"The problem that was the most important and fundamental of those considered by Salisbury in his writings was the problem of political change. In the case of many Conservatives one is left with the feeling that their reluctance to envisage change is grounded in the last resort in a sentimental regard for antique ceremonial and established political forms and social ways... Yet no such sentiment inspired Salisbury's conservatism. If he wished to preserve old political institutions, it was because he thought on rational grounds that they were better than anything that could be put in their place. It is true that he had an emotional fear of the mob and of the crudities of democratic politics. But he also disliked the traditional aristocracy...and he showed very little attachment and considerable rebellion against the ancient as such."
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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. 95
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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