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The Liberal Unionist Party and the Irish Policy of Lord Salisbury's Government, 1886–18921

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Peter Davis
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Extract

In the House of Commons on 23 May 1892, following a speech by Joseph Chamberlain in qualified support of Balfour's Irish Local Government Bill, Tim Healy assailed ‘our Birmingham Diogenes’ with considerable warmth for the manner in which such support was habitually rendered:

What happens is this. The Government bring in a Bill. Its proposals are attacked, and the Government gets into distress, and then of course ‘a friend in need is a friend indeed’. The Rt.hon.Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham gets up and makes a speech. I have heard him make a speech on the Coercion Bill of 1887 in almost identical terms, and also on the Parnell Commission Bill of 1888.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 85 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

2 Hansard, 4th series, vol. IV, cols. 1565–6.Google Scholar

3 i.e., Conservatives, 316 seats; Liberal Unionists, 78; Gladstonian Liberals, 191; Irish Nationalists, 85.

4 26 Aug. 1886, cited by Garvin, J. L., Life of Joseph Chamberlain, 11, 267.Google Scholar

5 See Birmingham Daily Post, 25 May 1886, which contrasts Radical Unionists, ‘who are for Mr Gladstone, if he will but modify his plan ‘with Whigs who’ would refuse, at any time or under any circumstances, to concede autonomy to Ireland… The two sections, though they may vote for once in rhe same lobby, can have no continuous ground of common action, either in Parliament or in the constituencies.’

6 Hansard, 3rd series, vol. CCCIX, cols. 984–1000, 20 Sept. 1886.Google Scholar

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11 A detailed account of the Round Table Conferences and contingent negotiations is to be found in Hurst, M. C., Joseph Chamberlain and Liberal Reunion (1967).Google Scholar

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16 The Times, 9 Mar. 1887.

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26 The Times, 1 Apr. 1887.

27 Three Liberal Unionists – Talbot, Vivian, and Winterbotham – voted with the Opposition. Lord Cavendish, E., Courtney, Currie, Vernon and Villiers were absent, as were five Radical Unionists – Chamberlain, Collings, Barclay, Buchanan, and Fraser-Mackimosh.Google Scholar

28 In its final form, the Act extended the range of summary jurisdiction to cover offences such as criminal conspiracy to withhold rent, boycotting, intimidation, rioting, unlawful assembly, resistance to eviction, and incitement – all of which could thus be heard by a Resident Magistrate instead of before a jury. The Lord Lieutenant in Council could proclaim the Act to be in force in any area, and declare any association dangerous, subjecting all its members to prosecution by special proclamation. The Act was to remain permanently in force, although individual proclamations might be revoked.

29 The Times, 2 and 3 May 1887.

30 This comprised Hartington, Bright, Chamberlain, Finlay, Heneage, James, Lymington, Pitt- Lewis, and Russell.

31 Hartington to Balfour, 20 May 1887. Balfour Papers, A.M. 49, 696, ff. 22–5.

32 The Liberal Unionist, No. 13 (22 June 1887).

33 The Times, 22 Aug. 1887.

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35 Brunner, J. T. had just converted a Liberal Unionist majority of 458 (in 1886) to a Gladstonian majority of 1,129.Google Scholar

36 The Annual Register for 1887, referring to campaigning during the recess, wrote of the ‘almost feverish energy shown by the (Liberal) Unionist leaders. That their seats at the next election were imperilled unless they could persuade their supporters to adopt their own ill-defined attitude towards the two historic political parties was a conviction which doubtless acted as a powerful incentive to their activity’ (p. 156).

37 Hansard, 3rd series, vol. CCCXVI, col. 1429, 1 July 1887.Google Scholar

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39 ibid.

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41 Balfour Papers, A.M. 49,769, ff. 10–14.Google Scholar Harrington remained personally antipathetic to a revision of judicial rents; and told a Liberal Unionist dinner at Greenwich on 5 Aug. 1887, that ‘we believed and hoped that it would not be necessary in the current session, pending the introduction of a larger and wider measure, to adopt a principle so full of risk and danger and pregnant with possible inconvenience and difficulty in the way of passing a great Land Purchase scheme for Ireland.’ (The Times, 6 Aug. 1887).

42 The Times, 16 July, 1887. Goschen had replaced Churchill at the beginning of the year, following the latter's resignation.

43 Hardy, A. E. Gathorne, ed., The Earl of Cranbrook, A Memoir (1910), 11, 285–6.Google Scholar

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46 The Annual Register for 1887 noted that ‘by the original Bill, town parks were declared; to mean land used as accommodation land, and not as farms; but a Commons’ amendment ex- 2,000 tended the operation of the clause to all land in the neighbourhood of towns of not less than ‘2,000 inhabitants. This extension was struck out by the House of Lords’ - a fact which led i Russell to write to The Times (22 Aug. 1887), asserting that that House had thereby ‘handed over the province of Ulster to Mr Parnell.’

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52 The Times, 17 Mar. 1888.

53 Ibid.

54 Hansard, 3rd series, vol. CCCXIII, col. 1881.Google Scholar The amendment was moved by Williams, J. Powell, 21 Mar. 1888.Google Scholar

55 The Times, 29 May 1888.

56 Chamberlain to Mary Endicott, 3 May 1888, Garvin, , op. cit., 353. Chamberlain's account of the genesis of the programme is to be found in his Political Memoir, ed. Howard, C. H. D. (1953), 282.Google Scholar

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58 cf. “What is wanted is an improvement scheme for Ireland, conducted by national resources, as we had an improvement scheme in Birmingham, conducted by local resources.” The Times, 29 May 1888. The speech is reprinted in Boyd, C. W., ed., Mr Chamberlain's Speeches (1914), 1, 298–312.Google Scholar

59 Curtis, , op. cit., claims that “most of the legislation that Ireland received up to the First World War - Home Rule excepted - was anticipated in some form or another by this testament of ‘Birmingham Unionism’.Google Scholar

60 Memorandum of the Pigott forged letters, typescript journal, pp. 42–3. James Papers.

6 1 Chamberlain to Mary Endicott, 10 July 1888. Garvin, , op. cit., 386.Google Scholar Chamberlain subsequently acted as a convenient scapegoat for Conservative embarrassment - see, e.g., Sir Clarke, Edward, The Story of My Life (1918), 274–5.Google Scholar

62 Hansard, 3rd series, vol. cccxxx, col. 1741, 19 Nov. 1888.Google Scholar

63 According to Edward Hamilton (Journal, 21 Mar. 1890, A.M. 48,652, f. 95) the measure was largely devised by Balfour, with the assistance of Jenkyns (draftsman), Welby (Treasury), the Irish Attorney General, and of Goschen's “extraordinary critical powers.”

64 Hansard, 3rd series, vol. CCCXLII, cols. 1696–1719, 24 Mar. 1890.Google Scholar

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76 The Times, 4 Dec. 1889.

77 The Times, 8 Dec. 1886.