The Liberal Party and the New

One-to-one relationships between a political party’s programme and its broader are extremely rare, and British liberalism at the turn of the nineteenth century was no exception. The cumbersome and frequently conflicted machinery of political parties does not often allow for the quick assimilation of the radical or innovative ideas that are normally initiated at its periphery.

Nevertheless, an Leaders of the t is intriguing to explore – as a preliminary to the political unusual amount of New Liberalism: what had happened to propel upheaval. In ideological terms – in David Lloyd liberal thinking and practice the public discourses that com- ideological change George and along a path that would take pete over the control of political Winston it from a focus on entrepre- language and action – a dramatic filtered through into Churchill neurship,I free trade and a gov- transformation was taking place, the Liberal Party, and ernment largely concerned with one that had begun in the 1880s. law, order and the legal protection That transformation was partly even onto the statute of private spaces, to construct- due to the extension of the fran- ing the rudiments of what was to chise and the gradual introduction books, following become the UK’s greatest domes- of new – and less privileged – sec- the famous Liberal tic achievement, the welfare state. tions of society into the political But one also needs to ask: did the arena, both through the vote and landslide electoral new liberalism fundamentally through unionisation; partly due change the Liberal Party? to the growing awareness among victory of 1906. conscientious intellectuals of the Michael Freeden unacceptable costs of the indus- Setting the scene trial revolution in terms of dis- examines the Before we begin to assess the ease, unemployment, squalor and changes that the Liberal Party the sheer exploitation of the poor relationship between actually underwent in that proc- by the rich; and in part due to the ess, we need to take on board percolation of innovative theo- the New Liberalism the ideational changes that took ries of social structure concern- and the Liberal Party. place – as is so often the case ing human interdependence and

14 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 The Liberal Party and the New Liberalism

vulnerability through academic sanctity of individual liberty and curious mixture of radical and channels into the public domain. over and above conservative imperialist) left The awareness that new social other liberal values such as the the Liberal Party en masse. The classes would now play a perma- development of individuality and remodelled Liberal Party lacked nent role – and a quasi-demo- decency towards others. Indeed, funds (although it still retained cratic one, within the franchise that was one of the central divides: the support of some rich indus- constraints of the period – made between those who had advocated, trialists) but not the potential for it obvious that competition over and were satisfied with, political a sweeping reinvention of itself, their support and consent would reforms such as a fairer and less which it proceeded to carry cause changes in public policies. corrupt electoral system, while through over twenty years. The During the 1880s, various ‘unau- fiercely guarding individual liber- party, unsurprisingly, chose to be thorised’ programmes emerged ties, and those who believed that far more reluctant to speed along from the pens of radicals, socialists social reform had to begin where the path demanded by its radical and liberals which – despite some political reform left off. While left- wing and many of its intellectu- crucial differences – displayed an leaning liberals still retained some als, because it was fearful of losing extraordinary amount of com- standard political reforms on their too much support among its tra- mon ground. From the 1890s, agenda – in particular, they had ditional middle-class base. As the the increasing number of reports, their eye on the unrepresentative Liberal politician and reformer surveys and newspaper articles on nature of the House of Lords – C. F. G. Masterman, expressed it, the abject suffering of the socially they were convinced that the polit- the Liberal dilemma was whether marginalised – in particular those ical authorities had now to address it would ‘retain, for example, its of Charles Booth on London and urgently questions of social justice few men of wealth, without los- Joseph Rowntree on York – had and human need.1 ing those adherents who demand started to make an impact on the In the 1880s, party-political direct taxation of that wealth in public mood. And theories of Liberalism was still display- the interests of social reform’.2 the organic interdependence of ing the features of an older era Of course, there were other society, with its imperatives of – the importance of Noncon- movements afoot towards fun- support for others being as impor- formity, temperance and finan- damental social reform among tant as the cultivation of personal cial retrenchment – and those budding socialist groups – not autonomy, began to replace the features did not go away; indeed, the least the Fabian Society who highly individualistic strictures they continued to have substan- The remod- had mastered the dissemination of English utilitarianism and the tial adherents alongside the radi- of propaganda pamphlets among self-help injunctions of Victorian cal elements of liberalism. But elled Liberal working-class sectors. But ini- moralists. they no longer characterised the tially only the Liberal Party had The debate took place, tellingly party as a whole and they exposed Party lacked the clout, range and organisation enough, in periodicals, newspapers serious problems relating to its that would enable such reform to and popular books long before it middle-class social base. Gener- funds, but reach national platforms. That infiltrated into parliament. The ally speaking, identifying the Lib- first became evident in the New- pages of august monthlies such as eral Party as middle class requires not the castle Programme of 1891, itself the Contemporary Review, the Fort- some caution. Then, as now, it is the successor both to Joseph nightly Review, and the Nineteenth too broad and undiscriminating a potential for Chamberlain’s ‘unauthorised pro- Century, as well as those of pro- term. The middle class included gramme’ of 1884–5 and to the Star gressive and radical weeklies and bankers, lawyers, administrators a sweeping newspaper’s programmes of 1888– monthlies, foremost among which and merchants as well as teachers, 9. That said, the Liberal Party was was the Speaker, later to become journalists and social reformers of reinvention initially very slow to react. Dur- the Nation (and later still to be many stripes, both religious and ing W. E. Gladstone’s final term amalgamated into the New States- secular. The financial, cultural of itself, as prime minister, in 1892–3, the man), became major forums in and ideological differences among which it Grand Old Man rejected the novel which proposals for a national pol- those categories were glaring. political idea of publishing a party icy were deliberated. The liberal The hairline splits in the Liberal proceeded programme, insisting that one daily press, in particular the Man- Party were already a generation issue at a time was the right way chester Guardian, also had a crucial old before they began to widen to carry to proceed, and immediately got role in forging new attitudes. But to create a potential schism, as bogged down in the Irish prob- their readership was limited to the Whigs among the Liberals through lem at the expense of other social small groups of the educated mid- drifted toward the conservative issues. Gladstone’s moral brand dle classes. No less importantly, ranks, a movement exacerbated over twenty of crusading liberalism was pro- they still had to contend with well- in 1886 when the Unionists under found but it was also beginning established liberal views on the Joseph Chamberlain (himself a years. to be stranded on the shores of a

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 15 the and the new liberalism creed that in later decades would that stretched way beyond the The Rainbow internal to liberalism itself. We typify enlightened conservatism, budding Labour Party – one has may also observe that some of free trade excepted. Thus, a year to appreciate that London in par- Circle is a the more radical social proposals before his death he praised one ticular was host to a lively scene of the Labour Party, such as the liberal essayist for ‘all the efforts of social reformers, journalists, marvellous right to work, were rejected out of you may make on behalf of indi- religious activists and others in hand by the Liberal Party, and that vidual freedom and independence patterns of discourse and inter- example of it was mostly resistant to plans to as opposed to what is termed Col- action that criss-crossed the city, nationalise industries. lectivism.’3 His successor, Lord with the result that plans and pro- what was The Rainbow Circle is a mar- Rosebery, was no closer to radi- grammes of political and social vellous example of what was hap- cal circles, and the Liberal Party transformation were common happening pening behind and across the seemed destined to widen its among a wide range of progres- behind and party scenes.5 It was a fascinating internal rift between the reform- sives. When Sir William Har- site of ideological formation: a ists and an increasingly ossified court, Liberal Chancellor of the across the discussion group founded in 1894 middle-class conventionalism. Exchequer in the early 1890s and that met monthly and included Ten years in the wilderness from hardly a radical himself, declared party scenes. notable thinkers and activists from 1895, however, did the trick as so in 1894 that ‘we are all socialists both liberal and moderate-Labour often is the case. Not that mid- now’, he intended to emphasise It was a fasci- circles. It attests to the formation dle-class conventionalism disap- the growing recognition that of a joint crucial mass of what we peared but it was mostly excluded responsibility towards the less nating site of could roughly term social demo- from the Liberal corridors of fortunate members of society and crats, whose dividing lines, for power until after the First World an ethos of mutual concern were ideological example on the scope of national- War, when it divided its loyalties part and parcel of contemporary isation, were outweighed by com- between a shrinking Liberal Party thinking, precisely the area from formation. monalities. Ramsay MacDonald and the Conservatives. which Gladstone dissociated him- was the first secretary – the min- self. The terms socialist and even utes being written out in his clear ‘liberal socialist’ were therefore and nicely rounded handwriting Liberalism and Labour: largely bereft of party associations – and he rubbed shoulders with intersections, overlap and until the Labour Party emerged J. A. Hobson (the liberal journal- difference on the scene from 1900 and col- ist, theorist and economist), Her- Many commentators and scholars onised ‘’ as part of its bert Samuel (to become the leader believe that the rise of the Labour rhetoric. Liberal and Labour intel- of the Liberal Party in the inter- Party in 1900 was not only the lectuals and propagandists, quite war years), J. M. Robertson (the catalyst for a platform of energetic a few of whom would become liberal polymath, writer and poli- social reform in Britain, but that it future MPs in 1906, mixed freely tician), and a host of other nota- was also the architect of the Wel- in the various Ethical Societies, ble London professionals. Eight fare State. Both contentions have in humanist associations, in the of its members (out of around to be taken with quite a few grains editorial meetings of the Nation twenty-five) became radical MPs of salt, although that imagined (the most important weekly at in the 1906 parliament. Among narrative was sincerely believed the forefront of reformist liberal the many discussion topics of the by British socialists and their his- thought), at numerous public Rainbow Circle in its early years torians until well into the 1960s. lectures, and under the auspices were ‘The Old Manchesterism This was partly a measure of the of a small but highly influential and the New Radicalism’, ‘The success of the Labour Party story, debating society, the Rainbow Duty of the State to the Individual broadcast by Fabians from the Circle. Between them, a common in the Industrial Sphere’, and ‘A outset and cemented through the or at least overlapping political Practical Programme for a Pro- reverse historical perspective seen language was forged, in which a gressive Party’. This latter theme, from the vantage point of post- drive towards institutional change in 1898–1899, was debated against 1945 Labour social legislation. was combined with the need the backdrop of developing the But it also occurred through the for urgent measures regarding small London Progressive Party as later relative invisibility conferred old age pensions, the feeding of the powerhouse that would unite by association on liberal ideol- schoolchildren, living below the forward-looking supporters of ogy through the marginalisation breadline, and the cyclical bouts political and social reform of both of the Liberal Party. Indeed, at of heavy unemployment that left and centre-left. That experi- the time of the publication of the beset the economy. That is not to ment did not last, however, as any Beveridge Report in 1942, with argue that the separate consolida- suggestion of a durable arrange- its social vision of a resurgent tion of labourite, trade union and ment of that nature foundered on post-war Britain, the liberal press socialist groups under the aegis the rocks of the entrenched elec- astonishingly failed to recognise of the Labour Party did not act toral and organisational interests the report as a member of its own as a powerful incentive to speed- of the larger existing party spec- family of ideas, or to note that ing up some of the progressive trum. No wonder that twenty- William Beveridge was himself a metamorphoses that liberalism five years later the famous liberal prominent liberal.4 was undergoing. It is, however, theorist and social philosopher To address the first issue – the to argue that the rationale for L. T. Hobhouse was able to look presence of a wide spectrum of those changes could be extracted back and declare that the British reformist thinking and initiatives from within the values and beliefs party system did not match what

16 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 the liberal party and the new liberalism we would now call the ideological considerably the central liberal society. Even what passed for divide across the country. There values of liberty, individual self- radicalism in the late 1880s and were four groupings of political expression and progress within a 1890s – progressive taxation, old opinion, not three, he argued: constitutional setting. All that dif- age pensions, housing, and land (a) communist and theoreti- fered substantially from the forms reform – was rapidly overtaken cal socialist; (b) ordinary Labour of socialist collectivism that laid (though not abandoned) by an and good Liberal; (c) bad Liberal greater stress on an undifferenti- unprecedented and dramatic and ordinary Tory; and (d) die- ated class emancipation in which surge in welfare legislation. hard.6 Certainly, at the turn of the individual development played The Liberal reforming zeal, nineteenth century, the creators a lesser role; and even more so combined with its actual imple- of arguments and programmes from conservative forms of com- mentation, has had only one rival among progressives were within munitarianism – rather than col- in the UK over the past century: the second camp, drawing broadly lectivism – in which national and the post World War II Labour from the same pool of ideas. local loyalties were the traditional welfare legislation (the other The culmination of that evo- adhesive that required protecting. twentieth-century instance of lutionary process was the emer- legislative activism, under Mar- gence of the new liberalism, a garet Thatcher, was mainly one of development of the liberal creed Radicalising the party reversing the social achievements that integrated some fundamental All these currents were swirling of her predecessors). It was Hob- value reorientations together with just beneath the surface of the son who later commented that some more subtle changes to that Liberal Party. In fact, the land- the vision of the Liberal Party had august tradition. The ideological slide victory of 1906 was achieved almost matched the rosiest expec- transformation built partly on the mainly on a rather conventional tations of the new liberal social ructions that the party had already platform of free trade (versus reformers.8 A Feeding of School- experienced, with Whigs and Conservative intentions to use children Act, aimed at addressing radicals existing uneasily under protectionism and tariff reform to the chronic undernourishment the one roof, each faction strug- tackle the ‘condition of England’ of children from poor families in gling against submitting, respec- question) and the physical malaise their schools, was passed in 1906. tively, to enticement from Tories of the nation was conveyed, An Old Age Pensions Act fol- on the one hand and variants of among others, through the shock lowed in 1908, with the break- social democracy on the other. of discovering how many poten- through provision that they were But the new liberalism succeeded tial recruits to the British army non-contributory. Typically, this beyond conceivable measure in fighting in the Boer War had to was both a move to reduce the sustaining its position at the core The new lib- be rejected due to rickets – liberal poverty of retired and elderly of the mutating party. It pre- eralism pre- imperialism was still a force to be people and an ideological state- served the party’s unity through reckoned with. All that gave lit- ment that those who had worked retaining a basic loyalty to the served the tle hint of the eruption of the new for society would not be forgot- most cherished liberal principles; liberalism into the party main- ten by the state. Then came the yet the changes it effected in the party’s unity stream a couple of years later. That heart of the innovations, the 1909 party’s ideology were nonetheless transformation was partly due to Budget and the National Insur- remarkable. In particular, the new through a change in leadership, once the ance Act of 1911. Not only the liberals expanded on the Oxford insipid Henry Campbell-Banner- conventions of the time, but also philosopher T. H. Green’s com- retaining a man had been replaced as prime consequent British historiogra- mitment to impeding hindrances minister. Tellingly, his successor phy, tend to differentiate between to human liberty and the promo- basic loyalty Herbert Asquith was no new lib- political reform and social reform, tion of a society’s common pur- eral either, but many in his team as if the latter were not political, poses. Specifically, they identified to the most were either consciously or inci- reflecting the common but mis- a far broader range of constraints dentally recruited to the ranks of leading distinction (in terms of its that had to be removed in order cherished the new liberalism, not least the political nature) between changes to realise John Stuart Mill’s classic dynamic and mercurial Chancel- to the machinery of government formulation concerning the ‘free liberal prin- lor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd – extending the franchise, fairer development of individuality’.7 George. Lloyd George’s political democratic representation, or Not only formal and legal barri- ciples; yet teeth had been cut in an atmos- local government reform – and ers but also economic, social and phere of Welsh radical Noncon- the redistribution of scarce essen- educational ones had to be lifted. the changes formity, honed on resistance to tial goods in order to improve the Here – as a liberal, not socialist, it effected in Britain’s imperial adventures in lot of the disadvantaged. That creation – can be found the seeds South Africa (little Englanders is patently not the case – politics of the welfare state: the determi- the party’s was the belittling name he and his always having been concerned nation that all members of soci- allies had earned as one century with managing the distribution of ety were entitled to the fullest ideology passed into the next), and further scarce resources among contend- development and well-being that whetted through the experiences ing claimants – and the struggle could be collectively provided; were none- of mass urban unemployment, over the 1909 Budget clearly illus- the confidence in the state as the increasing concern about the trates that social reform is a core beneficent enabler of human theless state of the physical health of the political activity. flourishing; and the faith that nation, and outrage about the Lloyd George knew what he such provision would enhance remarkable. maldistribution of wealth across was doing when he introduced

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 17 the liberal party and the new liberalism radical measures of progressive may term ‘welfarism’10 signalled a were reared on ‘bread and but- taxation into the Budget, as well move towards a society in which ter’ socialism and had become the as setting up a national develop- the central purpose of domestic target of more efficient agitation ment agency. He was concur- politics had become to protect the from groups such as the Fabians. rently offering long-needed citizenry at large from those vicis- It has always been something of measures of social justice and tak- situdes and fragilities of human a problem for liberalism to trans- ing on the Lords who, with their life that were both unavoidable late its relatively complex ideas built-in conservative majority and and remediable. It was also one in and arguments into the kind of their power of veto over a stun- which the state put at the disposal populist mode that both con- ning liberal majority in the House of its members the wherewithal to servatives and socialists – in very of Commons, were beginning to develop individual capacities in different ways – have success- frustrate the Liberal administra- the best sense of liberal progress. fully exploited. Unpopular lead- tion by throwing out or delaying ership decisions about the rights vital policies. ‘Mr. Balfour’s poo- of workers, including their right dle’, as the House of Lords had Curbing liberal enthusiasms to strike, caused further aliena- become, had to be put on a leash. Both contemporary and future tion and also distanced the Liberal At a stroke, Lloyd George man- problems for the Liberal Party, Party from its own progressives. aged to goad the Lords, through however, rendered its transforma- But the problem ran deeper than their predictable rejection of the tive path far from smooth. To that. Ideologically speaking, the Budget, into painting themselves begin with, the relatively heavy Liberal Party now had the addi- into a corner. The Lords argued tax obligations incurred by the tional complication of differen- that the Budget was unconsti- proposed reforms upon the less tiating itself in the public mind tutional in offering a free ride to altruistic members of the middle from Labour while maintaining measures that had never been a class did not go down well. The a dynamism that would still put it part of British budgets, incorpo- party was confronted with fre- at the forefront of British radical- rating the centralised and long- The extraor- quent rearguard protests in the ism. That proved impossible, and term planning of social policy, name of the middle classes – once the consequence was not so much while Liberals retorted that the dinary spate themselves the radical engine of that the party abandoned its jour- Lords were neither constitution- political reform, but now batten- ney to the left as that many of its ally nor historically authorised to of legisla- ing down their hatches against key reformers eventually left the throw out a financial bill. Behind redistributive radicalism intended Liberal Party after the First World all that, one of the major impacts tion in 1911 to assist the worst off. Already in War and joined Labour – not of the penetration of the new lib- 1906, a strikingly titled pre-emp- because Labour policy was nota- eralism into the central corridors suggests a tive pamphlet, ‘The Bitter Cry of bly different from that of the new of political power was visible. The vibrant and the Middle Classes’, reflected the liberals, but because Labour was state was now entrusted with ena- particular fear of those who had slowly becoming in their view a bling and often directly promot- fundamental recently found financial stability more efficient fighting machine. ing the well-being of its citizens but were now facing the pros- As a consequence, one wing of and not simply with ensuring statement pect of groaning under the tax the Labour Party in effect hosted the maximisation of individual yoke for the sake of what many the new liberalism in a fresh guise, liberty and free enterprise, with about a Lib- still regarded as the less deserving. and the party lost many of its radi- preserving order in the face of Those particularly affected were cal campaigners. criminality, or with patrolling eral Party from the lower middle classes, Third, the leadership problems the boundaries between external who still harboured traditional of the Liberal Party were con- vulnerability and defence. That well to the liberal ideas of the primacy of siderable. The rivalry between a was famously put by Hobhouse contractual relationships and per- modernising Lloyd George and when he wrote: ‘mutual aid is left of the sonal merit. Consequently, many a far more sedate Asquith even- no less important than mutual Liberal Party reforms, especially tually came to undermine the forbearance.’9 political in the sphere of taxation, had to be party’s stability and attractive- The extraordinary spate of designed to help them, more than ness. Failure to act quickly on the legislation in 1911, encompassing spectrum the working class.11 enfranchisement of women did limited health and unemployment Second, the establishment of not strengthen the party’s reputa- insurance as well as the removal and among the Labour Party created a new tion as being in the vanguard of of the veto power from the House set of difficulties for the Lib- progress. And the party seemed to of Lords, suggests a vibrant and the most eral Party. Some of those had, of peter out of ideas after 1911 over fundamental statement about a reform- course, to do with competition problems with Ireland and with Liberal Party well to the left of over the anti-Tory vote. Elec- the miners – the latter reflect- the political spectrum and among minded toral pacts between the two par- ing the increasing combative- the most reform-minded demo- ties did no favours to the Liberals ness of some of the trade unions, cratic parties throughout Europe. democratic by enabling the victory of Labour resulting, among other things, in Unfortunately for the Liberal candidates. The rarefied politi- Lloyd George’s Land Campaign, Party, that transformation was parties cal language spoken by liberals, a programme that seemed remote not a completely durable one, even those seeking social justice from the interests of the prepon- and its role as the major bearer throughout for the dispossessed, was for- derantly urban working class. No of a welfarist ideology failed to eign to the ears of many mem- less seriously, the central London become consolidated. What we Europe. bers of the working class, who organisation of the party – the

18 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 the liberal party and the new liberalism

National Liberal Federation – of its biases. Authoritarianism, The tensions as a means to enable a particular was frequently out of touch with illiberalism and paternalism had race to achieve social domina- feelings in the constituencies and to be navigated constantly even in between tion, as was the case in many with local desire to have Liberal the most liberal and generous ver- other right-wing instances, but as representatives that were closer sions of welfarism. Evidently, new reformers a technique to include the physi- to working-class concerns. As a liberal ideas on welfare were pro- cal improvement of the body as result, the Liberal Party’s poten- duced by intellectual elites who of the Right, part of the wider conception of tial to resist the rise of the Labour still believed in nineteenth-cen- social reform. Another, more at Party was impeded. tury fashion that they had a duty who wished the centre of Liberal Party policy, Fourth, there were some seri- to civilise the nation and that their was the continuous resistance ous flaws in the ideology of the ethical conceptions of a good soci- to improve to women’s suffrage. In part that new liberals themselves. One of ety were impeccable. Given the the moral reflected a deep cultural conserva- the most significant underpin- still-limited range of the franchise tism at the heart of the party, not nings of their arguments was the and the relative paucity of state character of always shared by its more radi- organic nature of their approach education, extensive democratic cal members; but there was also to society as an interconnected approval and an informed elec- individuals, a calculated electoral fear – pain- body that possessed its own vital torate were not yet available. The fully realised in the early years of social interests running alongside noted voluntary tradition of either socialists women obtaining the vote – that the requirement for individual self-help or of mutual assistance the Liberal Party might not attract well-being, but whose flourish- outside the sphere of the state still who wished a sufficient number of votes from ing depended on the health of the had high visibility and determined those newly emancipated citizens. individual parts. Yet society, too, support. But the role of the expert to identify Unlike the previous reliance for was seen to have the right to claim – so much at the centre of Fabian charitable activities on the vol- the goods it required to discharge activism – was not dismissed and cater untary sector, the Liberal gov- its functions, including its own by liberals either. The tensions ernment centralised its welfare well-being and future develop- between reformers of the Right, to known legislation heavily and introduced ment. The main welfare meas- who wished to improve the moral a uniform system – for example ures advocated at the time by the character of individuals, socialists categories of in relation to Labour exchanges. new liberals were anchored in who wished to identify and cater Its insistence on compulsion the imagery that such an organic to known categories of need while need while with regard to national insur- approach provided. Although the ignoring the individual as the unit ance was anathema to the British organic view of society was much of attention, and the new liberals ignoring the social reform tradition and not a in vogue among theorists and who wished to employ the state individual as few liberals bemoaned ‘the newer commentators at the time, it was in the service of the individual, Liberalism of Social Responsi- less amenable to inspiring an elec- were evident in the policies of, and the unit of bility and … Paternal Govern- torate whose social mythology debates within and around, the ment’.13 It required a considerable still rested on strong individual- Liberal Party. A form of soft pater- attention, degree of ideological repackag- istic conceptions of separateness nalism emerged, in which the view ing to present compulsory health and independence. The party elite prevailed that enlightened liber- and the new and unemployment insurance as a rarely adopted that terminology als needed to work on behalf of measure designed to counter the and it was far from universally the workers, whose social visions liberals who compulsion embedded in the eco- appreciated among liberals. Nor were either distorted by socialist nomic circumstances from which did its effective notion of wel- propagandists, or undeveloped as wished to so many people suffered and thus fare dovetail with the new liberal a result of the heavy toll that eco- increase their liberty. one. For various reasons – many nomic hardships imposed on them. employ the of them financial but some also But there was also a fundamental principled – the actual welfare faith in the homogeneity of a social state in the Conclusion measures, while perceived to be vision in which one size would So did the Liberal Party become a in the right direction, fell far short fit all. Finally, there was a consid- service of the new liberal one? One can answer of new liberal intentions. In very erable amount of condescension this on three levels – its practices broad terms, the prevailing under- towards the working classes. The individual, while the new liberalism was at standings of welfare policy were noted historian G. M. Trevelyan, its zenith, its support groups, and (and still are) split between help- close to liberal circles, wrote at the were evi- its longer-term development. In ing the weak and marginalised on beginning of the twentieth cen- dent in the terms of its top leadership before the one hand, and envisaging a tury: ‘Whenever a good thing is 1914, new liberals were hardly society where central assistance is accomplished it is not in the first policies of, prominent. Lloyd George was a available to all and in which flour- instance because the people wish radical but not necessarily an org- ishing means not inching over a it to be done, but because a few and debates anicist new liberal with a general minimum but assuredly obtaining men will do it … The success of a vision of a good society or a sense of an optimum. That latter project nation, the greatness of an age, the within and how to change the complex nexus was not at the heart of effective work done by a body or group of of relationships between indi- Liberal Party policy, although it persons, is always in ratio to the around, the vidual and state. He was a political might have been faintly visible in percentage of men of this quality.’12 strategist equipped with a fight- its Elysian fields. One such form of paternalism Liberal Party. ing spirit and a populist eloquence No less indicative of the limits appeared in the interest progres- that served him well. Winston of the new liberalism were some sive liberals had in eugenics, not Churchill, the only other leading

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 19 the liberal party and the new liberalism cabinet minister to adopt the new One of the and the disappearance of most of the director of its Centre for Political liberalism, published a series of his the social reform wing into the , and a Fellow of Mansfield speeches in 1909 called Liberalism main dif- ranks of Labour. The weakness of College Oxford. Among his books and the Social Problem, that con- the party as a coalition of internal are The New Liberalism (Oxford, tained some of the new liberal (and ficulties ideological positions, which had 1978), Ideologies and Political Fabian) ideas about a national min- been mitigated by its enormous Theory (Oxford, 1996) and Liberal imum; and he was instrumental in facing the pre-war electoral success, could Languages (Princeton, 2005). He establishing the labour exchanges. no longer be disguised. is editor of the Journal of Political But he was a politician on the Liberal Party In 1926, Keynes wryly Ideologies. make, restless, ideologically fickle, was that it remarked: ‘Possibly the Liberal and easily bored, and incapable of Party cannot serve the State in 1 For a more detailed discussion see deep and sustained social thinking. was caught any better way than by supply- M. Freeden, The New Liberalism: Being Home Secretary before the ing Conservative Governments An Ideology of Social Reform (Oxford: First World War appealed far more between with Cabinets, and Labour Gov- Clarendon Press, 1978). to his sense of adventure when he ernments with ideas’.14 There is 2 C. F. G. Masterman, ‘Politics in delighted in personally leading being seen to more than a grain of truth in that. Transition’, Nineteenth Century, 63 a siege of a group of anarchists in Perhaps the ultimate mission of (1908), p. 12. London. Asquith was parodied by act against liberalism was an unintention- 3 Quoted in J. S. Phillimore and his remark ‘wait and see’, hardly a ally altruistic one: that of infus- F. W. Hirst (eds.), Essays in Liberal- clarion call of advanced liberalism. the inter- ing British political culture with ism by Six Oxford Men (London: This leaves some of the second- liberal principles that became Cassell & Co., 1897), p. x. ranking politicians, but they were ests of its integrated into a far broader 4 See M. Freeden, Liberalism Divided: unable to sustain the extraordinary political spectrum. As a political A Study in British Political Thought momentum the new liberalism had individualist machine, and financed as it was 1914–1939 (Oxford: Clarendon accrued in the three years from by its more traditional backers, Press, 1986), pp. 366–371. 1908 (old age pensions) to 1911 supporters the Liberal Party could not move 5 M. Freeden (ed.), Minutes of the (national insurance). quickly enough towards funda- Rainbow Circle, 1894–1924 (London: One of the main difficulties on the one mental social reform after the Royal Historical Society, Camden facing the Liberal Party was that brief – though highly significant 4th Series, 1989). it was caught between being seen hand and and influential – pre-war spurt. 6 J. A. Hobson and M. Ginsberg, to act against the interests of its being seen to Its leadership became embroiled L. T. Hobhouse: His Life and Work individualist supporters on the in petty squabbles that occa- (London: George Allen & Unwin, one hand and being seen to be too be too slow sioned a split between Asquithian 1931), p. 66. slow to convert to a social liberal- and Lloyd George Liberals, and 7 J. S. Mill, On Liberty (London: ism on the other. Free trade was to convert to was not capable of sustaining a Longmans, Green, Reader, and the only ‘older’ platform on which social vision. After the war, its Dyer, 1870), p. 33. all liberals could unite. That ideo- a social liber- creativity was retained only at 8 J. A. Hobson, ‘The Significance logical split unfortunately caused its margins – in the annual Lib- of the Budget’, English Review, 2 a double haemorrhage that left the alism on the eral Summer Schools, for exam- (1909), p. 795. Liberal Party after the First World ple – and it could no longer make 9 L. T. Hobhouse, Liberalism (London; War a far more centrist party than other. the running. True, Keynes con- Williams and Norgate, 1911), p. 124. it had seemed to be in the pre-war tributed to the party’s unem- 10 M. Freeden, ‘The Coming of the decade. The new liberal infatua- ployment policies and its more Welfare State’, in T. Ball and R. tion with the state as the beneficial technical economic thinking, Bellamy (eds.), The Cambridge His- agent of a fair society was eroded but those were insufficient to cre- tory of Twentieth-Century Political by the conduct of the government ate a popular stir, and the party Thought (Cambridge; Cambridge during the war, when emergency began to suffer from outdated University Press, 2003), pp. 7–44. measures, and even conscription and adverse descriptions by its 11 G. R. Sims, ‘The Bitter Cry of the itself, were attacked for restrict- rivals – something that before the Middle Classes’, Tribune, July 1906. ing individual freedoms, and the war was impossible. Nonethe- See also P. Waller, ‘Altercation over Liberals rediscovered the impor- less, the combination of party, Civil Society: The Bitter Cry of the tance of liberty. Libertarian ideas, ideology, and opportunity at Edwardian Middle Classes’, in J. which had been rather quirky in the outset of the twentieth cen- Harris (ed.), Civil Society in British the aftermath of the Liberal land- tury created something special. History (Oxford: Oxford University slide, came out of the cold. State The emergence of an outspoken Press, 2003), p. 115–134. intervention was now accused in the UK sin- 12 G. M. Trevelyan, ‘The Past and of being a form of ‘Prussian- gled out British liberalism from Future’, in C. F. G. Masterman (ed.), ism’ under German, specifically among its European counterparts The Heart of the Empire (London: T. Hegelian, influence. But entre- as a singularly rich and progres- Fisher Unwin, 1901), pp. 412–13. preneurship and business effi- sive creed. For a society once 13 J. Armsden, ‘First Principles of ciency also made a comeback in disparagingly called ‘a nation of Social Reform’, Westminster Review, the policies of the Liberal Party, shopkeepers’ that was an extraor- vol. 169 (1908), p. 639. against the backdrop of the post- dinary achievement. 14 J. M. Keynes, ‘Liberalism and war economic crisis from 1920 Labour (1926)’, in Keynes, Essays in onwards, the alliance of Lloyd Michael Freeden is a Professor of Poli- Persuasion (London: Macmillan and George with the Conservatives, tics at the University of Oxford and Co., 1931), p. 343.

20 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010