Notes Introduction 1. P. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971); P. Clarke, Liberals and Social Democrats (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978); S. Collini, Liberalism and Sociology: L. T. Hobhouse and Political Argument in England, 1880–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979); M. Freeden, The New Liberalism: An Ideology of Social Reform (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978). 2. E. H. H. Green, The Crisis of Conservatism: the Politics, Economics and Ideology of the British Conservative Party, 1880–1914 (London: Routledge, 1995); M. Fforde, Conservatism and Collectivism, 1886–1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990); D. Tanner, ‘Ideological Debate in Edwardian Labour Politics: Radicalism, Revisionism and Socialism’ in E. Biagini and A. J. Reid eds, Currents of Radicalism: Popular Radicalism, Organised Labour and Party Politics in Britain, 1850–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp. 271–93; F. Trentmann, ‘The Strange Death of Free Trade: the Erosion of “Liberal Consensus” in Great Britain, c. 1903–32’ in E. Biagini ed., Citizenship and Community: Liberals, Radicals and Collective Identities in the British Isles, 1865–1931 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) pp. 219–50. 3. E. H. H. Green, Ideologies of Conservatism: Conservative Political Ideas in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 3. 4. J. Parry, The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain (New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press, 1993); E. Biagini, Liberty, Retrenchment and Reform: Popular Liberalism in the Age of Gladstone, 1860–80 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992). 5. A view best expressed in R. McKibbin, The Evolution of the Labour Party, 1910–24 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974). 6. P. Rowland, The Last Liberal Governments, 2 vols (London: Barrie & Jenkins, Barrie & Cresset, 1968–71). 7. H. C. G. Matthew, The Liberal Imperialists: the Ideas and Politics of a Post- Gladstonian Elite (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973). 8. N. Blewett, The Peers, the Parties and the People: the British General Elections of 1910 (London: Macmillan, 1972) p. 344. 1 Government and Party 1. M. Diamond, ‘Political Heroes of the Victorian Music Hall’, History Today, 40 (January 1990) 33–9. 2. See J. Wilson, CB: a Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (London: Purnell Book Services, 1973) pp. 279–96; P. Stansky, Ambitions and Strategies: the Struggle for the Leadership of the Liberal Party in the 1890s (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964) pp. 275–94. 181 182 Notes 3. Stansky, Ambitions and Strategies, pp. 57–96. 4. P. Gordon ed., The Red Earl: the Papers of the Fifth Earl Spencer, 1835–1910, 2 vols (Northampton: Northamptonshire Record Society, 1981–6) vol. 2, pp. 47–60. 5. Wilson, CB, pp. 438, 446–8; G. H. Cassar, Asquith as War Leader (London: Hambledon Press, 1994) pp. 38–46. 6. Consulting people who had not held office before could be seen as virtually a promise of a place in a future Liberal government and was thus avoided if possible, British Library, Add MS 45988, fos 132–3, Herbert Gladstone papers, Campbell-Bannerman to Herbert Gladstone, 5 December 1904. 7. C. Hazlehurst and C. Woodland eds, A Liberal Chronicle: Journals and Papers of J. A. Pease, 1st Lord Gainford, 1908–10 (London: Historians Press, 1994) pp. 122–5, Pease diary, 23 June to 12 July 1909 for the complex factors behind a minor ministerial reshuffle in the summer of 1909. 8. G. Searle, Corruption in British Politics, 1895–1930 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987) pp. 103–5. Exceptions were made for honorary directorships, charities and private companies. 9. Classifying the social background of MPs is a fraught process. For the best examination of Liberal MPs in this period, see G. Searle, ‘The Edwardian Liberal Party and Business’, English Historical Review, 98 (1983) 28–60. 10. See Searle, ‘Edwardian Liberal Party’, 37–9. 11. Hazlehurst and Woodland eds, Liberal Chronicle, pp. 94–5, Pease diary, 8 December 1908. 12. M. and E. Brock eds, H. H. Asquith: Letters to Venetia Stanley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985) pp. 451–2, Asquith to V. Stanley, 26 February 1915. 13. R. Jenkins, Asquith (London: Collins, 1964) pp. 269–71 on the Asquith- Montagu friendship. 14. S. McKenna, Reginald McKenna, 1863–1943: a Memoir (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1948) pp. 23, 43–4, 100–115. 15. E. David ed., Inside Asquith’s Cabinet: from the Diaries of Charles Hobhouse (London: John Murray, 1977) pp. 158–60, Hobhouse diary, 27–9 January 1914. 16. Wilson, CB, pp. 451–6. 17. B. Gilbert, ‘David Lloyd George and the Great Marconi Scandal’, Historical Research, 62 (1989) 295–317. 18. Ripon and Wolverhampton were 80 and Carrington 68 when they left office. Tweedmouth was declared by Asquith to be a ‘raving lunatic’, Hazlehurst and Woodland eds, Liberal Chronicle, p. 25, Pease diary, 25 May 1908. Isaacs was a central figure in the Marconi scandal of 1912–13 and Seely as Secretary of State for War severely mishandled the Curragh ‘mutiny’ of March 1914. 19. C. Hazlehurst, ‘Asquith as Prime Minister, 1908–16’, English Historical Review, 85 (1970) 516–17. 20. M. Ostrogorski, Democracy and the Organisation of Political Parties, 2 vols (London: Macmillan, 1902) vol. 1, pp. 607–8; S. Low, The Governance of England, 2nd edn (London: Fisher Unwin, 1914) pp. 155–63. 21. Poor estimates of both men’s energies in public office were common. Augustine Birrell claimed of Campbell-Bannerman, ‘I have more than once seen him asleep during meetings of the Cabinet’, A. Birrell, Things Past Redress (London: Faber and Faber, 1937) pp. 245–6; Lord Balcarres reported persistent rumours of Asquith’s laziness and ‘over-indulgence’, including Notes 183 a demand for whisky and soda before breakfast, J. Vincent ed., The Crawford Papers: the Journals and Letters of David Lindsay, twenty-seventh Earl of Crawford and tenth Earl of Balcarres, 1871–1940 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984) p. 149, Balcarres to Lady Wantage, 25 March 1910. 22. See Chapters 7, 2, 4. 23. See Chapters 6, 2. 24. Hazlehurst, ‘Asquith as Prime Minister’, 510. 25. See Chapter 2. 26. Lloyd George was a witness at Churchill’s wedding. Churchill was one of the very few people to call Lloyd George ‘David’, R. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill (London: Heinemann, 1967) vol. 2, pp. 273–4, 306. Grey and Haldane had been friends since the 1880s. During the crisis of July-August 1914 Grey was staying at 28 Queen Anne’s Gate, Haldane’s London house, R. Haldane, Autobiography (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1929) pp. 270–5. 27. G. Riddell, More Pages from my Diary, 1908–14 (London: Country Life Ltd, 1934) p. 171, Riddell diary, 19 July 1913; House of Lords Record Office, Lloyd George papers C/4/17/3, ‘Notes of interview with Haldane’, 23 July 1913; National Archives, Cabinet papers 37/116/56, ‘Land’, 21 August 1913. 28. David ed., Inside Asquith’s Cabinet, pp. 146–8, Hobhouse diary, 17 October 1913. 29. See Chapters 2, 4. 30. Grey backed Lloyd George strongly during the Marconi affair, K. Robbins, Sir Edward Grey: a Biography of Lord Grey of Fallodon (London: Cassell, 1971) p. 279. In return, Lloyd George called Grey, ‘a kind fellow, the only man I would serve under except Asquith.’, Riddell, More Pages, p. 171, Riddell diary, 19 July 1913. 31. See Chapters 2, 6, 7. 32. See Haldane, Autobiography, pp. 216–18 for a scathing analysis of the cabinet as ‘a meeting of delegates’ in which ‘The Prime Minister knew too little of the details of what had to be got through to be able to apportion the time required for discussion’. 33. Hazlehurst, ‘Asquith as Prime Minister’, 508–10. 34. P. Jalland, The Liberals and Ireland: the Ulster Question in British Politics to 1914 (Hassocks: Harvester Press, 1980) pp. 37–49. 35. In 1880 41% of the House of Lords were Liberals; by 1887 the figure was 7%, A. Adonis, Making Aristocracy Work: the Peerage and the Political System in Britain, 1884–1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993) p. 20, table 2.2. 36. A. Hawkins and J. Powell eds, The Journal of John Wodehouse, First Earl of Kimberley for 1862–1902 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Royal Historical Society, 1997) p. 462, Kimberley diary, 18 August 1898. Kimberley regarded his position as the leader of such a small group as ‘almost ridiculous’. 37. It was widely rumoured that the Earl of Granard owed his position as a whip in the Lords to Campbell-Bannerman’s amused response to a joke telegram the young peer received from his fellow-officers in the Scots Guards, pretending to offer him a post in the government, Wilson, CB, pp. 463–4. The Duke of Manchester, Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, 1905–7 was a rakish figure who confessed ‘sport has appealed to me more strongly than brain work’, quoted in D. Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (New Haven, Ct: Yale University Press, 1990) p. 403. 184 Notes 38. Adonis, Making Aristocracy Work, pp. 20–1; Searle, Corruption, pp. 145–56. 39. Cannadine, Decline and Fall, pp. 213, 393 for the financial problems of the Acton and Granville families. 40. Lincolnshire Archives, Misc. Dep. 96/1, Lincoln Liberal Association minutes, 8 November 1910 for the request to the Earl of Liverpool to become President of the Lincoln Liberals. The second Lord Airedale followed in his father’s footsteps as President of both the Yorkshire Liberal Federation and the Leeds Liberal Federation, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Yorkshire Liberal Federation minutes, 11 July 1912, Leeds Liberal Federation minutes, 6 June 1913. 41. Hampshire Record Office, Portsmouth papers 15M84/5/9/3/10, W. Crook to Earl of Portsmouth, 15 December 1905, describing the Earl as ‘the leader of Hampshire Liberalism’, despite his recent conversion from Liberal Unionism.