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Liberal Versus Liberal, 1874: W. E. Forster, Bradford and Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. R. Temmel
M. R. Temmel
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle
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Type
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Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , September 1975 , pp. 611 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 Hurst, Michael, ‘Liberal versus Liberal: The General Election of 1874 in Bradford and Sheffield’, Historical Journal, xv, 4 (1972), 669–713;CrossRefGoogle Scholar[ Wright, D. G., ‘Liberal versus Liberal, 1874: Some Comments’, Historical Journal, XVI, 3 (1973), 597–603;CrossRefGoogle ScholarHurst, Michael, ‘Liberal versus Liberal, 1874: A Rebuttal’, Historical Journal, XVI, 1 (1974), 162–4;CrossRefGoogle Scholar with reference to Vincent, John, The Formation of the Liberal Party 1857–1868 (London, 1966).Google Scholar

2 Miall's intended retirement was not, as Hurst claims (p. 678), ‘unbeknown to the public’. The full text of his letter to Sir Titus Salt, announcing his retirement from Bradford at the general election, was quoted in Bradford Observer, 4 Nov., Nonconformist, 5 Nov., and The Times, 8 Nov. 1873.

3 Speech to Liberation Society in London, Bradford Observer, 14 Nov. 1873, p. 3. This speech clarifies Miall's letter to Salt, which was twisted by The Times, 10 Nov., into the occasion for a scathing political obituary. Miall maintained that his letter did not mean that he intended to forsake the disestablishment cause nor even retire from parliament, if he could find a less arduous constituency.

4 Miall to Angus Holden, 12 Jan. 1874, Bradford Observer, 23 Jan. 1874, p. 3; presentation to Miall, Nonconformist, 23 July 1873, p. 743.

5 The Times, 26 Nov. 1873, p. 12.

6 Ramm, Agatha, ed., The Political Correspondence of Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville, 1868–1876, II, 394, 396–400, 403, 405, 409.Google Scholar Gladstone mismanaged the affair, all too readily assuming that Forster wished to leave the Education Department and that Hartington wished to leave Ireland, for which Forster was intended. Bright, never one to adhere to politically-impossible terms, agreed to enter the government without firm conditions after a conference with the prime minister at Hawarden in mid-Sept. 1873.

7 Chamberlain to John Morley, 26 Oct. 1873, copy, Chamberlain papers, C5/54/23; Bright's speech, The Times, 23 Oct. 1873, pp. 5–6.

8 Page 708 of the original article. If Allott's total vote was 621, how could 1,500 voters have split between Allott and Roebuck?

9 Bradford Observer, 28 Jan. 1874, urged a Forster-Godwin ticket, while the Bradford Daily Telegraph, 31 Jan., counselled splitting between Forster and any other candidate.

10 Bradford Daily Telegraph, 28, 29, 31 Jan., 4 Feb. 1874.

11 In 1868 Forster's margin of victory had come from split votes with Ripley rather than with his electoral partner Miall. For early threats that Forster could win at the next election only by ‘Tory’ (i.e. non-Radical) votes, see speeches of Abraham Sharp and Elias Thomas, Bradford Observer, 6 June 1870, p. 4, and 17 Jan. 1871, p. 4.

12 The Times, 13 Dec. 1873, p. 5, where Salt's name is listed in the midst of several dozen others.

13 Bradford Observer, 30 Jan. 1874, p. 3; 2 Feb., p. 7.

14 Ibid., 30 Jan. 1874, pp. 2–3; 2 Feb., p. 5 ('Election Comments'); leader, 2 Feb.

15 Ibid. 30 Jan. 1874, p. 2 ('Election Comments').

16 Vincent, , Liberal Party, pp. xxx-xxxi, 124.Google Scholar

17 Holland, Bernard, The Life of Spencer Compton, Eighth Duke of Devonshire (London, 1911), I, 149, 141.Google Scholar

18 Vincent, , Liberal Party, pp. 23, xxiii.Google Scholar

19 Ibid. pp. 124–6.

20 Ibid. pp. 74–6.

21 [Unsigned article, written by Wemyss Reid], The St James’ Magazine, n.s., v (05 1870), 249–56,Google Scholar reprinted in Watchman and Wesleyan Advertiser, 25 May 1870, p. 166;Google Scholar Standard, 11 Aug. 1870, p. 5; Spectator, 21 Jan. 1871; Saturday Review, 21 Jan. 1871; Reid, T. W., Cabinet Portraits (London, 1872), pp. 230–43.Google Scholar

22 3 Hansard 199, col. 1939. Cf. Reid, T. Wemyss, Life of the Right Honourable William Edward Forster (3rd ed., London, 1888), I, 489, where this offending passage is cut.Google Scholar

23 Rogers, J. Guinness, An Autobiography (London, 1903), p. 199.Google Scholar

24 H. S. Bryant (vice Forster) to Clerk of Liverpool School Board, 24 Apr. 1871, copy, B.M. Add. MS 44616, to. 138, published in Daily News, 2 May 1871, p. 5; Central Nonconformist Committee memorials to Gladstone, 7 June and 9 Sept. 1871, B.M. Add. MS 44617, fo. 13 and 106.

25 Letter to The Times, 22 Jan. 1875, p. 9; Dale, A. W. W., The Life of R. W. Dale of Birmingham (London, 1898), p. 297.Google Scholar

26 On the 25th clause, for instance, see Wolf, Lucicn, Life of the First Marquess of Ripon (London, 1921), I, 273–6,Google Scholar and the complete Forster-Ripon correspondence of 8–13 Aug. 1871, in B.M. Add. MS 43536, fo. 284–95.

27 Bradford Observer, 3 Feb. 1874, p. 7.Google Scholar

28 Life of Forster (1888), I, 467–8, 479, 492–3, 503.Google Scholar

29 See Forster's speeches in the House, 14 Mar., 20 June, and 30 June 1870; also speech at Bradford, Bradford Observer, 6 June 1870, p. 4.Google Scholar

30 Forster to Tait, 24 Dec. 1870, Tait papers, vol. 88, fo. 200; Forster to Gladstone, 25 Oct. 1871, written for Manning's benefit, Manning papers.

31 Speech to London School Board, The Times, 22 Nov. 1873, p. 12.

32 Bradford Observer, 27 Jan. 1874, p. 3.Google Scholar

33 Ibid. 6 June 1870, p. 4; 17 Jan. 1871, pp. 3–4; 27 Jan. 1874, p. 3; 3 Feb. 1874, p. 7; The Times, 26 Nov. 1873, p. 12.

34 Bradford Observer, 3 Feb. 1874, p. 7.Google Scholar

35 Ibid. 27 Jan. 1874, p. 3.

36 Kell's speech, ibid. 28 Jan. 1874, p. 3; Illingworth's speech, ibid. 2 Feb. 1874, p. 6.

37 Ibid. 27 Jan. 1874, p. 3.

38 Ibid. 2 Feb. 1874, p. 6; cf. Kell's speech, ibid. 28 Jan. 1874, p. 3.

39 Ibid. 2 Feb. 1874, p. 6.

40 Gladstone to Forster, 15 Sept. 1873, letterbook copy, B.M. Add. MS 44542, fo. 179.

41 Gladstone to Bright, 27 Jan. 1874, Lathbury, D. C., ed., Correspondence on Church and State of William Ewart Gladstone (London, 1910), II, 146.Google Scholar

42 Miall, Charles S., Henry Richard (London, 1889), p. 169;Google ScholarDale, , Life of Dale, p. 274.Google Scholar This ‘premature’ theory was present in 1870 and was stated diplomatically in the education debates by Winterbotham on 15 Mar. and Richard on 20 June.

43 Dale, , Life of Dale, p. 279.Google Scholar See also Rogers, , Autobiography, p. 196;Google ScholarEnglish Independent, 17 Mar. 1870, p. 241Google Scholar and 2 June 1870, pp. 540–1. The Nonconformist and Independent, 12 July and 19 July 1888, reviewing Reid's Life of Forster, persisted in the view that Nonconformists owed to Gladstone, not Forster, the modifications of the Education bill in their favour. This view, almost totally incorrect, can be accounted for by Gladstone's apparently sympathetic and Forster's blunt reception of Dissenting deputations.

44 Dale to Newman Hall, 7 Nov. and 16 Nov. 1871, B.M. Add. MS 44188, fo. 101 and 107; Guinness Rogers's ‘Reminiscences’ in Dale, Life of Dale, p. 726.

45 Speech at Stanningley, Leeds Mercury, 18 Jan. 1875, p. 4.

46 Hanham, H. J., Elections and Party Management (London, 1969 impression), pp. 119–24, 221–7.Google Scholar

47 Ibid. p. 119.

48 See Census of Public Worship in Bradford (Bradford, 1882),Google Scholar tables on pp. 31–2. This census was conducted by the Bradford Observer on II Dec. and 18 Dec. 1881, with very similar results. The figures for those attending morning service in the municipal borough (excluding Bolton) on 18 Dec. 1881 were: Roman Catholics 8123 (23–2 per cent of all at tenders, up from 16 per cent in 1851), Anglicans 7985 (22·8 per cent, fractionally lower than 1851), Wesleyans 6453 (18 per cent, up 1 per cent), Congregationalists 2910 (8 per cent, down from 12 per cent), Baptists 2211 (6 per cent versus 13 per cent in 1851, also an absolute decline in numbers). (The smaller sects are detailed in the tables.) The Protestant Dissenters totalled 60 per cent in 1851, 49 per cent in 1881 (43 and 31 per cent if Wesleyans are excluded). The total attenders comprised 20 per cent of the area's population in 1851, 19 per cent in 1881. The Congregationalists enjoyed political influence in the borough out of all proportion to their numbers: the first nine aldermen elected after incorporation in 1847 all attended Horton Lane Chapel. Thirty years later the sect's hold, though not so absolute, was still strong.

49 The initial pledges totalled £22,500, of which £15,000 came from the Bradford families of Salt, Holden, and Illingworth: Liberation Society Minute Book, 20 May 1874.

50 Hanham, , Elections, pp. 122–3;Google ScholarHamer, D. A., Liberal Politics in the Age of Gladstone and Rosebery (Oxford, 1972), pp. 7–9.Google Scholar

51 Guinness Rogers, in Dale, Life of Dale, p. 727.

52 Speech at Buckingham, The Times, 11 Feb. 1874, p. 6.