Electionsand party organisation IanCawood examines the emergence and impact of the BirminghamLiberal 1caucus' Birmingham,the 'Caucus' an
Election hustings in 'I've got it,' said he with a face full of glee, and its founders, as Andrew Reekes has recently the186os 'Dame Virtue shall no longer baulk us;' described.' And, in some ways, its actions were Then with a jubilant cry, he winked his left eye, manipulative of the electorate and not fully repre Gave a laugh and invented-the caucw!' sentative of the political complexion of the city. If the BLA has been considered to be the prototype N THE NATIONAL historiography of the Vic of modern political organisation, owing to its suc torian Liberal Party, Birmingham holds an cess in I868, it has nevertheless been suggested by Iambiguous position. One the one hand, it some commentators this was not entirdy benefi pioneered a new approach to political organisa cial for the development of participative demo tion and electioneering, most spectacularly in cratic politics in Britain nor for the long-term the 1868 general dection which saw all three of survival of the Liberal Party.3 the seats for the city won for the Liberals, thanks Although the association was seen by Disraeli to the work of the Birmingham Liberal Associa as an example of the growing 'Americanisation' of tion (BLA). On the other hand, the BLA later the English political system,• it was, in fact, a nat proved to be a troublesome ally for Gladstone ural development of the progressive movement
30 Journal of Liberal History 105 Winter 2019-20 ~dthe 1868general election
in Birmingham.' The BLA arose primarily out three were subsequently involved in the campaign of the close relationship between the Noncon for educational reform that would eventually pro formist churches in Birmingham. These had been duce the National Education League.'' .fired with a spirit of public service by the radical Harris, the education reformer, George Dixon preacher, George Dawson, who preached at the and the proprietor of the sympathetic Birmingham Church of the Saviour in Edward Street. Dawson Daily Post,John Jaffray, founded the BLA in Feb wished to see the energy and the professionalism ruary 1865, shortly before Lord Palmerston called of the Birmingham middle classes, hitherto dedi what was expected to be his last general elec cated to making money for themselves, turned tion. The circular announcing the initial meet instead towards the benefiting of the whole com ing noted that it was 'a matter of regret that the munity through the provision of cultural, social Liberal Party in Birmingham has had no recog Ifthe BLAhas and economic 'irnprovement'.6 As he famously nised organisation by which its opinions can be put it, 'a great town exists to discharge towards expressed and its interests promoted."4 The .first beenconsidered the people of that town the duties that a great meetings of the BLA took place on 17 February in nation exists to discharge towards the people of a committee room of the Birmingham town hall to be the proto that nation. ., Dawson saw the enemies of his vast with a committee of twenty one members, Philip ambitions for the 'civic gospel' in the dominant Muntz as president and Dixon as honorary sec typeof modern 'economist' group on Birmingham council, who retary.'' The title 'Liberal Association' was delib famously met in the Woodman pub, in Easy Row erately chosen instead of an alternative title to politicalorganisa near the canal wharf, to save the expense of erect avoid alarming moderates who would be worried tion, owingto its ing a proper Council House.' In r86r, he, together about a title containing words such as 'Radical' or with like-minded progressives, such as the archi 'Reform'.'• The purposes of the new association successin 1868, it tects J. H. Chamberlain and William Harris, and were given as follows: the scholars Samuel Timmons and G.J.John- hasneverthe .less son, founded the Town Crier, a satirical periodical To maintain the liberal representation of the which mercilessly lambasted the short-sight borough. beensuggested edness of the 'economists' who oversaw appall To assist in obtaining the return of Liberal mem ing rates of infant mortality due to the lack of bers for the county. bysome com adequate public health provision.• In their place, To promote the adoption of Liberal principles in mentatorsthis the Town Crier supported Thomas Avery who, the Government of the c:ountty. '' although cautious in expenditure, began to tackle wasnot entirely the town's sewage problem, in the first stirrings The BLA was outwardly, therefore, a more cen of the 'civic gospel'.10 In Dawson's congregation trist organisation, appealing to respectable Bir beneficialfor the were not only figures such as J. T. Bunce andJesse mingham progressives, but it masked a very Collings, who came to dominate Birmingham radical agenda of municipal reform and support development politics in the 1870s and thereafter, but also Har for expansion of the parliamentary franchise. ris, who has become known as the 'father of the The association was notably ineffective at of participative caucus'." Harris himself had been associated with first, struggling to operate within the restricted Liberal politics since his support for nationalist franchisei.rnposed in 1832. In July 1865, George democraticpoli causes in Hungary and Italy in 1848 and was at Muntz was defeated in the North Warwick tics in Britainnor forefront of Liberal activity in the 1860s owing to shire constituency in the general election. In his presidency of the Birmingham and Edgbaston response the BLA declared that it would not dis forthe long-term Debating Society, where young professional and band and would become a permanent organisa businessmen of all religious denominations such tion determined to drive forward a more radical survivalof the as George Dixon and Joseph Chamberlain, dis agenda in Birmingham and Warwickshire's cussed how to improve their adopted town.12 All Liberal politics.'8 It funded the establishment LiberalParty.
Journal of Liberal History 105 Winter 2019-20 31 Birmingham,the 'Caucus'and the 1868general election of a Birmingham branch of the radical Reform increase in the electorate, largely as a result of League in November 1865 with the support of the disturbances in Hyde Park in July 1866.'' local trade unions.' 9 One of the co-founders of the association, James Baldwin, was appointed as I ask with whom does the blame lie of expos first president of the Midlands' department' of the ing us to this terrible danger -wi th those who league. The 'department' was inaugurated with endeavoured to keep the franchise from the most a meeting in Birmingham on 4 July 1866 with a numerous class of the community, and so with march of the trades unions from the Bull Ring to held from them the only weapon of self-defence, the town hall.'0 Shortly afterwards, an enormous which is at once harmless and effective, or with meeting was held at Brook Fields, near Icknield me, for pointing out what would be the inevi Street, attended by around 200,000 supporters of table effect of that unjust and perilous policy in reform!' This was, in many ways, a return to the times of great popular excitement? With whom tactics ofThomas Attwood's Birmingham Politi does the bhme lie? With me, for maintaining cal Union which had forged an alliance between that it is in.finitely safer that the great masses the town's workers and businessmen in 1830 and of our countrymen should defend their rights which had held enormous meetings in May 1832 by constitutional means than by the exercise on New Hall hill,just outside the town centre, as of physical force, or with those who denied the a scarcely concealed threat of potential disorder if people the sutfrage, and were willing, if dark their demands for political reform were not met. and calamitous times should come, to encounter The serious 'Murphy Riots' of!ate June I 867, the the terrible risk of conspiracy and rebellion?" last anti-Catholic riots in nineteenth century Bir mingham, added to the sense of tension, though Dale, and the other leaders of what Leighton the swift suppression of these by George Dixon, terms the 'new Radicals', who went on to give now Birmingham's mayor, did no harm for the speeches in the weeks that followed, focused on reputation of the Liberals among the respectable one crucial social issue to bring the newly enfran of Birmingham." chised into the national polity- the development The immediate target of the BLA and the of the state provision of education.3°The state Reform League was the extension of the fran had funded both Anglican and Nonconform- chise, following the death of Lord Palmerston ist schools since 1833 (which was called the 'vol and the rise of the more reform-minded Wil untary system'), but they had not kept pace with liam Gladstone. That the leading advocate of the expansion of the population, nor had they 'the widest possible suffrage',John Bright, was acknowledged that half the population never one of the MPs for Birmingham, helped to focus attended church. In Birmingham, the leading demands for Reform in the city." The BLA and progressives founded the Birmingham Education the Reform League also agreed that the num Society in March 1867 to campaign for greater ber of MPs representing Birmingham should popular access to education and a reduction in be increased, to match the growth of the city Harris,equally church infl.uence in schools. In a report in 1868, in nineteenth century. They were aided by an the society found that, although there had been increase in unemployment and a rise in interest inspiredby the significant improvements in provision in the rates (consequent on a stock market crash in May town, r3,ooo children still received no schooling 1866) which encouraged the political mobilisa radicalismof whatsoever and that standards of attainment were tion of the skilled workers.' 4 Between summer fairly low.l' George Dixon threw himself into 1866 and 1867 the Reform League held nearly Dawsonand Dale promoting the cause of secular, free elementary 600 public meetings in the Midlands and signed education and is widely seen as the man who first up nearly 20,000 new members.'' At this point, asDixon, was transformed the aspirations of George Dawson into tangible policies and invigorated the Liberals the BLA was virtually in abeyance, with only determinedthat twenty-eight people attending the association's and Nonconformists in Birmingham into politi annual meeting according to the memory of one threeLiberal can cal action.3' eyewitness.>0 The reward was not merely the As the Birmingham Reform League had now passing of the Second Reform Act which tre didatesshould fulfilled its function, it was swiftly disbanded, bled the electorate (mainly in urban areas), but and the BLA took centre stage as Disraeli called an also the redistribution of seats, which allocated winthe threeBir election in r868 hoping to capitalise on the good an additional, third constituency to Birming will from the majority of voters whom his party ham (as was also the case in Leeds, Liverpool minghamseats had enfranchised. Dixon had been elected to par and Manchester). The BLA claimed the credit liament in a by-election in July 1867 and Harris for this latter achievement, and as one com andso had to had succeeded him as secretary of the BLA. Har ris, equally inspired by the radicalism ofDawson mentator has claimed, it 'made Liberalism more turnits attention than ever the uncontested political creed of the and Dale as Dixon, was determined that three working classes."' Another of the leading Non towardsthe mar Liberal candidates should win the three Birming conformist Liberal leaders, R. W. Dale, gave a ham seats and so had to turn its attention towards lecture, entitled ' The Politics of the Future', in shallingof the the marshalling of the Liberal vote. As Joseph which he repudiated the arguments of those who Chamberlain (who played a very minor role in the had prophesied social upheaval as a result of the Liberalvote. work of the BLA in 1868) later wrote;
32 Journal of Uberal History 105 Winter 2019-20 ------
Birmingham,the 'Caucus' and the 1868general election
It is not only desirable but absolutely necessary Harristherefore a fungus and withereth like a cauliflower; and that the whole of the party should be taken into is seen no more; in the midst of life, we hope he its counsels and that all its members should share re-organisedthe meets his death.'' in its control and management. It is no longer BLA safe to attempt to secure the representation of a intoa hier- Conservatism in Birmingham had not been great constituency for the nominee a few gen dominant since in the middle years of the cen of archyof commit tlemen sitting in private committee, and basing tury and had become locally identified with the their claims to dictate the choice of the electors tees,led bythe 'economist' grouping on the town's council who on the fact that they have been willing to sub oversaw the decline from the high standards of scribe something towards the expenses. The management housing, health provision and sanitation in the working class, who cannot contribute pecuni town which had preserved Birmingham from arily though they are often ready to sacrifice a committee(the the ravages of cholera in 1832.39 While it was true more than proportionate amount of time and that a substantial section of the local upper middle labour, are now the majority in most borough 'Committeeof classes, particularly Anglican manufacturers and constituencies, and no candidate and no policy lawyers, had remained Conservative, this class Ten'),with an has a chance of success unless their good will and was now out-numbered in the electorate by the active support can be first secured." executiveand a newly enfranchised urban rate-payers. Socially aloof from the growing ranks of Nonconform Under the so-called 'minority dause' of the generalcommit ity in the town and preferring to look to the reformed political system, although Birming neighbouring gentry of Warwickshire and Staf ham now had three MPs, the electors still had tee ('thefour hun fordshire for social alliances, this local elite had only two votes each and so there was a danger become increasingly removed from the practical that all the Liberal voters would cast their ballot dred')beneath it concerns ofBirmingham's citizens, as their inade for the most popular candidate (Bright) and thus quate responses to the calls for educational reform reduce the chances of enough votes being cast for andpermanent demonstrated. They claimed popular support for the causes of Church and Q)!een but in r867 the each of the two remaining candidates (Dixon and wardcommittees, Philip Muntz) to prevent the Conservatives from Working Men's Liberal-Conservative Association being able to elect one of their candidates (Samp of twenty-four could only claim 2,000 members.40 son Lloyd or Sebastian Evans). Harris therefore The main battle ground between Liberals and re-organised the BLA into a hierarchy of com memberseach, to Conservatives in terms of policy in 1868, was on mittees, led by the management committee (the the question of the Irish church, which Gladstone 'Committee of Ten'), with an executive and a directelectors in had promised to disestablish in order to pacify general committee {'the four hundred') beneath it Ireland. The Conservative candidates were both and permanent ward committees, of twenty-four eachward to vote strong supporters of antidisestablishmentarian members each, to direct electors in each ward to ism. Sampson Lloyd, in an attempt to appeal to vote for a particular combinations of candidates. for a particular the anti-Catholic prejudices of the Nonconform As the later constitution of the BLA revealingly combinationsof ist Birmingham voter, declared in his election noted, 'mere adherence to the objects and organi address that Gladstone's proposed Irish Church sations of the [BLA]' was sufficient for member candidates. Bill would lead 'to a great increase in the politi ship of the ward committee.34 Ward committees cal power of the hierarchy and established in that had been established for the purpose of fighting a country by the Court of Rome .\' The two sides forthcoming election in Birmingham since r84r, produced short-lived, 'wretchedly executed' but these had been dissolved as soon as the elec satirical journals for the duration of the contest - tion was over.1s the Liberals printing Toby and the Conservatives, Harris divided Birmingham into three areas. The Third Member.•• A meeting at the town hall In area A, Llberal voters were instructed to vote with Dixon and both putative Conservative can for Bright and Dixon; in area B they were told to didates present on 22 April was disrupted when vote for Bright and Muntz. In the most challeng physical violence broke out and both Conserva ing area C, voters would be directed not to vote tive candidates were howled down.43 It was nor for Bright, the 'People's Tribune', but for Dixon mal for violence to break out at the hustings; for and Muntz.36 As Harris put it, 'in this way unity example it was alleged that the BLA had hired would be preserved and the danger of a Tory thugs to intimidate Lloyd when he had stood being elected in consequence of difference among against Dixon in the 1867 by-election.44 But it was the Llberals would be averted."' While national unusual for violence to occur in the confines of as Liberal organs such as the Daily News predicted a august a building as the town hall and must serve sorry failure, Birmingham's Liberals were con as an indication of the passions provoked by the fident of success and a mourning card was cir contest. culated announcing the burial of 'Old Toryism' It is striking how much Gladstone's name was on polling day (17 November) and ironically already being used as a talisman by the 'new Rad lamenting: icals'. In a speech in late October, Muntz praised Gladstone as 'the finest financier of the age', while A man that is born a Tory has but a short time to a Jewish member of the audience gave the Llberal live and is full ofhumbug; he springeth up like leader sole credit for granting civil rights to those
Journal of LiberaI History 105 Winter 2019-20 33 Birmingham,the 'Caucus'and the 1868general election
of his faith. The Conservatives were forced to he combined the right political views and ability Thecampaign resort to defamation to tarnish his obvious popu to replace Bright as the leader of Birmingham's larity, accusing Gladstone ofbeing 'in league with Liberals.'' of the BLAhad the Church ofRome to fight her battles.'45 On 16 In response to this stinging defeat, the Con November, at the hustings outside the town hall, servatives attempted to improve their own provedstagger nominations took place. Those for Dixon and organisation after 1868 and more particularly inglysuccess- Muntz stressed that both were 'supporters of Mr after 1874,ll but the BLA went on to enjoy a Gladstone' and that for Bright described him as monopoly of political power in Birmingham ful as therewas 'the real great champion of the working classes with the establishment of the National Educa of this country.' By contrast, the nominators for tion League in 1869 andJoseph Chamberlain's less thansoo Evans or Lloyd warned of'the shackles of Rome, election as mayor of Birmingham in 1873. In the the thumb-screw and the rack.' The mayor of same year Harris stepped down as secretary fol votes'difference Birmingham, Alderman Henry Holland, called lowing a minor stroke and was replaced by the for a show of hands and declared the three Liber young Francis Schnadhorst. The caucus was the betweenthe first als elected. Lloyd and Evans demanded a poll to means whereby positive, reforming local govern Lib be held (as was their right) and this was held at the ment was achieved, particularly during the period andthe third same site on the following day, with the Birming of Chamberlain's mayoralty from 1873 to 1876. eralcandidates. ham Daily Post confidently predicting that 'today In 1877 the BLA hosted a conference of ninety we are going to win a great victory at the poJl.\6 five Liberal associations and Harris encouraged AsPhilip Muntz Voters declared their votes verbally to an election them to use the 'caucus' system to give voice to clerk who recorded these in a poll book for the last the popular mood over issues such as the 'Bulgar commentedafter time in a general election, prior to the introduc ian horrors' then dominating the news. Harris tion of the secret ballot in I 872. The Mayor was was appointed as chairman of the Central Com hearingthe decla given the poll books the day after and, after an mittee of a newly formed National Liberal Fed hour of public arithmetic, he dedared the follow eration (NLF), with Chamberlain as president and ration,'had it not ing results: Schnadhorst as secretary. As Robert Selfhas per for mag spicuously noted, 'although the ostensibly repre been the Dixon 15,098 sentative structure always concealed a high level nificentorganisa Muntz 14,614 of oligarchical control, its claim to legitimacy Bright 14,601 permitted the NLF to claim the right to control tion of ourfriends Lloyd 8,700 the destiny of the Liberal party.~• Hugh Cun Evans 7,061 ningham disagrees that the NLF was ever that .•. wehad been powerful, however, as Hartington, one of those John Skirrow Wright, president of the BLA, Whigs whom Chamberlain had hoped to unseat in the sameposi called for 'ringing and hearty cheers for Bright, from their position at the heart of British Liber Dixon, Muntz and for Gladstone' and then 'the alism came to respect the services that the NLF tion as ourfriends immense and orderly assembly dispersed_\, could provide, especially after the scale of the Lib in Manchester, The campaign of the BLA had proved stagger erals' election victory in I 880 became clear.55 ingly successful as there was less than 500 votes' It is true that the organisation of the BLA wherefor want difference between the .first and the third Liberal moved forward the 'improvement' of Birming candidates. As Philip Muntz commented after ham which began spectacularly under Cham of organisation, hearing the declaration, 'had it not been for the berlain's three-year mayoralty and continued to magnificent organisation of our friends ... we had pursue 'gas and water socialism' under successive theyhave lost a been in the same position as our friends in Man Liberal mayors. It also served as the springboard chester, where for want of organisation, they have for Chamberlain's rapid ascent into national poli vote whichought lost a vote which ought to have been saved.\! All tics, with him becoming president of the Board three Birmingham Liberals had secured enor of Trade only four years after his election as an to havebeen mous majorities and advice about electioneering MP in 1876. But its legacy is mixed, even for its saved'. was instantly requested by Liberals in many other progenitors. Bright remained Member of Par constituencies.'~ In recognition of his achieve liament for Birmingham until his death in 1889, ment, Harris was presented with a cheque for but he had little love for the new forms of politi £240 (worth well over £25,000 today) by Skirrow cal organisation which his thrusting young col Wright in May 1869.50 Gladstone won the election league had perfected. Dixon was forced out his with a majority of 107, the largest since1832, but seat in parliament by the ambitious Chamberlain even he recognised the significance of Birming in 1876.16 Muntz, who had unwisely refused to ham's achievement. Bright was offered a cabinet give up his political independence to Chamber position and accepted the post of president of the lain, unwittingly sealed his fate when he beat Board of Trade- Birmingham's first cabinet min Chamberlain to second place in the 1880 election ister." The 'new Radicals' were not entirely con and he too was forced out in 1885 to make way for vinced that Bright sympathised with the Civic those more loyal to the 'Boss'.J? After successfully Gospel and Harris led a deputation in autumn capturing the council, the BLA became increas I 869 to persuadeJoseph Chamberlain to stand ingly 'dictatorial and tyrannical', in the opinion for election to the town council, convinced that ofW. J. Davis, the leader of the Brassworkers'
34 Journal of Liberal History 105 Winter 2019-20 Birmingham,the 'Caucus'and the 1868general election
8 Union.5 It refused to listen to the Labour Rep whereby the representative nature of mass poli resentative League's concern that working men tics was subverted by powerful elite groups and were not being nominated as candidates for elec used to silence minority voices." In her study tion, which led Davis to set up the Birmingham of the political culture ofVictorian Birming Labour Association. The BLA backed down and ham, Anne Rodrick notes that 'the Liberal cau Schnadhorst agreed to let a few Labour figures cus dosed off many avenues for service to those such as Davis to stand as candidates for the school beyond the pale of the ruling party', as can be board or the town council without opposition witnessed by the bitter attacks on the BLA by from the BLA/? the anonymous authors of The Dart magazine Gladstone, in the midst of his campaign against after 1879 when it was bought out by a consor 'Bulgarian atrocities' came to Birmingham in tium ofleading Birmingham Conservatives.•~ 1877 to speak at the inauguration of the NLF, Lord Randolph Churchill described the caucus but pointedly refused to do more than endorse it, system of which the BLA was the central compo having been warned by Granville of Chamber nent as 'Tsarist despotism ... dispensing patron lain's ambitions.60 He had been annoyed by the age to maintain 25,000 servants and to employ National Education League's campaign against none but the blindly docile as chinovniks."0 This Forster's 1870 Education Act and by Chamber was popularly referred to as 'vote as you are told' lain's critical article, 'The Liberal Party and its (which was the verbatim message in the Binning Leaders'.61 He was proved correct to be suspi ham Daily Post on the day of the 1868 poll).71 Har cious when the NLF was used by Chamberlain ris defended the scheme, however, on the basis to promote his 'unauthorised programme' in the that a political organisation 'should not only be a 1885 general election. Chamberlain's increased reflex of popular opinion, but should be so mani focus on his national career also proved disas festly a reflex of that opinion that none could trous to Harris and Schnadhorst, who refused to doubt it.'72 As he put it in his History ofthe Radical Briggsargues break with Gladstone, when the Birmingham Party in Parliament, it was 'in the borough con stituencies where alone the Radical feelings of that in spite of Liberal MPs opposed his Irish Home Rule Bill in 1886. Schnadhorst made sure that the BLA (and the People can obtain expression' and so it was the BLA'ssub the NLF) stayed loyal to the GOM but neither his responsibility to maximise the political rep he nor Harris were able to advance their politi resentation of that feeling, both to combat the sequentcon cal careers significantly thereafter,., Chamberlain Conservatives and also to challenge the Whig meanwhile was forced to found the Birmingham influence on the Liberal party itself.73 Chamber demnationby Liberal Unionist Association and to rebuild his lain himself offered a more typically vigorous caucus from the ground up.63 He consequently rebuttal of the charge of tyrannical direction, commentators became increasingly dependent on Conservative though in private he admitted that he had 'almost support to further his career, the contradictions despotic authority' over Birmingham, thanks to andhistorians, of which position came near to forcing his retire the caucus.74 Asa Briggs' conclusion is that the the association ment over the Leamington Spa candidature dis BLA was in fact a form of' democratic centralism' pute in 1895.64 in which twenty members could demand a meet contributedsig The National Liberal Federation grew in ing of the general committee (which in time grew power and influence, however, moving to West to number 2,000) which had considerable influ nificantlyto the minster in r886 and then establishing the Liberal ence over the choice of candidates. He argues that 6 Publications Department in the following year. ' in spite of the BLA's subsequent condemnation publicinterest As the NLF stayed loyal to Gladstone, the new by commentators and historians, the association president, Robert Spence Watson, d=anded a contributed significantly to the public interest in politicsand price from the leader in 1891 - the 'Newcastle in politics and the revival oflocal pride which Programme', which presented the party with a manifested itself in support for ambitious spend the revivalof list of demands for radical reforms from the par ing plans and conspicuous philanthropy in Bir localpride which ty's grassroots.66 The Federation finally reached mingham in the 1870s.71 Given the considerable its apogee under the presidency of Augustine advantage in wealth, social connections, cultural manifesteditself Birrell from 1902, who effectively coordinated authority and deference that both the Tories and the defence of the workers' 'cheap loaf' in the face the Whigs enjoyed even in Birmingham, it is pos in supportfor of Chamberlain's sudden conversion to the cause sible to understand that the BLA, whilst not alto ofTariffReform. 67 In many ways, the NLF can gether democratic, was a necessary evil, if vested ambitiousspend be credited for the scale of the Liberal landslide, interests and entrenched institutional inertia in even if, ironically, it must thank Chamberlain for municipal policies was to be overturned. Moreo ing plansand dividing both of the Unionist parties in one mala ver, as the 'minority clause' had been designed by conspicuousphi droit manoeuvre and handing the Liberals a cause a Tory government to increase Conservative rep on which they could reunite. resentation in borough seats, it was beholden on lanthropyin Bir Political historians such as Jon Lawrence the 'new Radicals' to use any means available to and James Vernon have worried that the politi strike back at this blatant electoral manipulation minghamin the cal apparatus created by Harris and inherited with, in Harris' own words, 'the nicest calcula by Chamberlain and then expanded nationally tion and the utmost subordination .. . to carry the 1 1870s. into the NLF amounted to a form of 'coercion' three Liberals' •
JournalofllberalHlstory 105 Winter2019-20 35 Birmingham,the 'Caucus' andthe 1868general election
Dr Iari Cawood is Associate Professorin 17 Binningh,,m joNmal, 18 Feb. 1865. 49 Briggs, History of llirmingham, ii, p. 167. Modem British Religious and PoliticalHis- 18 BirminghamDa ily Post,:, Aug. 186.s. 50 Birmingham .Daily Post, 9 May 1869. tory at the University ofStirling. He is the 19 Bifmingham]o"rna/, 25 Nov. 1865, 18 Aug. $1 P. Bounou,, 'Bright for Birminghom? A author ojThe Liberal Unionist Party r866. Rc>.~se,sment of the Popularity of John 1886- 1912: A History (Bloomsbury,2012) 20 BirminghamJournal , 7 July 1866. Bright as M .P. for Birmingham, 185,-1889' and editorofJoseph Chamberlain: l mpe- 21 Birmingham Daily ~st, 28 Aug. 1866. (unpublished MA dimrution, Univeu.ity of rial Statesman, National Leader, Local 22 V. Bird, Portraitof Binningh11m (London , 1910), Binninglum , :wu. ), p p. 23-4. Icon (Pa/grave,2016). p. 102. S2 Garvin, Life ofjostph Chamberlain, i, p. 100.
ll>3 B. Cash.John Bright: Statesmon, Omto,, Agitator 53 'Political and Aclm.lnistrative History: Politi- Th< Datt, 24 Apr. 1880. (London, ;,ou), pp. n8- 9. cal Hi5tory &om 1832.'in W. B. Stephens (ed.), 2 A. Reeke1, The BirminghamPolitical Machine: 24 A. Btiggs, Age of Improwtt,ent, P· _io4. A History ofth• County ofWarw ick: Va/u,.,e 7, the Winning Elet1ionsforJ~h C!usmbr:r/,,in (Alce,- 2s Birmingham D,:f/y Post, 6 Aug. r867. City ofBirmingham (London, 1964), p. 309. ter, 2018). Reckes pays little attention to the 26 Francis Schnadhorst, Birmingham Daily Post, 2.l .l4 R. Self, Ewl11tion ofth, British Party Sy,ttm, 1868 election, however. Mar. 1885. 1885-1940(London, 2000), p. 31. Sec for example, M. Ostrogorslcy, Donocrocy 1,7 T. E. Tholfsen, 'The Origins of the Binning- 5S H. Cunningham, The C"411,ngeofD,mocracy: and the Organi,ation '![PoliticalParties (New ham Caucus', Hlstori,aljournal, 2:2 (i959), p. Britain 18J2- 1918(London, 2001), p. 125. York, 1902), pp. r614 H;J Hanha.m, Bl,c- r83. 56 Dixon, Out of Birmingham, pp. 168-73. tlonsand Party Managtmtnt (London, 1959);]. 28 Manch,sttr Gua,dian, 26Ju ly r866. 57 R. Ward, TM Chambnlains:Joscph, Austen .,,.J Owen, Labourandtht Cauiu,: Working-d
rs-6. 42 Dent, OIJandNtwBirmlng/1,1m, p. s+6, 73 W. Harris, A History ofth£ R4dital Party i11 13 Birmingham Gazette, 27 Mar. 19JI. 43 HirminghantDail J Pim, :13 Apr. r868. Wtst11tiHSttr(Londoo, 1884), p. 483. r4 As recalled by Francis Schnadhorst, in a 44 R . Ward, City-state and Nation: Birt11ingham's 74 Garvin, Lift ofJruqh Chamberlain, i, p. 97; speech in Birmingham twenty years later. P-olllica/Hi,tory t830-19fo (Chichester, 2005), p. Chamberlain to Charles Dilke, l9 Jan. 1876, Birmingham D4ilyPost, 25 Mar. 1885. 64. Dilkc Papers, British Library, Add MS 43885. IS R. K. Dent, Old and Ntw Bir,ningham: A His- 45 Birmingham Dally Post, 2 Nov. r868. 75 Briggs, HI.storyif Birmingham ii, pp. 168""'75. toryoftl,e Town and its People, iii {Birmingham, 46 Bi,m/ngh11mD<,ily PMI, r7 Nov. 1868. 76 Harris speaking in Bdgba,ton, Birmingham 1879), p. 542. 47 Birmingham Dally Post, 16 Nov. 1868; 18 Nov. Daily Post, 21 De,. 1868. 16 'Radical Refurmcrs Association' was the 1868; 19 Nov. 1868. rejected alternative tide. 48 Birmingham Daily Post, 19Nov. 1868.
36 Journal of Liberal History 105 Winter 2019-20