The British Liberal Party and the ‘Working Man’, C
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Pamphlets and Politics: The British Liberal Party and the ‘Working Man’, c. 1867-c.1925 A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2013 Michael P. Perduniak School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Table of Contents List of Abbreviations 4 Abstract 5 Declaration 6 Copyright Statement 7 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 10 The Strange Death of Liberal England? 12 Political History and the ‘Linguistic Turn’ 23 Pamphlets and Material Political Culture 29 The Impact of Political Literature 35 Selecting Pamphlets 42 Structure and Argument 46 Chapter One: Class and Progress in Liberal Political Discourse 50 Liberalism and Class 56 Liberalism, ‘Progress’ and the ‘Interests’ of the ‘Working Man’ 68 Political Education and the ‘True’ Representation of ‘Working-class 78 Interests’ Liberalism and Working-Class Policies 87 Conclusion 93 2 Chapter Two: The Conservative Working Man and the 95 Liberal Working Man, c.1870-c.1895 The Reform Acts and the electorate in Gladstonian Liberalism 101 Disraeli and the ‘noble Tory’-Protecting the ‘Liberal Working Man’ 113 Gladstone: Peel, Politics and Personality 122 The Liberal Unionist ‘Working Man’ 130 The Conservatives and the ‘Working Man’ 139 Conclusion 148 Chapter Three: The Liberals and Independent Labour, 150 c. 1890-1914 The Liberal Dilemma, 1892-1900 156 Liberalism and Socialism 170 Independent Labour and Liberalism 180 The Liberal Party, Policies and Pamphlets, 1892-1914 198 Conclusion 212 Chapter Four: The Liberal Decline, c. 1914-c. 1925 215 The Liberals and the Franchise 220 The Post-War Challenge: ILP and Labour Party Literature, 231 The Open Road: New Liberal Narratives 245 Conclusion 260 Thesis Conclusion 262 Bibliography 275 Word count: 87,805 3 List of Abbreviations ILP Independent Labour Party LRC Labour Representation Committee LPD Liberal Publication Department NLF National Liberal Federation NRU National Reform Union 4 Abstract This thesis aims to provide a new perspective on the British Liberal Party during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries via an analysis of pamphlet literature produced in support of the party. The period under investigation saw the fortunes of the Liberal Party move from being the principal rival of the Conservative Party to one of three competing for power, with the Labour Party emerging as a party capable of forming a government. The thesis aims to contribute to scholarly debate on the subject by showing that there was indeed a ‘decline of Liberalism’ and ‘rise of Labour’, but that these themes can be best understood in terms of the appeals both parties made to the electorate. It will show that when analysed through the literature they or their supporters produced to win over voters, the Liberal Party can be seen to have failed to adapt to a shifting electorate, and that they did not react to developing critiques of Liberalism from the Labour Party and its constituent bodies in sufficient time to prevent Labour establishing itself as a credible party of government, thus removing one of the Liberal Party’s main advantages over Labour. The thesis will use a close analysis of the text contained within a sample of Liberal Party pamphlet literature to show that the party had particular problems when addressing itself to working-class voters, who became an increasingly important section of the electorate following franchise extensions in 1867, 1884 and 1918. It will show that the Liberal Party constructed their appeals to working-class voters using a constructed figure, which will be termed the ‘Liberal Working Man’, who was possessed of particular characteristics which made him suitable to hold the vote. The ‘Liberal Working Man’ was both conceived within models of political behaviour deriving from ‘whiggish’ forms of political history and also appealed to by using narratives of political history which stressed the need for him to support the Liberal Party. The thesis will show that the Liberals did nor realise until too late that their understanding of the working-class electorate was flawed and had contributed to the emergence of the Labour critique of their party, by which time the First World War had created a series of practical problems which hampered the party’s attempts to maintain working-class support. The Liberal Party will be shown to have been put into a position whereby its pamphlet appeals could no longer rely on the old assumptions with regards working-class electoral behaviour, and proved incapable of providing an adequate replacement for the concept in their attempts to garner support through electoral literature. 5 Declaration No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or seat of learning. 6 Copyright Statement I. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and /or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. II. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any copies made. III. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. IV. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocId=487), in any 7 relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. 8 Acknowledgements Thanks are due firstly to my supervisor Professor Stuart Jones, whose advice and input have been invaluable throughout this thesis and prior to my doctoral studies when studying for my Masters’ Degree in History. His support and encouragement has been warmly appreciated, and in these regards I must also thank Dr. Charlotte Wildman, who has provided feedback and encouragement which has been of great help in guiding this thesis to its completion. Thanks must go also to Dr. Selina Todd, Dr. Maiken Umbach and Dr. Christopher Godden, who have all at various stages provided vital additional feedback and assistance. I also wish to thank the staff at the various libraries and archives whose services I have used during my research, and in particular the staff at the John Rylands University Library and at Manchester Central Library. The archivists at Bristol University’s Special Collections Department and at the Labour History Archive at the People’s History Museum in Manchester deserve special mention for their generous assistance and advice, which are greatly appreciated and which helped guide me in my research into their invaluable collections. Finally, I wish to thank my family and friends, as well as my fellow post-graduate students at Manchester who have given their time and help generously and without which researching and writing this thesis would not have been the enjoyable experience it has been. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank my examiners in advance for their feedback and comments, and for the time they will spend reading and evaluating this thesis. 9 Introduction The Liberal Party dominated British politics since its formation in 1859, but struggled in the last years of the nineteenth century, following the damaging split which followed the party’s adoption of Irish Home Rule in 1886. A landslide election win in 1906 saw them take 397 seats to the Conservatives’ 136, and set in place a government which enacted the first Old Age Pension schemes as well as sickness and unemployment insurance among other pieces of social legislation. Historians such as Peter Clarke have attributed the result in part to the development of the so-called ‘New Liberalism’, an intellectual movement which emphasised the need for the party to embrace social reform.1 The significant feature of this Liberal renaissance was that it suggested the party had found a way in which to successfully appeal for support from the working-class electorate, whose importance had increased following the franchise extensions of 1867 which granted the vote to the male householder in borough constituencies, and in 1884 which had extended the vote to the county householder. However, after two further elections in 1910, in which the Liberals achieved only slender majorities, the Liberals were never again to regain power in their own right. Conservative government, either on their own or as part of the Tory-dominated coalitions of 1918-22 and from 1931 until the Second World War, was the predominant feature of inter-war politics. When the Conservatives were not in power, it was the Labour Party, not the Liberals, who held the reins. Yet this did not imply a shift to genuine three party politics. 1 Peter Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism , (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971); see also Michael Freeden The New Liberalism: An Ideology of Social Reform , (Oxford: Clarendon, 1978).