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Home , Jesse Collings, Joseph Chamberlain, William Ewart Gladstone

Gladstone and the Great Irish Famine

William Ewart ’s Irish policy as Prime Minister has received a great deal of historical attention, but aspects of his earlier engagement with Ireland remain less well known. In particular, Gladstone’s response to the defining social and economic crisis of modern Irish history – the Great Famine of 1845–52 – has attracted only cursory attention. In this article, Douglas Kanter explores Gladstone’s reaction to the Great Famine, some two decades before his first premiership.

8 Journal of Liberal History 81 Winter 2013–14 Gladstone and the Great Irish Famine

f, as George Boyce remarked months during his involuntary metropolis helped to ensure that, not long ago, the words ‘Glad- absence from the House of Com- by his own account, he remained stone and Ireland’ resonate mons, Gladstone made no signifi- unaware of the magnitude of the I 1 2 to this day, the same cannot be cant impact on relief policy in these approaching catastrophe. Perhaps said for the phrase ‘Gladstone and critical years, when deaths from as a result, Gladstone was at first the Great Irish Famine’. William starvation and disease mounted more preoccupied by the political Gladstone’s response to the defin- and the basic structures of govern- implications of the crisis than by ing social and economic crisis of ment assistance were established. its potential human cost. Initially modern Irish history, in fact, has His contribution to policy for- anticipating no more than a ‘tem- attracted only cursory attention. mulation remained slight after his porary’ suspension of the Corn Historians of the famine have gen- return to parliament as a member Laws, he was ‘rather puzzled’ by erally neglected Gladstone’s opin- of the Opposition in the autumn of the Peel ministry’s ultimately abor- ion of that tragic event, while his 1847, notwithstanding the recur- tive resignation in early December biographers have typically made rence of the famine and the revival 1845, and ‘dismayed and amazed’ only passing mention of it, in of contentious debates concerning by the evident willingness of the order to explain his support for the Irish land law and the financing to support the abolition repeal of the in 1846. of relief. Nevertheless, in light of of the Corn Laws out of office.3 The reasons for such inattention Gladstone’s subsequent significance Even after Gladstone’s perusal of are not difficult to discern. Hav- to the Anglo-Irish relationship, his the government’s ‘Scarcity & Cri- ing resigned from Sir ’s reaction to the Irish Famine merits sis papers’ in late December had Conservative government in Janu- a closer examination. Gladstone’s convinced him to join the recon- ary 1845 as a result of the Prime understanding of the crisis in Ire- structed Conservative ministry and Minister’s decision to augment and land was informed by his deeply assist Peel in the repeal of the Corn render permanent the grant to the held religious convictions, and the Laws, he continued for some time Catholic seminary at Maynooth, famine provided the occasion for to regard the famine primarily as a Gladstone was out of office when his earliest foray into Irish land problem of policy.4 As late as April the extent of the potato blight first legislation, with important, albeit 1846 he portrayed it, in essentially became apparent in October 1845. unanticipated, consequences for the secular language, as ‘an unfore- Although he returned to the Cabi- future. seen emergency’ and ‘a great public net in December of that year, his Gladstone was on the Conti- calamity’.5 Within several months, endorsement of Corn Law repeal nent, addressing a family emer- however, he had concluded that the over the objections of his patron, gency, in mid-October 1845, when famine was an act of God. the Duke of Newcastle, resulted in ministers received confirmation Gladstone’s perception of the the loss of his seat at Newark, and of the impending potato failure, famine began to change in the he did not return to parliament and after his return to England he autumn of 1846, after the Peel until November 1847. Despite, spent little time in until William Ewart ministry had resigned from office. rather anomalously, serving as the second half of December. Gladstone When, in November, the reap- Colonial Secretary for several His protracted removal from the (1809–98) pearance of the blight prompted

Journal of Liberal History 81 Winter 2013–14 9 gladstone and the great irish famine

Lord John Russell’s Whig govern- relief of distress, and to facilitate few months died … the dead are ment to approve a national day of such Christian charity Gladstone buried in trenches as in the time of humiliation in Ireland, Gladstone placed a collection box in the hall- plague, sometimes without cof- privately regretted that ministers way of his London home. (He also, fins, there seem even to have been had not appointed a fast day in Brit- according to his account book, sub- cases in which their bodies have ain as well.6 By January 1847, he had scribed £50 for famine relief, and remained exposed’. ‘Looking to discerned ‘the hand of providence’ if this sum represented a small per- the future’, he lamented, ‘we have in the famine, and by March he centage of the £562 he contributed to expect a great increase it may be had become convinced that it was to religious and charitable objects in feared in the number of deaths’.14 ‘a calamity most legibly divine’.7 1847, it also constituted the second Because Gladstone regarded sin as Gladstone’s profoundly religious largest donation he made to any intrinsic to the human condition, temperament doubtless encouraged philanthropic cause in that year.10) moreover, he rejected explanations such a providential interpretation Members of his household could, of the blight that ascribed it to the of events, particularly in the con- in the second place, economise ‘the excessive immorality of the Irish text of the deepening subsistence consumption of food’. Finally, and people. Instead, in his third famine crisis in Ireland. But his views also most importantly, they could hum- sermon he recalled Jesus’s message reflected a developing consensus in ble themselves before God. Only to the Jews, as recorded in Luke 8: Britain concerning the divine ori- through ‘a true repentance’, Glad- gins of the famine, which was fos- stone insisted, would God ‘find His There were present at the season tered by the Whig government and scourge has done its work & … in some that told him of the Gali- the established church.8 His great mercy withhold it’.11 In leans, whose blood Pilate had Gladstone offered his lengthi- his subsequent famine sermons, mingled with their sacrifices. est and most detailed analysis of Gladstone returned to the theme And Jesus answering said unto the famine in three sermons that of atonement, warning his audi- them, Suppose ye that these Gal- he composed and delivered to his tors that they might avert a simi- ileans were sinners above all the household in March 1847, in prepa- lar infliction upon England only Galileans, because they suffered ration for a national day of humili- through genuine penitence and a such things? I tell you, Nay: but ation held throughout the United sincere abhorrence of sin.12 except ye repent, ye shall all Kingdom on 24 March. These fam- If Gladstone’s famine sermons likewise perish. ine sermons were hardly unique reflected the religious tenor of early – Gladstone completed almost 200 Victorian society, they were also Lest his household misunderstand sermons between 1840 and 1866 – shaped by the distinctive contours the message, Gladstone drew the but they were unusual in explicitly of his faith, and particularly by his moral explicitly. ‘What the Jews addressing a contemporary event.9 profound sense of sin and personal thought of the Galileans slain by In the first sermon in the series, unworthiness in the eyes of God. Pilate’, he explained, ‘we perhaps Gladstone situated the Irish Fam- Many early Victorians, particularly are tempted to think of our fel- ine within a framework of sin and Whigs and Liberals, embraced an low countrymen in Ireland. Law retribution provided by the Old optimistic version of providential- & order[,] care & thrift are highly Testament. Passages from the books ism during the famine. God had prized among us, whereas we hear of Isaiah, Numbers and 2 Kings sent the blight, they believed, to of them as wild and unruly, set- revealed that God, ‘in divers times correct the moral failings of the ting too little value on human life & places[,] sent forth the Angels of Irish people, and to reconstruct and caring too little for the future’. destruction to punish the sins of Irish society. While the famine, ‘Do not’, he exhorted his listen- particular periods and nations. … unfortunately, entailed some nec- ers, ‘let us assume that the blow Sometimes by pestilence … Some- essary suffering, in the long run it By 1847, has descended upon Ireland and times by the Sword [and] … Some- would demonstrate God’s benevo- not upon us because God is better times also by Famine’. Although lence by effecting the permanent Gladstone pleased with us: for we have seen some commentators had ‘foolishly improvement of Ireland. This that He sometimes visits earlier or impiously’ suggested that the anodyne view often distanced the had come to where He means to chastise more potato blight in Ireland was the government officials and opinion- lightly’.15 By 1847, therefore, Glad- result of ‘natural causes’, Gladstone makers who subscribed to it from interpret the stone had come to interpret the was certain that ‘we should divine the human cost of the famine.13 famine as both a divine judgment in it the hand of God conveying to Gladstone’s providentialism, in famine as upon Ireland and as a providential us especial tokens of His displeas- contrast, emphasised the retribu- admonition to Britain. The contin- ure’. ‘We are’, he admonished his tive relationship between God and both a divine uance of the famine in 1848 served family and servants, ‘… to plant man. This left him uncertain about judgment to confirm this belief, as he dis- deep in our minds the lively con- the ultimate beneficence of the cerned God’s ‘judgments … again viction that the famine which now divine visitation. The famine was upon Ire- going abroad’ in the recurrence of afflicts Ireland and begins to press ‘without doubt’ evidence of God’s the blight.16 Gladstone’s tendency even upon England is a judgment ‘wrath’, but only ‘perhaps’ a sign of land and as a to descry the hand of God at work of God sent upon the land for our ‘His farseeing love’. The connec- in Anglo-Irish relations, so evi- sins’. He advised the members of his tion Gladstone discerned between providential dent during the famine, provided household that they might help to sin and suffering encouraged him an important point of continuity mitigate ‘the horrors’ of the famine to acknowledge the famine’s cruel admonition between the youthful of the in three ways. They could, in the toll. ‘Many thousands of the peo- 1840s and the Liberal statesman of first place, contribute money for the ple’, he recognised, ‘have in the last to Britain. the late Victorian age.

10 Journal of Liberal History 81 Winter 2013–14 gladstone and the great irish famine

on the subject of government pol- icy. Yet they suggested a degree of fatalism in the face of God’s anger. ‘Millions of money’, he observed, ‘have been poured forth from the treasury of this country: hundreds of thousands have been publicly and privately contributed by indi- viduals: from all parts of the earth large quantities of food have been obtained & sent to Ireland[;] but even large quantities have failed to supply a void which is far larger still’. 25 Indeed, the famine helped to confirm Gladstone’s bias against extensive state intervention in the economy. The British relief effort, he instructed the corpora- tion of in 1864, some thirteen years after the famine had ended, provided an example of ‘enormous waste’ and ‘lamentable failure’. ‘There was’, he recalled, ‘an immense amount of devoted labour, and of most intelligent, as well as magnificent liberality, on the part of the country’. ‘But still’, But if the responsibility of the Famine distress: central government expenditure, he tellingly concluded, ‘it was Gov- individual was clear, what was the Mullin and his Gladstone repeatedly expressed ernment machinery, and I want duty of the state? On this subject, family in their concern over the cost of relief. you to see the infinite superiority Gladstone remained, through- cabin at Scull Though ‘the question of money of voluntary action in every such out the famine, politically cau- (Mary Evans in its incidence upon the people of case’. 26 Thus, while Gladstone did tious and fiscally conservative. Picture Library) England’ was, he conceded, only not share the optimism of many As late as 16 December 1845, only one of the ‘secondary aspects’ of the Whigs and Liberals about the trans- six days before accepting office, famine, it was also ‘a very impor- formative capacity of the famine, he expressed guarded and contin- tant one’.22 ’s his own more pessimistic providen- gent support for the maintenance proposal for an advance of £16 tialism pointed to a similar policy of the Corn Law of 1842.17 With million for Irish railway construc- of limited intervention. Men must, the bruises over his support for the tion he deemed ‘shallow and bad’, it seemed, be left to work out their increased Maynooth grant in the while he similarly deprecated the own salvation, temporal as well as most recent parliamentary session government’s decision to raise a spiritual. still tender, Gladstone was reluctant loan of £8 million as ‘bad in prin- This did not mean that the state to risk the further alienation of the ciple, and bad in policy’ because it had no social or economic role to Conservative Party or its support- entailed ‘a burden on posterity’.23 play: it might establish the condi- ers.18 Although ‘the special facts of Gladstone’s cheeseparing instincts tions in which self-help was possi- the Irish case’ ultimately convinced did not prevent him from support- ble. Government had an obligation, Gladstone to re-join the Peel min- ing emergency relief expenditure, in Gladstone’s view, to ensure polit- istry, he favoured a more meas- such as the modest but controversial ical stability and to protect prop- ured approach to Corn Law repeal grant of £50,000 to distressed Poor erty. Accordingly, he expressed than the Prime Minister adopted.19 Law unions in Connaught during no objection to Peel’s Protection Peel proposed the imposition of 1849.24 But the absence of adverse of Life Bill in 1846, the rejection a reduced sliding scale on foreign comment indicates that he was of which resulted in the resigna- grains, to be replaced after three generally content with the Russell tion of the Conservative ministry. years by a ‘nominal’ duty of 1s. on ministry’s commitment to the man- Some two years later, he divided in all imports. In the meantime, colo- ifestly inadequate amended Irish favour of the Whigs’ Crown and nial grains, as well as foreign and Poor Law of 1847, which sought to Government Security Bill, which colonial maize, would be subject to enforce a workhouse test of destitu- sought to render the conviction of a fixed duty of 1s. to assist famine tion and to insulate British taxpay- Young Ireland agitators more cer- relief efforts.20 Gladstone, in con- ers from the cost of assistance, as the tain by reducing the penalty for trast, ‘should have preferred’ the primary mechanism of relief. treason, under specified circum- maintenance of ‘a low fixed duty of Gladstone’s famine sermons, stances, from capital punishment 4/ or 5/ per quarter … for a greater delivered to a household consist- to transportation.27 He endorsed number of years’.21 ing, in his view, of subjects rather the suspension of habeas cor- When it became clear, in 1847, than citizens – including depend- pus in Ireland a few months later, that the continuance of the fam- ent adult males, women and chil- approving what he termed Rus- ine would necessitate considerable dren – were frustratingly opaque sell’s ‘statesmanlike’ speech on the

Journal of Liberal History 81 Winter 2013–14 11 gladstone and the great irish famine

to facilitate the establishment of a reconstructed Irish society in which further state interference would prove unnecessary.30 It was possible to derive multiple policy prescriptions from this analysis. Ulster Liberals and Irish national- ists endorsed the legal recognition of tenant right as the basis for social transformation, as did many Brit- ish Radicals.31 Despite his advocacy of Ulster custom some twenty years later, Gladstone evinced no interest in tenant right during the famine. He did not vote, for example, in the crucial division on William Shar- man Crawford’s failed bill of 1848, which proposed to provide com- pensation for improvements made to the land by outgoing tenants.32 A different approach, which received the approbation of a broad spectrum of British public opin- ion, traced its genealogy back to the Devon Commission Report, issued on the eve of the famine in 1845. The commissioners, appointed by the Peel ministry to inquire into the relations between Irish land- lords and tenants in response to Daniel O’Connell’s agitation for the repeal of the Act of Union, had studiously refrained from support- ing the more advanced demands of the advocates for tenant right. But they had recommended a relaxa- tion of the restrictions upon the sale of land, and they had expressed the hope that small allotments might be sold to resident farmers, in order to create a class of Irish yeoman.33 During the famine, in land and peasant proprietorship were favourably re-evaluated by prominent political economists and self-appointed Irish ‘experts’. Pro- ponents lauded small farms as not only economically efficient, but also as conducive to peasant moral- ity, because landownership was believed to incentivise such virtues as work, discipline and prudence.34 With the famine at its lethal zenith in 1847 and 1848, Gladstone read introduction of the measure, and Gladstone’s interest in induc- A young girl widely – though not, by his stand- assessing the overwhelming parlia- ing the Irish to help themselves, and boy dig ards, voraciously – on the subject of mentary support for suspension as however, also assumed a more posi- for potatoes; peasant proprietorship, consulting ‘satisfactory’.28 Though the Young tive form. Many observers identi- the fields have works by George Poulett Scrope, Ireland rebellion of 1848 proved fied a dysfunctional agrarian social already been William Thomas Thornton, Jona- abortive, and no serious revolution- structure as a remote cause of the harvested so than Pim and Aubrey de Vere, ary threat succeeded it, Gladstone famine. Neither undercapitalised the children are which recommended an expansion voted in favour of the continued landlords nor rack-rented peasants gleaning any of small owner-occupied farms in suspension of habeas corpus the fol- had the requisite means for mate- chance leftovers. Ireland.35 lowing year.29 His record on Irish rial or moral improvement. Under (© Illustrated A group of enterprising Irish coercion during the famine was these circumstances, government London News landlords, meanwhile, had organ- consistently supportive. intervention was justified, if only Ltd/Mary Evans) ised a Farmers’ Estate Society, in

12 Journal of Liberal History 81 Winter 2013–14 gladstone and the great irish famine order to purchase encumbered If Gladstone’s proprietary … would be attended 1968–94), iii, p. 506 (diary entry of 22 Irish estates, divide them into plots with great social and political Dec. 1845). of twenty acres, and resell them providential advantages, and would be a very 5 Gladstone ‘To the Electors of Wigan’, to resident farmers for a modest Conservative measure’, he was [6] Apr. [1846] (British Library, Glad- profit. The object of this initiative, interpreta- not merely attempting to placate stone Papers (hereafter GP), Add. MS according to Lord Devon, who an occasionally obstreperous col- 44735, f. 174). lent his assistance to the endeav- tion of the league with kind words.40 On the 6 D, iii, p. 584 (diary entry of 20 Nov. our, was social and moral rather contrary, though the elimination 1846); for ‘the day of solemn prayer than financial. The experience of Great Irish of the landlords as a class was never and humiliation’ in Ireland, see Peter the famine, he believed, confirmed Famine was Gladstone’s preferred method of Gray, ‘National Humiliation and the the findings of the Devon Com- resolving the problem of social Great Hunger: Fast and Famine in mission Report, which had con- relatively order in Ireland, and financial con- 1847’, Irish Historical Studies, xxii, no. cluded that the extension of peasant siderations ensured his aversion to 126 (2000), p. 195. proprietorship would increase the conven- extensive schemes of state-spon- 7 Gladstone to Sir John Gladstone, 23 ‘proportion of the population … sored land purchase in the absence Jan. 1847 (GGP, MS 228, f. 14); D. C. interested in the preservation of tional, and of , the encouragement Lathbury (ed.), Correspondence on peace and good order; and the pros- of owner-occupied farms was a Church and Religion of William Ewart pect of gaining admission into this if his policy persistent feature of his mature Gladstone, 2 vols. (The Macmillan class of small landowners would Irish legislation, from the purchase Company, 1910), ii, p. 275 (Gladstone often stimulate the renting farmer preferences clauses of his Disestablishment Act to Henry Manning, 9 Mar. 1847). to increased exertion and perse- of 1869 through the abortive Land 8 Peter Gray, Famine, Land and Politics: vering industry’.36 To capitalise were inad- Bill of 1886.41 Gladstone’s later British Government and Irish Society, the venture and render it a going policy initiatives were, of course, 1843–50 (Irish Academic Press, 1999), concern, the society required par- equate to powerfully conditioned by the pp. 258–59; Gray, ‘National Humilia- liamentary permission to incor- exigencies of the moment, but he tion’, pp. 195–99. porate, and in the summer of 1848 relieve suf- was receptive to programmes of 9 For an outstanding collective analysis its projectors applied for an act to land purchase from the famine to of the sermons, see D. W. Bebbing- do so. After receiving its first read- fering and the end of his career. Given that ton, The Mind of Gladstone: Religion, ing, the Farmers’ Estate Society Bill Gladstone’s move in the direction Homer, and Politics (Oxford Univer- was referred to a select committee, starvation, of peasant proprietorship encour- sity Press, 2004), pp. 85–97; Beb- which Gladstone was appointed his endorse- aged the more ambitious and suc- bington’s tally of the sermons may be to chair. Although the commit- cessful land purchase bills of his found at p. 85. tee altered some of the bill’s details ment of Conservative and Unionist oppo- 10 Account of ‘Religion and Charity, – most notably by increasing the nents,42 culminating in the Wynd- 1841–59’ (GGP, MS 1486, ff. 31, 35). minimum prospective size of an peasant pro- ham Land Act of 1903, it is perhaps 11 ‘Public Humiliation’, 14 Mar. 1847 allotment from twenty to thirty not too bold to suggest, by way of (GP, Add. MS 44780, ff. 179–84). acres – Gladstone was favourably prietorship conclusion, that the social revolu- 12 ‘The Public Fast’, 23 Mar. 1847, ‘The impressed by the measure, recom- tion of twentieth-century Ireland Gospel for the day of solemn & public mending the recommittal of the in Ireland had its origins in the social catas- humiliation’, 24 Mar. 1847 (ibid., ff. bill to the whole house ‘on account trophe of the nineteenth century. 189–92, 193–97). of the important considerations was fraught 13 Gray, Famine, pp. 231–35, 337–38. of public policy’ that it involved.37 Douglas Kanter is associate professor of 14 ‘Public Humiliation’, 14 Mar. 1847 He personally introduced the bill with conse- history at Florida Atlantic University. (GP, Add. MS 44780, ff. 179, 181). on its second reading, approvingly He is the author of The Making of 15 ‘The Gospel for the day of solemn explaining that its object was ‘to quence for British Unionism, 1740–1848: Poli- & public humiliation’, 24 Mar. 1847 create a body of independent yeo- tics, Government and the Anglo- (ibid., ff. 193, 196). manry in Ireland’.38 The Farmers’ the future. Irish Constitutional Relationship 16 Gladstone to , 16 Estate Society Act passed with lit- (Four Courts Press, 2009). Aug. 1848 (GGP, MS 771, f. 85). tle adverse comment though, as 17 Gladstone to Robert Caparn, 16 Dec. one leading Irish Tory predicted, it 1 D. George Boyce, ‘Gladstone and 1845 (GP, Add. MS 44363, f. 20). The proved inoperative.39 Ireland’, in Peter J. Jagger (ed.), Glad- letter, however, was cancelled. Inoperative, but not, in the stone (The Hambledon Press, 1998), p. 18 John Brooke and Mary Sorensen longer term, insignificant. For if 105. (eds.), The Prime Ministers’ Papers: Gladstone’s providential interpre- 2 to Sir John W. E. Gladstone, 4 vols. (Her Maj- tation of the Great Irish Famine Gladstone, 30 June 1849 ( esty’s Stationery Office, 1971–81), iii, was relatively conventional, and if Record Office, Glynne-Gladstone p. 14 (memorandum of 20 Dec. 1845). his policy preferences were inade- Papers (hereafter GGP), MS 229, f. Though Gladstone had resigned from quate to relieve suffering and star- 133). the Cabinet over Peel’s decision to vation, his endorsement of peasant 3 Gladstone to Catherine Gladstone, 3 augment the Maynooth grant, once proprietorship in Ireland was Nov. 1845, Gladstone to John Glad- out of office he had endorsed the fraught with consequence for the stone, 12 Dec. 1845, 19 Dec. 1845 Prime Minister’s proposal. future. When Gladstone informed (ibid., MS 770, f. 155, MS 227, ff. 222, 19 Ibid. , during their pre- 230). 20 John Prest, ‘A Large Amount or a liminary discussions of his first 4 M. R. D. Foot and H. C. G. Matthew Small? Revenue and the Nineteenth- Irish Land Bill some twenty years (eds.), The Gladstone Diaries (hereafter Century Corn Laws’, Historical Jour- later, that ‘a native and a small D), 14 vols. (Oxford University Press, nal, xxxix, no. 2 (1996), p. 472.

Journal of Liberal History 81 Winter 2013–14 13 gladstone and the great irish famine

21 Gladstone to Sir John Gladstone, 27, 32–34 (diary entries of 8 May maybe Mr Goodlad was behav- Dr Bradley was attracted to 30 June 1849 (GGP, MS 229, f. 1847, 26 Nov. 1847, 25 Feb. 1848, ing professionally rather than the Liberal Party, like so many 134). 8 Mar. 1848, 14 Apr. 1848, 28 whimsically. of my generation, by Jo and 22 Gladstone to F. R. Bonham, 2 Apr. 1848, 29 Apr. 1848, 1 May Michael Steed indeed was himself a Liberal Feb. 1847 (GP, Add. MS 44110, f. 1848, 2 May 1848, 3 May 1848, 8 candidate in the two general 214). May 1848, 9 May 1848). elections of 1974. He is cur- 23 Gladstone to Sir John Gladstone, 36 Report from the Select Committee on rently an active supporter of 15 Feb. 1847, 27 Feb. 1847 (GGP, the Farmers’ Estate Society (Ireland) I very much enjoyed reading the ‘Better Together’ campaign MS 228, ff. 28, 37–38). Bill, PP, 1847–48 (535), xvii. 364. the various articles about Jo seeking a ‘No’ vote in the Sep- 24 3 Hansard, cii. 630 (12 Feb. 1849). 37 Ibid., p. 361. Grimond in the Autumn 2013 tember 2014 referendum on 25 ‘Public Humiliation’, 14 Mar. 38 3 Hansard, c. 978 (28 July 1848). edition (Journal of Liberal His- . 1847 (GP, Add. MS 44780, f. 180). 39 Ibid., ci. 258 (18 Aug. 1848). tory 80). I twice chaired meet- Derek Barrie 26 The Times, 15 Oct. 1864. 40 Gladstone to John Bright, 22 ings with audiences of over a 27 3 Hansard, xcviii. 130 (10 Apr. May 1869 (British Library, hundred in North East Fife in 1848). Bright Papers, Add. MS 43385, f. support of Menzies Campbell (1) 28 Gladstone to Catherine Glad- 31). when Jo was guest speaker. One With reference to David Boyle’s stone, 22 July 1848 (GGP, MS 41 H. C. G. Matthew, Gladstone, of my best memories was at a interesting article on Jesse Coll- 771, ff. 78, 80). 1809–1898 (Oxford University packed meeting in the Corn ings (Journal of Liberal History 29 3 Hansard, cii. 369, 556 (6 Feb. Press, 1997), pp. 496–500; Allen Exchange in Cupar, when Jo 80), may I add some other facts 1849, 9 Feb. 1849). Warren, ‘Gladstone, Land and talked at length and in detail about Collings’ political career 30 Clive J. Dewey, ‘The Rehabili- Social Reconstruction in Ire- for over 45 minutes. He had one and its more general impact? tation of the Peasant Proprietor land, 1881–1887’, Parliamentary scrap of paper with his notes As an associate of Joseph in Nineteenth-Century Eco- History, ii (1983), pp. 155–57. containing three words: ‘farm- Chamberlain, having been nomic Thought’, History of Politi- 42 E. D. Steele, Irish Land and Brit- ing, fishing, forestry’. Mayor of in 1878– cal Economy, vi, no. 1 (1974), pp. ish Politics: Tenant-Right and Your readers may be inter- 79, he was originally elected as 40–41. Nationality, 1865–1870 (Cam- ested to know that, in addi- a Liberal in the two-member 31 Gray, Famine, pp. 151–52, bridge University Press, 1974), tion to ’s Grimond constituency of Ipswich in 171–77. p. 312; K. Theodore Hoppen, memorial lecture, a second 1880. He did indeed move the 32 3 Hansard, xcvii. 865, 1342–43 (22 ‘Gladstone, Salisbury and the such lecture has been held in successful amendment (carried Mar. 1848, 5 Apr. 1848). End of Irish Assimilation’, in Jo’s birthplace, St Andrews in by 331 votes to 252) to the Con- 33 Gray, Famine, pp. 56–57, 69–71. Mary E. Daly and K. Theodore North East Fife, organised by servatives’ Address in Reply 34 Dewey, ‘Peasant Proprietor’, pp. Hoppen (eds.), Gladstone: Ireland Lord Steel’s brother, Profes- to the Queen’s Speech on 25 30, 32, 34–35. and Beyond (Four Courts Press, sor Michael Steel. Jo wrote a January 1886 which resulted in 35 D, iii, pp. 618, 671, iv, pp. 13, 16, 2011), p. 53. short, attractive book about his the resignation of the minor- birthplace: The St Andrews of Jo ity Conservative government Grimond. on 29 January and the forma- The well-attended lecture, tion of Gladstone’s third Liberal on 15 November 2013, was administration. jointly hosted by the Univer- However, although Collings’ sity of St Andrews and North amendment was of an agrarian East and Central Fife Liberal nature, the division on 25 Janu- Democrats, with financial sup- ary was in reality a precursor of port from the Joseph Rowntree the Liberal split on Irish Home Reform Trust, of which Jo was Rule a few months later. Sev- Letters a director for many years. The enteen Liberals and one Inde- lecture was delivered by Dr pendent Liberal, including two Ian Bradley, the Principal of St former Liberal Cabinet Minis- Party agents Mary’s College, the Divinity ters (George Goschen and the David Steel’s story (in Journal agent for the Conservative MP College, in St Andrews Univer- Marquis of Hartington) and Sir of Liberal History 80, autumn for Dover. sity, and chaired by the Chan- Henry James (a former Liberal 2013) about Jo Grimond asking He was, I believe, a Con- cellor of the University, local Attorney-General) voted with a Lerwick solicitor, Mr Good- servative in his politics – MP Sir Menzies Campbell (see the Conservatives. Some sev- lad, to be his agent in 1945 and though his oldest daughter, photo, right). Six members of enty other Liberal MPs, includ- receiving his assent before he a flapper voter in 1929, stuck the Grimond family were pre- ing two other former Liberal asked of Jo’s party, no doubt up a Liberal poster in her bed- sent as invited guests. Cabinet Ministers (John Bright raised a chuckle. But was it room window facing a main Dr Bradley knew Jo well, and C.P Villiers), were absent or more normal than we might street in Sandwich. But I have particularly in the period abstained. suppose? understood that, as a solicitor, before he changed careers from Although Collings accepted I raise the question because he performed an essentially journalism to the academic life. office in the new Liberal admin- my solicitor grandfather, F. A. legal and clerical role for the Dr Bradley wrote the entry istration as Parliamentary Cloke, was in the 1920s vari- MP rather than a political one, about Jo Grimond in the Dic- Secretary to the Local Gov- ously clerk to the Eastry Dis- and so could combine it with tionary of National Biography ernment Board, he resigned trict Council and to its Poor his non-political roles in local and also the obituary which when and Law Union, plus secretary of government. appeared in The Times, along George Otto Trevelyan left the East Kent Joint Town Plan- Does any reader know with many articles about Jo and the Cabinet in opposition to ning Committee – as well as whether this is correct? If so, interviews with him.. Irish Home Rule. However,

14 Journal of Liberal History 81 Winter 2013–14