"He hoped that a publicly declared position of complete rigidity would stem the fatalism of the Conservatives and Whigs and would also moderate the hopes of the Radicals. But when the pressure for change became so great that the attempt at complete blockage was no longer realistic, he altered his tactics and tried to weaken its force by agreeing selectively to some of the demands for reform. And if this more limited policy failed he showed an unhesitating resilience and a willingness to work in the new situations created by previous failures. Most striking of all are the terms in which he chose to state his policies and the contrast between the Conservatism of a Burke which stood by ancient institutions as the expression of a divine will and that of Salisbury which recognised that stability as well as change had to be justified continually in terms of the social benefits they were likely to bring; between a Conservatism that regarded the State as an "organism" and one which likened it to a "joint-stock company"."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandAnglicans from the United KingdomUniversity of Oxford facultyConservative Party (UK) politicians
Original Language: English
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Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, The Political Thought of Lord Salisbury, 1854–1868 (1967), p. 153
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Gascoyne-Cecil%2C_3rd_Marquess_of_Salisbury
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (3 February 1830 – 22 August 1903), styled Lord Robert Cecil before the death of his elder brother in 1865, and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until his father died in April 1868, was a three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, during 1885–1886, 1886–1892 and 1895–1902.
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