The Making of an Evangelical Tory: the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885) and the Evolving Character of Victorian Evangelicalism
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The Making of an Evangelical Tory: The Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885) and the Evolving Character of Victorian Evangelicalism David Andrew Barton Furse-Roberts A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy UNSW School of Humanities & Languages Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences November 2015 CONTENTS Page Abstract i Abbreviations ii Acknowledgements iii Introduction I Part I: Locating Anthony Ashley Cooper within the Anglican Evangelical tradition 1 1.1 Ashley’s expression of Evangelicalism 2 1.2 How the associations and leaders of Anglican Evangelicalism shaped the evolving 32 religious temperament of Ashley. 1.3 Conclusion: A son of the Clapham Sect or a brother of the Recordites? 64 Part II: A just estimate of rank and property: Locating Ashley’s place within the 67 tradition of paternalism 2.1 Identifying the character of Ashley’s paternalism 68 2.2 How Tory paternalist ideas influenced the emerging consciousness of Ashley in the 88 pre-Victorian era 2.3 The place of Ashley’s paternalism within the British Tory and Whig traditions 132 2.4 Conclusion: Paternalism in the ‘name of the people’ 144 Part III: Something admirably patrician in his estimation of Christianity: Ashley 147 and the emerging synthesis between Evangelicalism and Tory paternalism 3.1 Common ground forged between Tory paternalism and early Victorian Evangelicalism 148 3.2 Ashley and the factory reform movement: Project of Tory paternalism or 203 by-product of Evangelical social concern? 3.3 The coalescence of these two belief systems in the emerging political philosophy of 230 Ashley 3.4 Conclusion: Making Evangelicalism a patrician creed 237 Part IV: Ashley and the milieux of Victorian Evangelicalism 240 4.1 Locating Ashley’s place within the Victorian Evangelical Terrain 242 4.2 Thy kingdom come, thy will be done: The premillennial eschatology and 255 Evangelical activism of Ashley 4.3 Desire for the nations: Ashley and Victorian Evangelical attitudes to imperialism, 264 race and the ‘Jewish question’. 4.4 Repudiating ‘Romanism’, ‘ritualism’, and ‘rationalism’: Ashley and 282 Victorian Evangelical defenders of the faith ‘once delivered’ 4.5 Home and Hearth: Ashley and Victorian Evangelical conceptions of domesticity 307 and gender 4.6 Sanctifying Sundays: Ashley as a champion of the Victorian Sabbath 324 4.7 Evangelical benevolence and Tory ‘self-reliance’: Ashley’s approach to 331 philanthropy and social welfare among Victorian Evangelicals 4.8 Conclusion : A conservative and a reformer 340 Conclusion 345 Bibliography 356 i ABSTRACT This thesis is a contextual study of Lord Ashley (from 1851 known as the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury) and the evolving character of Victorian Evangelicalism. Owing to his seminal contribution to social reform in Victorian England, most notably to the Factory Acts, Lord Ashley has been justifiably portrayed as a man of action. The aim of this study, however, is to analyse critically the traditions of theological and political thought which animated the work for which Ashley was remembered. After discussing the place of Ashley in the Evangelical Anglican tradition and examining the critical influence of Evangelical figures on Ashley in Part One, the thesis in Part Two will examine the various traditions of British paternalism and specifically assess the contribution of high Tory paternalism to the emerging political sensibilities of Ashley. In Part Three, it will be argued that, despite some differing premises and points of conflict, the two traditions of Evangelical Anglicanism and high Tory paternalism found a great deal of common ground in their shared vision for a hierarchical and communitarian Christian social order eschewing the excesses of laissez-faire liberalism, individualism and utilitarianism. With Ashley's own worldview indebted to each of these two traditions, he drew upon this coalescence to advance his keynote social reforms. Thus, with these twin pillars undergirding Ashley's ensuing religious outlook established, Part Four will study Ashley's place within the milieux of Victorian Evangelicalism and discuss the extent to which his own 'Tory-tinctured' Evangelicalism represented the prevailing preoccupations of Anglican Evangelicalism across a range of Victorian concerns including imperialism, Sabbatarianism, domesticity and gender. The thesis will conclude that the Evangelical Shaftesbury's absorption of Romantic-inspired high Tory paternalist ideals was symptomatic of the broader inflow of Romanticism into nineteenth- century Evangelical religion. By providing a contextual study of this Evangelical-Tory, the thesis carves out a new niche between the biographies of Shaftesbury and the historical narratives of Evangelical religion in the Victorian era. ii TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS BFBS British Foreign and Bible Society CIS Christian Influence Society CMS Church Missionary Society CPAS Church Pastoral Aid Society EA Evangelical Alliance HC House of Commons HL House of Lords LCM London City Mission LDOS Lord’s Day Observance Society LMS London Missionary Society LSPCJ London Society for the Promotion of Christianity amongst the Jews RSU Ragged School Union SICLC Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring Classes SPCK Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the following people for their invaluable assistance in the composition of this thesis or for their personal support. First, I wish to recognise the Reverend the Hon Fred Nile MLC to whom my personal interest in Anthony Ashley Cooper is indebted. My appreciation also goes to Dr Michael Roberts of Macquarie University who gave me some preliminary guidance on how I should approach a PhD dissertation on Lord Ashley. Throughout the composition of my thesis, I am particularly grateful for the generous input of some distinguished UK academics in the field of Victorian British history. First, to Dr David Brown of the University of Southampton who met with me in person on a number of occasions to discuss the focus and themes of my dissertation. Secondly, to Professor David Bebbington of the University of Stirling who also met with me in person to point me to some crucial historical sources relating to Shaftesbury. Finally, to Professor Stewart J Brown of New College, University of Edinburgh, for his abiding interest, warm encouragement and constructive input as my acting supervisor whilst studying abroad. With the collation of primary source material, I also give thanks to the respective library staff of the University of Southampton, the University of Cambridge, the British Library and the Bodleian library of Oxford for their professional assistance. Across the Atlantic, I acknowledge the input from Dr Donald Lewis of Regent College (Vancouver, Canada) who read carefully over my chapter structure to offer some welcome, timely advice. Returning to Australia, I acknowledge Dr Susan Hardy of the University of New South Wales for her continuous interest and encouragement as my co-supervisor. I thank her for reading through a full draft of this thesis and offering her thoughtful appraisals. Above all, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisors, Professor John Gascoigne and Dr Geoffrey Treloar, for their judicious reviews, generous time, personal encouragement and professionalism. Their constant availability, patience, unstinting reliability and keen interest to engage critically in the topic have made the task of composing this thesis eminently achievable. I conclude by offering my profound appreciation to my family and friends who have helped sustain me through this endeavour with their love, support, good humour, interest and encouragement. I INTRODUCTION In 1905, the Archdeacon of Westminster and grandson of William Wilberforce, Basil Wilberforce, pondered, ‘What was the inner impulse that stimulated the founder and pioneer of this noble work, the Great Lord Shaftesbury, whose statue stands at the west end of the Abbey?’1 Claiming to have known the Victorian statesman, who stood in the same tradition of Evangelical social reform as his grandfather, the Archdeacon suggested one of the secrets to his ‘moral nature’ was his ‘personal devotion to the living Christ’.2 In chronicling the life and legacy of Ashley, manifold obituaries, eulogies, lectures, articles, biographies and historical narratives have variously alluded to the prominent Anglican layman’s evangelical Christianity as the great impetus behind his philanthropy and social reforms. Whilst the contours of Ashley’s long life and keynote achievements have been extensively documented, with due attention given to his motivating Christian faith, a contextual and thematic study of the theological doctrines, political traditions and philosophical currents which historically and contemporaneously moulded the mind and worldview of Ashley is yet to emerge. Previous biographical studies have justifiably focused on such exploits as his seminal contribution to the factory reform movement, his mission to advance the welfare of children through education and his pioneering advocacy for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The objective of this thesis is, by contrast, to comprehend better the ‘mind behind the man’ by examining the religious and ideological milieux from which this key Victorian imbibed his guiding principles. With this study endeavouring to examine Ashley’s place in the evolving character of Victorian evangelicalism, it will begin, in part one, by discussing the influence of Anglican 1 Basil Wilberforce