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Manuscript of the Month May 2015 Chelsea Election Manuscript of the Month May 2015 Chelsea Election: The Final Contest, satirical print, 1868 Overnight on 7th May, Returning Officers throughout the country will take centre stage as another general election reaches its climax. Within London, seventy three seats are being contested. But while the thirteen marginal constituencies command most attention, seasoned election followers are keeping a watchful eye on proceedings at Kensington, which has endured turbulent times of late. During the 1868 general election, however, Kensington was the scene of a bitterly fought contest. And in the thick of it was Sir Henry Ainslie Hoare Bt. The general election of 1868 pitted Disraeli (Conservative) against Gladstone (Liberal) for the first time. But the passing of the Reform Act a year earlier meant it took place within a dramatically altered political landscape. For not only had the electorate doubled from one to two million, but several new borough constituencies had been created, including two in London: Hackney, carved out of Tower Hamlets, and Chelsea, which encompassed Kensal Green, Fulham, Kensington and Hammersmith as well as Chelsea itself. Under the terms of the Act, Chelsea would return two MPs, while each elector was entitled to two votes. So attractive was Chelsea, with its prime location and huge electorate, that even before the Reform Bill passed into law prospective candidates had begun making their presence felt. But first to formally throw their hats into the ring were two Liberals: 24 year old Charles Wentworth Dilke, Chelsea born and bred, son of a sitting MP; and 43 year old Sir Henry Ainslie Hoare Bt, owner of the extensive Stourhead estates in Wiltshire, whose late father had been a longstanding Partner in the family banking business. Chelsea was not Henry’s first tilt at a parliamentary seat. Three years earlier he had been elected MP for New Windsor, only to be unseated on petition after his agent was found guilty of bribery. Undeterred by this setback, Henry launched his bid for Chelsea a full fifteen months before the 1868 election. In a series of electors’ meetings, held during July 1867, he explained that: the reason why he presented himself before them – not being a resident among them – was because he believed the borough to be a Liberal one, and that the opinions which he held on all the public questions of the day would meet with their entire and unanimous support…He highly eulogised Mr Gladstone, whom he characterised as the greatest financier of the day, and concluded by saying that if they returned him he would do battle in the course of progress, and would continue a zealous and consistent advocate of all those measures which had made England great (loud cheers.) (British Library Newspapers, West Middlesex Advertiser & Family Journal, 20th July 1867) For the next year, Henry and Dilke had the field much to themselves. But despite presenting similar manifestos – both advocated the disestablishment of the Irish Church, a further extension of the franchise, the introduction of secret ballots, compulsory education and reduced taxation – the two men chose not to work together. Instead each organised his own local committees and canvassed the borough independently, a risky strategy thought some, should a strong Conservative be prevailed upon to enter the race. During the months that followed, various Tories were mooted and one, Lord Ranelagh, did indeed stand for a time. By August 1868, however, Ranelagh had been replaced by not one but two new Conservative candidates: Charles Freake, a prominent local architect/builder responsible for the construction of Eaton and Onslow Squares, and William Howard Russell, The Times correspondent famed for his coverage of the Crimean War a decade earlier. The stage was set for a straight fight between the four men, with the two Liberals seemingly having the upper hand. Until, that was, Mr Odger entered the fray. George Odger. Shoemaker, Reform League lecturer, secretary of the London Trades Council, chairman of the Manhood Suffrage and Vote by Ballot Association, president of the newly formed International Working Men’s Association and, after a special meeting at the Hereford Arms, Gloucester Road, on 21st August 1868, the preferred Liberal candidate (with Dilke) of the Chelsea Working Men’s Electoral Association. Not that Odger was unique. For across London and beyond, a number of ‘working man’ candidates were emerging, some backed by local groups, others by the Reform League, established three years earlier to campaign for universal male suffrage. In Tower Hamlets, electors at Limehouse town hall, packed as closely as a bundle of firewood, drank in the words of Reform League president Edmond Beales, while at Aylesbury, former bricklayer George Howell lined up alongside banker and sitting Liberal MP Nathan Meyer Rothschild: It is said that the millionaire fights rather shy of his companion, but on a little closer acquaintance he will find, in spite of the lack of wealth or of social rank, a Howell may be as good as a Rothschild. (BL, Sheffield Independent, 7th Nov 1868) By mid September, however, there was mounting concern over the sheer number of candidates coming forward: In the metropolis, Liberal divisions are giving the Tories a chance they would not otherwise have, remarked The Leicester Chronicle: There are four Liberals for Hackney…Four Liberals also stand for the Tower Hamlets, where Mr Coope has unfurled the Disraeli flag…For the new borough of Chelsea, where Dr Russell and another Conservative stand, Sir H Hoare has been almost thrust aside to make way for Mr Odger, a real working man, who may, perhaps, be carried with Mr Dilke. Within twenty four hours of the Chelsea Working Men’s Electoral Association meeting, a requisition urging Odger to officially declare his candidature had attracted nearly 1,000 signatures. At the same time, the Association’s secretary wrote to Henry asking him to withdraw, so as not to divide the Liberal interest in the borough. Henry’s reply, delivered a fortnight later, was unequivocal. He would do no such thing. After all, how could he, a candidate of such longstanding, be accused of dividing the Liberal vote rather than one put forward at the eleventh hour? Moreover, since the number of votes cast at the Association’s meeting totalled just 164, he failed to see how those few could be said to speak for all the working men of the borough? And even if they did: there are other most numerous and influential grades of Electors to whom must be conceded at least an equal voice in the selection of Candidates. (BL, Chelsea News and General Advertiser, 12th Sept 1868) Thus the stage was set for a bitter and potentially destructive battle. Odger’s supporters wasted no time firing their first shot across Henry’s bows. During another meeting at the Hereford Arms, held in response to Henry’s refusal to back down, the Electoral Association’s chairman extolled their man’s virtues at great length. Odger was a good debater and a skilled politician, one who: When the question of trades’ unions came before parliament…was best qualified to give advice; for neither Government nor members knew more of that subject than a cow did of music. Furthermore, since sufficient funds had been raised to meet both Odger’s election expenses and the cost of supporting him (MPs were unpaid until 1911) whilst he sat in the House of Commons, he would enter parliament untainted with the curse of bribery. The Association’s secretary was more succinct: Sir Henry Hoare, he said, was more fitting to represent a lady’s drawing room than such a place as Chelsea. Whenever he ventured to address them, Sir Henry Hoare took care to have in his hand a scented handkerchief, which he kept to his nose lest the breath of the men of Chelsea should poison him. (BL, Reynold’s Newspaper, 6th Sept 1868) Henry himself, meanwhile, was busy galvanising support at meetings across the borough – at the Swan Tavern, Walham Green (Fulham Broadway), the Earl Craven in Westbourne Park, the West- end Lecture Hall, Hammersmith, and the appropriately named Gladstone Tavern on Brompton Road – and urging his canvassers to leave no stone unturned in their quest for votes. The battle at Chelsea raged for two months. Henry attracted substantial support, particularly amongst the wealthier classes and the extensive publican interest, but he was also distrusted by some. How could he, a man of wealth and privilege, comprehend the concerns of the working classes, they asked? In a letter to the West London Observer, one man pithily dismissed Henry’s claim to be the representative of the working man as ‘bosh.’ His ability to fund a lavish campaign was a source of further resentment, while a nagging whiff of scandal surrounding his expulsion from Windsor followed him wherever he went. Odger too though had his detractors. His entering the field so late in the day was widely condemned. It was also rumoured that the small shopkeepers of Chelsea were prepared to let in a Tory rather than bring themselves to vote for a working man. Disquiet even lurked within the ranks of the Chelsea Working Men’s Electoral Association, with one member suggesting that: the time had not yet come to send a working man into Parliament…there was no use in putting up Mr Odger as a Chelsea “Aunt Sally” for the Conservatives to knock down. (Ibid) Neither Henry nor Odger was prepared to retreat though. And as polling day drew ever closer, the bitterness between the two factions reached such a pitch that the police, fearing violence, began attending their meetings. Finally, less than three weeks before the election, the deadlock was broken.
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