The Remarkable Year 1859 Saw the Publication of Charles Darwin's
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CeLebrating 1859 Party, PatrIotIsm and LIberaL VaLues The remarkable year 1859 saw the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty and Samuel Smiles’s Self-Help. This annus mirabilis is rich ground for commemoration. It also saw the formal foundation of the parliamentary Liberal Party. On 6 June 1859, 280 Whig, Liberal, former Peelite and radical MPs met at Willis’s Rooms in King Street, St. James’s. They gathered to agree on a strategy to oust Lord Derby’s Conservative our days later, 323 appointed Foreign Secretary, and government from opposition MPs voted the former Peelite, William Glad- for a motion of ‘no con- stone, became Chancellor of the office.Angus fidence’ in the Con- Exchequer. Hawkins analyses the ser vat ive m in istr y. Conceived in 1859, the gesta- FDerby promptly resigned. On 12 tion of the parliamentary Liberal significance of this key June, Lord Palmerston became Party followed under the care of Prime Minister of a Liberal gov- the elderly Palmerston. The death event in Liberal history. ernment. Lord John Russell was of Palmerston in October 1865, 8 Journal of Liberal History 65 Winter 2009–10 CeLebrating 1859 Party, PatrIotIsm and LIberaL VaLues Russell’s eight-month premier- Whigs, Reformers, radicals and the Liberal Party proved itself a ship and the dramatic Reform Irish Repealers found a temporary British movement drawing on debates of 1866–67 were then fol- unity over particular issues. Some manufacturing, commercial, lowed by the birth of wide-rang- spoke of this fragile alignment as Nonconformist and urban loy- ing meritocratic Liberal reform constituting a Liberal party. But alty in English and Welsh con- under Gladstone’s first ministry of the tenuous alliance fractured in stituencies, enjoying electoral 1868–74. The legislative achieve- the immediate years which fol- dominance in Scotland and broad ment of Gladstone’s govern- lowed. After Corn Law repeal in support in Ireland. ment affirmed the Liberal Party’s 1846 and the establishment of free The progeny of 1859 is, indeed, embodiment of a broad and varied trade as economic orthodoxy, an remarkable. Its political signifi- community of progressive senti- increasing number of MPs, a third cance can be appreciated at two ment and moral aspiration. As a of the Commons in 1852, adopted levels: by examining the dynam- dominant force in British politics the designation Liberal, earlier ics of party connection on the one it carried hopes of greater social labels such as Whig and Reformer hand, and delineating the nature equality, more virtuous citizen- gradually dropping out of use. of political doctrine on the other. ship, enlightened government and By 1859 Liberal was the common What were the events leading up stable progress, bringing liberty label adopted by the great major- to the formation of the Liberal to British subjects and providing a ity of non-Conservative MPs. Party in Westminster? Here we moral beacon of freedom for other Liberalism as a political mental- see the failure of Russell to secure nations of the world. ity became aligned with Liberal the Liberal leadership and the suc- The origins of Liberalism as as a party designation. The shift- cess of Palmerston in heading the a doctrine lay in the political ing political association of Whigs, Liberal ministry of 1859. Russell’s economy of the 1820s, the Whig Liberals, Peelites and radicals of hope of a triumphant apotheosis cry of civil and religious lib- the 1850s gave way to a cohesive was ultimately dashed by Con- erty, Nonconformist pressure for parliamentary alignment, her- servative moderation, radical reti- humanitarian reform, the radi- alding the adversarial contest cence and Palmerston’s patience. cal demand for retrenchment in between Liberals and Conserva- What was the nature of those Lib- government expenditure, and the tives after 1868 in Westminster eral beliefs which gave the parlia- belief in efficient, disinterested and the country, as personified Left: Willis’ mentary party that came together administration serving the needs by the figures of Gladstone and Rooms, King in 1859 its purposes and ideals? of society as a whole. During Disraeli. If the Conservative Street, St. Liberal belief in the rule of law as the 1830s and 1840s, this potent Party was the champion of the James’s, London, the safeguard of liberties, low tax- amalgam of values began to coa- landed interest and the Established in the mid- ation, economic government and lesce. In 1835, in meetings dubbed Church, with its electoral strength nineteenth free trade, policies for the benefit the ‘Lichfield House Compact’, in English county constituencies, century of society as a whole, rather than Journal of Liberal History 65 Winter 2009–10 9 CeLebrating 1859: Party, PatrIotIsm and liberaL VaLues special ‘interests’, and the encour- sway in the world, proved a potent form a government proved still- agement of self-improvement, message. It secured broad political born. After accepting Cabinet social reform and moral propriety support within Westminster and office under Palmerston in Febru- together comprised a powerful the acclaim of popular audiences ary 1855, he was forced to resign vision of progressive aspiration. In in Manchester, Salford and Liver- five months later, finding him- 1859, tensions between elements pool. The success of Lady Palm- self caught in the political cross- of mid-Victorian Liberal belief erston’s glittering entertainments currents of negotiating a Crimean found resolution in a patriotic at Cambridge House further bol- peace settlement. Embittered and affirmation of Britain’s role as a stered his influence, highlighting hostile, he nursed a lingering champion of progress and reform Russell’s seclusion at Pembroke resentment against his former col- in Europe. Lodge. While serving as Home leagues. When Palmerston gagged Six months before the Willis’s Secretary in Lord Aberdeen’s coa- his education reform proposals in Rooms meeting, in January 1859, lition of 1852–55, Palmerston had April 1856, Russell became, one the MP Sidney Herbert com- distanced himself from the pre- Whig observed, ‘a concentrated plained that there was no prospect mier’s hesitant diplomacy, imply- essence of lemon’.4 ‘of the formation of an efficient ing that his more forthright views In 1857 Russell raised the ban- party, let alone government, out would have avoided the dithering ner of progressive Liberal reform of the chaos on the opposition that had characterised Britain’s at home as an alternative to Palm- benches’.1 Whigs, Liberals and slide into the Crimean War. In the erston’s patriotic rhetoric. In radicals appeared divided and midst of a mismanaged Crimean February, Russell led 165 Whig, scattered. This was the legacy of campaign, in February 1855, Liberal, radical and Peelite MPs the politics of the 1850s. As Prime these perceptions delivered the into the division lobby against Minister between 1846 and 1852, premiership. The seventy-one- Palmerston’s Cabinet on a motion Russell’s standing had been seri- year-old Palmerston was the only to equalise parliamentary suffrage ously damaged by the tribulations politician, The Times declared, in counties and boroughs. At a of Whig policy. His substantial who could inject a purposeful stroke he revived parliamentary Liberal credentials and genuine vigour into the nation’s affairs. Reform as a live party issue and progressive instincts were com- This was a triumph of diligence, demonstrated the force of Liberal promised by difficulties over style, longevity and luck. rectitude as the solvent of Palm- the famine in Ireland, a banking In reaction to Palmerston’s erstonian support. The following crisis, fiscal policy, government putative conservatism on domes- month he voted with the opposi- expenditure, Chartist campaign- tic reform, during the 1850s tion majority denouncing Palmer- ing, and the ‘Papal Aggression’ Russell burnished his Liberal cre- ston’s policy in China, prompting episode. Russell’s reclusive tem- dentials. He undertook a biog- the premier to call a general elec- perament, the alleged intrigues raphy of his Whig hero Charles tion. In his election speeches of his ambitious wife and her James Fox, presented as the lineal in the City of London, Russell numerous relatives, his purported inspiration for his own progressive six months called for further parliamentary impulsiveness, and criticisms of the principles. Sharing Palmerston’s Reform as necessary to the pro- ministerial nepotism of the Whig belief in Britain’s international before motion of progress. Numerous cousinhood as ‘a Venetian oligar- role as a champion of liberal and successful Liberal candidates sub- chy’ further damaged his reputa- humanitarian values, Russell took the Wil- sequently pledged themselves to tion. An impression prevailed that to himself the cause of progres- reform. Palmerston saw this ‘bit ‘if he were not conceited, ignorant sive domestic reform, carrying lis’s rooms of treachery’ as proof that some of human nature, [and] a wee self- forward the Foxite flame of lib- Liberals were looking to ‘a radi- ish, [Russell] had all the charac- erty. As a member of Aberdeen’s meeting, cal parliament with John Russell teristics and experiences of a very Cabinet in 1853, Russell pressed as its head’.5 A dangerous Russel- superior man of his age’.2 for a parliamentary Reform bill. in January lite undercurrent lay just beneath By 1852, Russell’s authority In response, Palmerston declared the surface of Palmerston’s seem- faced serious challenges, notably his refusal ‘to be dragged through 1859, Whigs, ing electoral success. There from the tough and resourceful the dirt by John Russell’.3 This must eventually emerge, Russell Palmerston, who had served as reflected the wariness of many Liberals predicted, two distinct parties, Foreign Secretary under Lords Whigs and moderate Liberals a party of Reform and a Con- Grey, Melbourne and Russell. towards an extensive broadening and radicals servative opposition.