James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury James Brownlow William Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, (17 April 1791 – 12 April 1868), styled Viscount Cranborne until 1823, was a British Conservative politician. He held office under the Earl of Derby as Lord Privy Seal in 1852 and Lord President of the Council between 1858 and 1859. He was the father of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and grandfather of Arthur Balfour, who also served as Prime Minister. Salisbury was the son of James Cecil, 1st Marquess of Salisbury, and Lady Emily Mary
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury contempt: of our being humiliated etc." At the Cabinet meeting the next day, Derby recorded that Lord John Manners objected to occupying the city "on the ground of right. Salisbury treated scruples of this kind with marked contempt, saying, truly enough, that if our ancestors had cared for the rights of other people, the British empire would not have been made. He was more vehement than any one for going on. In the end the project was dropped..." In 1878, Salisbury succeeded Lord Derby (son of the former Prime Minister) as Foreign Secretary in time to help lead Britain to