REPORTS The man who made the weather: Joseph Chamberlain – imperial standard bearer, national leader, local icon Centenary conference, Birmingham 4–5 July 2014 Report by Tony Little bout 100 people attended was compounded both by his crea- the special conference – tive vision of the post as prime Aheld in Birmingham and ministerial rather than merely an partly funded by the Liberal Demo- honoured chairman, and by his crat History Group – to mark the unexpected partnership with Sir centenary of the death of Joseph Richard Cross of Disraeli’s 1874– Chamberlain. Making the open- 1880 government.1 ing address at Newman University, The rest of the first day was Liberal Democrat MP, Sir Alan taken up with a series of papers cov- Beith, summed up Chamberlain as ering Chamberlain’s interactions a man whom Birmingham should with the wider world: Chamberlain thank but the Liberal and Con- and his rivals; Chamberlain’s post- a British South Africa or recog- servative parties probably wished home-rule career; and the repre- nise the British contribution to its they had never met. A pioneering sentation of Chamberlain in the rebuilding. There are no memorials executive mayor whose enterprise rich visual media of Victorian and to Chamberlain in South Africa. still shapes Birmingham, he was Edwardian Britain. These formed Relations with New Zealand’s also the figurehead, and more, for the real meat of the conference for charismatic, radical premier, Rich- the emergence of the Liberal Party historians. ard Seddon, were rather more cor- as an accountable, campaigning, dial, as Tom Brooking explained. national, mass-membership organi- Seddon was an autodidact – a self- sation. Yet his ‘morally ambiguous’ Chamberlain and the wider made mechanical engineer – and imperialism helped split the party world Popular Liberal. He introduced over devolution for Ireland, hur- Thomas Otte set out the commu- workmen’s compensation and old- tling him into a partnership with nity of interest between Chamber- age pensions, causes favoured by the Tories. His restless quest for lain’s imperialism and the outlook Chamberlain in Britain, and sup- policies that promoted working- of the Salisbury government, ported Chamberlain’s Imperial class welfare while reinforcing the which cemented the alliance with Preference scheme, as he saw the unity of the British Empire then the Liberal Unionists despite differ- advantages to a small distant col- split the Tories. As Sir Alan argued, ences in outlook between the two ony of a pact between the compo- in our own time only David men. Chamberlain and some of the nent nations of Britain’s empire. He Owen’s record is comparable. younger Conservatives preferred favoured an imperial council and Sir Alan was followed by Peter an Anglo-Saxon alliance on social- sent troops and horses to support Marsh, who has written the defini- Darwinist grounds, favouring Ger- the British in the Boer War – and tive Chamberlain biography and many over Salisbury’s preference was furious when Chamberlain edited for publication some of for France, and backed German resigned in 1903. the Chamberlain family corre- expansion in China and Africa, at spondence. Peter Marsh attributed least up until the Boer War. Chamberlain’s municipal success to Jackie Grobler reminded del- Chamberlain and his rivals his background as an entrepreneur- egates that Chamberlain was the Although politics is well known to ial businessman, a self-proclaimed only Victorian Colonial Secretary be competitive, Chamberlain had ‘Screw King’, who understood the to visit South Africa and took them a reputation for unusually sharp social impact of industrial busi- through the tangled and deceit- elbows that was both confirmed nesses on the city and the impor- ful manoeuvres which provoked and undermined at this confer- tance of finance in securing the the Boer War. He suggested that, ence. Many think of Chamberlain success of his renovation plans. By although Chamberlain worked well as the archetypal Victorian radi- persuading the council to take over with Milner, he was not a comfort- cal, but Eleanor Tench showed that the gas and water utilities, he cre- able ally of Rhodes. Chamberlain’s there were other, different radi- ated a revenue base on which the attempts at reconciliation, during cals even among those who sym- council was able to borrow the cap- his post-war visit, were unsuccess- pathised with Liberal Unionism ital for redevelopment. Chamber- ful because the Boer War lead- when she compared the career of lain’s unusual mayoral enterprise ers refused to accept his vision of Chamberlain with that of Leonard 38 Journal of Liberal History 85 Winter 2014–15 REPOrt – JOSEph ChAMBERLAIN: IMPEriAL STANDARD BEARER, NAtiONAL LEADER, LOCAL ICON Courtney. Elected to parliament views on the expansion of suffrage it were of Nonconformity. While in the same year as Chamberlain, and the obstructionism of the House Chamberlain was ‘on message’ over and like him a friend of John Mor- of Lords. Gladstone backed Cham- education and disestablishment, his ley, Courtney was associated with berlain’s National Board scheme style suggested pragmatism rather the Chamberlain and Dilke radi- for Ireland when it was believed than passion, and unlike Gladstone cals – though Ms Tench suggested it might defuse the drive to home he was unable to build confidence that even where they did agree it rule. Even when the pair parted over in his audiences by employing the was not for the same reasons. An home rule, Chamberlain refrained language of religion. Further he Anglican rather than Noncon- from hostile comment about the had differences with the Noncon- formist, Courtney still supported Grand Old Man; and while Glad- formists over temperance, and in temperance and disestablishment stone sought to reclaim Chamber- turn they rejected his utilitarian and put proportional representa- lain through the round table talks, defence of coercive measures in Ire- tion ahead of ministerial office. He he could not bridge the philosophi- land. While there is evidence that voted against Jesse Collings’ pro- cal gulf between them. While Glad- Methodists supported the Unionist posals for ‘Three Acres and a Cow’ stone thought Chamberlain ‘the government during the Boer War, and against home rule but was most remarkable man of his genera- Chamberlain lost substantial Non- notoriously anti-imperialist, losing tion’, Quinault did not believe that conformist support over the rates his seat for his pro-Boer stance in Chamberlain would ever have suc- funding of established faith schools Chamberlain’s war. ceeded to the Liberal leadership, as in the 1902 Education Act. James Dixon, the great-grand- he lacked the support to overcome His need to create or extend a son of George Dixon, elaborated on Hartington and he faced a substan- base of support after the Boer War the thesis of his recent biography of tial obstacle in Queen Victoria’s and the Education Act, argued his ancestor. Both Chamberlain and hostility. Oliver Betts, was the cause of Dixon had been committed, active Chamberlain’s miscalculation in Liberals, both had been council- embracing tariff reform. Mis- lors for Birmingham and both rep- The context of pre-war politics taken conclusions were drawn resented the city in parliament. Separation from the Liberals in 1886 from by-elections at Dulwich and Chamberlain and Dixon cooper- opened a new phase in Chamber- Lewisham, which the Conserva- ated to promote free primary edu- lain’s career. Naomi Lloyd-Jones tives held on to not because of the cation in Birmingham and to win explored the battle for constitu- popularity of tariffs but because elections. Yet Chamberlain acted encies occasioned by home rule. of the rising gentility of the area. to undermine Dixon’s leadership She aimed to undermine Jonathan Chamberlain was appealing to the of the national education campaign Parry’s view that grass roots Lib- electorate over the heads of fellow and pressured him to allow Cham- eral support for was for Gladstone ministers, but it was an elector- berlain to succeed him at Westmin- personally rather than for Irish ate that was more concerned with ster. Despite which, Dixon stuck devolution itself. Her work, which immigration than the threat of with Chamberlain when he split is not yet complete, has mapped the imports: the Conservatives did well from Gladstone over home rule. 1,500 meetings that occurred in the at Bethnal Green, for example, on However, Roland Quinault’s Although aftermath of Gladstone’s embrace an anti-Jewish immigrant ticket. survey of the relationship between of home rule and the resolutions Evidence from Booth’s surveys of Chamberlain and Gladstone sought politics is that were discussed at these meet- the working class showed some to overthrow the orthodox view ings, where they were contested trades would gain from import pro- that they had always been uneasy well known within a local party and where par- tection but others would lose from colleagues and that Chamberlain ties competed to test local opinion. retaliation. sought to be Gladstone’s succes- to be com- Meetings were particularly likely sor, views propounded in particular in areas where the MP was likely by Chamberlain’s early biographer petitive, to oppose home rule, which led to A magnificent ego or just J. L. Garvin. Prior to his election criticisms that the NLF’s Schnad- political nous? to Westminster, Chamberlain had Chamberlain horst was ‘wire-pulling’ to coerce It is hard to do justice to the final campaigned against the education MPs towards the official party view. sessions of the first day, as so much policy of Gladstone’s first govern- had a reputa- Efforts to secure a unanimous vote of the material was pictorial, illus- ment as insufficiently radical, but dictated the form of the resolution trating how Chamberlain was por- was reconciled after Gladstone’s tion for unu- and in particular the inclusion of trayed in the local and national 1874 defeat.