ABSTRACT
Directing British foreign policy at the height of popular enthusiasm for imperial enterprises, Salisbury had achieved what could be expected of an able leader for the protection and advancement of British interests overseas. But it was done in such a way as to make it hard to define him as ‘imperialistic’ in the sense the term is usually understood. It was perplexing that so reluctant an imperialist as Salisbury should have been engaged himself actively in the international power struggle. It was his awareness of a long crisis and of his responsibility for the British worldwide privileges that rendered Salisbury determined to defend and further British imperial existence; again, it was the same sense that inspired his reluctance to accept new commitments, and his preference for indirect control as the principle of imperial domination. Salisbury had little confidence in the prospects for an empire erected to acquire military glory, and he was loath to enlarge the British Empire merely for the sake of doing so. Nonetheless, Salisbury merits the name ‘imperialist,’ for, as a great believer in civilization, it was the abuse of imperialism rather than imperialism itself that he disapproved of.
