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John Stuart Mill and the Liberal Party

When Gladstone described Mill as ‘the Saint of Rationalism’, he could also have added ‘and of ’. By the time he died, in 1873, the Victorian philosopher had acquired an almost unique status and authority, which transcended the confessional and cultural divides between ‘rationalists’ (or secularists) and the larger number of churchmen and Nonconformists, who provided the backbone of the party. By Professor Eugenio Biagini.

4 Journal of Liberal History 70 Spring 2011 and the Liberal Party

ake, for example, his An unusual backbencher politics ought to be guided by moral celebrated essay On Lib- The connection between Mill and energy and express itself through erty: although it was the Victorian Liberal party has not fervent campaigning.3 Like Glad- ultimately a consistent escaped historians’ attention. To stone, Mill believed that he had a expression of the author’s mention but a few, John Vincent, ‘call’ to politics – that his mission Treligious agnosticism, the book Stefan Collini, Bruce Kinzer and was to radicalise the Liberal Party, could equally well be read as a reas- that redoubtable academic couple, which at the time meant moving sertion of attitudes and convictions Ann and John Robson – the editors the party to the left of the politi- which were deeply rooted in the of Mill’s Collected Works – have all cal spectrum. Thus Mill was very country’s Puritan tradition, partic- written extensively on this topic. active in the struggle for parliamen- ularly through its emphasis on the As an MP for Westminster (1865– tary reform, in the hope that, once moral sovereignty of the individual 68), Mill was a loyal backbencher the electoral system was purified conscience and on dissent as some- and, although a Radical, in the run from corrupt practices and democ- thing intrinsically good.1 up to 1868 he drew closer to the then ratised, ‘progressive’ candidates and He was such a great Victorian Chancellor of the Exchequer, W. E. labour leaders would stand a better that it is surprising that his appeal Gladstone. On the one hand, this chance of being returned, and their has remained strong – and perhaps is surprising, given the significant presence in the House of Commons grown even stronger – with the differences in religious outlook and would in turn provide the impetus passing of time. As the late Con- political background. Indeed, in for further reform. rad Russell noted, Mill’s continu- 1873 Gladstone was deeply embar- A further area of convergence ing relevance to British Liberalism rassed to discover that Mill, as a between Mill and Gladstone was was publicly acknowledged in 1988, young man, had publicly advo- in their sensitivity to minorities when On was adopted as the cated birth control and the use of within multinational empires. party’s ‘book of office’ (replacing contraceptives. On the other hand, Indeed Mill’s support for the cause ’s Areopagitica).2 Twenty the Grand Old Man was a reader of Jamaicans in the 1860s presents years later, in the winter 2007–08, and admirer of Mill’s economic affinities with Gladstone’s later Mill was voted ‘the greatest Liberal’ writings, and his first government stance over Bulgaria, Zululand and by the readers of this journal. How implemented legislation which Armenia between 1876 and 1896. can we explain such extraordinary reflected Mill’s influence, including Moreover, both men consistently and long-lasting success? In the votes for women in local elections adopted a ‘European’ perspective present article I shall try to answer (from 1869), proportional represen- to international problems, detest- this question by focusing on the tation for school board elections, ing unilateralism as a dangerous last part of the philosopher’s career, and the Married Women’s Prop- superstition. Not surprisingly, in examining first his impact on the erty Act, 1870. By the same token, 1865–70 Mill saw in Gladstone the party from 1859 and then those as Collini, Kinzer and the Robsons leader who would further the cause aspects of his thought which offered have argued, Mill felt a sort of ‘elec- of ‘advanced liberalism’. Although a particularly significant contribu- tive affinity’ for Gladstone, based on John Stuart Mill by 1873 he was to an extent disillu- tion to the later Liberal tradition. the shared conviction that Liberal (1806–73) sioned, his assessment of the GOM

Journal of Liberal History 70 Spring 2011 5 john stuart mill and the was basically accurate, and would It is sig- was unable to grasp the reality of However, how could the prac- be vindicated in due course. It is sig- party and the need tice of direct democracy be recon- nificant that one of Gladstone’s most nificant that for an electoral and canvassing ciled with the needs of large-scale enthusiastic collaborators and his ‘machine’. It was rather that he modern ? There were greatest biographer was John Mor- one of Glad- championed a different and distinc- two main strategies: first, local ley, who was so closely associated tively Liberal understanding of what government and decentralisation, with the legacy of the great philoso- stone’s most such an organisation ought to com- to empower local political life; and pher that he earned the sobriquet of prise. The first thing to observe is second, strong, representative party ‘Mr Mill’s representative on earth’. enthusiastic that Mill’s ideal of democracy was organisations, which would medi- inspired more by classical than by ate local aspirations and national collabora- modern models. He waxed lyrical aims by means of public debate. Active citizenship and the tors and his about Athens in the days of Pericles, Thus the party ‘mass’ organisation, Liberal party organisation a time which he regarded almost as a sometimes dismissively described One area in which Mill informed greatest sort of Liberal paradise, where each as ‘the ’, was to act as a link practical Liberal politics was in his citizen was continually appointed between local and national democ- concept of participatory citizen- biographer to some form of public magistracy, racy. As the Fortnightly Review put ship and, indirectly, in his attitudes and participation and debate arose it, ‘[the caucus] appears to be a to the early ideas about the role was John spontaneously from the awareness necessary outcome of democracy. and function of the party’s ‘mass’ of common interests rooted in the In a small community, such as the organisation. The latter became an Morley, feeling of belonging to a socio-cul- Canton of Uri, all the freemen may issue from 1877, with the founda- tural entity to which one felt a posi- meet in a meadow to pass laws. In tion of the National Liberal Fed- who was so tive emotional commitment. 6 larger societies direct government eration (NLF) by another of Mill’s Moreover, and crucially, such by the people gives place to repre- admirers – . closely asso- a perpetually deliberating demos sentative government; and when By contrast with the intellectual allowed ‘public moralists’ to emerge constituencies consist of thou- debate later generated by the NLF, ciated with as the guides of public opinion sands, associations which aid the there was little theoretical prepa- because ‘[t]he multitude have often birth of popular opinion and give it ration for its establishment: no the legacy a true instinct for distinguish- strength, stability and homogeneity blueprint had been drawn up by ing an able man, when he has the seem indispensable.’10 any of those many intellectuals of the great means for displaying his ability ‘Giving strength and stability and journalists which Harvie has in a fair field before them.’7 Hence to popular opinion’ was, however, described as ‘the lights of liberal- philosopher the apparent paradox that ancient more easily said than done, but the ism’.4 Mill in particular had little that he direct democracy was the cradle apparent anarchy and intractable to say about mass party organisa- of philosopher-statesmen of the internal conflicts which plagued tion.5 This omission is somewhat earned the calibre of Themistocles, Aristides, the NLF from the start make more surprising when we consider that Pericles and Demosthenes, lead- sense once we bear in mind the con- during his lifetime there flourished sobriquet of ers and not followers of popular text in which it operated: it was well-organised pressure groups opinion, who acted in a pedagogic not supposed to be a caucus in the similar to parties, including the ‘Mr Mill’s rep- rather than a demagogic way. Thus, American sense of the word, but National Education League, with the two dimensions which were so the ekklesia (general assembly) of which he was well acquainted, and resentative important for Mill – namely, meri- the Liberal demos, or ‘a Liberal par- the Land Tenure Reform Asso- tocratic elitism and participatory liament outside the Imperial Par- ciation, of which he was a leading on earth’. democracy – converged in the con- liament’.11 Its avowed aim was not member. The NLF, launched only text of the polis.8 What linked them primarily to become a canvassing four years after Mill’s death, drew together was charismatic rhetoric organisation and win elections, but heavily on the experience of such – which in a free society provided rather to provide a forum, a delib- leagues and associations, some of ‘able men’ with ‘the means for dis- erating agora, within which ideas which it tried to coordinate. It has playing their ability’ before ‘the could be thrashed out, programmes sometimes been suggested that, for multitude’. formed ‘from below’ and opinion all his intellectual prestige, Mill At the time, these views were so ‘rationally’ informed eventually was actually unable to understand not unusual in Liberal and Radi- coordinated in electoral campaigns. either the reality or the needs of cal circles. A good example is pro- ‘party’. This suspicion is strength- vided by , himself the ened by the fact that even in his embodiment of many of the values ‘A fruitful relation between last major works on representative championed by Mill, including thought and politics’ government he gave no account of civic pride, social activism and an Both Vincent and Collini have seen the role of parties. Yet, he was not elitist resolve to provide guidance Mill as the quintessential ‘public in principle hostile to them, and, as and leadership for a local democ- moralist’ of late-Victorian liber- we have seen, in 1865–8, as a par- racy. On one occasion he told his alism, the man who spoke as the liamentarian, he generally behaved constituents that that ‘[t]here is movement’s moral, intellectual like a disciplined and loyal party nothing incongruous in the union and philosophical conscience. For man. of [classical] democratic doctrines Vincent, Mill came to play such a In my view, the situation was with representative institutions. leading role because he lived and actually more complicated and Ancient order and modern progress wrote at a key stage in the devel- interesting. It was not that Mill are not incompatible.’9 opment of Liberalism: in the 1850s

6 Journal of Liberal History 70 Spring 2011 john stuart mill and the liberal party

‘the educated classes received a new who was the most eminent and Let us now consider Mill’s influ- education [through the reformed, influential of such intellectuals. ence as an economist. The late meritocratic public schools], the On the contrary, his work estab- H. C. G. Matthew once observed middle classes a new Press [thanks lished an intimate relation between that the Principles of Political Economy to the repeal of the stamp and paper thought and politics. For example, (first published in 1848, and subse- duties, which made newspapers the rule of personal pre- quently revised many times until much cheaper, boosting their cir- sented in On Liberty was a recur- 1873) became ‘the bible’ of mid- culation;] and the working classes rent concern with legislators, from Victorian Liberals in all matters new institutions [with the growth the framing of the Criminal Law pertaining to commerce, industry of the cooperative movements and Amendment Act of 1871 (which and social reform. There was in the ‘new model’ trade unions]’. And sought to prevent violence and particular Mill’s constructive and ‘[f]rom Mill the “thinking men” of intimidation during strikes) to the original approach to the notion of all classes could learn a liberalism debate about the Contagious Dis- laissez faire, which he conceived as a far more agreeable to their feelings eases Acts (which allowed for com- general ‘rule’ of good government, than that taught by men of property pulsory medical tests for women but one requiring many ‘excep- in the Great Towns. Mill made it suspected of being prostitutes). In tions’. He listed some of these in the possible for young Oxford and for fact, it took until 1886 for a Liberal Principles and examined others in the labour aristocracy to be to repeal the Conta- later writings, for example the essay without injury to their class feel- gious Diseases Acts. But this was about land reform in Ireland (1868). ings, and indeed with some flattery in itself partly a reflection of Mill’s In particular, he thought that natu- to them’.12 influence, for he had been strug- Cartoon ral monopolies (such as water sup- However, rather inconsist- gling with the aims and implica- mocking Mill’s plies and potentially land) should ently, Vincent goes on to criticise tions of such legislation when it attempt to be publicly owned. Likewise, the what he describes as ‘the failure of was introduced, between 1864 replace the state or local authorities had a duty the Liberal intellectuals to make a and 1869: as Jeremy Waldron has term ‘man’ with to create those infrastructures fruitful relation between thought shown, the Victorian philosopher ‘person’ in the which private enterprise would and politics’.13 What he means by saw a Liberal case for the Acts (pre- second Reform not develop because they were too this is not clear, but it is difficult to vention of harm to the families of Bill of 1867. expensive, or because the prospect see how such an assessment could the prostitutes’ clients), although (Punch, 30 March of any return from the necessary be applicable at all to J. S. Mill, he opposed them ‘on principle’.14 1867.) investments was remote. Further

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not fixed for him by some self- acting instrument, but is the result of bargaining between human beings – of what calls ‘the higgling of the market’; and those who do not ‘higgle’ will long continue to pay more than the market prices for the purchases. Still more might poor labourers, who have to do with rich employ- ers, remain long without the amount of wages which the demand for their labour would justify, unless, in vernacular phrase, they stood out for it: and how can they stand out for terms without organised con- cert? What chance would any labourer have, who struck sin- gly for an advance of wages? How could he even know whether the state of the market admitted of a , except by consultation with his fellows, naturally leading to concerted action? I do not hesitate to say that associations of labourers, of a nature similar to trade unions, far from being a hindrance to a of labour, are the necessary instrumentality of that free market; the indispen- sable means of enabling the sell- ers of labour to take due care of their own interests under a sys- tem of competition.15

Pace Vincent, this provides a fur- ther example of a Liberal intellec- tual establishing ‘a fruitful relation between thought and politics’, or at least laying the groundwork for later political developments. In fact, examples were the provision of 1862. The change came in response Portrait of Mill by the legislation of 1871–5 medical care and education – which to a debate initiated by T. J. Dun- G F Watts (both Liberal and Conservative) Mill thought should be univer- ning, a trade union leader, with was based on Mill’s new under- sal and compulsory, although best his essay Trades’ Unions and Strikes standing of a positive and indeed provided by competing public and (1860), in which he argued that trade necessary role for the unions. Fur- private structures, between which unions were a necessary component thermore, this illustrated a new citizens could choose. of a really free labour market. Mill approach to the development of A further area in which Mill’s promptly adopted his ideas, and in ideas and concepts which Mill had ideas left their mark on Liberal- the 1862 edition of the Principles he adopted in the 1850s, or perhaps as ism was on attitudes to industrial abandoned the notion that the mar- early as 1848–9. The change was relations. Traditionally, political ket was a self-acting mechanism one of method: as Janice Carlisle economists had been very dismiss- which would operate most perfectly has noted, in the 1820s Mill used ive of trade unions, as organisations if not interfered with. Instead he to ‘[denounce] so-called “practical whose attempts to influence wages argued that men” [such as Dunning] as the most and conditions of employment were “unsafe” and “bigoted”, the “most at best vain and ineffective and at demand and supply are not obstinate and presumptuous of all worst bordering on the criminal. physical agencies, which thrust theorists” because they erect their In the earlier part of his career Mill a fixed amount of wages into principles on the “small number of shared such views, but then made a labourer’s hand without the facts which come within the narrow a complete U-turn and adopted a participation of his own will circle of their immediate observa- decidedly pro-trade union line in and actions. The market rate is tion”’.16 On the contrary, by 1859 he

8 Journal of Liberal History 70 Spring 2011 john stuart mill and the liberal party was operating on a radically differ- extinguished by the wisdom of soci- leaders’, or even worse ‘three or four ent set of assumptions and regarded ety’.20 It was a vision which fired the tradesmen or attorneys.’ (CW, vol. the relationship between ‘men of imagination and ambitions of the XIX, pp. 362 and 456 respectively; action’ and ‘men of thought’ as one next generations of Liberal econo- see also CW, vol. XXVIII, p. 12). which ought to be complemen- mists, including Alfred Marshall Of course, this was precisely one tary, based on empirical analysis (a college lecturer at Cambridge in of the problems which Chamber- not abstract dogma, and defined by 1873), J. A. Hobson and John May- lain boasted of having solved with concrete political aims, not abstract nard Keynes, and sustained the Lib- his broadly representative Liberal intellectual agendas. eral Party well into the second half association. In practice this meant an alli- of the twentieth century. 6 Mill, Considerations on Representative ance between the professional elites Government, CW, vol. XIX (Toronto – with their ethic of public service Eugenio Biagini is Reader in Modern and , 1977), p. 324. and competence, so different from ‘[Mill] was History at Cambridge and a Fellow of 7 Mill, Considerations, p. 458. the entrepreneurial mindset of the Sidney Sussex College. He has pub- 8 For Mill’s elitism see R. J. Halliday, industrial – and organ- confident lished extensively on the history of Lib- John Stuart Mill (London, 1976). ised labour. In this way, as Vincent eralism in Britain, Ireland and Italy. His 9 ‘Political address by Mr. Cowen, has noted, ‘Mill … removed, for that poverty, latest book is British Democracy and M.P.’, Newcastle , 18 those who were willing to listen, , 1876–1906 (Cam- February 1885, pp. 2–3. any intellectual difficulties that in any sense bridge, 2011), which is a study of the way 10 J. Macdonnell, ‘Is the caucus a neces- might exist about the merits of State in which the affected sity?’, Fortnightly Review, vol. 44 o.s., interference in social arrangements. implying suf- the debate on democracy and human vol. 38 n.s. (Dec. 1885), p. 790. He thought a government might among popular liberals and demo- 11 Cf. E. F. Biagini, ‘Liberalism and compel universal , though fering, might crats in the two countries. This paper is Direct Democracy. John Stuart Mill he doubted its expediency. He a version of one first given at the History and the Model of Ancient Athens’, spoke in favour of State aid to the be com- Group / LSE / BLPSG seminar on John in Biagini (ed.), Citizenship and Com- sea fisheries in Ireland, explaining Stuart Mill in November 2009. munity. Liberals, Radicals and Collective this was entirely justifiable on gen- pletely extin- Identities in the British Isles, 1865–1931 eral grounds … above all he looked 1 M. St John Packe, The Life of John (Cambridge, 1996); Biagini, Liberty, to the cities as the next area for the guished by Stuart Mill (London, 1954), p. 400. pp. 313–5; J. Harris, Private Lives, extension of State action’, especially 2 C. Russell, An Intelligent Person’s Public Spirit: Britain 1870–1914 (Lon- with reference to sanitary condi- the wisdom Guide to Liberalism (London, 1999), p. don, 1994), p. 248; and M. Daunton, tions and working-class housing.17 83. Trusting Leviathan. The politics of taxa- In an important and as yet of society’. It 3 S. Collini, Public Moralists. Political tion in Britain 1799–1914 (Cambridge, unpublished doctoral thesis, Helen was a vision thought and intellectual life in Britain, 2001), pp. 256–301. McCabe has gone beyond this 1850–1930 (Cambridge, 1991), pp.157– 12 J. Vincent, The Formation of the Lib- social-democratic reading of Mill which fired 8; Bruce L. Kinzer, Ann P. Robson, eral Party 1857–68 (Harmondsworth, and has persuasively argued that John M. Robson A Moralist in and out 1972), p. 184. by the time he suddenly died in the imagi- of Parliament: John Stuart Mill at West- 13 Vincent, Formation of the Liberal Party, 1873 he was working on a model minster, 1865–1868 (Toronto, 1992), p. 188. of industrial development which nation and pp.12–3, 21, 88–9. 14 J. Waldron, ‘Mill on Liberty and would finally bypass the market 4 C. Harvie, The Lights Of Liberalism: the Contagious Diseases Act’, in N. and its possessive imperatives by ambitions University liberals and the challenge of Urbinati and A. Zakaras, J. S. Mill’s focusing on cooperation and indus- democracy 1860–86 (1976). Political Thought (Cambridge, 2007), trial democracy.18 In her view the of the next 5 With the exception of a few remarks pp. 11–42. political thought of the mature Mill in connection with his discussion 15 J. S. Mill, The Principles of Political represented a form of ‘liberal social- generations of Thomas Hare’s proportional Economy, in CW, Vol. III (London ism’. As another scholar, Richard representation scheme. Most of his and Toronto, 1965), p. 932. On the Reeves, has recently argued, ‘[it] of Liberal criticism focused on the ‘first-past- question see E. F. Biagini, ‘Trade was Mill’s liberalism that shaped the-post’ system. The American unions and popular political econ- his response to … He was economists caucus did not attract his attention, omy, 1860–1880’, The Historical Jour- vehemently opposed to centralised but he wrote that ‘in America elec- nal 30, 4 (1987), pp. 811–40. state control of the economy, but … and sus- tors vote for the party ticket because 16 J. Carlisle, John Stuart Mill and the was a strong supporter of socialism the election goes by a simple major- Writing of Character (London, 1991), in the form of collective ownership tained the ity’ (The Collected Works of John Stuart p. 45. of individual enterprises, compet- Liberal Party Mill [henceforward cited CW], vol. 17 Vincent, Formation of the Liberal Party, ing in a .’19 These XIX, Toronto and London, 1977, p. p. 191. are radical conclusions about a radi- well into 464): again, the problem was with 18 H. McCabe ‘“Under the general cal thinker, and would require a the first-past-the-post system, not designation of socialist”: the man- more detailed scrutiny than I can the second with parties. However, in his Consid- sided of John Stuart Mill’, offer in this article. However, much erations on Representative Government Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 2010. less controversial – and yet not half of the he indicted the British party system 19 Richard Reeves, John Stuart Mill, much less radical – is Vincent’s con- of the time on the ground that candi- Victorian Firebrand (London, 2007), p. clusion that ‘[Mill] was confident twentieth dates were selected by small cliques 7. that poverty, in any sense imply- – ‘the attorney, the parliamentary 20 Vincent, Formation of the Liberal Party, ing suffering, might be completely century. agent, or the half-dozen party p. 191.

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