Report: Europe – the Liberal commitment

vols. VIII–XII (Feb–May 1893) and XXII– 54 Leicester Chronicle & Mercury, 28 Apr. 1894. 71 WHD/2, Broadhurst to JW, 19 Sep. 1900. XXVI (Mar–Jul 1894). 55 Hansard XXIV, 1273, 1285, 1535, 25, 29 May 72 Quoted in Radford, Sir James Whitehead . 40 Hansard, VIII, 172, 233, 661, 1045, 1553–7, 1, 2, 1894. 73 WHD/2, E. R. Brice to JW, 9 Dec. 1898 (Bor- 7, 15 Feb.1893. 56 Hansard XXVI, 101, 22 Jun. 1894. stals), W. Gilbey to JW, 20 Feb. 1901 (Hill 41 Hansard, IX, 45–47, 1036, 1226, 21 Feb., 3 57 Hansard XXII 309, 30 Mar. 1894. Trust). Mar., 7 Mar. 1893. 58 Hansard XXIII, 1227, 1661, 24, 30 Apr. 1894. 74 Gazette, 7 Apr. 1893. See D. G. Pat- 42 Leicester Chronicle & Mercury, 11 Mar. 1893. 59 Hansard XXVI, 1248, 9 Jul. 1894. erson, ‘The Failure of British Business in 43 Hansard, XI, 316, 14 Apr 1893. 60 Hansard XXIX, 347, 25 Aug. 1894. Canada, 1890–1914’, University of British 44 Hansard, X, 488–9, 658, 20, 21 Mar. 1893, XI 61 Quoted in Kendal Mercury & Times, 17 Aug. Columbia Discussion paper (1974) p. 20. 313, 1024, 14, 24 Apr. 1893. 1894, Westmorland Gazette, 18 Aug. 1894. 75 Leicester Chronicle & Mercury, 28 Oct. 1893, 45 Hansard, XII, 1153, 16 May 1893. Alderman, 62 Leicester Chronicle & Mercury, 18 Aug. 1894 quoting a letter to the Westminster Gazette. Railway Interest p. 152, lists four known sup- 63 Wyvern, 17 Aug. 1894 76 WHD/2, W. J. Soulsby to JW, 31 May 1917. porters of the railway on the Committee, and 64 Leicester Express, 14 Aug. 1894. Soulsby was formerly secretary at Mansion six of the traders. 65 Penrith Observer, 8 Aug. 93, 25 Nov. 1893; House. 46 First Report of Select Committee on Railway Rates, Leicester Chronicle & Mercury, 30 Sep. 1893. 77 Hansard, 4th series vols. CLIII-CXCVIII (Mar. 22 Aug. 1893: witness statements of 21 Jul. 66 Penrith Observer, 31 Jul. 1894. 1906–Dec 1908); 5th series III–XII (Apr.–Oct. 47 Mid-Cumberland & North Westmorland Herald, 67 WHD/2, Evans to JW, 13 Aug., Channing to 1909) passim. 21 Jan. 1893 JW 14 Aug., 1894. 78 Hansard, CLXX, 1112–1120, 8 Mar. 1907. 48 Mid-Cumberland & North Westmorland Herald, 4 68 Leicester by-election, 29 Aug. 1894: H. 79 WHD/4, R. McKenna to RW, 13 Nov. 1909. Feb. 1893 Broadhurst (Lib-Lab) 9464; W. Hazell (Lib) 80 Email from Sir Philip Whitehead to the 49 Mid-Cumberland & North Westmorland Herald, 4 7184; J. Rolleston (Con) 6967; J. Burgess (ILP) author, 8 Jan 2015. Mar. 1893 4,402. 81 WHD/2. J. W. Crombie to JW, 16 and 18 Jul 50 Leicester Chronicle & Mercury, 25 Sep. 1893. 69 Mid-Cumberland & North Westmorland Herald, 2 1894. 51 Hansard XXII, 138, 12 Mar. 1894; XXIII 225– Sep. 1893. The Whitehead boxes in the Parlia- 82 P. J. Cain, ‘The British Railway Rates Prob- 6, 635, 12, 17 Apr. 1894. mentary Archive contain no correspondence lem, 1894–1913’, Business History XX, 1 (1978), 52 WHD/2, A.J. Mundella to JW, 21 May 1894. from Gladstone. There is no mention of him pp. 87–97. The landmark case was Smith & His resigned because of a public enquiry into in the Gladstone Diaries. Forrest v London & North Western and others. the affairs of a finance company of which he 70 WHD/2 contains a note from Rosebery on 12 83 A. Connell, ‘The Strange Case of Mr Rigg’, had been a director. Jun. 1895, responding to an invitation from Journal of Liberal History, 60 (Autumn 2008), pp. 53 Alderman, Railway Interest (1973), p. 155. Lady Whitehead to a garden party. 14–22. Rigg was later mayor of Westminster.

Sir Graham started by warning attendees that he was not a historian, Reports other than as a chronicler of events in which he had been involved. His contri- bution was as a practitioner of politics Europe: The Liberal commitment rather than an interpreter. As Baron- ess Smith has noted, his practice had Evening meeting, 1 February 2016, with Sir Graham Watson and Lord made him very well qualified for the discussion: former leader of the ALDE William Wallace. Chair: Baroness Julie Smith. group in the and Report by David Cloke president of the ALDE Party, and now a member of its economic and social ow and why did the Liberal met to discuss the historic Liberal com- committee. Party, SDP and Liberal Demo- mitment and record, with Sir Graham For Sir Graham the first question to Hcrats all end up as the strong- Watson (Liberal Democrat MEP 1994– be asked was how far back one could est supporters of Britain’s membership 2014) and Lord William Wallace (Liberal trace evidence of British Liberal ideas of the European Economic Commu- Democrat Foreign Office minister in the about the value of pooling sovereignty nity and its successor institutions? Has coalition government, 2010–15). to unite Europe. Some, such as Piers it helped or hindered the party’s politi- In introducing the speakers, Baroness Ludlow of the LSE, were sceptical that cal achievements? Have developments in Smith noted that they had kindly agreed the idea even went back to the late nine- Europe since the EEC’s founding Treaty to divide the subject up between them teenth century. But, as a romantic, Sir of Rome in 1958 reflected the party’s chronologically, with Sir Graham begin- Graham believed that it was possible to European faith? Earlier in the year, as a ning with the roots of Liberalism’s Euro- trace the idea back to the late eighteenth referendum on Britain’s membership of pean outlook and Lord Wallace picking century and the awakening of revulsion the EU seemed increasingly on the cards, up the story from the Second World both at the continental despots and also the Liberal Democrat History Group War. at the ‘John Bull’ style militarism that

Journal of Liberal History 91 Summer 2016 33 Report: Europe – the Liberal commitment built up as Britain approached the Napo- The revolutions of 1848 failed, how- always decided in Europe. Engagement leonic Wars. It could be seen, Watson ever: Russia’s crushing of resistance in was, therefore, essential for the achieve- noted, in the works of such radical poets Hungary allowed Austria in turn to ment of Liberal Imperial goals. as Oliver Goldsmith and Robert Burns crush Italian nationalism. And then, At this time, Watson noted, Glad- and the calls for the brotherhood of man, Watson argued, after the near cata- stone, in his concept of ‘international or ‘brethren in a common cause’ as Burns strophic war with Russia in the Crimea, public right’ and Mill and Acton in their put it, as a means of putting to an end the Britain withdrew from active engage- defence of intellectual and personal free- almost constant wars in Europe. ment in continental affairs. Nonethe- dom, were putting forward the same In 1759 Emmanuel Kant had launched less, Watson noted, the Liberal academics kind of ‘universals’ as the EU existed to the idea of a league of nations in his of the mid-nineteenth century, such as promote, recognising that these can be book Perpetual Peace. Adam Smith not Matthew Arnold and T. H. Green, kept constrained, as in America, by populist only talked about the importance of the cause alive and were seen as conspic- pressure, or by bureacracy. Watson also trade but in The Wealth of Nations (1776) uous defenders of reason versus clerical argued that Gladstone had an important highlighted the importance of rules to dogma and of universal values against influence on Liberal thinking on Europe govern it. These rules would need to national exceptionalism. and on the British consciousness as he be agreed by intergovernmental treaty, At the height of the struggle over the shifted the perspective of foreign policy but the body to enforce them had to be, Second Reform Bill in 1867, a group of from Empire to Europe. As did Cobden by implication Watson argued, supra- Liberal academics published Essays on and the Manchester School’s concept of national. These works represented the Reform and Questions for a Reformed Parlia- economic integration as a route to peace. basic philosophical roots, the wellspring ment. In these they called for an alterna- Gladstone saw Europe as a family of of Liberal thinking on Europe, Watson tive to monarchy and to class rule, for nations with a common law and com- believed. However, it was not until the participatory government and the exten- mon interests, a product of Hellenic dis- development of parliamentary democ- sion of the franchise, arguing that by cipline and Christian moralism. He had a racy in the nineteenth century that the giving each voter a sense of individual strong hands-on engagement with Euro- idea of a united Europe began to take responsibility Britain would move from pean affairs in the two and a half dec- shape. De Tocqueville’s America pub- a class-based society to a genuine com- ades that he dominated British politics, lished in 1838 demonstrated that a united monwealth. At the same time, enthusi- supporting international peace move- states of Europe was a logical possibility asm for movements against continental ments and encouraging peoples to strive and also that ‘the working classes could oppression such as those headed by Man- for independence from foreign rulers. govern a state’. It also suggested, Wat- cini in Italy and by Kossuth in Hungary, He believed in Europe and strove to cul- son argued, that democracy and a United led them to supporting a more unified tivate the concept of Europe. This was States of Europe might go hand in hand. idea of continental engagement. not, however, devoid of national inter- Interestingly, Watson frequently Many of these ideas were brought est: there were benefits for Britain in called on the works of poets and writ- together with the formation of the Lib- keeping peaceful relations with the con- ers to support his case and often the eral Party in 1859 – inspired in part, tinental powers. examples he gave seemed ahead of their Watson suggested, by a belief in inter- The Manchester School, mean- time. At this point Watson quoted Ten- national engagement born of self-con- while, spoke of the inevitable advance nyson (no noted radical) from ‘Locksley fidence. Watson also noted that the idea of free trade: in Cobden’s words, ‘break- Hall’ of 1841 when he looked forward that nationality should make concessions ing down the barriers which separate to a time when the ‘war drum throbs no to supranational government featured nations, those barriers behind which nes- longer and the battle flags are furled in in a number of plans. Bryce’s Studies of tle the feelings of pride, revenge, hatred the parliament of man, the federation of the Holy Roman Empire in 1867 was essen- and jealousy which every now and then the world.’ tially propaganda for European fed- burst their bounds and deluge whole Six years on in 1847 and after his great eralism, and his followers backed the countries in blood.’ Free trade would achievement of the ending of tariffs in establishment of a league of nations as usher in an era of universal peace. Wat- argiculture, Richard Cobden under- a means of ending secret diplomacy. In son noted that Gladstone also adopted took a European tour. Despite having a , James Larner’s European fed- the belief that free trade would enhance domestic reputation as a ‘little Englan- eration proposal of 1884 outlined how it world unity and lessen the danger of war. der’, mostly as a result of his suspicion of would work: a European Assembly and a Indeed, he believed that the 1860 com- Imperial involvements, to Europe, Wat- European senate elected by PR, a Euro- mercial treaty with France had averted son noted, Cobden was what J. A. Hob- pean civil service and an ambitious pro- war on the continent. son late called ‘the international man’. gramme of international public works. What was not clear to Watson was Throughout a Europe run by authoritar- In 1889 the International Parliamentary whether, at the time, these political ian monarchies or by opportunists, his Union was established, which was essen- and economic views were seen as being visit had been eagerly awaited by those tially a European one. aligned. He thought that that it was yearning for freedom. He was greeted Indeed, despite Britain being a world unlikely, though he believed that Glad- by formal committees of welcome, and power with a worldwide naval and trad- stone himself must have been aware. It those committees, Watson pointed out, ing presence, the important issues of for- was also worth noting the contrary view became the revolutionary movements eign policy, Watson argued, were almost expressed by the Conservatives as evi- of 1848. In that upheaval which affected exclusively European. The focus of Brit- denced by their political pamphlets. One almost every European nation, the ideas ish foreign policy was the maintenance highlighted Britain as a great power and, of democracy, nationalism and interna- of the balance of power in Europe, and focusing on the Empire, declared them- tional cooperation were uppermost. the most important colonial issues were selves ready ‘to fight for Canada as for

34 Journal of Liberal History 91 Summer 2016 Report: Europe – the Liberal commitment

public recognition of the issues coming, in Watson’s view and somewhat ironi- cally, following the failed Anglo-French cooperation over Suez. This debacle also marked a turning point in the party’s electoral fortunes. Whether the asso- ciation of the Liberal Party with the European idea helped or hindered it was harder to identify; however, Watson closed by saying he believed that it was a moot point in any event as the party ‘knew no other way’. William Wallace sought to outline the development of Liberal thinking regarding the European ideal follow- ing the Second World War and place it within the context of the varied responses in Britain to the new world. He started by thinking about where he had come in; how did he assume that he was in favour of European integra- tion. He had joined the party in 1960, like many, charmed and won over by Jo The signing ceremony for the Treaty establishing the European Economic Grimond. He had told him that he was a Community (the Treaty of Rome), at the Palazzo dei Conservatori on Capitoline Hill, European and so he was! Rome, 25 March 1957 How much then did the party under- stand the implications of its gut Euro- Kent’. They perceived Britain as having International and in 1939 Beveridge pean commitment? Wallace said that he no European interest. established the Federal Union Research was not sure that many of them really Sadly, in Watson’s view, the ideas of Institute in Oxford. did. Not many people really looked into European integration seemed to disap- If Liberalism was embattled after the the details of the EEC, indeed, his wife, pear with Gladstone’s departure from First World War, Watson noted that Helen, found herself at twenty-seven, British politics and the entry of the coun- the Second almost killed it off. But the one of the leading experts on the subject try into an era of Imperial reaction and yearning for a Liberal European order when the few people older than her with Empire free trade. Nonetheless, Glad- continued in Britain. Small practi- an interest in the area left to work in the stone was, Watson argued, the key incu- cal efforts were made to bring people Commission! And a look at the party’s bator of the European idea in the Liberal together, such as John Macmillan Scott’s manifestos from the time revealed that consciousness. 1946 delegation of Young to the details were not spelt out clearly. For twenty years the European trail Norway to begin the establishment of Wallace outlined that after the war goes cold with little evidence of think- . This was followed ended in 1945, there was a range of atti- ing about the politics of a united Europe. by a meeting with Belgian parliamen- tudes to Europe amongst Britons. There Domestic reform dominated Liberal tarians organised by Sir Percy Harris in was a feeling that the continent was as a politics. Only Lord Bryce kept the flame 1947 and a conference of Liberal parlia- dangerous place and Britain could eas- alive, and with G. L. Dickinson pro- mentarians from ten European countries ily get swamped; a fear of war and of posed the idea of an international union, (including Germany) in London in 1949 Britain being left alone again; and view setting up a group of like-minded peo- which called for greater European coop- that it was a necessity but one which cost ple to draft a proposal for a league of eration in all areas. It was the first meet- us most and gained us least. This was nations. The League of Nations Union of ing of international politicians to come Churchill’s view when he expounded 1914 Watson believed, laid the basis for up with a fully European programme. his redefinition of Britain in the world a government commission in 1918 and As Macmillan Scott had said, ‘in the new in the late ’40s and early ’50s: an Anglo- Woodrow Wilson’s proposals in 1920. world opening up life would be lived Saxon country with three circles of Whilst it was supposed to be universal it across borders not behind them’. global influence – its relationships with was essentially European, its languages Watson noted that there were ten- the United States, the British Common- English, French and Spanish, its objec- sions within Liberalism between clas- wealth and Empire, and Europe. Wallace tive one of keeping the European nations sical European ideas – and the practical added that Britain had very reluctantly at peace. means of working within the European committed troops to the European con- The years following the First World Community –and the transatlantic focus tinent in 1954 after deep debate and con- War saw Liberalism embattled but of British foreign policy. These were cern about another Dunkirk. also saw (perhaps as a consequence) the picked up later by Wallace and in ques- The post-war Liberal Party, mean- development of cooperation across par- tions from the floor. Despite these ten- while, assumed that it had to be in favour ties. In 1924 Ramsay Muir and Gilbert sions Liberals kept pressing on, with the of Europe. The 1947 and 1948 Assem- Murray were present at a meeting that founding of the Liberal Movement for blies passed federal resolutions and it had would prove to be the genesis of Liberal a United Europe in 1952, with wider the sense that being an internationalist

Journal of Liberal History 91 Summer 2016 35 Report: Europe – the Liberal commitment meant being in favour of world gov- Wallace was of the opinion – often East of Suez to Europe. And when the ernment – and as that was not possible argued at History Group events – that second application was made in 1969, immediately, European government was Suez was the turning point in all sorts of Assembly passed a resolution strongly at least a step forward. ways. It strengthened the Liberal mind- supporting it. With both the main par- Nonetheless, Europe divided the set on policy, most notably in the form ties split on the issue in 1971–72, Wallace party in the late ’40s and early ’50s. Wal- of deep opposition to Imperial nostalgia, pointed out that the Liberals contributed lace noted that there was a clear divide to the insistence that Britain be a world to the majority on one of the key votes between economic liberals and social power, to the view that Britain should on whether to join. (It was later pointed liberals and also between those commit- hang on to the colonies for as long as out, however, that Emlyn Hooson had ted to free trade and those committed possible (many active Liberals, including at least abstained on that vote because to building a social market economy in Jo Grimond, were involved in the cam- of concerns about the impact of agricul- Europe rather than a free trade one. To paigns for colonial freedom in the 1950s), tural policy on farmers in his constitu- be fair to the free trade Liberals, Wallace and to the independent nuclear deter- ency.) Thus, Wallace argued, the party highlighted that they were very much rent which symbolised that Britain was was both beginning to gain a reputation affected by the sense that the conflict was more important than its European part- as the pro-European party, and it was between totalitarianism and freedom, ners. Wallace also noted later in response also beginning to understand what the and thus they supported a small state, to a question that the party was strongly policy meant in practice. This then fea- strong free markets and open borders. against the idea that sovereignty was tured in the manifestos of the 1974 gen- Against them were the Social Liber- important and that this came across in eral elections. als (some of whom, like Megan Lloyd- papers published by the Unservile State, From accession, the party had to George, left the party in the late ’40s) notably in ‘The Illusion of Sovereignty’ learn a lot more about its sister parties who wanted a social market economy. that he had written. and about the patterns of the then much The divide spilled over into rowdy Consequently, the party argued that simpler EEC. Wallace noted that he Assemblies in the early 1950s. A num- Britain should accept that it was funda- hadn’t realised how anti-Catholic some ber of free marketeers left and founded mentally European and should seek to get of the European Liberal parties were, the People’s League for the Defence of on with its European neighbours. In 1960 or, indeed, the extent to which it had Freedom in 1956. On the left, the radi- Grimond published a policy paper enti- formed a part of his own thinking. There cal Liberals such as Frank Owen, Jo Gri- tled ‘Britain Must Join’, and a later paper were deep arguments over the build- mond and Desmond Banks, founded by Christopher Layton proposed follow- ing of a European Liberal Party. British the which itself ing the French model of economic policy, Liberals were concerned about having disaffiliated from the party in 1954 only thus indicating that the party saw it as not too many economic Liberals and not to re-affiliate a year later. The division just a model for Europe but for Britain. enough social Liberals in the group, with was essentially between the Keynesian A questioner later noted that the party’s arguments about French representa- and Hayekian views of the economy and natural Europeanism at this time was tion: should the Republicans be allowed between the individual and community why he became a Liberal: it made sense to joined (as they wished) or should views of freedom. and related to his personal experience. the French Radicals instead? We also As a questioner noted later, the last Wallace again highlighted the lack favoured Radical , but not Vens- significant debate on the subject was of detailed understanding of the issues tre and were keen to involve D66 in Hol- at the 1960 Liberal Assembly with the and the lack of contact with continen- land. Wallace had also sought to bolster remains of the anti-EEC group furious tal Liberal parties. Christopher Layton, the social liberal wing of the FDP in the at the party’s support for the common Richard Moore and a handful of oth- mid 1970s, but, he noted, most of them market. They were roundly defeated and ers sought to tackle this problem, and left over the following decade. seemed, after that, to disappear. Wallace younger members built contacts through Connections were also built within agreed that 1960 proved to be last hurrah organisations such as WFLRY – the British politics most notably during the for the group, which included some sig- World Federation of Liberal and Radical 1975 referendum campaign. The Liber- nificant figures in the party who had been Youth – run by Margareta Holmstedt. als had more experts on the subject than candidates in the 1950 and 1951 general Wallace noted, however, that follow- either of the other two parties and began elections and had made substantial con- ing De Gaulle’s veto the European ques- to build links with pro-Europeans in the tributions to it. As far as Wallace could tion seemed to fall down the agenda. other parties from which, Wallace noted, recall, the only figure who was associated Nonetheless, among the three condi- was later built the Alliance between the with them who remained in the party tions that Grimond put to the Labour Liberal Party and the SDP. was Roy Douglas. Under Jo Grimond’s government when it lost its majority in Despite the loss of representation charisma the party became European. 1965 was a shift in foreign policy from in the European Parliament following

Future History Group meetings

• Sunday 18 September, Liberal Democrat conference, Brighton: Coalition: could Liberal Democrats have handled it better? with David Laws, , Akash Paun and (see back page for full details) • January/February 2017: AGM and speaker meeting, provisionally related to Liberal International’s 60th anniversary • Friday 17 or Saturday 18 March 2017, Liberal Democrat conference, York; details to be announced

36 Journal of Liberal History 91 Summer 2016 Reviews the introduction of direct elections and ideal was a common enterprise aimed at referendum, and what the role of the the failure to get PR for them through building a Keynesian social market at a party should be in the current cam- the Lib–Lab pact, the party remained European level. paign. Watson argued that the main strongly pro-European and anti-imperi- Questioners asked whether there was lesson was that the campaigns would alist. Thatcher meanwhile, moved from a tension between the localism and Euro- be very different. In 1975 the whole being a pro-European to a sceptic, and peanism of the Liberal Party and Liberal political establishment and media sup- one who believed the myth of Britain Democrats, about the strength of the ported the Yes campaign and the rest of being apart from Europe. Her view, as European commitment in the modern Europe no longer appeared prosperous Thatcher said to Helen Wallace after her party and whether it had had an impact and unthreatening. The so far unimpres- Bruges speech was that ‘they owe us so on the party’s willingness to argue for sive Remain campaign needed to find an much’. Wallace later added in response the reform of European institutions. emotional appeal, Wallace believed. It to a question that one should not under- Wallace agreed that it was hard to rec- also needed to tackle the myth of exces- estimate the impact of the Falklands oncile the concept of giving more pow- sive European regulation. Did those War. It reinforced the image of Britain ers to Brussels with devolution, noting that wanted to leave want no health as an independent military power and that Brussels appeared to be and was very and safety regulation, nothing on food harked back to the trope of Britain as a remote, and he believed that it was a ten- safety? He also noted that such regula- country standing alone against the odds. sion that had yet to be fully reconciled. tions could be tougher in the United Thatcher picked it up and linked it, with Julie Smith noted that a number of new States where the New York State Attor- Reagan, to images of the Second World members to the party did not appear ney General had actually gone after War. This had sunk the party’s view of to share the instinctive pro-European bankers. Many other issues could also Britain’s place in the world. position of longstanding members. She only be tackled at a European or global Wallace added that there had been noted as an aside that she had come from level such as climate change and tax few opportunities for the party to put the SDP which had been the only party avoidance. forward its view of Britain in the world not to split on the subject. Wallace also Meanwhile, Watson argued that the and in Europe, though he did admit thought that part of the problem might specific role of the Liberal Democrats that it had not taken up the opportuni- be the general loss of faith in managers, was quite limited. It alone, would proba- ties that had existed at the insistence, he leaders and elites. Graham Watson agreed bly change few people’s minds. It would, later noted, of the party’s campaigners. that the party had perhaps been inhibited however, play significant part in the He also deprecated the failure of Blair to about calling for reform but, he argued wider Remain campaign and through follow through the indications given in that this was because the whole discourse the connections it made could bring in the talks between Labour and the Lib- was about attack on the European idea new members to the party. eral Democrats in 1996. Nonetheless, and the natural instinct was to defend it. the party essentially remained com- Questions were also asked about David Cloke is a member of the Liberal Dem- mitted to its view that the European the lessons to be learned from the 1975 ocrat History Group’s executive.

Raven Hill, Strube, David Low, Vicky. In return, they contributed immensely Reviews to his rise to the top – and, to some lesser degree, to his descent thereafter. Of all politicians, he became the great cultural Lloyd George in cartoons artefact of his time. It is a fascinating theme and is covered Alan Mumford, : A Biography in Cartoons entertainingly by Alan Mumford, him- self both a notable political cartoonist and (Matador, 2014) a historian of the genre who has previ- Review by Kenneth O. Morgan ously produced volumes on cartoonists’ treatment of the Labour and Conserva- avid Lloyd George was God’s two ’Old Savoyards’ on how one man in tive parties. While his sketch of Lloyd gift for cartoonists. Whereas his life played many parts. Beyond them George’s life is prosaic, the accompany- Dcontemporaries like Asquith stands a tableau of miscellaneous Lloyd ing cartoons, enterprisingly culled from seemed prosaic and conventional, L.G. Georges, the Welsh bard, the court jester, a miscellany of archives, are enormously captivated his observers for almost half a the Birmingham policeman, the rat- revealing, both of the man, and of the century with a career full of vitality and catcher of Limehouse, and, brooding in culture of his time. No one, it seems, versatility. In February 1934, (in a car- the background, ‘the man who won the could reach a settled view of his image. toon not in this book) Strube in the Daily war’. From the Boer War onwards, he He appeared in magazines like Punch, Express portrayed him with Sir Henry bewitched the great cartoonists of the day the Westminster Gazette or the Bystander Lytton of d’Oyly Carte, reflecting, as – Staniforth, Gould, Reed, Partridge, in guises varying from a highwayman

Journal of Liberal History 91 Summer 2016 37