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Palmerston and Radicalism, 1847–1865

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Antony Taylor
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Extract

Lord Palmerston's constituency of support within the nineteenth-century Liberal party has received relatively little attention from historians. In many ways, however, his strong plebeian following provided the major popular current within Liberalism prior to the emergence of the cult of Gladstone in the mid-1860s. Even after Palmerston's death in 1865, his legacy continued to exercise a powerful influence, and William Ewart Gladstone, Viscount Hartington, Lord Rosebery, and others vied with one another for possession of his mantle and the role as his successor.

Historians have shown themselves baffled by this phenomenon of Palmerston's popular appeal. Conservative historians have sought to annex Palmerston for the Tory interest. Themes like “the nation,” the sanctity of British citizenship, and defense of British interests abroad they see as presaging the appeal of Benjamin Disraeli's “imperialism.” Most have combined in portraying Palmerston as a profoundly “illiberal” figure, more Tory than the Tories, whose views sat uneasily alongside such canons of Liberalism as free-trade noninterventionism and Gladstone's graduated program of parliamentary and civil-service reforms. His contribution to the midcentury Liberal consensus was, however, a major one, and must be seen as carrying equal weight with that of such figures as Richard Cobden, John Bright, and J. S. Mill.

Recent reappraisals of Liberalism have challenged the notion of a uniform, popular Liberalism in the 1850s and 1860s. In their research Patrick Joyce and James Vernon have emphasized the degree to which Liberalism at a popular level was a fusion of older and newer political forms, incorporating long-standing radical memories of the mass platform, traditional styles of leadership, and established methods of political communication.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , April 1994 , pp. 157 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1994

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References

1 The Liberal Imperialists in particular sought to annex Palmerston's mantle, and Lord Rosebery was directly compared with him by his supporters. See Matthew, H. C. G., The Liberal Imperialists: The Ideas and Politics of a Post-Gladstonian Elite (Oxford, 1975), pp. 133, 139Google Scholar.

2 See, e.g., the assessment of the historiography relating to Palmerston in Cunningham, H., “British Public Opinion and the Eastern Question, 1877–1878” (D. Phil, thesis, Sussex University, 1969), pp. 27–28Google Scholar.

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19 Snell (n. 6 above), pp. 92–93. Snell presents the electoral rivalry between Palmerston and Rowcliffe at Tiverton in knockabout style throughout; see pp. 77–79, 88–93, 94–104.

20 Howell, G., “People I Have Met: The Fall of the Hyde Park Railings,” Reynolds's Newspaper (June 10, 1906)Google Scholar.

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24 Reynolds's Weekly Newspaper (July 20, 1856).

25 These manifestations of popular patriotism during the earlier Napoleonic War period are examined in Colley, L., “The Apotheosis of George III: Loyalty, Royalty and the British Nation, 1760–1820,” Past and Present, no. 102 (1984), pp. 94–129Google Scholar, and in her recent book Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (New Haven, Conn., and London, 1992), pp. 283–308Google Scholar. For the continuation of such elements during the Crimean War, particularly the national day of fasting for the war effort, see John Bull (April 29, 1854), pp. 262–63Google Scholar. There are a number of ballads relating to British soldiers in the Crimea in the broadside collection in Manchester Central Reference Library; see in particular “Verses on the Victory at Alma” (F 1854/1), in the local history collection.

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28 People's Paper (March 11, 1854), p. 1.

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30 See Briggs, A., Victorian People: A Reassessment of Persons and Themes (London, 1967), p. 64Google Scholar.

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35 Ibid., p. 4. The actions of the former peace campaigner Sir John Bowring at Canton and Palmerston's support for them resulted in a curious conflation of pro-Palmerston sentiment, memories of the Anti-Corn Law League at its height, and popular patriotism. For a recent account of Bowring's earlier career as a supporter of Cobden, see Conway, S., “John Bowring and the Nineteenth Century Peace Movement,” Historical Research 64 (1991): 344–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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39 See Anderson, O., A Liberal State at War: English Politics and Economics during the Crimean War (London, 1967), esp. pp. 129–62Google Scholar.

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42 Sheffield Free Press (December 31, 1853), p. 5Google Scholar. Statements to this effect were also made by the Newcastle Urquhartite leader George Crawshay in correspondence in the Leader (December 24, 1853), p. 1235Google Scholar.

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46 “The general election of 1857 is unique in our history, the only election conducted as a simple plebiscite in favour of an individual.” Quoted in Taylor, A. J. P., “Palmerston,” in his Essays in English History (London, 1950; reprint, 1976), p. 110Google Scholar.

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48 Ibid.

49 Holyoake's full program is outlined in Humphrey, A. W., A History of Labour Representation (London, 1912; reprint, New York, 1984), pp. 2–7Google Scholar.

50 Leader (April 4, 1857), p. 319Google Scholar.

51 For full details of the results of the 1857 election contest in London and the synthesis of pro-Palmerston sentiment and Chartism it produced, see A. D. Taylor (n. 26 above), chap. 5.

52 See on this point Hawkins (n. 10 above), pp. 87–117.

53 See on this theme Porter, R., The Refugee Question in Mid-Victorian Politics (Cambridge, 1978), pp. 171–99Google Scholar; and Royle, E., Victorian Infidels: The Origins of the British Secularist Movement (Manchester, 1974), pp. 252–56Google Scholar.

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56 For O'Brien's hostility toward Bonaparte, see a cutting of his poetical piece, “An Ode to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte” (OB 15/2), in the Matthews Correspondence in the National Museum of Labour History, Manchester. There are also strong radical criticisms of Louis Napoleon in the limited circulation Potteries Free Press (February 19, 1853), p. 2Google Scholar.

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62 Statements on Louis Bonaparte's behalf were made at the height of the war in meetings reported in the National Reformer (August 7, 1870), p. 93, and (September 18, 1870), p. 189.

63 Steele (n. 5 above), esp. pp. 191–241.

64 This meeting was attended by the radical M.P. for Finsbury, Thomas Wakley; Daniel Harris, the secretary of the Finsbury and Islington Kossuth Committee; the long-standing reformer William Shaen; and J. C. Elt, the future secretary of the Ballot Society. See reports in The Times (November 19, 1851), p. 8Google Scholar, and (November 26, 1851), p. 4. Some sources suggest that the strong language used by this deputation with reference to Austria and Russia angered supporters of the government so much that the episode contributed to the fall of Palmerston's ministry a few weeks later. See Greville (n. 21 above), pp. 423–25.

65 See the report of a deputation to Lord John Russell in which Russell terminated proceedings early in the Workman's Advocate (January 20, 1865). Gladstone also often treated working-class reformers who visited him with disdain; see The Times (March 18, 1864).

66 Bee-hive (May 23, 1863).

67 Holyoake (n. 18 above), 2:78–79. George Howell makes much the same point in his article “People I Have Met” (n. 20 above).

68 See, e.g., a speech by Palmerston reported in the Leader (November 4, 1854), p. 1033Google Scholar.

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72 The Times (August 11, 1862), p. 6Google Scholar.

73 Morley (n. 8 above), pp. 880–81. Similar radical bafflement at the success of Palmerston's visit to Sheffield is expressed in a compendium of newspaper extracts presented in the Sheffield Independent (August 12, 1862), pp. 5–6Google Scholar.

74 See the Bee-hive (August 6, 1864), p. 4Google Scholar. Accounts in the Bradford Review (August 13, 1864) and Reynolds's Newspaper (August 14, 1864) portray the demonstration against Palmerston as a major radical triumph, but the Bradford Observer was less sure and concentrated on the positive aspects of the reception (Bradford Observer [August 4, 11, 18, 1864]).