"Now the terrible responsibility and blame rests upon the Government, because they were warned in March and April of the danger to General Gordon; because they received every intimation which men could reasonably look for that his danger would be extreme; and because they delayed from March and April right down to the 15th of August before they took a single measure to relieve him. What were they doing all that time? It is very difficult to conceive. ... Some people think there were divisions in the Cabinet, and that, after division on division, a decision was put off lest the Cabinet should be broken up. I am rather inclined to think that it was due to the peculiar position of the Prime Minister [William Gladstone]. He came in as the apostle of the Midlothian campaign, loaded with all the doctrines and all the follies of that pilgrimage."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandAnglicans from the United KingdomUniversity of Oxford facultyConservative Party (UK) politicians
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Speech in the House of Lords after the Fall of Khartoum (26 February 1885)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Gascoyne-Cecil%2C_3rd_Marquess_of_Salisbury
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
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.
223 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury →
Related Quotes
"On reflection, I am convinced that turbulence as well as every other evil temper of this evil age belongs not to the …"
"In an age when national greatness depends not on numbers or on territory, but on intelligence, the development of int…"
"The fact was, that articles of prime necessity, such as tea and sugar, were adulterated to such an extent as material…"
"A gram of experience is worth a ton of theory."
"Now if Conservative has any meaning at all, it means anti-Radical. The Radicals are the only inheritors of the revolu…"
"[T]he splitting up of mankind into a multitude of infinitesimal governments, in accordance with their actual differen…"
"[T]hough it is England's right to enforce the law of Europe [i.e. treaties] as between contending states, she has no …"
"Not the number of noses, but the magnitude of interests, should furnish the elements by which the proportion of repre…"
"The days and weeks of screwed-up smiles and laboured courtesy, the mock geniality, the hearty shake of the filthy han…"
"We are not the same people that we have been, either in our social characteristics, in our patriotic sentiments, or i…"