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Sir Edward Watkin and the Liberal Cause in the Nineteenth Century

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Sir Edward Watkin and the Liberal Cause in the Nineteenth Century Edward William Watkin, born in Salford, Lancashire in 1819, was an exact contemporary of Queen Victoria; he exemplified the Victorian spirit of global awareness, pride in a British civilisation with the intention of sharing its benefits with others, and the excitement of participating in the development of new technology and scientific advancement. John Greaves examines his life. SiR EdWARD WATKIN AND THE LIBERAL CAUSE IN THE NiNETEENTH CENTURY dward William Because of his success in the Corn Laws – the imposition of Watkin, born in Sal- sphere of railways, he was seen tariffs on corn imports to pro- ford, Lancashire in as having a sound grasp of the tect or benefit sectional interests, 1819, was an exact financing and administration which was creating great hard- contempor a r y of of the new engineering and ship for the poor. The organis- EQueen Victoria; he exempli- commercial projects of the day. ing of a free trade campaign was fied the Victorian spirit of glo- In particular his thinking was to give rise to a new political bal awareness, pride in a British informed by the emergence of party, inspired by Christian ide- civilisation with the intention the world’s first industrial city, als of fairness and compassion.1 of sharing its benefits with oth- Manchester, and by the first Watkin was one of those who ers, and the excitement of par- wholesale application of Adam quickly grasped the econom- ticipating in the development of Smith’s theory of free market ics of the capitalist system, and new technology and scientific Edward Watkin capitalism. The main economic was instrumental from time advancement. c.1874 issue in his early days was the to time as an MP in bringing Journal of Liberal History 55 Summer 2007 25 SIR EDWARD WATKIN AND THE liBERAL CAUSE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY in regulations and safeguards 1857, but with his Liberal col- opinions’. After Gladstone’s sur- against its abuse. league was declared unseated on prise dissolution in 1874, Watkin Watkin’s father was a Man- the grounds of bribery. A House was approached by the Hythe chester cotton merchant, a of Lords committee absolved and Folkestone Liberals to be Methodist lay preacher who had them both of personal involve- their candidate in the election a committed involvement in the ment in paying money for votes of that year. Because his posi- fecund social and political life of (their agents having misapplied tion was, in his own words, that Manchester. Absolom Watkin the funds), but his enemies kept of a ‘Conservative Radical’,2 and (1787–1861) was the ‘scribe’ of the affair rumbling for over ten because of his record, he was several groups in the town, and, years. He served on Manchester returned unopposed, being of a so tradition has it, the author of City Council, representing the sufficiently conservative nature a Loyal Address to the Queen Exchange Ward, from 1859 to to satisfy the Tories of the con- on the occasion of her marriage, 1862. For the election of 1859, stituency. This position was and of a petition in favour of the Watkin refused nomination to maintained through the elec- Reform Bill of 1832. Edward represent his native seat, Sal- tions of 1880, 1885, 1886, 1892 became involved very early in ford, half hoping that he would and 1895. However, he was con- this social idealism. He helped be asked to stand again for Great sistently in favour of electoral the Liberal cause in the elec- Yarmouth, but in the event he reform, and the extension of the tion of 1837, when Gladstone was not. franchise to working people. He was standing in the Manchester However, in 1864 he was spoke to, and voted in favour of, constituency as a Conservative. returned for Stockport, with his John Stuart Mill’s amendment ‘We beat him by two or three to fellow Liberal John Benjamin to the Reform Bill of 1867 to one’ said Watkin in a speech in Smith, serving there for four include votes for women, and 1885. He was prominent in the years through a subsequent elec- later provoked Parliament by advocacy of public parks for the tion. He was narrowly defeated commending to its attention the recreation of the urban working in the campaign of 1868, after Canadian Act of 1886, and that classes, publishing a pamphlet, the constituency had been of the Manx House of Keys, for A Plea for Public Parks, in 1843; enlarged following the Second the enfranchisement of women. and he agitated at about the same Reform Act to include an area In 1886, Watkin became an time for the provision of public of ‘staunch country Toryism’. open Liberal Unionist in opposi- baths and wash-houses, and for Watkin did much good in his tion to Gladstone’s Liberal whip a Saturday half-day holiday each Stockport incumbency, and was on Irish Home Rule. His posi- week for the hard-worked ‘oper- highly esteemed. In 1866 and tion on Ireland was, and always atives’ in the mills. In all these 1872 he became the chairman of had been, one of concern for the endeavours he was successful. two additional important rail- Irish economy and the rights In the Anti-Corn Law riots and way companies, the South East- of her people rather than the street demonstrations, he and his ern and the Metropolitan; he had imperialist one of persuading a brother John (who later became been Chairman of the Manches- recalcitrant part of the Empire. an Anglican priest) were engaged ter, Sheffield and Lincolnshire He maintained that there was in battles against the Chartists Railway since 1864. Neverthe- no reason to cast off the island and the Irish protesters against less, when the Liberals of Exeter in its poverty, but every reason the Corn Laws, whose demands asked him to be their candidate to improve communications were far more radical than those in the December 1873 by-elec- with it (through a railway tun- of the Cobdenite Liberals. Watkin tion, he accepted, and worked nel from Stranraer to Larne), Watkin’s work as Secretary hard to win what had been for and to invest in its infrastruc- of the Trent Valley Railway claimed that years, until 1868, a Conservative ture (such as by creating a ship (1845–47), a position he gained stronghold. In the event, he was canal between Dublin and Gal- because of his financial wizardry he always defeated, but Exeter praised him way), which would attract Eng- as a director of the Manchester for his efforts, and he later spoke lish investment and encourage Athenaeum, brought him into ‘voted for in the House on the town’s industry and employment on prominence in Liberal circles in what he saw behalf. a mainland scale. He saw it as Stafford. He campaigned there In his Stockport campaign anomalous that part of the Brit- for the election of 1846, secur- as right, in 1864, he had been described ish Isles should not share in its ing popular acclaim as the free as an ‘independent Liberal general prosperity, and in 1869 trade candidate, only to reveal without cau- Unionist’, and he claimed that he invested in Irish railways that he did not fulfil the condi- he always ‘voted for what he and cross-channel traffic; but tions for nomination – the own- tion for the saw as right, without caution his enlightened views were not ership of land producing £300 official party for the official party line’. He heeded, even though he pleaded per year. He was elected as Lib- admired Gladstone, he said, for with his friend Gladstone to set eral MP for Great Yarmouth in line’. ‘his moral courage to change his up, with Mr Parnell, a Royal 26 Journal of Liberal History 55 Summer 2007 SIR EDWARD WATKIN AND THE liBERAL CAUSE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Commission on Ireland with a railway.4 The Confederation Watkin and organised labour and eventu- view to encouraging unity.3 agreement was made in 1867, ally the emergence of a ‘Labour Watkin’s chairmanship of facilitated by Watkin’s negotia- his friend W. Party’ as a significant force in the Manchester, Sheffield and tions to purchase the Hudson’s British politics. Watkin and his Lincolnshire Railway led to the Bay Company, across whose vast E. Gladstone friend W. E. Gladstone remained development of Grimsby from a territory a transcontinental rail- remained among the few who maintained tiny and declining fishing vil- way would have to pass. The last a balance between wealth crea- lage to one of the great harbour spike of the railway was struck among the tion and social conscience on towns. In 1831 the population on 7 November 1885, though the an openly theological base: by of Grimsby numbered 3,054; it Grand Trunk, by that time out few who the end of the century there had had increased to 4,048 by 1841, of Watkin’s hands, had by then developed a far more ‘secular’ but then expanded quickly to excluded itself from the project. maintained and pragmatic form of politi- 24,000 by 1871, 64,000 by 1891 Watkin was immediately a balance cal and social theory, which was and 73,000 by 1901. It was not awarded a knighthood, and later strengthened by two devastating quite a ‘pocket borough’ of the (in 1880) a baronetcy for his between world wars. MS&LR, but it was, from 1857 efforts; and whatever the dis- to 1895, solidly Liberal or Liberal cussion of the importance of his wealth John Greaves, after leaving school, Unionist except for six years, contribution, it is certain that began work as a Clerk/Trainee and for those the Member was unification could not have taken creation Manager on the London and North the Conservative Chairman of place without the commitment and social Eastern Railway in 1945, when his the MS&LR, John Chapman.
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