Editing H. H. Asquith (section)

===Widower and cabinet minister===
In September 1891, Helen Asquith died of [[typhoid fever]], following a few days' illness while the family were on holiday in Scotland.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=52}} Asquith bought a house in [[Surrey]], and hired nannies and other domestic staff. He sold the Hampstead property and took a flat in [[Mount Street]], [[Mayfair]], where he lived during the working week.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=56}}

[[File:Margot-Asquith-1890s.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Margot Asquith]] at about the time of her marriage]]

The [[1892 United Kingdom general election|general election of July 1892]] returned Gladstone and the Liberals to office, with intermittent support from the Irish Nationalist MPs. Asquith, who was then only 39 and had never served as a junior minister, accepted the post of [[Home Secretary]], a senior Cabinet position. The Conservatives and Liberal Unionists jointly outnumbered the Liberals in the Commons, which, together with a permanent Unionist majority in the House of Lords, restricted the government's capacity to put reforming measures in place. Asquith failed to secure a majority for a bill to [[Disestablishmentarianism|disestablish]] the [[Church in Wales]], and another to protect workers injured at work, but he built up a reputation as a capable and fair minister.<ref name=dnb/>

In 1893, Asquith responded to a request from Magistrates in the [[Wakefield]] area for reinforcements to police a mining strike. Asquith sent 400 Metropolitan policeman. After two civilians were killed in [[Featherstone]] when soldiers opened fire on a crowd, Asquith was subject to protests at public meetings for a period. He responded to a taunt, "Why did you murder the miners at Featherstone in '92?" by saying, "It was not '92, it was '93."<ref>{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Roy |date=2012 |title=Churchill: A Biography |location=UK |publisher=Pan Macmillan |page=199 |isbn=9780330476072}}</ref>

When Gladstone retired in March 1894, [[Queen Victoria]] chose the [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]], [[Lord Rosebery]], as the new prime minister. Asquith thought Rosebery preferable to the other possible candidate, the [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], [[Sir William Harcourt]], whom he deemed too anti-imperialist—one of the so-called "[[Little Englander#History|Little Englanders]]"—and too abrasive.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=72–73}} Asquith remained at the Home Office until the government fell in 1895.<ref name=dnb/>

Asquith had known [[Margot Tennant]] slightly since before his wife's death, and grew increasingly attached to her in his years as a widower. On 10 May 1894, they were married at [[St George's, Hanover Square]]. Asquith became a son in law of [[Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet]]. Margot was in many respects the opposite of Asquith's first wife, being outgoing, impulsive, extravagant and opinionated.<ref name=margodnb>Brock, Eleanor, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30482 "Asquith, Margaret Emma Alice (Margot), countess of Oxford and Asquith (1864–1945)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923023136/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30482;jsessionid=843AB0C22900FDDA8EBAFEE2A555F16A |date=23 September 2021 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2015 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> Despite the misgivings of many of Asquith's friends and colleagues the marriage proved to be a success. Margot got on, if sometimes stormily, with her step-children. She and Asquith had five children of their own, only two of whom survived infancy:<ref name=margodnb/> [[Anthony Asquith]] (9 November 1902 – 21 February 1968), and [[Elizabeth Asquith]] (26 February 1897 – 7 April 1945), who married Prince [[Antoine Bibesco]] on 30 April 1919.

====Out of office====
[[File:Campbell-bannerman-ILN-1899.jpg|thumb|[[Henry Campbell-Bannerman|Campbell-Bannerman]], Liberal leader from 1899]]

The [[1895 United Kingdom general election|general election of July 1895]] was disastrous for the Liberals, and the Conservatives under [[Lord Salisbury]] won a majority of 152. With no government post, Asquith divided his time between politics and the bar.{{efn|He was the first former cabinet minister to resume practice at the bar after leaving government office. All cabinet ministers were, and are, appointed as lifetime members of the [[Privy Council]], and there had been an uncodified feeling before 1895 that it was inappropriate for a Privy Councillor to appear as an advocate in court, submitting to the rulings of judges who, for the most part, ranked below him in the official order of precedence. See {{harvnb|Jenkins|pp=90–91}}.}} Jenkins comments that in this period Asquith earned a substantial, though not stellar, income and was never worse off and often much higher-paid than when in office.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=92}} Matthew writes that his income as a QC in the following years was around £5,000 to £10,000 per annum (around £500,000–£1,000,000 at 2015 prices).<ref name=dnb/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php |title=Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound |access-date=27 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331194822/https://measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php |archive-date=31 March 2016 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> According to Haldane, on returning to government in 1905 Asquith had to give up a £10,000 brief to act for the [[Abbas II of Egypt|Khedive of Egypt]].{{sfn|Bates|p=33}} Margot later claimed (in the 1920s, when they were short of money) that he could have made £50,000 per annum had he remained at the bar.{{sfn|Koss|pp=282–283}}

The Liberal Party, with a leadership—Harcourt in the Commons and Rosebery in the Lords—who detested each other, once again suffered factional divisions. Rosebery resigned in October 1896 and Harcourt followed him in December 1898.{{sfn|Hattersley|p=60}}{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=200, 105}} Asquith came under strong pressure to accept the nomination to take over as Liberal leader, but the post of Leader of the Opposition, though full-time, was then unpaid, and he could not afford to give up his income as a barrister. He and others prevailed on the former [[Secretary of State for War]], [[Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman]] to accept the post.{{sfn|Hattersley|p=65}}

During the [[Boer War]] of 1899–1902 Liberal opinion divided along pro-imperialist and "Little England" lines, with Campbell-Bannerman striving to maintain party unity. Asquith was less inclined than his leader and many in the party to censure the Conservative government for its conduct, though he regarded the war as an unnecessary distraction.<ref name=dnb/> [[Joseph Chamberlain]], a former Liberal minister, now an ally of the Conservatives, campaigned for [[protectionism|tariffs]] to shield British industry from cheaper foreign competition. Asquith's advocacy of traditional Liberal [[free trade]] policies helped to make Chamberlain's proposals the central question in British politics in the early years of the 20th century. In Matthew's view, "Asquith's forensic skills quickly exposed deficiencies and self-contradictions in Chamberlain's arguments."<ref name=dnb/> The question divided the Conservatives, while the Liberals were united under the banner of "free fooders" against those in the government who countenanced a tax on imported essentials.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=140}}