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While George Dangerfield's Entertaining Classic the Strange THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL BIRMinghAM While George n 1868 John Bright had also a key actor in the great Liberal famously declared Birming- schism of 1886, represented the city Dangerfield’s Iham to be as Liberal as the sea in parliament from 1857 until his entertaining classic The is salt. From 1886 until 1969 no death in 1889. Chamberlain, singled Liberal represented any Birming- out by the Irish Nationalist leader Strange Death of Liberal ham constituency, and in the years Charles Stewart Parnell as ‘the man before the outbreak of war in 1914 who killed Home Rule’, went on England (1935) must the Liberal Party was also strug- to play a critical role in the making be taken with a large gling to maintain a minority pres- and shaping of Unionism, assert- ence on a City Council it had once ing a control over Birmingham’s pinch of salt, there can so effortlessly monopolised. Bir- politics without parallel anywhere mingham’s politics did not fit easily else in urban Britain. The tenta- be no gainsaying the into the national trend and its polit- cles of Chamberlain’s influence strange death of Liberal ical behaviour has been described as reached out also into the region of ‘exceptionalism’, the main feature which Birmingham was the heart, Birmingham. Strange, of which was the consistent sup- his hegemony in the three counties port given by an overwhelmingly adjacent to Birmingham conceded because a city which working-class electorate to par- by his fellow Unionist leaders. As ties conventionally described as the Birmingham Liberals were for half a century had right wing. Birmingham therefore driven relentlessly to the sidelines, had a plausible claim to seemed to defy the generalisation it was fatally easy for them to pin that politics was becoming increas- their travails on ‘the cult of per- being the most Radical ingly class-based. This pattern con- sonality’: understandable but not tinued through successive decades in itself a sufficient explanation. in Britain became, in the and was not finally broken until There were of course other factors aftermath of ‘the great 1945. The ‘exceptionalism’ of Bir- at work, by no means all peculiar mingham and, to a lesser extent, its to Birmingham. Whilst the dam- geological rift’ of 1886, region had an important bearing age done to the party by the schism on national politics, underpinning of 1886 is undeniable, it has been a principal stronghold the hegemony of the Conservative commonly argued by historians of Unionism, and Party in the years between 1886 and that the drift away from Liberal- 1906 and again in the two decades ism was already evident a decade more especially of its between the wars.1 or so earlier. Theodor Hoppen, for Right: Joseph The interplay of personalities is instance, discerned a trend of disaf- Liberal variety. Roger Chamberlain one of the more intriguing dimen- fection among the middle classes in Ward examines the speaking at sions of politics, the importance of the 1870s: Birmingham which should never be underesti- strange death of Liberal Town Hall in the mated. Birmingham was for a gen- Disraeli, by some imperceptible 1890s, watched eration the power base of Joseph and probably passive process, Birmingham. by his wife Chamberlain, while John Bright, was more and more successful in 16 Journal of Liberal History 82 Spring 2014 THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL BIRMinghAM making the Liberal Party seem dangerous to men of property.2 In the specific case of Birmingham, Asa Briggs perceived: … signs of resistance to the long Liberal sway, signs which can be traced in the local press, in municipal election results, in pamphlets and political squibs, and in the School Board campaigns.3 On this reading, the split over Irish home rule, however crucial, was not the sole reason for the crisis which kept the Liberal Party out of power for two decades, however much it may have accelerated trends already in train. Birmingham, Eng- land’s second city, provided the most spectacular example of Lib- eral decline. Prelude The 1870s have often been referred to as ‘the Liberal Golden Age’ in Birmingham’s political history. In truth, this description could well be applied to the first half-century of Birmingham’s existence as a parlia- mentary borough from 1832 and an incorporated borough from 1838. Thirteen men represented Bir- mingham in parliament between 1832 and 1886. All, with the single exception of Richard Spooner from 1844 to 1847, were Radical Liberals. Journal of Liberal History 82 Spring 2014 17 THE STRANGE DEATH OF libERAL biRMinghAM When the first borough council prepared for battle in characteris- of proposals upon which all their was elected on Boxing Day 1838, tic fashion by launching a series of potential supporters could agree all successful candidates were Lib- reform proposals which George rendered them politically impotent, erals, notwithstanding that Tories Goschen dubbed ‘the unauthor- but questions concerning Britain’s had contested all forty-eight seats. ised programme’. The Birming- trade policy and its relationship to In 1865 the Birmingham Liberal ham Conservative Association Empire became part of Britain’s Association (BLA) was formed. In (BCA) had enormously improved table talk from the 1880s onwards.6 1868 it was reorganised to defeat its organisation in the previous Its effect on Liberal ideology should the minority clause of the Second few years and expectations were not be underestimated. For many, Reform Act of 1867 and ensured aroused by the patronage of Lord especially among middle-class that all three Birmingham MPs Randolph Churchill, who calcu- entrepreneurs, Cobdenism ceased were Liberals. The ‘caucus’, as Dis- lated that success in Birmingham to be a matter of faith as Britain raeli dubbed the BLA, was widely would be the quickest route to experienced bouts of depression recognised then and later as the political advancement. He pitched in an era of intensifying economic most effective political organisa- himself against John Bright in the competition. tion of its day and was widely imi- Central Division where many busi- Fair trade was, however, tated, not least by its Tory critics. nessmen were located. The ‘cau- reduced to insignificance when Its theory of representative gov- cus’ duly went into action and the compared to the issue of Ireland. ernment was a simple one – winner Conservatives were repelled in all Parnell had committed the strate- takes all – and it enforced a Liberal seven divisions, Churchill losing gic blunder of throwing the Irish monopoly on all elected positions. to Bright by a margin of 773 votes. vote behind the Tories and his Purging the council of opponents Though a disappointment for the eighty-six MPs were just sufficient of reform, it provided the platform BCA, it could take comfort from its to maintain Salisbury’s government for the Joseph Chamberlain-led combined poll of some 23,000 votes in office. It was an unstable situa- ‘municipal revolution’ of the 1870s against the Liberals’ 34,000, a mod- tion which could not last, and in which, together with his militant est improvement on 1880 and par- December Herbert Gladstone’s fly- role in the National Education ticularly on 1874 when it had failed ing of ‘the Hawarden kite’, inform- League, established his national to field a candidate. Its performance ing the press that his father was reputation as ‘the most outstanding in municipal elections, however, contemplating the establishment of mayor in English history.’4 In 1876 continued to be dismal and the evi- a parliament in Dublin, signalled a he replaced George Dixon as Bir- dence of this led Michael Hurst to new and momentous departure. In mingham’s third MP and quickly reject Briggs’ contention that the January 1886 the government fell established a reputation as a leading Tories were making progress.5 as a result of an amendment to the Radical. In 1877 he founded and The result of the general elec- Chamberlain address composed by Chamberlain led the National Liberal Federation tion of November 1885 fell short of believed that and proposed by Collings. The Lib- (NLF) with the intention of making Liberal expectations. Chamberlain eral split began at that point, Lord it a platform for a Radical push for believed that his proposals for the his proposals Hartington and his Whig followers control of the party. In 1880 Glad- provision of allotments and small- declining to join Gladstone’s third stone reluctantly included him in holdings (‘three acres and a cow’) for the provi- administration. his government as president of the had had a positive effect in rural The events that followed pro- Board of Trade and in campaigning constituencies but lamented the sion of allot- vide an exemplary illustration of strenuously for the Third Reform absence of ‘an urban cow’. Cham- the importance of personal relations Act of 1884 he was placing himself berlain attributed the comparative ments and in politics. Chamberlain, offered firmly in the Birmingham tradition strength of the Tories in urban con- the Admiralty in the new admin- laid down by Thomas Attwood and stituencies to fair trade propaganda, smallhold- istration, understandably refused John Bright. Thanks to his close which was a prominent issue in a and requested the Colonial Office friendship and alliance with Sir general election for the first time. ings (‘three instead. This was rejected by Glad- Charles Dilke at the Local Govern- All seven Tory candidates in Bir- stone, who considered the position ment Board, Birmingham received mingham espoused fair trade with acres and a of Secretary of State to be above favourable treatment in the Redis- varying degrees of enthusiasm and Chamberlain’s status and experi- tribution of Seats Act of 1885.
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