168. Balfour's bad luck

Poor Balfour. He achieved a surprising amount considering how little time he had as head of government. What made it worse was that most of the measures he pushed through attracted at least as much criticism as praise. Often they caused deepening rifts amongst his own Unionists and even, on at least one occasion, strengthened the Liberals by helping to unite them again after their own deep splits on the Boer War.

At least he did manage to get an Entente Cordiale with the French, ratcheting way, way down the traditional tensions between Britain and its neighbour across the Channel.

On top of that, he had to deal with an old friend, George Curzon, who as viceroy of India found himself, like other colonial governors, unable to resist the temptation to launch a military adventure. The expedition into Tibet cost lives, though mostly among the poorly armed Tibetans, cut down by the superior British weapons, and in the end achieved virtually nothing.

Which was entirely emblematic of Balfour's time in the top job.

Illustration: Detail of John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Balfour in 1908. National Portrait Gallery 6620

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.