‘THE LAST OF THE LIBERALS’ FRANCIS WRIGLEY HIRST (1873 – 1953)
or H. J. Laski, Francis time. Moreover those ideas have, Hirst was the ‘last of the to some degree, come back into Liberals’. And Hirst fashion in recent decades among was indeed a rare and neo-liberals and libertarians. unbending exponent Francis Wrigley Hirst was Fand publicist of classical Liberal- born on June at Dalton ism in the first half of the twenti- Lodge near Huddersfield. Both eth century, at a time when such his parents came from wealthy ideas were being overwhelmed mill-owning families with deep by war and collectivism. He can nonconformist and Liberal roots. be seen as the last in the line His maternal aunt, Mary Wri- upholding the pure doctrine of gley, married William Willans what he called the ‘great watch- (–), the leading figure words of Liberalism – Peace, Lib- in Huddersfield Liberalism and erty, Free Trade, Public Economy, nonconformity and grandfather and Good Will among Nations’ of Herbert Asquith. Another Wri- in the tradition of Adam Smith, gley started the US chewing gum Cobden, Gladstone and John firm. Hirst’s father Alfred was Morley. Today he is a largely for- forced to retire from the woollen gotten figure, remembered only textile business in because as an outmoded ‘primitive Liberal’ of failing eyesight and the fam- ‘Liberty above all on the fringes of the party, whose ily moved to Harrogate, where things’ – Francis Hirst laissez-faire creed had been top- he worked in the cause of the pled by the new social Liberalism blind. This does not seem to have () in the years before and bur- involved much hardship. Hirst ied by Keynes and Beveridge in later recalled that shortly before the s and s. retiring his father had cleared a Jaime Reynolds Nevertheless Hirst’s career is profit of £, (the equivalent of continuing interest. More than of £, today) from just one describes the career of anyone else he continued robustly import deal. the leading ideologue to articulate and propagate tradi- Hirst attended Clifton Col- tional Radicalism from within lege in Bristol from – and of ‘old Liberalism’ in the Liberal Party until the end then won a scholarship to Wad- the interwar Liberal of the s. While his brand of ham College, Oxford, securing a Liberalism was in decline, it was double first in Classical Modera- Party, Francis Wrigley still a significant element in the tions and Greats in . He was Hirst. thinking of many Liberals at the President of the Oxford Union
22 Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 ‘THE LAST OF THE LIBERALS’ FRANCIS WRIGLEY HIRST (1873 – 1953)
the same year, succeeding John Hirst had forged his close Morley was a leading figure. Hirst Simon, who was to become a friendship and political partner- was a founder of the League of life-long friend. Other friends at ship with Morley in the sum- Liberals Against Aggression and Oxford included Hilaire Belloc, mer of , and again in , Hirst was Militarism, serving on its com- F. E. Smith and Leo Amery. when he worked as Morley’s a rare and mittee. He contributed to a col- Hirst was one of the first researcher on his celebrated lection of essays on Liberalism and at Oxford to study political biography of Gladstone, spend- unbending the Empire (), accusing Cecil economy, naturally of the clas- ing many happy weeks exploring Rhodes’s Chartered Company sical variety. He was strongly Gladstone’s voluminous papers exponent of inciting the conflict with the influenced by Alfred Marshall at Hawarden Castle. Hirst soon Boers. He also worked with and Professor F. Y. Edgeworth became Morley’s intellectual and and pub- Simon, Belloc, G. K. Chester- (–), a vigorous oppo- political amanuensis. Together licist of ton and J. L. Hammond in the nent of tariff reform. Hirst was with several other young Lib- pro-Boer Speaker, the forerun- already an ardent Liberal, joining erals, including Hilaire Belloc, classical ner of The Nation, which under the radical Russell Club. John Simon and J. L. Hammond, the editorship of H. W. Massing- Having narrowly failed to Hirst published Essays in Liberal- Liberalism ham became a standard-bearer of secure a research scholarship at ism in , contributing an essay advanced Liberal opinion. Oxford, Hirst earned his living on Liberalism and Wealth. The in the first In Hirst married Helena coaching students, lecturing on book – which aimed to reassert half of the Cobden, great-niece of Richard local government at the newly the doctrines of classical liberal- Cobden, and eventually they were founded London School of Eco- ism then under increasing attack twentieth to live in Cobden’s old home, nomics, and writing. In he from Fabians and New Liber- Dunford House near Midhurst was called to the Bar and prac- als – was dedicated to Morley as century, in Sussex, which they turned into tised as a barrister for the next the ‘embodiment of philosophic a shrine to the great free trader few years, without much finan- liberalism … the wellspring of a at a time and his ideas. The marriage was cial reward, giving up in about liberal tradition which united the when such long-lasting and happy, although to concentrate on journal- doctrines of Mill and Cobden they were at odds over Helena’s ism and writing. He had cut his and represented the still-living ideas were suffragette activity, which led to teeth as a journalist as one of the personality of Gladstone’. Hirst her arrest in . They had no talented young writers that C. P. was suspicious of the New Liber- being over- children. Scott brought into the Manchester als – what he called ‘the new type Already, in his twenties, Guardian. In , largely on the of Liberal politician who offers whelmed through his friendship with Mor- recommendation of John Morley, the public a mixed pottage of by war and ley and his prominence in Lib- Hirst was appointed editor of The socialism and jingoism …’. eral circles and at the Union at Economist, a post he was to hold At this time Hirst was closely collectiv- Oxford, he had built up a wide until . involved in the protest movement acquaintanceship with many of against the Boer War in which ism. the leading politicians of the day,
Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 23 ‘THE LAST OF THE LIBERALS’
helped by the fact that he was excellent company, ‘hospitable and inclusive’, and ‘a fascinating conversationalist’ with a ‘gen- ius for friendship’. He had many interests outside politics: he was a spirited but not particularly good chess player, a keen fly-fisherman and sports enthusiast (cricket, golf, athletics), and a lover of the Clas- sics, especially Latin poetry . His first two solo books appeared at the height of Joseph Chamberlain’s Tariff Reform campaign. Free Trade and other Fundamental Doctrines of the Man- chester School, a collection of extracts from the leading classical liberal pioneers which was pub- lished in , and Adam Smith, which appeared in Morley’s ‘Eng- lish Men of Letters’ series in , set the pattern of clear and ortho- dox exposition of classical liberal thought. Hirst was in the thick of the Liberal defence of free trade, contributing to Fact versus Fiction (), which the Cobden Club published to refute Chamber- lain’s arguments. He also wrote a number of academic and tech- nical studies on local government and legal and commercial issues in these years. As editor, Hirst expanded and modernised The Economist, previously a rather dull journal, turning it into a lively and par- tisan leader of Radical opinion. Working hand-in-hand with the anti-militarist wing of the Liberal Party, he sought to counteract ‘the Armour-plate press’ which loudly demanded a naval arms race with Top:The six writers of Oxford Essays Germany. A good illustration of in Liberalism how Hirst operated behind the (1897) – standing: scenes came in March when H. Belloc, J. L. Churchill proposed an increase Hammond, F. W in the naval estimates to build Hirst; seated: P. J. Macdonnell, J. new Dreadnoughts, in defiance A. Simon, J. S. of the ‘Radicals and Economists’ Phillimore. and a strongly worded resolu- tion recently adopted by the Left: Hirst’s National Liberal Federation farewell party given by the staff (NLF). Morley leaked to Hirst following his information about the division sacking as editor of opinion in the Cabinet on this of The Economist issue, including the opposition of in 1916 – he is Lloyd George, the Chancellor of seated with Mary Agnes Hamilton, the Exchequer. Hirst helped Sir later a Labour MP. John Brunner, chairman of the
24 Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 ‘THE LAST OF THE LIBERALS’ NLF, to draft circular letters of Hirst is who opposed the war even after charlatan, so to speak’. None of protest to constituency associa- the German invasion of neutral this prevented Hirst from enjoy- tions and editors, and in July he sometimes Belgium. He immediately began ing a wide circle of friends from suggested that Brunner write to efforts to build a broad alliance of both the Conservative and Asquith to say that he would call described the various anti-war currents. Labour Parties. a special meeting of the NLF to The formation of the Coali- In November Hirst suc- discuss ‘this fatal and provoca- as an isola- tion government under Asquith cessfully stirred up opposition in tive policy’. In the autumn Hirst tionist, but in May greatly increased the the House of Lords to a provi- ghosted a manifesto from Brun- pressure to introduce conscrip- sion of the Defence of the Realm ner to every Liberal Association it would tion, which Hirst loudly opposed. Act, then being rushed through chairman before the NLF meet- He wrote to Sir John Brun- Parliament, which would have ing held on November. By the be more ner that ‘the Liberal Imperialists allowed a secret court martial to time the meeting was held, the and Tory imperialists together sentence non-military personnel Cabinet had found a compromise accurate are quite capable of working up to death. In Hirst took on formula and the crisis had sub- to say that a panic and rushing the coun- the government in the outstand- sided, although the eventual out- try into military slavery’. The ing civil liberties case of the war, come was a defeat for Hirst and he stood Economist immediately stepped the Zadig case. Arthur Zadig, the Economists. up the campaign against com- though born of German parents, Hirst is sometimes described for active pulsory military service, which had been a naturalised British as an isolationist, but it would be it continued stubbornly in subject for ten years. In Octo- more accurate to say that he stood efforts to when Asquith brought in con- ber he was detained by for active efforts to maintain maintain scription. the Home Secretary under the international peace in Gladsto- Hirst’s opposition to the war Defence of the Realm regula- nian style through the ‘Concert of interna- was, to a significant degree, budg- tions on the grounds of his ‘hos- Europe’. He attempted to lower etary. He later wrote of ‘the Great tile origin and associations’. A international tensions by send- tional War, the most tremendous eco- defence fund was established and ing the journalist Dudley Ward nomic catastrophe recorded in the case taken through the courts to Berlin as a correspondent with peace in history’, setting out his case in up to the House of Lords where a wide brief to promote friendly Gladsto- several of his books. He never Hirst appeared for the appellant relations with Germany. He wavered in his orthodox Cob- arguing that the rights of British also upheld the Gladstonian tra- nian style denite critique of war, writing subjects under the Magna Carta dition of concern for oppression in that two world wars had and the Habeas Corpus Act in Europe. In – Hirst was through left Britain ‘shorn of its liber- could not be overthrown with- a member of the International ties, in a state of bankruptcy and out express legislation. Although Commission established by the the ‘Con- serfdom, oppressed by ruinous the Law Lords found against Carnegie Endowment for Inter- cert of taxation, overwhelming debt, and Zadig (with a powerful dissent- national Peace, which investi- conscription, manacled by more ing opinion from the Radical gated Serbian atrocities against Europe’. and more inflation, entangled in Lord Shaw), Hirst was widely the Macedonian (Bulgarian) new alliances … and with mili- judged to have won the moral population during the Balkan tary commitments in all parts of argument and Zadig was released Wars of –. The report was the world.’ He was secretary of a shortly afterwards. published in . committee of economists critical Hirst’s outspoken opposition Hirst blamed the Liberal gov- of Lloyd George’s finance policy to the war cost him the editorship ernment for the slide to war in formed under the Economic Sec- of The Economist in when . He later wrote that ‘the tion of the British Association. Walter Wilson Greg, the most death of Campbell-Bannerman Unlike the many anti-war Lib- important trustee, lost patience made way for Mr Asquith and erals who gravitated towards the with having to defend the paper’s so gave the Liberal Imperialists a Labour Party, Hirst, on account of pacifist stance. Hirst’s removal was free hand in foreign policy and at his economic liberalism, utterly handled in ‘a highly civilised fash- the same time opened the door rejected socialism. He told his ion’. For some time before his to a great expansion of arma- good friend, Molly Hamilton, resignation he had been discuss- ments … The real reason behind later a Labour MP, that ‘anyone ing with Sir Hugh Bell, the great these tremendous additions to who has any truck with Socialism ironmaster and fervent libertarian, the Navy lay concealed in the must be intellectually flabby’. and with anti-war Radical MPs secret diplomacy of the Lib- Nor was the Conservative Party such as Gordon Harvey, Percy eral Imperialist Ministers …’ an option, not least because of its Molteno, Richard Holt, D. M. When war broke out in August protectionism which, in Hirst’s Mason and Godfrey Collins, the Hirst, alongside his friends book, was equally if not more establishment of a new weekly, Morley and John Burns, who detestable. It was said that if a Common Sense, with Hirst as edi- resigned from the Cabinet, was Tory entered the room, Hirst ‘was tor. This ‘fanatically free trade’ in the small group of Radicals able to detect it, “to smell out” the
Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 25 ‘THE LAST OF THE LIBERALS’ paper appeared in October He had with both the general elec- government, urging the case for and survived until early . tion and a by-election in retrenchment to reverse ‘the vast Consistent with his belief very little that was contested by a new can- sums destroyed and wasted dur- in exploring every avenue that didate. ing the last ten years, and the might end the war, Hirst rushed enthusiasm In the s and ’s he was results; borrowed credit, less to the support of the former Con- increasingly out of tune with the enterprise in business and manu- servative Foreign Secretary, Lord for Asquith party leadership. He had very lit- factures, reduced home demand Lansdowne, when he called for a and even tle enthusiasm for Asquith and and therefore output to meet it, negotiated peace with Germany even less for Lloyd George; reductions in wages, increase in in November . Hirst was seen less for Campbell Bannerman was the pauperism and unemployment.’ as the leader of ‘a party of sorts’ last Liberal leader who Hirst Eighteen years later, as Ram- that tried to exploit Lansdowne’s Lloyd counted as a sound Cobdenite. say MacDonald formed the first initiative’, forming a ‘Lansdowne Hirst was prominent in a number Labour government, according to League’ to arouse public support. George; of organisations on the fringes gossip Hirst again had the ear of The Common Sense office became Campbell of the party that sought to keep an incoming Prime Minister. The a pacifist headquarters. the flag of classical liberalism fly- journalist R. T. Sang wrote to Hirst fought a rearguard Bannerman ing. He was an executive mem- Josiah Wedgwood, a Liberal MP action against creeping wartime ber of the Free Trade Union and who had defected to Labour: protectionism. With his usual was the remained very active in the Cob- allies – Bell, Harvey, Molteno, den Club, writing pamphlets and You have all been Holt and Collins, joined by Sir last Lib- serving as its secretary from . wo n d e r i n g w h o [ m ] John Simon, John Burns, Leif eral leader He also chaired the Liberal Free JRM[acDonald] has been Jones and Lords Beauchamp, Trade Committee from . relying on – if anyone – for Bryce, Courtney and Eversley – who Hirst In addition, Hirst was the moving advice on the formation he protested in July against force behind the ‘Public Econ- of his Government. No the protectionist resolutions put counted omy League’, a group formed in one has hit upon the fact forward by the government for – to press for reductions in which has been carefully the Economic Conference of as a sound public expenditure. The League concealed. But he had gone the Allies held in Paris. Com- Cobdenite. was still active during the Second to the worst possible source mon Sense carried on the fight World War when Hirst lobbied for advice and inspiration – in – against protection- the Chancellor of the Exchequer, F. W. Hirst. Last week JRM, ist measures put forward by the Sir Kingsley Wood, to curb the Hirst and Lloyd George Lloyd George Coalition. Hirst growth of expenditure and tackle breakfasted together and and his collaborators formed an rising inflation. went through the Cabi- ‘Anti-Embargo League’ which Hirst remained an orthodox net proposals. JRM offered forced the government to aban- Cobdenite in international affairs Hirst the Chancellorship don sweeping restrictions placed during the s, favouring the and pressed him to take it. on imports, but had less success solving of problems through Hirst refused in JRM’s own against ‘anti-dumping’ measures international law and arbitra- interest, as he believed the later. tion rather than through collec- Party would not stand the Hirst unsuccessfully stood for tive security and the League of exclusion of [Philip] Snow- parliament in Sudbury in January Nations. Such was his opposi- den, and it was Hirst who , defending a seat captured by tion to war that he joined Her- advised Snowden for it. the Liberals in . He claimed bert Samuel and a handful of Hirst has got [Lord] Par- that he was ‘destroyed [by] … other Liberals in supporting the moor to come in and influ- Beer & Feudalism & sheer bru- Munich agreement in . He enced some other strange tality’, although in fact the swing was not, however, a pacifist and selections. to the Conservatives there (.%) accepted that the defence of free- was closely in line with the aver- dom justified the use of force It is unclear what truth if any there age swing in Suffolk (%). He also both at home and abroad against is in this report. The choice of stood for Shipley, Yorkshire in the its enemies (threatening Com- Hirst and Lloyd George, ideolog- general election. Shipley was munist and Fascist parties in par- ical opposites within the Liberal a three-way marginal with the ticular). Party, for such soundings seems Liberals in third place with about Hirst’s influence behind the odd, especially as Hirst held no %. Hirst’s vote was disappoint- scenes is difficult to assess. He office in the party. MacDonald’s ing, despite – or perhaps because seems to have had easy access to supposed offer of the Excheq- of – his treating the voters to a leading politicians in all three uer to Hirst seems even more ‘masterly interpretation of the parties throughout his career. improbable, as Philip Snowden, as philosophy of Cobden and Glad- In December we find him the Labour Party’s acknowledged stone’. Against the national trend, writing to Campbell-Banner- financial expert, had an indisput- his vote dipped by % compared man as he formed his Liberal able claim to this position and
26 Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 ‘THE LAST OF THE LIBERALS’
Hirst was not even a Member of individual freedom from Classi- ices in the years before . He Parliament. Hirst and MacDonald cal Antiquity through the British sought to distance his ideas from were old comrades from the anti- and American liberal thinkers of ideological laissez-faire of the sort war movement and had known the seventeenth, eighteenth and advocated by Herbert Spencer, or each other since Hirst’s university nineteenth centuries and defends for that matter by some modern days (Hirst was also a close friend its superiority over the then libertarians. He rejected the idea of Mollie Hamilton, who was liv- ascendant ideologies of Nazism, that civilisation could be built on ing with MacDonald at the time). Fascism and Communism, which the basis of narrow individualism, It is also true that MacDonald Hirst inclines to lump together in and called for active participation made some unexpected ministe- many of their collectivist charac- of the citizen in the management rial appointments of Liberal and teristics. Its shorter companion of local and national affairs and Conservative personalities and volume, Economic Freedom and public spiritedness. He wanted there is a good deal of mystery Private Property, sets out the case to return to what he called ‘the about how he made his choice, for economic liberty and is fluent long reign of economic liberty’ but it was Lord Haldane, the most and pithy and much more acces- between and when, as prominent of these, who seems to sible to the modern reader. Hirst has he pointed out, both Liberal and have been the key influence. The Hirst has been characterised been char- Conservative governments pro- appointment of Lord Parmoor, by some contemporaries and moted social reforms involving an in-law of the Webbs and one later commentators as a ‘laissez- acterised large expenditure. of Labour’s few supporters in the faire Liberal’, although he hotly Sound money occupied a Lords, did not require prompting rejected the term, at least if it was by some central place in Hirst’s economic by Hirst. In all probability Hirst understood as meaning that ‘gov- thinking; indeed it was something expressed his ideas for appoint- ernment should abstain inertly contempo- of an obsession. He was a fervent ments to MacDonald, but the from constructive work’. He raries and advocate of the Gold Standard influence Sang ascribed to him certainly favoured a limited role and preferred a metallic gold and seems greatly exaggerated. for the public sector and strict later com- silver currency of the sort that Hirst’s influence as a journal- economy in public expenditure, existed in Britain from the early ist and writer was more definite. furiously attacking the growth of mentators nineteenth century until to He continued to write prolifi- the state especially during war- the fully convertible paper cur- cally in the inter-war period. He time when, he claimed ‘the Brit- as a ‘lais- rency linked to gold that was liked to dictate straight on to the ish nation found out the meaning sez-faire established by Churchill in typewriter and was usually able to of bureaucracy, and learnt the dif- and survived until . As he send articles to press almost with- ference between being served and Liberal’, never tired of repeating, ‘experi- out correction. In the s his being ruled by a Civil Service.’ ence has proved that sooner or annual analysis of the budget in Hirst considered that the State although later an inconvertible paper cur- Contemporary Review was widely should be responsible for defence rency with no intrinsic value respected. In , A History of and police, provision of public he hotly comes to grief … a moment Free Trade from Adam Smith to goods, and education. He also rejected always comes when the tempta- Philip Snowden, which ran into accepted the need for municipal tion to inflate is irresistible … it several editions, appeared. This services: public health, lighting, the term, [is] madness for any nation which was followed by biographi- roads etc. In general, however, the has the choice to allow its cur- cal studies of great Liberals on state should only take responsi- at least rency to become the plaything both sides of the Atlantic: a Life bility for services ‘plainly ben- of politics … A currency must be of Thomas Jefferson () and The eficial to society which cannot if it was knave-proof and fool-proof.’ Early Life and Letters of John Mor- be left to private enterprise’. As understood Hirst gave his memoirs (which ley (), followed in by G. P. Gooch wrote of him, Hirst closed before the First World Gladstone as Financier and Econo- ‘remained a “Manchester” man as meaning War) the title ‘In the Golden mist. Several of his works, includ- to the end, much less convinced Days’ and he was in no doubt that ing those on Smith, Morley and than myself of the capacity of leg- that ‘gov- the rot in British politics, soci- Gladstone, have still not been islation to increase our happiness ety and the economy set in with entirely superseded in the litera- and welfare by State action and ernment the abandonment of the Gold ture. His The Consequences of the social reforms to create the Wel- should Standard in . He wrote that War to Great Britain () inter- fare State … he was a Cobden- the old metallic currency ‘was preted recent British history and ite …’ Nevertheless, following abstain as nearly automatic and perfect politics from a Cobdenite Liberal Adam Smith, Hirst claimed that as any country need desire. The point of view. he ‘had no pedantic objection inertly Great War dissolved it. Had we In Hirst published two to the state managing a business remained neutral … there is no books that summarised his politi- if it can manage it well’. He also from con- reason for supposing that the sys- cal and economic outlook. The wrote positively of the progress in structive tem would have broken down.’ weighty and ambitious Liberty education, public health, old age However he accepted that the and Tyranny traces the history of pensions, and other public serv- work’. decision to abandon the Gold
Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 27 ‘THE LAST OF THE LIBERALS’ Standard again in was justi- Hirst, ism, mostly written by Thatcher- even more outspoken. He was fied at the time, while hoping for ite Conservatives, tend either to also increasingly doubtful about its restoration and putting for- though an ignore or dismiss the influence of the welfare state in his later years ward ideas for international man- the old Radical Liberal current. and critical of what he called ‘the agement of the price of gold. indiffer- In fact there were important con- Beveridge Hoax’. For their part, The contrast between liber- tinuities, which included Hirst’s some Keynesians were suspicious tarian Conservativism and Hirst’s ent politi- activity. The origins of the revival of Hirst’s continued influence ‘old Liberalism’ was demonstrated cian, was can be traced to ‘Le Colloque on Liberal economic thinking. by his involvement with Ernest Walter Lippmann’, a gathering He dated the opening of the rift Benn’s Individualist Movement. undoubt- of economic liberal academics between ‘the old and the new Benn had founded the move- held in Paris in August to Liberals’ to , but he remained ment in while still a Lib- edly the analyse and find ways to reverse an active and popular mem- eral, but had broken finally with the decline of liberal thinking in ber of the party until the final the party in . Hirst seems to leading Europe. The meeting was inspired years of the war, and was regu- have been closely involved from ideologue by The Good Society by the larly elected by the Assembly to the start, as was his old friend American publicist, Walter Lipp- the Party Council. The break Sir Hugh Bell, who was a co- of indi- mann, published in . Hirst seems to have come at the end founder. Hirst helped to write did not attend the meeting, but of when the Liberal Free The Philosophy of Individualism: A vidualist Lippmann prominently acknowl- Trade Committee was forced out Bibliography, published by Benn’s edged his debt to Hirst’s Liberty of Liberal Headquarters, and car- Individualist Bookshop in . Liberalism and Tyranny in his book. Hirst ried on its campaign against Bev- The movement took on a new in the first propagated classical liberalism eridge’s influence over the party lease of life with the national among the younger generation independently from Dunford mobilisation and planning of the four dec- of economists through his writ- House. Second World War. Hirst pub- ing and lectures, for example at For many years Hirst had also lished a pamphlet on Free Markets ades of the the London School of Econom- spread the word on the other side or Monopoly? in and helped ics (of which he was a governor) of the Atlantic. He was very well to draft the Manifesto of British twentieth in the late s, where Lionel known in US economic liberal Liberty issued in mid-, of century, a Robbins and Friedrich von circles. His first visit there had which he was a signatory. He was Hayek gathered a group of anti- been in to advise Senator a leading figure in the Society of viewpoint Keynesian academics and stu- Aldrich’s Monetary Commission, Individualists established by Benn dents who formed the vanguard which preceded the establishment in November , and his pro- that saw of the neo-liberal revival after the of the Federal Reserve Bank. In tégé, Deryck Abel, became sec- war. Hirst and some of the post- he lectured on economics retary of the Society. Hirst seems economic war neo-liberals certainly must at Stanford University in Cali- to have favoured a broad national liberalism, have known each other through fornia. In , on his last visit membership (– members involvement in such bodies such to the US, he lectured at Wes- in each constituency), while oth- civil liber- as the Free Trade Union. In the leyan University and delivered ers wanted to keep it as an elite late s and ’s he organised the prestigious Princeton Public Establishment lobby. In a rift ties, peace conferences for undergraduates Lecture on The Value of Liberty. between Hirst and Benn opened at Dunford House to introduce President Herbert Hoover was a up. Hirst wanted the Society to and inter- them to a traditional Liberal per- close friend. lead a civil liberties campaign national- spective on current events. He Despite increasing ill health against the internment of politi- sought to popularise such ideas from about , Hirst continued cal opponents of the war under ism as an through his short book Principles to take a lively interest in politics Regulation b of the Defence of Prosperity (), but with its until shortly before his death, on of the Realm Act, but Benn, an indivisible somewhat antiquated flavour it February . instinctive ‘patriot’ on such mat- received nothing like the atten- Hirst, though an indifferent ters, refused to get involved. In whole. tion of Hayek’s Road to Serfdom, politician, was undoubtedly the September , Benn agreed published the same year. leading ideologue of individualist to amalgamate the Society with Hirst was, naturally, strongly Liberalism in the first four dec- the National League for Free- opposed to the interventionist ades of the twentieth century, a dom, which claimed some forty economics of Maynard Keynes, viewpoint that saw economic lib- Conservative MPs and a number which were increasingly influ- eralism, civil liberties, peace and of industrialists amongst its mem- ential in the Liberal Party in the internationalism as an indivis- bership. Hirst, with a few Liberal inter-war period and after , ible whole. He was unashamedly followers, resigned, protesting that and this contributed to his disil- backward looking and nostalgic: this ‘signified reaction, protection, lusionment with the party. He for him, Victorian Liberal England mercantilism and monopoly’. frequently attacked Keynes’s ideas truly represented the golden days. Accounts of the post-war in his books and in private his He insistently restated Cobdenite renaissance of economic liberal- denunciations of Keynes were and Gladstonian principles and
28 Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 ‘THE LAST OF THE LIBERALS’ sought to show how their aban- p. . have been lost. Most histories of the donment lay behind the troubles There is an entry for Hirst in the Liberal Party and Liberal ideas ignore of his day. However he failed to Dictionary of National Biography writ- or dismiss Hirst, although there is ten by Roger Fulford (), but he greater interest among libertarians; see, develop a modern and persuasive is not included in The Dictionary of for instance Mark Brady, Against the expression of these ideas to match Liberal Biography (). Some friends Tide: The Life of Francis W. Hirst (www. Keynes, Beveridge and other of Hirst’s including Gilbert Murray, libertyhaven.com, ). Hirst’s papers social liberal thinkers on the left, G. P. Gooch, Roger Fulford, Maurice (together with those of John Morley) or to pre-empt the neo-liberalism Bowra, Arthur Ransome, and Herbert were acquired by the Bodleian Library, Hoover produced a short volume of Oxford, in . Hirst’s memoirs, In of Hayek and the New Right. By recollections in his memory entitled the Golden Days (London ) only the time of his death his brand of F. W. Hirst By His Friends in . A go up to . Liberalism was almost extinct. In few of his books were reissued in the Hirst, Golden Days, pp. –, . that sense he can indeed be seen s and ’s, but Liberty and Tyr- J. Simon, Retrospect (London, ), p. as ‘the last of the Liberals’. anny and Economic Freedom and Private . Property have long been out of print Hirst, Golden Days, p. –. and are now difficult to obtain. W. H. Gooch, Friends, p. . For Hirst’s edi- Dr Jaime Reynolds is guest-editor of Greenleaf devoted considerable atten- torship of The Economist, see R. Dud- this special issue. He studied at LSE tion to Hirst in his book The British ley Edwards, The Pursuit of Reason and has written extensively on British Ideological Heritage (London, ) pp, – The Economist – (London, and East European political history. –. Anthony Howe, Free Trade and ). Liberal England – (Oxford, Hirst, Golden Days, p. ; Hirst, Early ) also gives Hirst some promi- Life and Letters of John Morley (London, Inscription by Hirst to the Bishop of nence (p. ). Howe cites Hirst’s diary, ) introduction. London in author’s copy of F. W. Hirst, but this refers only to limited extracts However there is only one brief men- Liberty and Tyranny (London, ). included in Hirst’s privately published tion of Hirst in Morley’s Recollections G. P. Gooch et al., F. W. Hirst By His pamphlet The Formation, History and (London, ). Friends (London, ), p. . Aims of the Liberal Free Trade Commit- Ibid., pp. –. F . W. Hirst (ed.), Alexander Gordon Cum- tee –; the diary itself appears to Hirst, Gordon Harvey, p. vii. mins Harvey: a Memoir (London. ), Hirst, Golden Days, pp. , . Hirst, Golden Days, pp. –. This view is not shared by modern histo- Francis Wrigley Hirst 1873–1953: Selected rians, see I. R. Smith, The Origins of the South African War – (London, writings ). Hirst, Golden Days, p. ; Simon, Ret- Hirst et al., Essays in Liberalism by Six Oxford Men (London, Cassell, 1897) rospect, p. . Hirst et al., Liberalism and the Empire, Three Essays (London, Brimley Johnson, 1900) M. A. Hamilton, Remembering My Good Friends (London, ), p. . Joseph Redlich and F. W. Hirst, The History of Local Government in England (London, Macmillan, 1903, Gooch, Friends, chapters by J. E. Allen reprinted until 1970s) (Hirst’s brother-in-law) and Arthur Free Trade and other Fundamental Doctrines of the Manchester School (London and New York, Harper Ransome (an angling partner), pp. , –. & Brothers, 1903, reprinted 1968) Hirst, Golden Days, p. . Adam Smith (English Men of Letters series, London, Macmillan, 1904) S. Koss, The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain, vol. (London, ), Arbiter in Council (London, Macmillan, 1906 anonymous) pp. –. S. Koss, Asquith (London, The Stock Exchange: A short study of investment and speculation (London, H. Holt, 1911; 2nd ed. ), pp. –. London, Thornton Butterworth, 1932) S. Koss, Rise and Fall, p. . Unfinished Peace, Report of the Interna- The Political Economy of War (London, J. M. Dent, 1915) tional Commission on the Balkans, . From Adam Smith to Philip Snowden: A History of Free Trade in Great Britain (London, T. Fisher Unwin, Carnegie Endowment for Interna- 1925) tional Peace, Washington. See also www.macedoniainfo.com/macedo- Hirst (ed.), Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey: a memoir (London, Richard Cobden-Sanderson, 1925) nia/foreword.htm. Hirst, Harvey, pp. , . Life and Letters of Thomas Jefferson (London, Macmillan, 1925) C. Hazlehurst, Politicians at War (Lon- Hirst and J. E. Allen, British War Budgets (Oxford University Press, 1926) don, ), p. citing letter from Hirst to C. P. Trevelyan, August Early Life and Letters of John Morley (London, Macmillan, 1927; reprinted 1975) , Trevelyan MSS.. Gladstone as Financier & Economist (London, Ernest Benn, 1931) C. Hazlehurst Politicians at War, p. . Hirst, Harvey, pp. , –. See also Money: Gold, Silver and Paper (London, Scribner’s, 1933) Dudley Edwards, Pursuit of Reason, pp. –. The Consequences of the War to Great Britain (Oxford University Press, 1934) F. W. Hirst, Money: Gold, Silver and Liberty and Tyranny (London, Duckworth & Co, 1935) Paper (London, ), p. . Notably The Political Economy of War Economic Freedom and Private Property (London, Duckworth, 1935) (London, ). Armaments: the Race and the Crisis (London, Cobden-Sanderson, 1937) Hirst, Golden Days, p. . Gooch, Friends, p. . Principles of Prosperity (London, Hollis and Carter, 1944) Hamilton, Remembering, p. . In the Golden Days (London, Frederick Muller, 1947) concluded on page 35
Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 29 Hamilton, Remembering, p. . Beveridge and Keynes were Gooch, Friends, p. . among his fellow editors of this ERRATA Hirst, The Consequences of the War series of histories. to Great Britain (London, ), Hamilton, Remembering, p. ; p. –. See W. H. Greenleaf, The British ‘The last of the Liberals’ – Francis Wrigley Hirst Gooch, Friends, pp. –; and Political Tradition volume : The Hirst, Liberty and Tyranny, pp. Ideological Heritage (), pp. Unfortunately some of the endnotes to this article were ff. – for detailed assessment. omitted in error. Our apologies to our readers and to the Dudley Edwards, Pursuit of Rea- Hirst, Principles, p. and Hirst, article’s author. We reprint below the full set of endnotes for son, p. –. Money, p. . ease of reference Hirst, Harvey, p. ; Hamilton, Hirst, Principles, p. . Remembering, p. . Gooch, Friends, p. –. Hirst, Harvey, pp. –, refer- Hirst, Liberty, p. . ring to letter to The Times of Hirst, Money, p. . Inscription by Hirst to the Hirst, Golden Days, p. –. July . Hirst, Money, p. . Bishop of London in author’s Gooch, Friends, p. . For Hirst’s Hirst, Harvey, pp. –, . D. Abel, Ernest Benn: Counsel for copy of F. W. Hirst, Liberty and editorship of The Economist, see N. Blewett, The Peers, the Parties Liberty (London, ) Tyranny (London, ). R. Dudley Edwards, The Pur- and the People: the General Elec- For the classic Thatcherite inter- G. P. Gooch et al., F. W. Hirst By suit of Reason – The Economist tions of (London, ), pp. pretation see D. Willetts, Modern His Friends (London, ), p. . – (London, ). –, quoting Hirst’s letter to Conservatism (Penguin, ). F. W. Hirst (ed.), Alexander Gordon Hirst, Golden Days, p. ; Hirst, Gilbert Murray January , R. Cockett, Thinking the Unthink- Cummins Harvey: a Memoir (Lon- Early Life and Letters of John Mor- and p. ; Gooch, Friends, p. able (London ,), p. –. don. ), p. . ley (London, ) introduction. –. W. Lippmann, The Good Soci- There is an entry for Hirst in the However there is only one brief He considered the record of ety (Boston, ), p. viii. Lipp- Dictionary of National Biography mention of Hirst in Morley’s the Labour Party (especially mann’s book also influenced the written by Roger Fulford (), Recollections (London, ). Philip Snowden) on free trade Ownership for All programme but he is not included in The Dic- Ibid., pp. –. to be more creditable than Lloyd adopted by the Liberal Party in tionary of Liberal Biography (). Hirst, Gordon Harvey, p. vii. George’s, see Hirst, Safeguarding . Some friends of Hirst’s includ- Hirst, Golden Days, pp. , . and Protection (London, ), p. For example W. H. Hutt, who ing Gilbert Murray, G. P. Gooch, Hirst, Golden Days, pp. –. . Hirst had helped to write The Roger Fulford, Maurice Bowra, This view is not shared by mod- There is a paean to Campbell- Philosophy of Individualism in Arthur Ransome, and Her- ern historians, see I. R. Smith, Bannerman in Hirst’s Golden . bert Hoover produced a short The Origins of the South African Days. Hirst was on the executive of the volume of recollections in his War – (London, ). Hirst, The Formation, History and FTU until the late s, over- memory entitled F. W. Hirst By Hirst, Golden Days, p. ; Simon, Aims of the Liberal Free Trade Com- lapping with Arthur Seldon, for His Friends in . A few of his Retrospect, p. . mittee – (A Brief Auto- example. books were reissued in the s M. A. Hamilton, Remembering My biographical History) (published Letter from Hirst to R. F. Har- and ’s, but Liberty and Tyranny Good Friends (London, ), p. privately, Dunford House, ). rod, November , refers to and Economic Freedom and Private . I am grateful to Professor Philip the ‘so-called Liberal Party’ and Property have long been out of Gooch, Friends, chapters by J. E. Williamson for providing me adds ‘Tories are all for conscrip- print and are now difficult to Allen (Hirst’s brother-in-law) with a copy of this document. tion and preferential protection. obtain. W. H. Greenleaf devoted and Arthur Ransome (an angling F. W. Hirst, Principles of Prosperity They are no more conserva- considerable attention to Hirst partner), pp. , –. (London ), pp. –. It had tive than the Liberal Parties are in his book The British Ideological Hirst, Golden Days, p. . produced pamphlets in the late Liberal’. See: http://e-server. Heritage (London, ) pp, – S. Koss, The Rise and Fall of the s against high taxation and e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/Exhibition/key- . Anthony Howe, Free Trade Political Press in Britain, vol. armaments. Leslie Hore-Belisha nes/gif/-.gif and Liberal England – (London, ), pp. –. S. and Oswald Mosley were succes- Hirst, Money, pp. , n; (Oxford, ) also gives Hirst Koss, Asquith (London, ), pp. sively secretaries of the League Hirst, Principles, p. –. Gooch, some prominence (p. ). Howe –. after , see Hamilton, Remem- Friends, p. . cites Hirst’s diary, but this refers S. Koss, Rise and Fall, p. . bering, p. . Gooch, Friends, p. . only to limited extracts included Unfinished Peace, Report of the Hirst, Liberty, p. . R. F. Harrod, The Prof: A Personal in Hirst’s privately published International Commission on the Letter to Campbell-Bannerman, Memoir of Lord Cherwell (London, pamphlet The Formation, History Balkans, . Carnegie Endow- December , Campbell- ), p. . and Aims of the Liberal Free Trade ment for International Peace, Bannerman Papers, Add Mss For example, he was elected Committee –; the diary Washington. See also www.mac- , quoted in H. V. Emy, Lib- st of members at the itself appears to have been lost. edoniainfo.com/macedonia/ erals, Radicals and Social Politics Assembly. It appears that he did Most histories of the Liberal foreword.htm. – (Cambridge, ), p. not seek re-election in . Party and Liberal ideas ignore or Hirst, Harvey, pp. , . . LPO reports –. dismiss Hirst, although there is C. Hazlehurst, Politicians at War Letter to J. C. Wedgwood, Hirst, Liberal Free Trade Commit- greater interest among libertar- (London, ), p. citing let- January , Wedgwood Papers, tee, pp. –. ians; see, for instance Mark Brady, ter from Hirst to C. P. Trevelyan, quoted in R. Douglas, Land, Peo- Hirst, Money, p. x. Against the Tide: The Life of Francis August , Trevelyan MSS.. ple and Politics: A History of the Ibid. W. Hirst (www.libertyhaven.com, C. Hazlehurst Politicians at War, p. Land Question in the UK – Hoover and Hirst became friends ). Hirst’s papers (together . (London, ), p. . before when Hoover with those of John Morley) were Hirst, Harvey, pp. , –. D. Marquand, Ramsay MacDon- worked as an international engi- acquired by the Bodleian Library, See also Dudley Edwards, Pursuit ald (London, ), pp. –. neer and visited London where Oxford, in . Hirst’s mem- of Reason, pp. –. There is no mention of Hirst he was briefly a neighbour in oirs, In the Golden Days (London F. W. Hirst, Money: Gold, Silver in Parmoor’s account of his Campden Hill. He looked after ) only go up to . and Paper (London, ), p. . appointment, see A Retrospect, Hirst when he was taken seri- Hirst, Golden Days, pp. –, Notably The Political Economy of The Autobiography of Lord Parmoor ously ill during a visit to the US . War (London, ). (London, ). in . Hoover contributed to J. Simon, Retrospect (London, Hirst, Golden Days, p. . Gooch, Friends, chapter by Hirst’s Gooch, Friends (see p. ). ), p. . Gooch, Friends, p. . secretary –, p. .