Joyce Cary – Liberal traditions

‘Britain is profoundly a liberal state. Its dominating mind has been liberal for more than a century.’ These words were written by a novelist whose works Prisoner of Grace, Except the Lord, and Not Honour More explore the British liberal tradition against the backdrop of the great electoral landslide which gave the Liberal Party its overwhelming majority in 1906. Chester Nimmo, the main protagonist of this ‘political trilogy’, is a member of the resulting New Liberalism which took hold as a result. John Morris celebrates the work of the English novelist Joyce Cary, whose work is rooted in Liberal ideas.

16 Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 Joyce Cary – Liberal traditions

orn in Londonderry in The African Witch was made a Book and guide the soul – politics does 1888, Arthur Joyce Lunel Society choice, and he was finally the same thing for the body. God Cary was named after recognised as a fine novelist with is a character, a real and consistent his mother Charlotte the publication of Mister Johnson in being, or He is nothing. If God did Joyce in the Anglo-Irish 1939, which was also based on his a miracle He would deny His own Btradition of his class. Following the experiences in West Africa. nature and the universe would sim- Irish land reforms of the 1880s, the Though now largely forgot- ply blow up, vanish, become noth- family, now stripped of its lands, ten, Joyce Cary was the author of ing’. 4 Cary’s conviction instead was settled in London, where Charlotte many novels which were as highly that beauty and human love proved died of pneumonia in 1898 when regarded as those of his contempo- the existence ‘of some transcenden- Joyce was nine years old and his raries Graham Greene and Evelyn tal spiritual reality with which a brother Jack just six. Waugh. ‘The author of Prisoner of man must relate himself harmoni- Schooled first at Tunbridge Grace was a “different” writer from ously if he is to find satisfaction’.5 Wells then at Clifton, at the age of most of his contemporaries, differ- Cary’s interest in politics – and sixteen Joyce spent a short period ent in his outlook, his gifts, his vari- his ideas about the roots of English in Edinburgh and Paris in order ety, and in the themes of his books,’ character in the Liberal and prot- to explore his skills as a painter. writes Walter Allen. ‘If, as I think estant traditions – resulted in an Returning to England in 1909, he is true … England and the English introduction to the Liberal Book joined Trinity College, Oxford cannot be understood except by ref- Club by George Orwell, who was where he read law. Somewhat of an erence to the working of the Prot- familiar with his novels. The club’s adventurer, he found a new voca- estant, Nonconformist spirit, then a committee included Osbert Sitwell, tion in the service of the British reading of Cary … is essential to the and among its patrons were Augus- Red Cross during the First Balkan understanding of the English’.1 tus John, J. M. Keynes, Comp- War in 1912. The King of Monte- Though the titles of the politi- ton MacKenzie, A. A. Milne and negro himself decorated Cary for cal trilogy give away a religious C. P. Snow. The Liberal Party had valour for his efforts in assisting the theme, Cary’s primary intention invited Cary to write a treatise as wounded. A memoir of his experi- was also to explore ‘the whole Lib- early as 1931, but this new introduc- ences – his first attempt at writing, eral angle and its religious basis’.2 tion resulted in a volume originally which contains several sketches and ‘Cary was a profoundly religious to have been entitled ‘Liberty and diagrams – was published posthu- spirit of that intensely individual Freedom’. Published as Power in mously in 1964. and protestant kind which cannot Men, it became the club’s selection Applying for a post in the find fulfilment in any corporate for May 1939, billed as ‘an examina- Northern Nigerian political ser- body; he had to carve out his creed tion of the failures and disappoint- vice in 1914 so that he could afford by himself and for himself. Brought ments of democracy in practice’. In to marry, Cary headed for new up as an orthodox Anglican, he lost it, Cary makes the point that both adventures but was invalided back all religious faith in early manhood totalitarianism and anarchy lead to to England in 1915. Following his to find a new one in mature life. It the same thing – to the erosion of permanent return in 1920 (his wife was not orthodox; it was not Chris- freedom and personal choice, and to deplored his long absences), he set- tian in any substantial sense. Cary tyranny. Democracy, on the other tled in Oxford. Throughout the did not identify God with Christ hand, rather than being some sort 1920s he wrote extensively, but was or with any kind of personal spirit’.3 of state of political bliss, is in fact not to publish his first novel,Aissa Indeed Cary admitted, ‘No church a never-ending argument about Saved, until 1932 at the age of forty- would have me’. Religion, he said ideas and direction: a debate which four. Critical acclaim did not really in a 1954 interview he gave in the Joyce Cary simply propels rather than settles come, however, until 1936 when Paris Review, ‘is organized to satisfy (1888–1957) anything for too long; a constant

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Joyce Cary and leader, but breaks with him ‘over his wife Gertrude ways and means’,9 objecting to the love of power over men which he detects in Marxist philosophy. As Power in Men explores these ques- tions, so too does the trilogy tell of Nimmo’s experiments with various ideologies: ‘Cary makes an analy- sis of what meanings are necessary to political creativity. The argu- ment of Power in Men is therefore relevant to the action of the tril- ogy, and in the broadest possible and most fundamental ways. That Power in Men and the novels rise in different directions from the same source should make us more alert in either case to what Cary’s vision of the human situation ultimately is,’ writes Hazard Adams in his 1963 introduction to Power in Men.10 Intrigued by the idea of return- ing to Africa, in late 1942 Cary agreed to travel to Tanganyika to take part in a project for a propa- conflict of ideas in a world of ‘per- After the threat of invasion receded, ganda film that the Ministry of petual creation’. however, there was room for other Information was producing. It was In Power in Men Cary traces, ideas, including his most ambitious one of several designed to keep point by point, the meaning of lib- yet. To be a Pilgrim, the central part up morale, to rally the Empire to erty and of man’s creative power, of Joyce Cary’s first trilogy (which the war effort and to highlight the which, he writes, is realised through includes what is arguably his most constructive features of the Brit- education and industry. Identifying famous novel The Horse’s Mouth, ish Imperial system. The direc- the absence of a true measurement apart from, perhaps, Mister John- tor, Thorold Dickinson, had been of happiness in Jeremy Bentham’s son) is the memoir of Tom Wilcher alerted to Cary’s knowledge of formula – the ‘greatest happiness for who reflects on a life overshadowed Africa through a new treatise, the greatest number’ – Cary instead by his brilliant brother Edward, a The Case for African Freedom (Cary presents an alternative: the greatest Liberal member of parliament since believed in African gradualism), liberty of the greatest number, meas- 1906. ‘The essence of To be a Pilgrim which had just been published. ured by pay, leisure and education. is the sense of life as pilgrimage,’ Although Cary knew nothing Building on the old definition of wrote Cary, ‘and the whole back- about films, he undertook to write liberty as the ‘absence of restraint’, ground of the book is democratic the script with the director. It was or what Cary calls ‘freedom from’, history as facet of the protestant not until after they had set sail for he defines freedom as ‘the provision evangelical mind …’.7 Edward east Africa on The Duchess of Rich- of the means to self-fulfilment’, or appears to be the prototype of mond, however, that either real- ‘freedom to’. Chester Nimmo, the central char- ised they had left the script behind. Power in Men was the last selec- acter of the ‘political’ trilogy which Talk of films was a new world to tion of the Liberal Book Club to the author began after the war, Cary, who asked cameraman Des- reach print before the outbreak of in which he explores in detail the mond Dickinson (no relation) who war led to the abandoning of the life of another fictional MP whose his favourite film star was. ‘Greta project. Though Cary was unhappy meteoric career as a Radical ends Garbo,’ was the reply. ‘Oh?’ Cary with the editing of the work, the in failure when the Liberals were asked. ‘Who’s she?’ The crew were TLS commented on its chapter and trounced in the 1922 elections. staggered to realise that Cary knew verse style as an excellent idea if the In this, the second trilogy, Cary hardly anything about film and had book were ‘to become the philo- explores the liberal and protestant in fact seen very few.11 sophical basis for Liberalism reborn’ traditions of English politics. Of Men of Two Worlds, though not and following its publication he was all his works, it is the most closely a box-office success, was received offered a parliamentary candidacy linked to Power in Men. ‘Chester well by the critics and, more impor- by the Liberal Party leadership. It Nimmo’s memoirs of his childhood tantly, it whetted Cary’s appetite took Cary two weeks to reply to this and youth are a great departure for for more. His next project, begun invitation. Declining the offer and Cary. They suggest John Bunyan, in 1945, was to be a propaganda citing other ‘present commitments’, and Charles Dickens in his tragic documentary, again directed by the real reason, disclosed in a letter, and comic veins,’ writes Malcolm Dickinson, on the irrigation works was that he felt he had ‘neither time Foster.8 Nimmo first hears a disciple the British administration had built nor money to fly at politics’.6 of Proudhon, ‘a sort of Tolstoyan in northern India. The film, it was Cary spent the first part of the anarchist’ who despised religion. hoped, would help to ‘convince the war as an ARP warden in Oxford. He then meets a Marxist labour Indian population of the benefits of

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British rule at a time when it was directly challenged the tradition self-help and divine providence’, very important that India remain of the Catholic Church. It, in turn, and the socialists, in the guise of the peaceful’.12 Cary was to handle the denounced him, but Wycliffe’s new Labour Party, became the voice script, but the volatile situation influence had already spread, partic- of the working people because of that he and Dickinson encountered ularly to Bohemia where it inspired ‘the unwillingness of an economi- upon their arrival in India led them the Hussites whose demands have cally oppressed people to await the to abandon the project, the crew been credited with anticipating the benevolence of providence’.14 forced to avoid more than one riot. Reformation. By the early seven- But Liberalism has bequeathed This did not deter their appetites teenth century, Archbishop Laud’s many of its attitudes – freedom for for filmmaking, however. On their church, though oppressive and emotional fulfilment, intellectual return to England, Dickinson began intolerant, begot the anarchist and freedom, physical security – to its a commercial project for a feature republican sects that overthrew the successors on both left and right, film dealing with the process of rev- monarchy in England. But Eng- asserts Cook, and this Cary explores olution. Also written jointly by the land, writes Cary, was lucky in that in the novels: ‘For Cary, the value of director and Cary, the first script for the early parliamentary tradition human life was supreme. In affirm- The Secret People was an exploration allowed the bloodless ‘glorious’ ing the truth he and Nimmo unite of anarchist beliefs, and was set in revolution of 1688 which estab- to make the trilogy a statement as the summer of 1914. However, Cary lished toleration as a principle and well as a picture of Liberalism.’15 In withdrew from the film during its asserted the rights of the people and the novels, Cary does well to remind production because the producers freedom of religion: civil liberty. his readers about the truth of this struggled with his script, which And though the revolution was not legacy: ‘I suppose nobody now can they felt was too literary. A new democratic, it continued to produce realise the effect of that revolution,’ script, written by the director and apostles of democracy, idealists and he wrote in the first part of the tril- Wolfgang Wilhelm, set the story philosophers for the next 150 years. ogy, Prisoner of Grace. ‘Radical lead- in the 1930s, but Cary remained The great Reform Bill of 1832 made ers like Lloyd George really did interested in the film’s progress way for true democratic govern- mean to bring in a new kind of state, and visited the studios many times ment and it was the new middle a “paternal state”, that took respon- and it was here he met a young star ‘Britain is class of manufacturers who joined sibility for sickness and poverty’ making her screen debut: Audrey the Liberal Party (first known by and he directly refers to ‘the true Hepburn. This was to be Cary’s last profoundly that name in the early 1830s), and spiritual roots of the British Liberal involvement in film. Turning away which also contained radicals who tradition – the veritable Protestant from that medium to a new pro- a Liberal fought for the welfare of the masses. succession of the free soul’.16 ject that would better enable him During the latter half of the Cary believed that the Liberal to express his ideas, he soon began state,’ wrote nineteenth century, parliament revolution of the previous two writing again, and the film’s themes Cary in the steadily became more democratic centuries was no ‘passing phase’ foreshadowed those to which he and every new franchise bill meant and that it was the natural expres- was finally able to give satisfactory essay Brit- a further devolution of power as sion of human development, of the expression in his political trilogy, the clamour for votes for all became individual’s desire for freedom. To and in a number of essays. ain’s Liberal louder. In the twentieth century, his mind, there were only two alter- ‘Britain is profoundly a Liberal the Liberals were displaced by the natives. ‘What I believe,’ he said, ‘is state,’ wrote Cary in the essay Brit- Influence.‘ As socialists with their programme for that wangle is inevitable in the mod- ain’s Liberal Influence. ‘As we know it free social services, the abolition ern state, that is to say, there is no today it has two main sources: the we know it of poverty and the redistribution choice between persuading people Protestant tradition, and the Whig of wealth which led to the welfare and shooting them’.17 By ‘wangle’ revolution of 1688 with its ideals of today it has state. But it was the great reforming Cary refers to the apparently per- toleration and individual right’.13 Liberal government of 1906 which petual habit of the politician who Originally published in French as two main was to institute the social welfare can never give a straight answer, ‘L’influence britannique dans la programme that introduced medi- who may be economical with the révolution libérale’ in the June 1955 sources: the cal inspection and, where neces- truth, equivocal, and even disin- issue of Comprende, the essay traces sary, treatment of school children, genuous in the face of political pres- the religious tradition to before the Protestant safeguards for neglected or abused sure and the need to ‘persuade’. This reformation. The Catholic Church, children, the old age pension and leads us back to the political trilo- Cary points out, was a source of tradition, National Insurance: the social pol- gy’s central theme: when persuasion Liberal opinions long before, in that icy framework, in other words, that leads to accusations of lying, what it was the only house of learning and and the Whig still exists today. should our response be? Malcolm the only secure refuge open to men revolution of In instituting these meas- Foster summarises the problem of ‘a reflective turn’. The Church ures, the Liberal government had thus: ‘how can a politician achieve taught charity, forgiveness, love of 1688 with its moved from Victorian laissez faire that elusive balance between moral- one’s neighbour and even tolerance. towards social responsibility, but ity and practicality?’.18 The novels However, men of learning naturally ideals of tol- it remained opposed to the ideas tackle the natural prejudice against bred a spirit of enquiry and many of the left. Ironically, as Cornelia politicians who tell lies, which inevitably became heretics in the eration and Cook points out, the same tradi- Cary believed to be an inevitable eyes of Rome. tions which linked Liberalism to part of democratic society. This But it was not until the four- individual the labour movement ‘also mili- is not to say that he approved. On teenth century, Cary explains, that tated against the levelling spirit of its publication, he felt that read- the first English reformer, Wycliffe, right’. socialism, clinging to the spirit of ers of Not Honour More ‘completely

Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 19 joyce cary – liberal traditions misunderstood the crucial point of life would die without poets, and principal characters whose stories the trilogy’, i.e. that politicians did democracy must have its spellbind- it retells, the work is a positive one, not necessarily have to be ‘crooks’, ers.’ Nimmo ‘belongs to the type asserts Jack Wolkenfeld. ‘It affirms especially in a democracy, saying in of all of them’, he said, mentioning important fundamental values’, he a radio interview, ‘Now I am very Lloyd George, Aneurin Bevan and writes. ‘Each of the books uses the glad of the chance in this broadcast Billy Graham among others, reveal- same basic standards by which to to deny this because it is just the As an explo- ing the character type on which he measure men, decency, truth [and] opposite I believe’.19 based Nimmo, the ‘spellbinder’.23 sincerity … The man who most Foster identifies the question of ration of Cornelia Cook writes that, tries to live by these standards and whether the trilogy’s main protago- though not directly based on him, who, though ultimately unsuccess- nist Chester Nimmo MP is ‘as good two major Nimmo’s characterisation ‘was ful, comes closest to doing it is also as he could be in his special circum- greatly facilitated by Cary’s use of the man who has greatest freedom stances, and better than many were influences David Lloyd George as an historical of the mind, and who in addition is in much easier ones?’ as central to on British model’, 24 referring to his religious the man whose intuition [through the novels. Is he saved by his protes- boyhood, opposition to the Boer creative imagination] has brought tant faith in man’s personal relation- political life War and career in parliament: ‘As him closest to the spiritual reality. ship to God? Or is he a crook? Lloyd George became President of By these standards Chester Nimmo The answer can only be found – how the the Board of Trade in 1905, Chester is not an extremely good man. But within the pages of the second in that year becomes Under-Secre- under the circumstances, he is per- book, Nimmo’s memoir, Except the Liberal Party tary for Mines. He is promoted to haps the best man possible. He is Lord. The quote, from Psalm 127 Asquith’s Liberal Cabinet in 1908, the certainly the freest.’27 (‘Except the Lord build the house, influenced year Lloyd George became Chancel- The trilogy was Cary’s last they labour in vain that build it’) lor of the Exchequer’.25 Further simi- major work. Diagnosed with motor implies that Nimmo’s stance is that the preoc- lar parallels are drawn between the neurone disease in 1955, Joyce Cary ‘government, like each life, is a two careers, which end with the 1922 died two years later at his home in house which must be built with the cupations of election defeat and both men’s with- Oxford. As an exploration of two inspiration of – not in spite of – the drawal from government. major influences on British political Lord’, 20 and that therefore no man British poli- Like other members of Cabinet, life – how the Liberal Party influ- or state can be absolute, and men pacifist Chester Nimmo’s moment enced the preoccupations of Brit- are fallible and are required to act as tics and how of crisis comes in the final days ish politics and how the progress of they see fit. before war is declared, when two democracy and freedom is ensured To write the novel, and in par- the progress his colleagues resign rather than in a dangerous and confusing ticular to paint a credible picture become members of a War Cabi- world – the novels are not without of Nimmo’s father, Cary turned to of democracy net. He is widely expected to resign a fair measure of humour and are numerous books and essays on the and freedom along with the others but stays on, an enjoyable and enlightening read Seventh Day Adventists. In addi- much to the dismay of his constitu- which deserve a wider audience. tion, Nimmo as a youth is intro- is ensured in ents. During the July 1914 crisis, duced to the world of play-acting though most leading Liberals were John Morris received his Ph.D. at the through his attendance at the Lil- a dangerous determined to stand by France, Lib- University of Exeter in 2011. He is cur- mouth Great Fair. This ‘foreshad- eral newspapers were against war, rently adapting his thesis, which focuses ows his own role as political orator and confus- and at least five non-interventionist on the deployment of music in British and practitioner of deception, and members of the Cabinet – the fic- World War Two propaganda, for publi- the idea of class conflict’.21 ing world tional Nimmo included – intimated cation by IB Tauris in 2013. Nimmo favours ‘wangle’ over that a declaration of war would ‘shooting people’, but this gets him – the novels lead to their resignations. Indeed 1 Walter Allen, Writers and their Work, into trouble. ‘Persuasion is an art,’ Nina Nimmo expects her husband No. 41, Joyce Cary (Longman, 1963), Cary said, ‘but not necessarily an are not with- to resign. She recounts being con- p. 29. art of lies’,22 but in the whole tril- fronted as late as 4 August – the day 2 Cornelia Cook, Joyce Cary – Liberal ogy he attempts to demonstrate out a fair war was declared – with reports of Principles (Vision Press, 1981), p. 209. how persuasion can degenerate into the resignations of anti-war Minis- 3 Golden L. Larsen, The Dark Descent: lies by showing the actual unfold- measure of ters in the London papers and being Social Change and Moral Responsibil- ing of events in the continuous pre- asked why Chester was not among ity in the Novels of Joyce Cary (Michael sent, as Nimmo responds to them, humour and them. ‘I said that it must be a mis- Joseph, 1965), p. 193. using his imagination to react as take of the reporters, who had left 4 ‘The Art of Fiction No. 7, Joyce he believes he should. In the Paris are an enjoy- him out,’ she says. ‘It did not occur Cary’, interview with Cary in the Review interview Cary said: ‘In the able and to me for one moment that Chester Paris Review, No.7, Fall-Winter 1954– democracies we persuade. And this would not resign. He had pledged 55, p. 5. gives great power to the spellbinder, enlightening himself never to enter a War Cabi- 5 Larsen, The Dark Descent, p. 193. the artist in words, the preacher, net …’. 26 The novel explores this 6 Malcolm Foster, Joyce Cary, A Biogra- the demagogue, whatever you call read which decision and its ramifications in phy (Michael Joseph, 1968), p. 337. him. Rousseau, Marx, Tolstoy, detail and Cary paints rather an 7 Ibid., p. 407. these were great spellbinders … deserve ambiguous portrait of Nimmo, 8 Ibid., p. 483. My Nimmo is a typical spellbinder the pacifist who changes his mind 9 Joyce Cary, Power in Men (University … Poets have started most of the a wider without actually tendering his res- of Washington Press, 1963), Introduc- revolutions, especially national- ignation in the process. Although tion by Hazard Adams, p. xxxiii. ist revolutions. On the other hand, audience. the trilogy ends in the deaths of the 10 Ibid., p. xlv.

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11 Foster, Joyce Cary, p. 363. 15 Ibid., p. 230. 18 Foster, Joyce Cary, p. 479. 24 Cook, Joyce Cary, p. 196. 12 Ibid., p. 378. 16 Joyce Cary, Prisoner of Grace 19 Ibid., p. 492. 25 Ibid., p. 196. 13 A. G. Bishop (ed.), Joyce Cary – (Michael Joseph, 1952), p. 383. 20 Cook, Joyce Cary, p. 177. 26 Cary, Prisoner of Grace, p. 259. Selected Essays (Michael Joseph, 17 Andrew Wright, Joyce Cary, A 21 Larsen, The Dark Descent, p. 189. 27 Jack Wolkenfeld, Joyce Cary, The 1976), p. 210. Preface to His Novels (Chatto & 22 Bishop, Cary Essays, p. 231. Developing Style (New York Uni- 14 Cook, Joyce Cary, p. 177. Windus, 1958), p. 154. 23 ‘Art of Fiction’, p. 5. versity Press, 1968), p. 187. Letters The 2010 election and the candidate for the Walsall South Lloyd George Land Taxes May 1947. However, this pact Coalition constituency at the general (( Journal of Liberal History 73), only applied to England and Martin Pugh, in his review of election of 1987, more than ‘Punch cartoonist Bernard Wales. A separate pact, between K. O. Morgan’s Ages of Reform: forty years after his death, Pat Partridge expected the com- the Scottish Unionist and Lib- Dawns and Downfalls of the British Collins was vividly remem- petition between the Liberal eral National Associations, was Left (Journal of Liberal History 73), bered by older voters of all and Labour candidates at the not announced until 2 Decem- states that ‘there is scant his- persuasions. Hanley by-election to deliver ber 1947. torical support for [the] view’ One of the local party offic- the seat to the Unionists’. Further, Kellie Castle (about that an early second election ers, the late Millicent Gray, Who can say what Partridge two miles west of Arbroath following May 2010 if the Lib- recalled Asquith’s visit to thought? The two weekly in Angus (aka Forfarshire) – eral Democrats had allowed a Walsall during Collins’s brief Punch political cartoons were which was at one time owned minority Conservative govern- reign as MP in 1922–24. She devised by an editorial com- by Captain Archibald Ramsay, ment to take office, ‘would lead described Collins as being mittee, hence their often pon- the crypto-fascist Tory MP to … an inevitable government almost illiterate. This often derous character. The artists imprisoned in 1940–44 under victory’. led him into hilarious misun- drew to order, though they may Defence Regulation 18B – was Leaving aside the fact that derstandings of vocabulary. well have been generally com- not in Charles Kerr’s former Labour achieved a majority to When refurbishment of the fortable with the views they constituency of Montrose last for a full term at both the spacious vestibule of Walsall portrayed. Burghs (Montrose, Arbroath, 1966 and October 1974 elec- Town Hall was being discussed, From the 1920s and 1930s Brechin, Forfar and Inverber- tions, and his repetition of the a fellow councillor suggested newspaper political cartoonists vie) but in the then county con- error that Labour ‘lost’ the that a chandelier would make like David Low and Vicky were stituency of Forfarshire. 1951 general election – when an attractive feature. This was given licence to express their Thirdly, in her ‘The Lib- it polled its highest ever vote – instantly dismissed by Col- own convictions as forthrightly eral election agent in the the problem would have been lins on the grounds that ‘We as they chose; but I don’t think post-Reform Act era’, Nancy Cameron’s opportunity to couldn’t afford to employ any- Punch ever changed its practice. LoPatin-Lummis completely blame the Liberal Democrats’ one to play it!’ Andy Connell ignored the fact that there were failure to join a coalition for Incidentally, Miss Gray, three Reform Acts in 1832: political instability in the face though in her eighties, was one one for England and Wales, of economic crisis. Such cir- of my keenest supporters. She Henry George the socialist one for Scotland and one for cumstances would hardly have had dissented from the deci- A few comments on three Ireland. Indeed, in two respects produced a propitious electoral sion of Walsall Liberals to opt articles in the Journal of Liberal the Scottish Act was the most atmosphere for the Liberal for the Liberal National faction History 73 – significant of the three. Not Democrats. after 1931. She remained, with Firstly, in his ‘The Lloyd only did the Scottish electorate Arguably, every ‘early’ a handful of colleagues, loyal to George land taxes’, Roy increase from about 4,500 to election since 1923, when the the independent Liberal Party Douglas stated that it is quite about 65,000 (with the English Liberal Party benefited from of Samuel/Sinclair/Davies inaccurate to describe the US and Welsh electorate increasing its apparent reunification after until the general election of economist and philosopher from about 435,000 to about the Lloyd George coalition, 1951, when the local party at Henry George, an early advo- 652,000) but the increase in has seen a diminution of the last bravely decided to contest cate of land value taxation, as a the number of Scottish MPs Liberal vote, on occasion, such the seat after a lapse of twenty ’socialist’. However, in George’s from 45 to 53 went a little way as in 1924, 1931 and 1951, cata- years. The Tory candidate still most significant electoral ven- to reducing Scotland’s under- strophically so. These are not fought under the Nat-Lib-Con ture – as a candidate for Mayor representation, on a popula- encouraging precedents. label. Walsall returned a Labour of New York in 1886 – he ran tion basis, in the House of Michael Meadowcroft MP from 1945 to 1955 before on a Socialist ticket, with the Commons which had existed being split into North and result being Abram Hewitt since 1707. However, such South Divisions. (Democrat) 90,552, Henry under-representation continued Pat Collins Lionel King George 68,110 and Theodore until about 1891 (with Welsh I read with great interest Gra- Roosevelt (Republican) 60,435. under-representation having ham Lippiatt’s comprehensive Secondly, in his ‘Liberal continued until about 1861 and article on the charismatic Pat Punch and cartoons National leader – Charles Kerr, Irish under-representation until Collins, former Liberal MP for According to the note on the Lord Teviot’, David Dutton about 1881). Walsall (Journal of Liberal History 1912 cartoon that illustrates referred to the Woolton-Teviot Dr. Sandy S. Waugh 73). When I was parliamentary Roy Douglas’s article on the (Tory-Liberal National) pact of

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