Liberal Politics 1815 1924 Revision Notes

Liberal Politics 1815-1924 Revision

What does ‘retrenchment’ mean?

Cuts in the size of government bureaucracy, cuts in the size of military establishment, cuts in government expenditure.

L.T. Hobhouse, 1911:

‘to foster the development of will, of personality, of self-control…Liberalism is the belief that society can safely be founded on this self-directing power of personality, that it is only on this foundation that a true community can be built, and that so established its foundations are deep and so wide that there is no limit that we can place to the extent of the building.

The Liberal desire is for decentralisation, combining nationalism with efficient, devolved government.

Colin Matthew, ‘Public Life and Politics’, ed. Matthew, The Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 2000).

Peelites, Liberals, Whigs and Tories, 1852-74

• In December 1852 after G.E, the Tories are replaced by a coalition government.

  • They were the embryonic Liberal Party:

    • Whigs, Liberals, Peelites, Radiclas.

  • Though Peelite in economic measures, it politicised issues Peel would have avoided.

    • They appeal to the middle-classes and artisans.

• Palmerston-Gladstone government (1859-65):

  • Drew together many aspects of mid-Victorian social and political life.

    • MPS are Anglican, but many are also Roman Catholics, Nonconformists, Jews and secularists.

    • In class, it has the great Whig landowners, but represents the industrial-commercial middles classes, yet equally, supported by most of those artisans that had the vote.

  • Liberals were the party of progress and thus, favoured extension of the franchise right? [Though in 1865, they were the only government to get re-elected – the current system works for them]

    • 1866 Reform Bill – splits the Liberal government and leaves Lord Derby to pick up the pieces.

    • There is a Liberal majority in the H of C, though, so they reshape what becomes the 1867 Representation of the People Act.

      • A new household suffrage in the boroughs extended the vote to the heads of al household, though with a stiff residency requirement.

      • Gave nearly 50% men the vote by 1868.

      • Is this a move towards universal suffrage so as to create mass-support for right-wing government?

  • The General Election of 1868 produced a Liberal government headed by Gladstone.

    • Campaign focused on Irish disestablishment, integrating all the religious forces that made up the Liberal Party, including Anglicans who believed Irish Churches were an embarrassment.

• Features of Gladstone’s first ministry

• Likes the “big bills” that keep the party together.

  • Irish Church disestablishment (1869)

  • Elementary Education Acts (1870) – a national system of elementary education.

  • University Test Abolishment – Oxbridge (1871)

  • Secret Ballot Act (1872)

• Liberals disagree on big objectives.

  • Religion.

    • Secularists wanted religious reform as the first step to a secular society.

• Thus, trick is to keep several issues running at once.

  • But this fails in 1873, when Gladstone’s Irish University Reform measure fails they limp to failure in the 1874 General Election.

• Tories:

  • Depicted Liberals as a threat to Empire and a danger to property.

  • No longer the case that non-Anglicans automatically don’t vote for the Tories – a success of Disraeli?

Tories, Liberals, Liberal Unionists, 1874-1901

• Disraeli cavorted Liberal initiatives as Tory social reform

• He focused on issues of foreign policy, the Eastern Question, Afghanistan, South Africa.

• Gladstone is re-elected comfortably in 1880.

• Gladstone’s Second Ministry

• Gladstone is drawn into many difficult political issues, made difficult to tackle due to his broad-based support across the country:

  • Ireland.

    • The Irish Land League created a quasi-revolutionary movement and Parnell, leader of the Irish home Rule Party.

    • Gladstone broke it up through incarcerating leaders and conciliation (the Land Act of 1881).

    • Gladstone’s ministry disintegrates over Ireland.

  • South Africa.

• 1884 Reform Act

  • Extended household suffrage to all counties AND Ireland.

• Liberals attempted to devolve parliamentary power from Westminster.

• Irish Question – 1885

• Salisbury manipulated the Irish Q, flirting with the Home Rulers and {are they though?] promising Home Rule.

• Gladstone’s Third Ministry

• In January 1886, Gladstone’s third ministry was set on enquiring into Irish Home Rule.

  • April 1886 introduces a Land Bill for Ireland (to buy out the Anglo-irish landowning class)

  • A Home Rule Bill

    • Party splits over this issue.

    • Salisbury, supported by the Liberal Unionists (anti-Home Rule Liberals), stabilised conservative politics on the basis of opposition to constitutional change.

• Gladstone’s Fourth Ministry

  • After getting re-elected in 1892 [Parnell is discredited]

  • The Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill which is rejected in the H of L and the H of L mutilate many other Liberal measures passed in the Commons.

• Lord Rosebery comes to power in 1895, but resigns, finding it all a little too much!

• Salisbury:

  • Forms a coalition with Joseph Chamberlain and the Liberal Unionists.

  • Known as “Hotel Cecil” and kept Home Rule at Bay.

  • Major issues the war with the Transvaal and Orange republics in South Afrcia in 1899.

Late Victorian Politics

• Has much changed?

  • No:

    • Oxbridge educated, Anglican elite still dominates.

  • Yes:

    • Britain became a religiously more plural society [John Bright the Quaker, Chamberlain the former Unitarian, Asquith the Congregationalist]

• Interesting chat:

  • There is a severe agricultural depression in the late 1870s.

Peter Ghosh and Lawrence Goldman, Politics and Culture in Victorian Britain (Oxford, 2006).

Chapter 5: Peter Ghosh, ‘Gladstone and Peel’

• Peel – founder of modern Conservatism or pioneer of Gladstonian Liberalism?

  • A teleology is sought between Peel and politics after him.

• Ghosh thinks ‘Peel’ is not representative of British politics after 1829

  • he was not a party politician.

  • ‘Peel-Gladstone’ teleology doesn’t exist.

• I

• Peel did not grasp the traditional and...

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