vernon Harcourt (1896–1898) Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1898–1902) in theHouse of Commons Lord Rosebery (1895–1897) Lord Kimberley (1897–1902) Lord Spencer (1902) in theHouse of Lords
History
Elections	1895 general election 1900 general election
Legislature terms	25th UK Parliament 26th UK Parliament 27th UK Parliament
Predecessor	Rosebery ministry
Successor	Balfour ministry

In November 1900, the Cabinet was reformed for the first time.

Balfour ministry
1902–1905
Arthur Balfour
Date formed	12 July 1902 (1902-07-12)
Date dissolved	4 December 1905 (1905-12-04)
People and organisations
Monarch	Edward VII
Prime Minister	Arthur Balfour
Member parties	Conservative Party Liberal Unionist Party
Status in legislature	Majority (coalition)
Opposition party	Liberal Party
Opposition leaders	SirHenry Campbell-Bannerman in theHouse of Commons Lord Spencer (1902–1905) Lord Ripon (1905) in theHouse of Lords
History
Legislature terms	27th UK Parliament
Predecessor	Fourth Salisbury ministry
Successor	Campbell-Bannerman ministry

• May 1903 – Lord Onslow succeeds Robert William Hanbury at the Board of Agriculture.
• September to October 1903 –
  • Lord Londonderry succeeds theDuke of Devonshire as Lord President. Londonderry remains President of the Board of Education.
  • Lord Lansdowne succeeds Devonshire as Leader of the House of Lords. Lansdowne remains Foreign Secretary.
  • Lord Salisbury succeeds Arthur Balfour as Lord Privy Seal.
  • Austen Chamberlain succeedsCharles Ritchie at the Exchequer. Chamberlain's successor as Postmaster General is not in the Cabinet.
  • Alfred Lyttelton succeedsJoseph Chamberlain as Colonial Secretary.
  • St John Brodrick succeedsLord George Hamilton as Secretary for India.
  • H. O. Arnold-Forster succeeds Brodrick as Secretary for War.
  • Andrew Graham-Murray succeeds Lord Balfour of Burleigh as Secretary for Scotland.
• March 1905 –
  • Walter Hume Long succeedsGeorge Wyndham as Irish Secretary.
  • Gerald Balfour succeeds Long at the Local Government Board.
  • Lord Salisbury succeeds Balfour at the Board of Trade. Salisbury remains Lord Privy Seal.
  • Lord Cawdor succeedsLord Selborne at the Admiralty.
  • Ailwyn Fellowes succeeds Lord Onslow at the Board of Agriculture.

Cabinet members are listed inbold face.

• British ministries
• History of the Conservative Party (UK)
• Liberal Unionist Party
• 1890s in the United Kingdom
• 1900s in the United Kingdom
• 1895 establishments in the United Kingdom
• 1905 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
• Coalition governments of the United Kingdom
• Ministries of Queen Victoria
• Ministries of Edward VII
• Cabinets established in 1895
• Cabinets disestablished in 1905
• 1905 in British politics
• Arthur Balfour
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

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