to_ at
Milan, where he had been engaged to sing with Malibran at the Scala. He
returned to England in the spring of 1833, and on the 29th of October 1835
his _Siege of Rochelle_ was produced and rapturously received at Drury
Lane. Encouraged by his success, he produced _The Maid of Artois_ on the
27th of May 1836--the success of the opera being confirmed by the exquisite
singing of Malibran. Balfe was a prolific composer, as may be seen from the
following imperfect list of his English operas alone:--_Siege of Rochelle_
(1835); _The Maid of Artois_ (1836); _Catherine Grey_ (1837); _Joan of Arc_
(1837); _Falstaff_ (1838, Lablache in title-role); _Amelia, or the Love
Test_ (1838); _Keolanthe_ (1841); _The Bohemian Girl_, his best known work
(1844); _The Daughter of St. Mark_ (1844); _The Enchantress_ (1845); _The
Bondman_ (1846); _The Devil's in it_ (1847); _The Maid of Honour_ (1847);
_The Sicilian Bride_ (1852); _The Rose of Castile_ (1857); _Satanella_
(1858); _Bianca_ (1860); _The Puritan's Daughter_ (1861); _The Armourer of
Nantes_ (1863); _Blanche de Nevers_ (1863). Balfe also wrote several operas
for the Opera Comique and Grand Opera in Paris, where MM. Scribe and St
George provided him with the libretti for his _Le Puits d'amour_ (1843) and
his _Les Quatre Fils Aymon_ (1844). His _L'Etoile de Seville_ was written
in 1845 for the Academie Royale. The fact that Balfe was an Irishman, who
produced operas in English, French and Italian with conspicuous success, is
in itself interesting. When to this we add the record of his operatic
impersonations on the stage, the European success of his _Bohemian Girl_,
his picturesque retirement into Hertfordshire in 1864 as a gentleman
farmer, and above all the undeniable gift for creating such pure melodies
as his songs "When other Hearts" and "I dreamt that I dwelt in marble
halls," it is idle to refuse him a prominent place in the history of music.
He wrote much that was trivial, but also much that was enduring. He died on
the 20th of October 1870, and was buried at Kensal Green. In 1882 a
medallion portrait of him was unveiled in Westminster Abbey.

BALFOUR, ARTHUR JAMES (1848- ), British statesman, eldest son of James
Maitland Balfour of Whittingehame, Haddingtonshire, and of Lady Blanche
Gascoyne Cecil, a sister of the third marquess of Salisbury, was born on
the 25th of July 1848. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College,
Cambridge. In 1874 he became M.P. in the Conservativ