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IV. Liberal versus Liberal: The General Election of 1874 in Bradford and Sheffield

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Michael Hurst
Michael Hurst
Affiliation:
St John's College, Oxford
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Extract

Throughout its history the United Kingdom Liberal party has been a conglomerate. On the other hand, it was very rarely just an anti-Conservative Front, feeding off the grasslands of negation. Whatever the manifold stresses and strains of a given moment, the liberty-loving and reforming mentality almost invariably held together the disparate elements for purposes of positive action. And with the Conservative party essentially standstill and inherently strong at most times, this was scarcely surprising in the context of the battle for political power. That context was shaped by the break-up of the vast Liverpool-style coalition and the emergence under Lord Grey of a left-centre administration. The bundle of ideologies and interests behind Grey stuck together until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, although economic and social changes, along with alterations in the constitutional structure both springing from and causing them, did much to shift the influence they exercised. While it is true that the first and second Reform Acts were of crucial importance, the forces behind their passing should not be ignored. The hens did come before the eggs, even though the eventual arrivals were uncommonly large chickens, and hatching out was far from automatic

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Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 1972 , pp. 669 - 713
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

1 J. Vincent is the writer in question and the ideas under criticism here are to be found in his The Formation of the Liberal Party, 1857–1868, especially in its introduction; ch. I - ss. 1 and 2; ch. II - introductory and ss. 3 and 5; ch. III - ss. 1 and 5; and ch. IV - introductory and s. I. Some of them are reiterated in his Pollbooks: How Victorians Voted and a new one added on p. 47 (that claiming Liberal electors in 1880 - and by implication at other times in that period - wanted victory itself more than what would flow from it).

2 1819–86. In 1850 he married Jane, daughter of Dr Arnold of Rugby. After an unsuccessful contest at Leeds in 1859, he succeeded Sir Titus Salt at Bradford two years later. Under-Secretary for the Colonies 1865–6, he was appointed Vice-President of the Council, dealing with education, in 1868, and entered the cabinet in 1870. When Gladstone resigned the Liberal leadership in 1875 Forster declined consideration for the succession, doubting his ability to unite the party factions. In 1880, with Gladstone once more heading the Liberal party, he became Chief Secretary for Ireland. His tenure was troublous and Chamberlain besides the Irish Nationalists harried him unmercifully. After two years of intense work and struggle he resigned.

3 1825–97. M.P. for Sheffield 1868–85 and for the Brightside division of that place 1885–97. A keen exponent of reform in labour matters, he actually founded the labour department at the Board of Trade while President there during Gladstone's fourth ministry. For local Sheffield matter, see Stainton, J. H., ‘The Making of Sheffield, 1865–1914’, pp. 42–5.Google Scholar

4 1836–1914. Entering the Birmingham Corporation in 1868, he served as mayor 1873–6. In 1876 he entered parliament for Birmingham at a by-election and became President of the Board of Trade with a seat in the cabinet in the second Gladstone ministry. During the general election of 1885 he pushed what was termed an ‘Unauthorised Programme’ of Radical proposals, but consented to join the third Gladstone ministry as President of the Local Government Board. Later in 1886 he resigned in protest against Gladstone's Home Rule policy and voted against it. From then on he was a Radical Unionist, working in with Harrington, previously leader of the Gladstonian right, and the Conservative party. On the formation of a Conservative-Liberal and Radical Unionist ministry in 1895 he took the Secretaryship of the Colonies, making a great reputation for himself and eventually launching a campaign for protective tariffs and imperial preference, which split the Unionist parties, in the autumn of 1903. Less than three years later he had a serious cerebral haemorrhage and spent the last period of his life in helpless frustration.

5 1802–79. Born in India and living in Canada for a considerable part of his later youth, he was the grandson of the founder of the famous Carron Ironworks and son of a doctor who eventually settled in Birmingham. After sitting for Bath as Radical member 1832–7 he went to Sheffield in 1849 and kept the seat until 1868. His second tenure there lasted from 1874 up to his death. His motion for enquiry into the state of the army before Sebastopol brought down the Aberdeen Coalition in 1855. During the Eastern Crisis of 1876–8 he was a strong supporter of the Conservative ministry.

6 Morley, J., Life of Gladstone, II, 479–88.Google Scholar For a full discussion of the dissolution, see Maehl, W. H., ‘Gladstone, the Liberals, and the Election of 1874’, Bull, of the Inst. of Historical Research, 1963, pp. 53–69.Google Scholar The author disposes of the charge that Gladstone caused parliament to be dissolved for reasons connected with his having taken on the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. This had raised the question as to whether or not he should resubmit himself to the electors of Greenwich.

7 Eventually Sir Henry Ripley, he was for long chairman of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce and a very prominent woollen manufacturer.

8 1809–81. Born at Portsmouth he became a Congregationalist minister in Ware and then in Leicester, taking up most fervently the cause of church disestablishment. He founded the Nonconformist prime organ of Dissent in 1840 and four years later was prominent at the launching of the ‘Liberation Society’. He sat for Rochdale 1852–67 and for Bradford 1869–74.

9 Three times mayor of Bradford. For his work, see Cudworth, W., Historical Notes on the Bradford Corporation, pp. 151, 194, 196.Google Scholar

10 1787–1879. Son of two Sheffielders, he first made his career as a Manchester solicitor. He began political life as a Conservative and contested Bradford in 1835. In 1852 he moved to Sheffield and won a seat fighting as a Liberal righting on a predominantly free trade ticket. His noncomformist zeal earned him the ill-will of Sheffield Anglicans, but his work to have barriers against his coreligionists removed at Oxford and Cambridge eventually bore fruit. As a worker for local interests he was not easy to surpass. See The Making of Sheffield, 1865–1914, pp. 53–4.Google Scholar

11 Gwyn, W. B., Democracy and the Cost of Politics, p. 124.Google Scholar

12 Brear's Guide to Bradford and District, 1873, p. 69.Google Scholar

13 See Stainton, , op. cit. pp. 324–8.Google Scholar

14 The Times, 14 Oct. 1873. The Bradford Observer, 14 Oct. 1873.

15 The Holden Illingworth Letters, p. 484.

16 The Times, 26 Nov. 1873.

17 The Times, 13 Dec. 1873.

18 The Times, 24 Dec. 1873. The Bradford Observer, 22 Dec. 1873.

19 Brear, , op. cit. pp. 12–17.Google ScholarJeans, J. S., England's Supremacy, pp. 208–24.Google Scholar

20 The Holden-Illingworth Letters, p. 488.

21 See Stainton, , op. cit. pp. 265–7.Google Scholar

22 See Stainton, , op. cit. pp. 355–6;Google ScholarFowler, W. S., A Study in Radicalism and Dissent: The Life and Times of Henry Joseph Wilson, 1833–1914;Google ScholarWilson, R. E., Two Hundred Precious Metal Years: A History of the Sheffield Smelting Company Limited, 1760–1960 - all provide a wide range of reliable data about the man and his business. Between 1871 and 1889 the capital of each partner in his company rose from £7,000 to £37,500.Google Scholar

23 A daughter was allowed to Cambridge and until recently lived to tell the tale.

24 The best source for labour conditions and local trade unions is S. Pollard, A History of Labour in Sheffield. It is also excellent on the iron and steel industry in the Sheffield area, but national pictures can be obtained in Birch, A., The Economic History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, 1784–1879, and J. C. Carr and W. Taplin, A History of the British Steel Industry. The ‘Cobden Club Essays’ for 1871–2 contain interesting data about working class involvement with trade unions, a salutary reminder to the more rhapsodic devotee of industrial history. S. B. Saul in The Myth of the Great Depression, 1873–96 examines data on the then current economic state of the nation.Google Scholar

25 See 'Cobden Club Essays’, 2nd ser., 1871–1872, pp. 357–98.Google Scholar

26 H. J. Wilson to J. Cox, 11 Jan. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

27 H. J. Wilson to A. J. Mundella, 31 Jan. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

28 The 25th clause ran: ‘The school board may, if they think fit, from time to time, for a renewable period not exceeding six months, pay the whole or any part of the school fees payable at any public elementary school by any child resident in their district whose parent is in their opinion unable from poverty to pay the same; but no such payment shall be made or refused on condition of the child attending any public elementary school other than such as may be selected by the parent; and such payment shall not be deemed to be parochial relief given to such parent.’ See Elementary Education Act, 33 & 34 Vic., c. 75.

29 A. J. Mundella to H. J. Wilson, 3 Feb. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

30 F. Adams to H. J. Wilson, 18 Mar. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

31 J. Cox to H. J. Wilson, 17 Mar. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

32 Fowler, op. cit. p. 42. H. W. G. Armytage, A. J. Mundella, 1825–1897 - The Liberal Background to the Labour Movement, p. 131.

33 See Stainton, , op. cit. pp. 301–2.Google Scholar

34 H. J. Wilson to A. J. Mundella, 22 Mar. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

35 A. J. Mundella to H. J. Wilson, 24 Mar. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

36 For Alderman Allott, see Stainton, , op. cit. pp. 57–8.Google Scholar H. J. Wilson to E. Miall, 24 Mar. 1873. E. Miall to H. J. Wilson, 28 Mar. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

37 A. J. Mundella to H. J. Wilson, 29 Mar. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

38 It is dated 31 Mar. 1873, and its fate suggest that this ‘difficult’ man had learned to make discretion the better part of valour on some occasions at least.

39 H. J. Wilson to F. Schnadhorst, 1 Apr. 1873. An interesting commentary on the Birmingham labour scene is the fact that those splendid employers Nettlefold and Chamberlain did not allow trade union labour in their factories. They paid well above the trade union rate of wages and therefore deemed unions superfluous. Even more interesting is Joseph Chamberlain's ignorance of this fact - he was on the sales side.

40 Joseph Chamberlain to J. T. Bunce, 26 Mar. 1873. Chamberlain Papers. John Bright to Joseph Chamberlain, 10 Apr. 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

41 J. W. Barber to H. J. Wilson, 14 Apr. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

42 H. J. Wilson to J. W. Barber, 18 Apr. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

43 Garvin, J. L., The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, I, 164.Google Scholar

44 F. Schnadhorst to H. J. Wilson, 4 July 1873. F. Schnadhorst to H. J. Wilson, 28 July 1873. Memorandum by H. J. Wilson on the Bradford Liberal Clubs and possible Sheffield projects, 14 July 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

45 Joseph Chamberlain to John Morley, 15 July 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

46 Joseph Chamberlain to Sir Charles Dilke, 6 July 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

47 Joseph Chamberlain to John Morley, 19 July 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

48 Joseph Chamberlain to J. T. Bunce, 10 Aug. 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

49 J. S. Wright to J. T. Bunce, 9 Aug. 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

50 Joseph Chamberlain to H. J. Wilson, 12 Aug. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

51 John Bright to Joseph Chamberlain, 19 Aug. 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

52 Joseph Chamberlain to John Morley, 19 Aug. 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

53 John Morley to Joseph Chamberlain, 22 Aug. 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

54 Joseph Chamberlain to John Morley, 23 Aug. 1873.

55 Joseph Chamberlain to John Morley, 9 Sept. 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

56 The Times, 27 Oct. 1873.

57 Joseph Chamberlain to H. J. Wilson, 3 Nov. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

58 Joseph Chamberlain to H. J. Wilson, 29 Nov. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

59 Joseph Chamberlain to H. J. Wilson, 15 Oct. 1873. Joseph Chamberlain to H. J Wilson, 22 Nov. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

60 A. J. Mundella to R. Leader, 24 Nov. 1873. Mundella-Leader Papers.

61 A. J. Mundella to R. Leader, 1 Dec. 1873. Mundella-Leader Papers.

62 See Stainton, , op. cit. pp. 57–8.Google Scholar

63 The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 10 Dec. 1873

64 A. J. Mundella to R. Leader, 10 Dec. 1873. Mundella-Leader Papers.

65 Joseph Chamberlain to H. J. Wilson, 13 Dec. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

66 J. Paynter Allen to Joseph Chamberlain, 14 Dec. 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

67 A. J. Mundella to R. Leader, 15 Dec. 1873. Mundella-Leader Papers.

68 J. Paynter Allen to Joseph Chamberlain, 17 Dec. 1873. Chamberlain Papers.

69 Joseph Chamberlain to H. J. Wilson, 17 Dec. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

70 J. A. Roebuck to W. Fisher, 19 Dec. 1873. Fisher Papers.

71 A. J. Mundella to R. Leader, 21 Dec. 1873. Mundella-Leader Papers.

72 Ibid.

73 Joseph Chamberlain to Walter Chamberlain, 20 Dec. 1873. Minute by Walter Chamberlain - undated. Chamberlain Papers. Joseph Chamberlain to H. J. Wilson, 25 Dec. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

74 A. J. Mundella to H. J. Wilson, 26 Dec. 1873. H. J. Wilson Papers.

75 The actual position of these national labour leaders would appear to have been more flexible than Mundella supposed. In fact Allott was backed by the London-based labour cliques - for a time at least.

76 A. J. Mundella to R. Leader, 31 Dec. 1873. Mundella-Leader Papers.

77 The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 2 Jan. 1874. General de Gaulle had to read something equally uncongenial at Strasbourg at the time when relations with the ‘Anglo-Saxon powers’ were rather strained. The shop opposite his speaking rostrum was labelled ‘OTAN ET CIE’

78 The duke of Norfolk owned the manors of Sheffield and Hallam. His West Riding property, most of which was concentrated in these places, yielded him £231,354 per annum - it amounted to 15,270 acres. See Return of Owners of Land, 1873, vol. 11 - York, West Riding, p. 71, and Bateman, J., The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland, p. 307.Google Scholar

79 The Times, 2 Jan. 1874.

80 The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 2 Jan. 1874; The Sheffield Evening Star, 2 Jan. 1874; The Sheffield Post, 3 Jan. 1874, criticized unscrupulous use of the fact of Chamberlain's link with the screw trade, while The Sheffield Daily Telegraph of both dates praised him for making a good party speech - praise meant to fan the flames in the Liberal camp.

81 A. J. Mundella to R. Leader, 2 Jan. 1874. Mundella-Leader Papers.

82 J. D. Leader to R. Leader, 3 Jan. 1874. Leader Papers. R. G. Leader to R. Leader, 3 Jan. 1874. Leader Papers.

83 A. J. Mundella to R. Leader, 5 Jan. 1874. Mundella-Leader Papers.

84 H. J. Wilson to J. W. Barber, 5 Jan. 1874. H. J. Wilson Papers.

85 William Rolley, a stalwart of the Trades Council and a believer in the doctrine that large progressive employers could adequately represent working men in parliament until they were able to carry out the task themselves. Chamberlain thought of him in 1875 as a possible successor to himself as Radical candidate for Sheffield. Born in 1839, he died in 1912. See Stainton, , op. cit. P. 351.Google Scholar

86 J. Paynter Allen to Joseph Chamberlain, 9 Jan. 1874. Chamberlain Papers.

87 The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 10 Jan. 1874.

88 Dronfield was a local trade unionist of note. See Armytage, , op. cit. pp. 49, 50, 53, 58, 61, 62, 324, 344.Google Scholar

89 H. J. Wilson to Joseph Chamberlain, 13 Jan. 1874. Chamberlain Papers. J. Paynter Allen to Joseph Chamberlain, 10 Jan. 1874. Chamberlain Papers.

90 J. Askham to H. J. Wilson, 14 Jan. 1874. H. J. Wilson Papers.

91 Joseph Chamberlain to H. J. Wilson, 16 Jan. 1874, ibid.

92 A. J. Mundella to J. D. Leader, 24 Jan. 1874. Mundella-Leader Papers.

93 Joseph Chamberlain to H. J. Wilson, 24 Jan. 1874. H. J. Wilson Papers.

94 The Times, 5 Jan. 1874. It was referring to a speech of Edward Cardwell at a ‘Druids’ dinner in Oxford.

95 The Times, 10 Oct. 1868; The Bradford Observer, 9 Oct. 1868.

96 The Baptist, LII (1870), 234.Google Scholar

97 The Times, 2 Jan. 1874.

98 Reid, T. Wemyss, The Life of W. E. Forster, II, 43.Google Scholar

99 The Times, 26 Jan. 1874.

100 The Times, 27 Jan. 1874; The Bradford Observer, 27 Jan. 1874.

101 The Times, 28 Jan. 1874.

102 The Times, 29 Jan. 1874; The Bradford Observer, 28 Jan. 1874.

103 The Times, 30 Jan. 1874.

104 Reid, Wemyss, op. cit. p. 52.Google Scholar

105 The Times, 2 Feb. 1874; The Birmingham Post, 2 Feb. 1874.

106 The Times, 2 Feb. 1874.

107 The Times, 3 Feb. 1874.

108 Ibid.

109 The Times, 3 Feb. 1874; The Bradford Observer, 3 Feb. 1874.

110 The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 30 Jan. 1874.

111 The Sheffield Post, 31 Jan. 1874. This newspaper was the only one favourable to Chamberlain throughout the dispute with Allott. The editor, a man named Dunbar, was understandably vexed by Wilson's placing printing orders with Leader at the Independent. This, like Wilson's dissatisfaction with J. Paynter Allen, was partly due to hypercritical standards, partly a manifestation of jealousy and partly hard-headed calculations about political advantage.

112 In 1868 10,996 voters had gone for Hadfield and Mundella, thus showing great Radical solidarity. There was some considerable overlap between Hadfield and Roebuck - 3,585; much overlap, given the level of the vote for Roebuck, between Roebuck and Price - 4,624; little or no overlap between Radicals and the Conservative - Hadfield and Price got 87 together and Mundella and Price 313; and a scant solidarity between Mundella and Roebuck - 70. Roebuck had 1,269 plumpers; Mundella 797; Price 261; and Hadfield 103. Bean, W. W., The Parliamentary Representation of the Six Northern Counties of England, 1603–1886, p. 1072.Google Scholar

113 For an account of Forster's trials and tribulations during 1876–8, see Ostrogorski, M., Democracy and the Organisation of Political Parties, I, 194–203.Google Scholar

114 On 23 Oct. 1875 representatives from all sections of Sheffield Liberalism met and decided to move towards unity. A distinct series of steps were taken towards having a new united Liberal Association on 5 Nov. A grand reunion public meeting was held in the local Albert Hall on 15 Dec. Leader took the chair and the leading speakers were Lord Harrington (the rightist leader), Stansfeld (the Radical member for Halifax and brother-in-law to Dixon of Birmingham), Richard and Waddy (M.P.s) and Mundella himself. So completely did Wilson's section join in that The Times suspected it had been agreed that Chamberlain should be Mundella's fellow candidate at the next general election or the champion at any intervening by-election! See Armytage, , op. cit. p. 160.Google Scholar