‘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.