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The Effects of the Third Reform Act and the Irish Home Rule Debate on Edinburgh politics, 1885-6 Michael Kyle Thompson Doctor of Philosophy The University of Edinburgh 2012 I declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted for any other degree or qualification. __________________________________________________ ABSTRACT This thesis is a study of the effects of the Third Reform Act and Irish Home Rule on the politics of late-Victorian Edinburgh focussing on the general elections of 1885 and 1886. Although the impact on British politics of both the Third Reform Act and the debate on Irish Home Rule have been the subjects of many studies, Edinburgh has hardly featured in this historiography. During this short time, Edinburgh was transformed from a Liberal dominated dual-member constituency to a city represented by four single-member MPs, one of whom was not a Liberal, thus altering the long-standing liberal political tradition of the city. Both the Third Reform Act and the debate over Irish Home Rule created separate and distinct splits in the local Liberal Party of Edinburgh. The Liberal split over Irish Home Rule has attracted some attention, but the split created by the Third Reform Act has been ignored. This thesis helps bridge a gap in nineteenth-century Scottish political history by focussing on Edinburgh; however, it also seeks to highlight the Liberal infighting that took place after the Third Reform Act, but prior to the split over Irish Home Rule. This study draws heavily on the local press, campaign pamphlets and manuscripts of political elites to offer an analysis of the changes that took place upon passage of the Third Reform Act and introduction of the issue of Irish Home Rule. The political rhetoric that emerged during this period focussed on themes within the political tradition of the constituency, questioning the legitimacy of the local Party, and defining Liberalism. These were not unique to Edinburgh and the case study presented here is connected to wider themes within the study of late-Victorian politics. v TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLES AND FIGURES .................................................................................................. viii ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................. ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... xi INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER ONE: Edinburgh and the Third Reform Act ............................................... 23 CHAPTER TWO: Edinburgh Liberal Associations and 1885 Election ......................... 51 CHAPTER THREE: Disestablishment and Edinburgh Politics ...................................... 81 CHAPTER FOUR: Political Traditions and Other Influences on the 1885 Election .... 111 CHAPTER FIVE: Edinburgh Liberal Associations and 1886 Election ....................... 151 CHAPTER SIX: Irish Home Rule and the 1886 Election in Edinburgh ...................... 183 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 227 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 237 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 241 vii TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1.1: Representation Before and After the Third Reform Act ........................... 36 Table 1.2: Redistribution Proposal of the Town Council ........................................... 40 Table 1.3: Redistribution Proposal of the Boundary Commission ............................. 41 Table 1.4: Redistribution Proposal of St. Leonard’s Ward ........................................ 41 Table 1.5: Redistribution Proposal of the Trades’ Council ........................................ 42 Table 1.6: St. Leonard’s Ward’s Electorate in Each Proposal ................................... 44 Table 1.7: Population Changes from 1885 to 1901 .................................................... 46 Figure 1.1: New Parliamentary Boundaries of Edinburgh ......................................... 47 Figure 2.1: Structure of the Caucus ............................................................................ 52 Table 2.1: Elections Contested by Conservatives, 1832–80 ...................................... 57 Table 3.1: Scottish Ministers’ Political Affiliations in the 1868 Election ................. 88 Table 3.2: Candidates by Votes and View on Disestablishment .............................. 109 Table 4.1: Candidates’ Stances on Important Issues ................................................ 113 Table 4.2: Candidates’ Bios ..................................................................................... 128 Table 5.1: Edinburgh South Parliamentary Elections .............................................. 161 Table 5.2: Edinburgh Liberal Associations’ Voting on Irish Home Rule ................ 180 Table 6.1: Candidates’ Ideologies and Stances on Irish Home Rule ....................... 190 Table 6.2: 1886 Election Results in Edinburgh ........................................................ 223 viii ABBREVIATIONS BL British Library, London CUL Cambridge University Library, Cambridge EHR English Historical Review NLS National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography PD Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons PP Parliamentary Papers RCMS Royal Commonwealth Society SHR Scottish Historical Review UBL University of Birmingham Library, Birmingham ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the staffs at the National Library of Scotland, British Library, Edinburgh University Library and Special Collections, Cambridge University Special Collections and University of Birmingham Special Collections. A special appreciation is warranted for the staff at the British Archives for helping me locate the sources I was looking for that had been moved to Cambridge University Special Collections. I have valued my fellow history postgraduates at the University of Edinburgh whose camaraderie has been both helpful and enjoyable. I am most appreciative of both of my supervisors, Ewen Cameron and Gordon Pentland. I have benefited greatly from their expertise and patience as they have advised me on my research. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my family for their encouragement. I would especially like to thank my wife, Jamie, not only for moving over four-thousand miles away from home, but also for her support, encouragement, and friendship. xi INTRODUCTION British politics underwent a major transformation during the late-Victorian era, which revolutionised the British political system. Politics changed from an extremely limited activity that centred on local campaigns and often local concerns to embracing mass national politics by enfranchising a majority of the male population and campaigning on a national scale with celebrity politicians. At the birth of this new modern political age two events, the enactment of the Third Reform Act and the introduction of Irish Home Rule, account for great shifts in the traditional politics. These two events took place in a span of a little more than a year during which time more than two million people were added to the electorate, a large percentage of the parliamentary seats were redrawn to create modern single-member districts, two general elections were held and the Liberal party, one of the two dominant political parties at the time, split. This thesis is a case study of Edinburgh politics during that tumultuous year. The study seeks to determine the effects of the Third Reform Act and Irish Home Rule on the politics of late-Victorian Edinburgh. The two general elections that immediately followed the passage of the Third Reform Act in 1885 and 1886 provide the time frame of the study. The main issues that it is concerned with are local party politics, the caucus, and the role of local political traditions as well as questions regarding the disestablishment of the Church of Scotland, and Irish Home Rule. Other historians have studied these issues, but Edinburgh has been largely left out of the discussion. Edinburgh was a stronghold for Liberal politics at the time because it, like the majority of Scotland, was dominated by Liberal politics. Additionally, Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, one of the most famous 1 politicians at the time, was the MP for Midlothian, the county surrounding the burgh. Gladstone used Edinburgh