The struggle for political representation Labour candidates and the Liberal Party, 1868 – 85

In November 1868 a leading article in The Bee-Hive, a weekly trade unionist journal, declared that ‘there is a vast amount of rottenness in the ranks of the Liberal Party which must be rooted out before the working men can expect to be treated fair and honourably in their efforts to enter the House of Commons’.1 The call for direct labour representation – understood here as the election of working-class men to parliament to represent the labour interest as Liberal MPs rather than independently – had enjoyed a broad range of support during the reform agitations illiam Gladstone, However, in the decade follow- that followed the along with several ing the 1867 Reform Act – which establishment of the Wprominent Liberal enfranchised ‘registered and resi- MPs, such as Henry Fawcett and dential’ male householders, giving in Peter Alfred Taylor, had spoken in the vote to 30 per cent of work- support of working-class parlia- ing men – the labour movement February 1865. James mentary representation, while the struggled to secure the return of Owen explores what working-class radicals in whom the their own representatives. For management of the Reform League many labour activists, at the heart happens between 1968 was vested were zealous advocates of this struggle was the unwill- for the labour movement having its ingness of the managers of local and 1885. own voice inside the Commons.2 Liberal Associations to select a

14 Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 The struggle for political representation Labour candidates and the Liberal Party, 1868 – 85

working-class man as their par- Labour candidates and the involvement in local Liberal organ- liamentary candidate.3 According Liberal Party: the 1868 general isation at this time was patchy and to one frustrated working-class election limited: there was evidence of it political campaigner, ‘if an angel Soon after the 1867 Reform Act in Rochdale and Stockport in the from heaven came down … unless was passed, the general council of 1850s and to a certain extent in Bir- he had the imprimatur of the Lib- the Reform League called for joint mingham, Leeds and Manchester in eral Association, he was unfit for action with trade unions to secure the 1860s, but these were the excep- office’. 4 This created a legacy of the return of ‘a number of work- tions.10 Popular Liberal organisa- bitterness, which manifested itself ing men proportionate to the other tion was woeful in the majority of in a number of working-class, interests and classes at present English boroughs, and at the 1868 self-styled ‘labour’ candidates represented in Parliament’.6 This general election many Liberal asso- opposing the official Liberal can- proved to be a highly problematic ciations were established simply didate at parliamentary elections. undertaking. Firstly, the Reform on an ad hoc basis. Unsurprisingly, This article examines how both League’s headquarters those who held the purse strings sides behaved in these elections had little influence over local con- of the local associations were loath and considers what these contests stituency branches, many of which to back a working-class candidate can tell us about the nature of the had already lapsed due to inactiv- who would not be able to sustain changing relationship between ity following the passing of the himself financially if elected, and the labour movement and the Lib- Second Reform Act.7 Money was the mangers of the association, who eral Party in the third-quarter of also a major obstacle: in 1868 the zealously defended provincial inde- the nineteenth century; a period League’s finances were in a parlous pendence, looked unkindly on not which witnessed the rise of mass state.8 In the summer of 1868 How- only Reform League agents who politics and the apex of popular ell had negotiated a secret financial wished to intervene, but also the Liberalism. agreement on behalf of the Reform efforts of Glyn, who encouraged, There is an important reason to League with the Liberal chief whip, largely in vain, local party manag- look again at these contests. The George Glyn, whereby a sum of ers to embrace the new electoral current scholarly emphasis is that £1,000, supplied by the wealthy Lib- opportunities presented by the Sec- the progression from Gladstonian eral manufacturer Samuel Morley, ond Reform Act.11 Liberalism and Victorian radi- could be used to promote the estab- Only two working-class candi- calism to the embryonic Labour lishment of working-class political dates backed by the Reform League Party of the early twentieth cen- organisations that would support made it to the polls at the 1868 gen- tury was a straightforward, lin- Liberal candidates. But this pact, eral election: George Howell at ear one.5 Yet, this interpretation, and the money that underpinned it, Aylesbury and William Randal which has become something of an existed only to advance Liberal can- Cremer at Warwick. Both seats orthodoxy, overstates the conflu- didates against vulnerable sitting were double-member boroughs ence of the labour movement and Conservatives; not a penny would where only one official Liberal had Liberalism during this period. As be used to oppose a Liberal.9 been brought forward, but neither discussed below, the relationship Ultimately, the decision to bring Left: How Punch man secured the endorsement of the between the two could be tense forward a working-class candi- saw the entry local Liberal association. At Ayles- and troubled, and it could change date in the Liberal interest rested of working- bury, the Liberal candidate, Nath- depending on the political context with the managers of the local Lib- class MPs to aniel Mayer de Rothschild, was a or the locality. eral associations. Working-class Parliament local landowner who effectively

Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 15 the struggle for political representation: labour candidates and the , 1868–85 held the purse strings of local Lib- to aggressively challenge organ- assertive rhetoric was not matched eralism. Rothschild had no wish to ised Liberalism. After failing to by organisational strength. The give either financial or vocal sup- secure the Liberal nomination, leaders of the LRL were unable to port to a trade unionist who was which went to Sir Sydney Water- secure any pledge from the Trades an outsider to the agricultural bor- low, a city banker, Odger persisted, Union Congress (TUC) in support ough.12 Glyn, in a letter to Glad- offering as an independent can- of labour representation in parlia- stone, lamented Howell’s decision didate in the labour interest.18 He ment. This failure reflected cultural to stand, writing that ‘he has unfor- stood on a solid, advanced Liberal divisions within the tunately chosen the wrong place. platform, but he was implacably movement regarding the centrali- … A stranger cannot win there’.13 opposed to the moderates who ran sation of its finances. The TUC At Warwick, the president of the the Southwark Liberal Associa- frequently debated the merits of a local Reform Association wanted tion. The tension here was that the national electoral fund for parlia- full control of the Liberal nomina- obstructionist leaders of local Lib- mentary candidates, to which all tion, and effectively disabled Cre- eralism did not reflect the direc- affiliated unions would contribute, mer’s candidature by refusing to tion in which Odger felt the Liberal but, while the London-based trade provide any financial assistance.14 Party should be heading, particu- unionists behind the LRL champi- Both Howell and Cremer finished larly in regards to direct labour oned this approach, there was con- bottom of their respective polls, representation. Under the guid- sistent opposition from elsewhere, comfortably defeated by a Liberal ance of his agent, the experienced especially from delegates of the and Conservative candidate who political operator James Acland, Durham and Northumbrian min- outspent them by a ratio of three to Odger successfully courted the ers, who felt that a centralised fund one.15 Significantly, neither How- support of neighbouring Liberal would undermine their regional ell nor Cremer, in their campaign and working-men’s associations. autonomy.20 The League’s finances speeches, attacked the national Generous donations from Liberal were therefore constantly in a pre- Liberal Party. Both promised une- sympathisers also helped him to carious state and in 1873, its sec- quivocal support to Gladstone.16 avoid a nefarious attempt to derail retary, Henry Broadhurst, began But their candidatures did represent his campaign when the returning to solicit subscriptions from Lib- an important protest against the officer demanded that Odger pay eral MPs favourable to their cause, neutralisation of their chosen bor- £200 to cover his share of expenses which was hardly indicative of a ough’s voice following the decision and refused to release tickets for serious plan to go their own way.21 of the local party not to endorse a Odger’s supporters to the elec- second Liberal. tions hustings until he did so. It was The return Sir Sydney Waterlow’s intransi- Labour candidates and the gence, however, that proved fatal. of the coun- Liberal Party: the 1874 general The Labour Representation Although Odger received 4,382 try’s first two election League votes, Waterlow, who retired hours The return of the country’s first A series of electoral contests in the before polling closed, gained just working- two working-class MPs at the following five years witnessed a under 2,951, allowing the Conserv- 1874 general election underlined subtle but important shift in how ative candidate to be returned with class MPs the importance of financial sta- the labour movement articulated 4,686 votes. bility and securing special deals its identity in relation to the Lib- The inflexibility of organised at the 1874 between organised labour and eral Party. This change began in Liberalism in dealing with a popu- local official Liberalism. At Staf- November 1869 with the forma- lar working-class candidate like general elec- ford, Alexander Macdonald of the tion of the Labour Representation Odger prompted the LRL to re- Miners’ National Association was League (LRL), established by the evaluate the labour movement’s tion under- elected in second place. His can- leaders of London trade unionism relationship with the Liberal Party. didature was a direct result of a in order to promote the return of In 1873 the League issued an address lined the deal brokered in 1869 between the working-class men to parliament. to its supporters, which declared: Staffordshire miners and the local The language of the LRL at its importance Liberal Party: following Odger’s inaugural meeting stressed the need We urge you to organize in your defeat in a test ballot at Stafford for independence from middle- several constituencies, not as of financial that year, it was agreed between class politicians. George Odger, mere consenting parties to the the two bodies that a working-class a shoemaker and Reform League doings of local wirepullers, but stability and candidate would be brought for- lecturer, described middle-class as a great Labour party – a party ward at the next general election. Liberal MPs as the ‘sorry repre- which knows its strength, and is securing spe- The traditional obstacle of finance sentatives of labour in Parliament’, prepared to fight and win.19 cial deals was overcome when the Durham while George Potter, owner of The Miners’ Association funded Mac- Bee-Hive, insisted that working- This discussion of a ‘great Labour between donald’s expenses.22 Importantly, men should put themselves forward party’ is significant and should Macdonald himself was reasonably at parliamentary elections, irre- not be dismissed. Even though the organised wealthy from speculative invest- spective of the wishes of local Lib- LRL did not reject Liberal princi- ments in the mining industry, so he eral associations.17 ples, it is an important example of labour and was clearly able to sustain himself Odger’s candidacy at the South- the leaders of the labour movement in parliament if elected. There was wark by-election of February 1870 articulating their identity in a way local official also little doubt about the financial revealed the potential strength of that separated them from organised health of Thomas Burt, the agent a working-class candidate willing Liberalism. Unfortunately, their Liberalism. of the Northumberland Miners’

16 Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 the struggle for political representation: labour candidates and the liberal party, 1868–85

Association who came in for Mor- As The Bee- constituencies, underlining their Liberal intellectuals who expressed peth. The Miners’ Association separateness from Liberal and Con- unease at what they felt was the covered his election costs and pro- Hive, which servative candidates. emergence of mass, democratic vided him with an annual salary of Despite these range of obsta- politics included Henry Maine, £500.23 had become cles, in the post-mortem that fol- Goldwin Smith and Albert Venn The LRL brought forward ten lowed the 1874 general election, the Dicey.29 The Liberal MPs Leon- other working-class candidates the organ of LRL laid the blame squarely at the ard Courtney and John Lubbock, at the 1874 election: they were all door of organised Liberalism. As meanwhile, advocated the cause defeated and their failures under- the League, The Bee-Hive, which had become of proportional representation in a lined the range of obstacles facing the organ of the League, noted fol- bid to limit what they felt was the labour candidates in the 1870s.24 In noted fol- lowing the 1874 general election, nefarious influence of constituency addition to lack money, localism ‘labour candidates to a man were organisations.30 was a problem: sending the Lon- lowing the of Liberal principles, who would Some commentators, such as the don-based George Howell, George have given an intelligent support Liberal journalist William Fraser Potter and Henry Broadhurst to 1874 general to a really Liberal government, Rae, suggested that the Birming- contest, respectively, Aylesbury, and yet the managers of the Lib- ham model mirrored the Ameri- Peterborough and Wycombe, election, eral Party … regarded them with can ‘caucus’, a pejorative term used was foolhardy given the level of ‘labour can- suspicion, and treated them in an to describe closed-door meetings suspicion of outside interference unfriendly spirit’.27 In this context, where unscrupulous party wire- amongst local Liberals. Even when didates to a the League’s response was prefigur- pullers chose a candidate for an the candidates were local, such as ing the later adoption of the ‘cau- election.31 This comparison was the silkweaver Thomas Motter- man were of cus’ as a political bogeyman. fiercely rejected by Chamberlain shead at Preston and the miners’ and the historian and Liberal MP agent William Pickard at Wigan, Liberal prin- James Bryce, who argued that as working-class support for the Con- Labour and the rise of the the American and English political servative Party proved to be an ciples, who ‘caucus’ systems were inherently different, insurmountable obstacle. There The formation of the National Lib- any analogies were deeply flawed.32 was also a wider problem that had would have eral Federation (NLF) in May 1877 Chamberlain, though, understood been evident at the debates at the generated one of the most promi- the rhetorical significance of the Trades Union Congress: working given an nent public debates of the 1870s: word, writing that the term ‘cau- men were not necessarily anxious how to organise a democracy in cus’, because of its association with to be represented in parliament by intelligent a new era of mass politics. Cre- corruption in American politics, their own class.25 ated by Joseph Chamberlain and had ‘the great merit of being infer- Local Liberal associations, support to a the leaders of the Birmingham entially offensive’.33 Sure enough, moreover, displayed superior Liberal Association, the NLF was the word was subsequently appro- canvassing tactics that helped to really Liberal intended to be a forum for popu- priated by would-be politicians neutralise the threat of a labour larly elected constituency associa- during election campaigns, par- candidate. For example, at Mid- government, tions. Firstly, it would promote ticularly, though not exclusively, dlesbrough, John Kane, founder of and yet the the establishment, across industrial self-styled ‘labour’ candidates who the National Association of Iron- England, of local Liberal associa- had been denied the Liberal nomi- workers in Gateshead, represented managers tions mirrored on the Birmingham nation, in order to paint their oppo- a potentially serious challenge to one, the basis of which were ward nent as the nominee of dictatorial Henry Bolckow, the local iron mas- of the Lib- branches that elected members to a wire-pullers.34 Anti-caucus rhetoric ter. But within forty-eight hours general committee, which would in the late 1870s and 1880s was also a of Kane announcing his candi- eral Party vote on matters such as parliamen- cultural expression of a candidate’s dacy, the Middlesbrough Liberal tary candidates, and an executive ‘manliness’. As recent research has Reform Association specifically … regarded committee, which was responsi- shown, a candidate’s refusal to targeted the division’s unskilled ble for the day-to-day running of bow to the dictation of the ‘caucus’ and non-unionised Irish work- them with the organisation. Secondly, the was proof that they behaved in a force, issuing four thousand cir- NLF would referee policy debate ‘manly’ fashion.35 culars. When Kane attempted to suspicion, amongst activists and therefore act, Labour’s response to the forma- reach out to the members of the in Chamberlain’s words, as a ‘Lib- tion of the NLF was both intellec- local Home Rule Association, local and treated eral Parliament’.28 tual and practical. George Howell, Liberals swiftly arranged for mem- The concept of the NLF was in an article titled ‘The Caucus bers of the Middlesbrough Irish them in an attacked by Liberal and Con- System and the Liberal Party’, Literary Association to canvass on servative political thinkers, who raised the familiar purist objec- behalf of Bolckow.26 This slick, unfriendly believed that the introduction of tions regarding machine politics well-oiled local Liberal machine what they felt was machine poli- substituting discipline for popular helped deliver Bolckow a com- spirit’. tics into England would corrupt force, but his analysis was also col- manding majority. More broadly, ideals of representation; namely oured by the fear that the rise of the increasing control of urban that an MP should be free to exer- the caucus would irrevocably dam- space by party managers, through cise his judgement without sac- age the cause of labour representa- controlled and ticketed meet- rificing it to his constituents and tion in parliament. For Howell, the ings, led many labour candidates that extra-parliamentary move- caucus system meant entrenching to give open air speeches in der- ments undermined true parlia- the power of candidate selection elict areas on the outskirts of urban mentary government. Prominent in those who paid the association’s

Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 17 the struggle for political representation: labour candidates and the liberal party, 1868–85

expenses.36 His views were ech- The formation of the NLF oed by the radical journalist Lloyd therefore did not materially alter Jones, who felt that those who ran the prospects for would-be work- the party machine would never ing-class politicians, though it did select a workman who could not precipitate the rise of a distinct be elected free of expense.37 How- anti-caucus rhetoric that helped ever, neither Howell nor Lloyd thwarted working-class candidates Jones rejected the notion of greater express their dissatisfaction at those party organisation. For them, party who ran the local party machine. machinery should be used for prop- Significantly, prominent labour aganda purposes: to promote party activists, such as George Howell, unity around national concerns, did not reject the necessity for party and not accentuate, in Howell’s organisation, reflecting a pragmatic words, ‘petty local ambitions’.38 approach that became evident at the Chamberlain, and the NLF’s 1885 general election. secretary, the seasoned political organiser Francis Schnadhorst, insisted that the working classes Lib-Labs and the 1885 general could join their local Liberal associ- election ation and have a voice in the choice What arguably had a greater impact of candidate.39 Yet, it was one thing than the NLF on how working- for workers to join an association class ‘labour’ candidates and the and quite another for them to sit on managers of organised Liberalism its executive and influence its direc- shared and negotiated power was tion. The majority of workers had the 1885 Redistribution Act, which neither the time nor the money to created new single-member con- do this. This was evident by the stituencies. Existing Liberal organi- derisory number of working-class sations were split into divisional delegates that were sent to the NLF ones, strengthening the identifica- annual meetings in its early years.40 tion between the local party asso- The participation of working-class ciation and the chosen candidate. women in the NLF and its affili- Labour activists were generally ated branches was certainly limited. positive towards the Redistri- By the early 1880s women’s Liberal bution Act. They supported the associations had been established theory that constituencies would in a number of towns, most nota- be divided so as to enable particu- bly Birmingham, Bristol, York lar industries to send a Member to and Darlington, and there were the Commons and they welcomed already forty in existence when the the abolition of double-member Women’s Liberal Federation was seats, believing that they had given formed in 1887.41 But working- the caucus greater opportunity to class women, like their male coun- manipulate and regiment votes.45 terparts, did not have the time or With the LRL having effec- resources to take up leading posi- tively ceased to exist by the end tions, and the agenda of the wom- of the 1870s due to chronic lack of en’s Liberal associations tended finances, there had been little coor- to reflect middle-class preoccu- dinated effort by labour activists pations such as local government at the 1880 general election. Burt reform and education.42 Moreover, and Macdonald held their seats, although figures like Chamber- while Henry Broadhurst came in lain and Schnadhorst champi- for Stoke-on-Trent. The only other oned working-class involvement two working-class candidates were in these new model associations, the former cabinetmaker Benja- the independence of local organi- min Lucraft, who finished bot- sations remained. According to tom of the poll at Tower Hamlets, Robert Spence Watson, president and Joseph Arch, the leader of the of the NLF from 1890 to 1902, ‘it ‘agricultural labourers’, who was was made abundantly clear that the defeated at Wilton.46 The creation independence of local organisations of new single-member constituen- would not be interfered with’.43 cies, however, along with the 1884 In 1892, the Liberal chief whip Reform Act, which extended the Herbert Gladstone echoed this male householder franchise to the interpretation, writing that ‘con- countryside, created new oppor- stituencies and their local managers tunities for working-class candi- are infinitely sensitive over advice dates to broker deals with Liberal from headquarters’. 44 associations.

18 Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 the struggle for political representation: labour candidates and the liberal party, 1868–85

In Durham, for example, upon was not the case, for example, in working-class electorate.56 Both the county being split into eight- Hull, where the independent work- Lloyd Jones and Johnston were single member divisions, the pow- ing-class candidate, Neiles Billany, defeated, but the high number of erful Durham Miners’ Association had the backing of only a nascent votes they received underlined not only selected three candi- radical club that had little leverage the fact that even where the links dates with an agreed annual salary with the local Liberal association, between trade unionism and organ- of £500, but also reserved three which swiftly rejected him.51 ised Liberalism were strong, dis- constituencies for them, a deci- In total, twelve labour candi- putes over candidate selection sion that was readily accepted by dates who had been endorsed by a could quickly expose the tensions the Durham Liberal Association, Liberal association were returned between the Lib-Lab movement who were left to chose candidates at the 1885 general election. They and organised labour. for the remaining five seats. In later become known as Lib-Labs. Given such instances of localised this context, the Durham Miners’ The progress that organised labour tension, it is clear that there was Association effectively became the made under the stewardship of a diversity of responses from the leadership of local organised Liber- these men has played a large part in labour movement towards organ- alism, and in 1885 William Craw- establishing the current orthodoxy ised Liberalism. It is therefore inad- ford, the miners’ leader, and John of a largely untroubled alliance visable to give a one-size-fits-all Wilson, secretary of the Miners’ between working-class radical- picture of the relationship between Political Reform Association, were ism and the Liberals.52 However, labour candidates and the Liberal returned for Mid-Durham and this unity inside the walls of the Party in this period. Moreover, it Houghton-le-Spring respectively.47 Commons was not reflected in is also the case that there was more A separate tactic that had been certain constituencies in England, than one road to becoming a work- used with some degree of success at particularly when the broader ing-class politician. The example municipal and school board elec- Lib-Lab movement was in direct of William Rolley is particularly tions was that labour candidates competition with official Liberal- relevant here. Born in Sheffield and would garner the support of local ism. For example, at Chesterfield apprenticed as a steel maker, Rol- working-men’s clubs and associa- at the 1885 general election, James ley was initially the archetypal tions, and use it as leverage when Haslam, the secretary of the Der- Lib-Lab activist. President of the dealing with the local Liberal asso- byshire Miners’ Association and a TUC in 1874, he was elected as a ciation. In Birmingham, for exam- member of the Clay Cross Polling Liberal to the Sheffield school board ple, in the 1870s, the brass workers’ District Liberal Association, was and helped establish the Sheffield leader John William Davis had the very epitome of Lib-Labism, Labour Electoral Association. After united the city’s working-class yet he was rejected by the Chester- failing to gain the Liberal nomi- radicals into a local Labour Party, field Liberal Association in favour nation for the Attercliffe division and with this organisation behind of Alfred Barnes, a local colliery in 1885, however, he became disil- him, he was able, in negotiations owner.53 Haslam, who was funded lusioned with the leaders of local with Schnadhorst and Chamber- by his miners, continued his cam- organised Liberalism. Hurt that his lain, to secure a certain number paign, despite the best efforts of the efforts on behalf of local Liberal- of working-class candidates on Chesterfield Liberals, who persis- ism had not been recognised and the shortlists produced by the Bir- tently canvassed Barnes’ employees believing that, in his words, ‘the mingham Liberal Association.48 At and banned Haslam from address- working classes were likely to get the 1885 general election George ing ‘Liberal gatherings’.54 Haslam as much from the Tories as from the Howell, standing for the new con- ultimately lost, but he polled Liberals’, he became a Conservative stituency of Bethnal Green North nearly 2,000 votes, meaning that in 1888 and thereafter championed East, used this strategy. First, he the wider Lib-Lab movement had their legislative efforts on behalf secured the backing of the popular delivered a significant rebuke to of the labour interest.57 Rejection Bethnal Green Radical Club. The organised Liberalism. by organised Liberalism could club then informed the leaders of There could also be tensions therefore have the opposite effect the Bethnal Green Liberal Associa- between Lib-Labism and organ- to pushing candidates towards tion that they would instruct their ised labour. In county Durham, independent labour representa- members to support the middle- the neat electoral compact between tion: there was not simply a binary class Liberal candidate in the south- the Lib-Lab leadership of the min- choice between the Liberal Party west division on the condition that ers’ association and local Liberalism and independent labour. the Liberal Association backed was challenged by the wider labour Howell in the north-east. A bar- movement. At Chester-le-Street, Left: Lib- gain was struck, and after Howell’s Lloyd Jones ran as an independ- Labs – Henry Conclusion expenses were covered by dona- ent labour candidate against the Broadhurst The period between 1868 and tions from Liberal sympathisers, local colliery owner James Joicey, (1840–1911; MP 1885 was clearly a significant one he was elected.49 It’s important to arguing that the selection of a 1885–92, 1894– for the relationship between the note, though, that the local politi- mine owner was a blow against the 1906); Thomas labour movement and the Liberal cal environment facilitated How- ‘labour interest in Parliament’.55 At Burt (1837–1922; Party. The franchise revolution of ell’s electoral strategy. London had Jarrow, meanwhile, the engineer MP 1874–1918); 1867, which gave the vote to 30 per a vibrant network of radical clubs James Johnston opposed the local Alexander cent of working men, ushered in a that traditionally operated outside shipowner Sir Charles Palmer, on Macdonald new era of mass politics. The two of Liberal bodies, and Howell was the basis that Palmer’s views did (1821–81; MP main political parties responded able to tap into this resource.50 This not represent those of the division’s 1874–81) by introducing new forms of local

Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 19 the struggle for political representation: labour candidates and the liberal party, 1868–85 party machinery in an attempt to The stream 1 The Bee-Hive, 21 Nov. 1868. 1873, is found in the Labour Repre- control an expanded electorate, 2 Eugenio Biagini, Liberty, Retrench- sentation League minute book, British and it is within this context that of self-styled ment and Reform: Popular Liberalism in Library of Political and Economic the labour movement’s relationship the Age of Gladstone, 1860–1880 (Cam- Science, London. with the Liberals needs to under- ‘labour’ bridge University Press, 1992), p. 338. 20 Biagini, Liberty, Retrenchment and stood. The ability of working-class 3 James Owen, Labour and the Caucus: Reform, pp. 340–2. candidates to secure the Liberal candidates Working-Class Radicalism and Organ- 21 Labour Representation League minute nomination was contingent on the ised Liberalism in England, 1868–1888 book, 15 Mar. 1873. local political environment and putting (Liverpool University Press, 2014). 22 G. M. Wilson, Alexander McDon- it is therefore inadvisable to give 4 Birmingham Daily Post, 19 Nov. 1875. ald: Leader of the Miners (Aberdeen a one-size-fits-all picture of the themselves 5 For example, see Eugenio F. Biagini University Press, 1982), pp. 149–50. relationship between the labour and Alastair J. Reid (eds.), Currents of Although the family name was movement and local Liberal asso- forward Radicalism: Popular Radicalism, Organ- ‘McDonald’, Alexander adopted the ciations. A conclusion that can be ised Labour and Party Politics in Britain, ‘Macdonald’ form in the 1870s. drawn from the contests discussed against Lib- 1850–1914 (Cambridge University 23 L. J. Satre, Thomas Burt, Miners’ above, though, is that evidence of Press, 1991). MP, 1837–1922: The Great Conciliator brokered deals between working- erals was 6 Minutes of the General Council of the (Leicester University Press, 1999), pp. class candidates and Liberal associa- sympto- Reform League, 4 Dec. 1867, George 32–3. tions at local and national elections Howell Collection, Reform League 24 For an examination of these candida- demonstrates that labour had direct matic of this papers, microfilm copy, University tures, see Owen, Labour and the Cau- personal experience of the power of Cambridge Library. cus, pp. 45–51. that party organisation could yield continual 7 Detlev Mares, ‘Transcending the 25 For example see Trades Union Con- for both good and evil. There was Metropolis: London Radicalism and gress, Annual Report (1875), p. 20. therefore a pragmatic, pro-organi- process of Provincial Popular Radicalism, c. Microfilm edition, in Cambridge sational strand to labour’s political 1860–75’, in Matthew Cragoe and University Library. culture in the third-quarter of the re-evalu- Antony Taylor (eds.), London Poli- 26 Daily Gazette, 27, 28, 30 Jan. 1874; nineteenth century. tics, 1760–1914 (Palgrave Macmillan, Northern Echo, 2 Feb. 1874. When working-class candi- ation and 2005), p. 130. 27 The Bee-Hive, 14 Mar. 1874. dates were rejected by what became 8 Royden Harrison, Before the Socialists: 28 Joseph Chamberlain, ‘A new political known as the Liberal ‘caucus’, therefore Studies in Labour and Politics, 1861–1881 organization’, Fortnightly Review, 22 they subsequently made a distinc- (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965), p. (July to Dec. 1877), pp. 126–34; Jona- tion between the middle-class reflected 141. than Parry, The Rise and Fall of Liberal managers running the local party 9 F. M. Leventhal, Respectable Radical: Government in Victorian England (Yale machine, whom they vociferously fault lines in George Howell and Victorian Working University Press, 1993), pp. 274–5. attacked, and advanced Liberal Class Politics (London: Weidenfeld, 29 For example see Henry Maine, Popu- MPs at Westminster, whose val- the relation- 1971), pp. 93–116. lar government: four essays (John Mur- ues they supported. Nonetheless, 10 John Vincent, The Formation of the ray, 1885); Richard A. Cosgrove, The the continuing impotence of the ship between British Liberal Party, 1857–68 (Pelican, Rule of Law: Albert Venn Dicey, Victo- national party leadership to inter- working- 1972), pp. 131–53. rian Jurist (Macmillan, 1980). vene in constituency matters raised 11 H. J. Hanham, Elections and Party 30 H. C. G. Matthew, ‘Courtney, Leon- the question of whether the Liberals class labour Management: Politics in the Time of Dis- ard Henry, Baron Courtney of Pen- would ever fully support the cause raeli and Gladstone (Harvester Press, with (1832–1918)’, Oxford Dictionary of of labour, even when Lib-Labs sat activists and 1978 edn), pp. 333–9. National Biography, www.oxforddnb. in parliament. This predicament 12 Richard W. Davis, Political Change com. caused the labour movement to the Liberal and Continuity, 1760–1885: A Bucking- 31 W. Fraser Rae, ‘Political Clubs and continually re-evaluate its identity hamshire Study (David and Charles, Party Organization’, Nineteenth Cen- as a political group in relation to the Party that 1972), p. 209. tury, 3 (May 1878), pp. 922–5. Liberals. The stream of self-styled 13 Glyn to Gladstone, 13 Nov. 1868, Brit- 32 James Bryce, ‘Some Aspects of ‘labour’ candidates putting them- the current ish Library Add. Mss. 44347, f. 107. American Public Life’, Fortnightly selves forward against Liberals was 14 Howard Evans, Sir Randal Cremer: Review, 32 (July to Dec. 1882), pp. symptomatic of this continual pro- scholarly His Life and Work (T. Fisher Unwin, 634–53 cess of re-evaluation and therefore 1909), pp. 50–2. 33 The Times, 1 Aug. 1878. reflected fault lines in the relation- orthodoxy 15 PP 1868–69 (424), l. 25. 34 James Owen, ‘Triangular contests ship between working-class labour 16 George Howell, ‘To the electors of and caucus rhetoric at the 1885 gen- activists and the Liberal Party that overlooks. the borough and hundreds of Ayles- eral election’, Parliamentary History, 27 the current scholarly orthodoxy bury’, George Howell Collection, (2008), pp. 215–35. overlooks. Bishopsgate Institute, London, 35 Matthew McCormack (ed.), Public HOWELL/9/1/6; Birmingham Daily men: masculinity and politics in modern Dr James Owen is a Research Fellow Post, 31 Oct., 5 and 14 Nov. 1868. Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). for the History of Parliament’s House 17 Daily News, 5 Nov. 1869; The Bee- 36 George Howell, ‘The Caucus System of Commons, 1832–1945, project. His Hive, 14 Dec. 1872. and the Liberal Party’, Bishopsgate book, Labour and the Caucus: work- 18 For details of Odger’s campaign see Institute, London, HOWELL/6/40. ing-class radicalism and organised F. W. Soutter, Recollections of a Labour 37 Lloyd Jones, ‘The Caucus Question Liberalism in England, 1868–1888 Pioneer (T. Fisher Unwin, 1923), pp. and the Working Man’, Industrial (Liverpool University Press, 2014) is 25–53. Review, 31 Aug. 1878. now available – see advert on page 2. 19 A copy of the address, dated 17 Mar. 38 Howell, ‘The Caucus System and the

20 Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 the struggle for political representation: labour candidates and the liberal party, 1868–85

Liberal Party’. a Man and a Brother: Women in 47 Biagini, Liberty, Retrenchment 187–213. 39 For example see press cutting Merseyside’s Political Organisations, and Reform, p. 364; John Wilson, 53 J. E. Williams, The Derbyshire from the Western Daily Mercury, 1890–1920 (Liverpool University Memories of a Labour Leader [1910] Miners: A Study in Industrial and 28 May 1890, in Scrap albums Press, 2004), p. 46. (Caliban Books, 1980 edn), pp. Social History (Allen and Unwin, and addresses of Francis Schnad- 43 Robert Spence Watson, The 281–3. 1962), p. 488. horst, MS18, Birmingham Uni- National Liberal Federation from 48 Owen, Labour and the Caucus, pp. 54 Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield versity, Special Collections. its Commencement to the General 52–9. Herald, 26 Aug., 5 Sept. 1885. 40 National Liberal Federation, Election of 1906 (T. Fisher Unwin 49 Leventhal, Respectable Radical, p. 55 Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 8 Aug. Annual Reports, 1877–81. Micro- 1907), p. 16. 205. 1885. film edition, Cambridge Uni- 44 Herbert J. Gladstone, ‘The Lib- 50 Paul Thompson, Socialists, Lib- 56 North Eastern Daily Gazette, 17 versity Library. eral Party and the Labour Ques- erals and Labour: The Struggle for Oct. 1885. 41 Linda Walker, ‘Party Political tion’, Albemarle, 1 (Feb. 1892), p. London, 1885–1914 (Routledge 57 How I Became a Primrose Ora- Women: A Comparative Study of 54. and Kegan Paul, 1967), pp. 92–3. tor: Or, a Short Sketch of the Life Liberal Women and the Primrose 45 Thomas R. Threlfall, ‘The Pro- 51 Hull Daily News, 27 Oct., 3 Nov. of William Rolley, pp. 3–20: H. J. League, 1890–1914’, in Jane Ren- gramme of the Labour Party’, 1885. Wilson papers, MD 6020, Shef- dall (ed.) Equal or Different: printed in Leeds Mercury, 13 Jan. 52 For example see John Shepherd, field University Library; W. Women’s Politics, 1800–1914 (Basil 1888. ‘Labour and Parliament: the Rolley to H. J. Wilson, 21 May Blackwell, 1987), pp. 165–91. 46 Owen, Labour and the Caucus, pp. Lib.-Labs.’, in Biagini and Reid 1888, H. J. Wilson papers, MD 42 Krista Cowman, Mrs Brown is 201–2. (eds.), Currents of Radicalism, pp. 6020. Liberal history quiz 2014 The 2014 Liberal history quiz was a feature of the History Group’s exhibition stand at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow last October; the questions were (mostly) drawn from our new booklet Liberal Thinkers. The winner, with a rather impressive 20 marks out of 20, was Iain Sharpe. We also included anyone answering at least five questions correctly in a draw for a second prize: the winner was Alan Sherwell. Below we reprint the questions – the answers are on page 29. 1. Which work by serves as the symbol of office of the President of the Liberal Democrats? 2. Which liberal thinker was MP for Berwick-on-Tweed from 1944 to 1945? 3. Which thinker and writer on the role of the state and capitalism had an SDP think-tank named after him? 4. Which liberal thinker’s head is stored in a fridge? 5. Which champion of civil liberties and religious toleration served as Foreign Secretary under three different prime ministers? 6. Which liberal thinker is said to have gone straight from the declaration of the poll, when he was elected town councillor, to lecture on Kant’s The Critique of Pure Reason? 7. Which great advocate of land reform and taxation ran as the United Labor Party candidate for mayor of New York in 1886 coming second but beating the Republican hopeful, Theodore Roosevelt, into third place? 8. She was a radical, feminist thinker; her daughter wrote one of the most enduring horror stories in the English language. Who were they? 9. Where is the ‘Rights of Man’ pub, and why is it there? 10. John Stuart Mill, who wrote books, was defeated in the 1868 general election by his Tory opponent, who sold books. Who was his opponent? 11. Who wrote after the 1929 election that he was ‘sorry that the Liberals did not get more seats, as I think (I know it’s blasphemy) they carry more brains to the square inch than Labour’? 12. Which Liberal thinker held office under Oliver Cromwell’s government, having responsibility for dealing with all foreign correspondence? 13. Which book is generally acknowledged as the only feminist classic written by a male author? 14. The philosopher Bertrand Russell once said that: ‘Every time I argued with XX, I felt I was taking my life in my hands’. Who was XX? 15. In what work did a liberal thinker call for ‘the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to conscience above all liberties’? 16. Who, in the 1830s, argued that ‘women’s ‘minds are degenerated by habits of dependence’ caused by marriage, and called for the education of women and also for the right of divorce ‘without any reason assigned’? 17. Which liberal thinker wrote in 1776: ‘There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people?’ 18. What was the name of the organisation founded in 1953, principally under the influence of Elliott Dodds, which aimed to produce the first full- scale publication on the attitudes and policies of British Liberalism since the ‘Yellow Book’? 19. Which husband-and-wife team of liberal thinkers concentrated in their work upon the effects and costs of the decline of the traditional village and the rise of industry? 20. Which much-loved Liberal Democrat, it is argued in his entry in the Dictionary of Liberal Thought, ‘helped to make the party feel good about itself’?

Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 21