Radicalism, Pressure Groups, and Party Politics: from the National Education League to the National Liberal Federation

¹ See, for example, Hanham, H.J., Elections and Party Management (hereafter, Elections) (London, 1959), pp. 114–25, and Hamer, D.A., The Politics of Electoral Pressure (hereafter, Politics) (Hassocks, 1977), pp. 122–38.

² See Hamer, Politics, and also his Liberal Politics in the Age of Gladstone and Rosebery (Oxford, 1972).

³ See the author's “Pressure Groups and Liberal Politics, 1870-80” (hereafter, “Pressure Groups”); (PhD thesis, Columbia, 1978), especially, pp. 50–111.

⁴ Adams, Francis, History of the Elementary School Contest in England (hereafter, History) (London, 1882), p. 76.

⁵ The best short history of the bill, its provisions, and the nonconformist opposition is found in Adams, History. See also, the National Education League's Monthly Paper and the Liberation Society's paper, the Liberator, for nonconformist opinion on the bill between its introduction in February 1870 and its enactment in August. This paper adopts the usage of the league and refers to the twenty-fifth “clause.” Technically, after the passage of the act, the twenty-fifth clause became the twenty-fifth section.

⁶ These themes can be traced in the Monthly Paper and the series of pamphlets published by the league. The speeches reprinted in National Education League, Third Annual Report (Birmingham, 1871) are as representative as any.

⁷ See the author's “Pressure Groups,” pp. 59-87

⁸ For Chamberlain's political activity before 1869 and his early involvement with the league, see Garvin, J.L., The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, I (hereafter, Chamberlain) (London, 1932), pp. 85–101.

⁹ Ibid., p. 97.

¹⁰ National Education League, List of Donors to the Election Fund (Birmingham, 1872). Of 2,500 pounds collected in sums of fifty pounds or more, 1,200 pounds were contributed by the Chamberlains and their in-laws.

¹¹ University of Sheffield, A.J. Mundella to R.E. Leader, 3 November 1873, Leader-Mundella Letters.

¹² See the author's “Pressure Groups,” pp. 186-92.

¹³ George Dixon, Liberal M.P. for Birmingham and co-founder of the league, remained its parliamentary spokesman until his retirement in 1876. He and Chamberlain became political rivals, and his influence in the league was soon superseded by Chamberlain's. Jesse Collings, the other co-founder, became secretary. William Harris, secretary of the Birmingham Liberal Association and leader writer for the Birmingham Daily Post, chaired the parliamentary committee; J. Thackery Bunce, editor of the Post, was chairman of the publications committee. John Jaffray, proprietor of the Post, was the league's first treasurer. Birmingham's nonconformist elite was also represented in the league: the ministers R.W. Dale, W.H. Crosskey, and George Dawson were all on the executive committee.

¹⁴ List of the executive committee in National Education League, Third Annual Report (Birmingham, 1871).

¹⁵ National Education League, Executive Report (Birmingham, 1870), p. 7; Third Annual Report (Birmingham, 1871), p. 19; Monthly Paper, October 1872, p. 1.

¹⁶ For Merthyr, , see Nonconformist, 12 January 1870, p. 3: Monthly Paper. February 1870, p. 2. For London, see Monthly Paper, January 1872, pp. 1, 4; February 1872, p. 16. For Sheffield, , see Monthly Paper, May 1871, p. 7, and National Education League, Correspondence Between the Sheffield Branch and the Parent Society in Birmingham (Birmingham, 1871).

¹⁷ National Education League, Correspondence Between the Sheffield Branch and the Parent Society in Birmingham (Birmingham, 1871). In a similar situation, the United Kingdom Alliance acted quite differently. A plan to reorganize its London agency and reduce the responsibility of the London agent was interpreted as a personal affront to him. He resigned in a pique, and his cause was taken up by the London Alliance members. After months of negotiations, the alliance central office finally worked out a compromise acceptable to both sides. The concern to avoid a split in the ranks was symptomatic of the alliance's relations with its branch societies. Alliance House, London, Minute Books of the Executive Committee of the United Kingdom Alliance, 30 October 1878 through 5 February 1879.

¹⁸ West Sussex County Record Office, Chamberlain to Frederic Maxse, 27 May 1872, Frederic Maxse Papers.

¹⁹ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Dilke, 14 November 1871, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/24/278.

²⁰ Chamberlain to Jesse Collings, 27 July 1876. Quoted in Fraser, Peter, Joseph Chamberlain, Radicalism and Empire, 1868-1914 (London, 1966), p. 24.

²¹ On radical faddism, see Hamer, , Politics, pp. 1–9.

²² University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to J. Thackery Bunce, 9 July 1870, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/8/1.

²³ Monthly Paper, December 1872, p.6; National Education League, Pamphlet 298 (October, 1872).

²⁴ A comparison with the United Kingdom Alliance and the Liberation Society again illustrates the dictatorial quality of Chamberlain's rule. In the other pressure groups, electoral policy was reviewed, debated, and voted at the general session of the annual meetings before being implemented at the local level.

²⁵ Garvin, , Chamberlain, I, 129.

²⁶ A full record of the meeting is provided in General Conference on Nonconformists, held in Manchester, January 23-25, 1872, Authorized Report of the Proceedings (London, 1872).

²⁷ For the Shrewsbury election of September 1870, see the coverage in the Shrewsbury Free Press and Shrewsbury Chronicle. See also, Monthly Paper, October 1870, p. 5.

²⁸ The evidence of the league's intention to field an independent candidate at Preston is largely circumstantial, based on an election address found among the papers of H. J. Wilson, University of Sheffield, Box 4. See the author's “Pressure Groups,” pp. 202-03.

²⁹ National Education League, Pamphlet 298 (October 1872).

³⁰ At Bath, league agents found themselves in the embarrassing position of having the nomination papers signed by three members of the local Conservative candidate's committee. (Bath Express, 21 June 1873, p. 8). At Bristol, too, league agents “got into [a] fearful disgrace” because of their ignorance of local conditions (University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Dilke, 14 November 1871, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/24/278.

³¹ For the league's role in the Bath contest, see Monthly Paper, July 1873, p. 3; Adams, , History, pp. 292–94; and coverage in the local press in late June 1873. Particularly useful are the Bath Chronicle, Bath Argus, Bath Express, and Western Daily Press.

³² Monthly Paper, July 1873, p. 2.

³³ Chamberlain, Joseph, letter to the editor, Spectator, XLVI (5 July 1873), 857.

³⁴ Monthly Paper, July 1873, p. 2.

³⁵ West Sussex County Record Office, Chamberlain to Maxse, 26 June 1873, Frederic Maxse Papers.

³⁶ British Museum Library, Chamberlain to Dilke, 6 July 1873, Charles Dilke Papers, Add. MS 43855. Copy at University of Birmingham, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/24/283.

³⁷ West Sussex County Record Office, Chamberlain to Maxse, 26 June 1873, Frederic Maxse Papers.

³⁸ See fn 52. See also, Chamberlain to Henry Allon, 13 February 1874, in Peel, Albert (ed.), Letters to a Victorian Editor (London, 1929), p. 43.

³⁹ University of Birmingham, Morley to Chamberlain, 15 July 1873, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/2.

⁴⁰ For an analysis of these elections, see my “Pressure Groups,” pp. 208-12. Information based on coverage in local journals.

⁴¹ See, for example, Monthly Paper, August 1873, p. 3, and Chamberlain, Joseph, “The Liberal Party and its Leaders,” Fortnightly Review, n.s. XIV (September, 1873), 287–302.

⁴² League agents were trying to induce H.J. Wilson to stand at Dover in August and looking for general election candidates at Whitby and Hastings. University of Sheffield, H.J. Wilson's correspondence with R.F. Martineau, 1-3 August 1873, H.J. Wilson Papers, Box 4; University of Birmingham, Morley to Chamberlain, 6 August 1873, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/8; British Library of Political and Economic Science, Morley to Frederic Harrison, 14 August 1873, Frederic Harrison Papers.

⁴³ Monthly Paper, September 1873, p. 1. See also, West Sussex County Record Office, Chamberlain to Maxse, 28 August 1873, Frederic Maxse Papers.

⁴⁴ Quoted in Garvin, , Chamberlain, I, 139.

⁴⁵ Representative statements are quoted in Monthly Paper, September 1873, p. 4.

⁴⁶ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Morley, 23 August 1873, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/15. See also in the Joseph Chamberlain Papers, Chamberlain to J. Thackery Bunce, 10 August 1873, JC 5/8/8a, and Chamberlain to Morley, 14 August 1873, JC 5/54/10; West Sussex County Record Office, Chamberlain to Maxse, 28 August 1873, Frederic Maxse Papers; British Library of Political and Economic Science, Morley to Harrison, 17 August 1873, Frederic Harrison Papers.

⁴⁷ West Sussex County Record Office, Chamberlain to Maxse, 28 August 1873, Frederic Maxse Papers.

⁴⁸ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Morley, 19 July 1873, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/3. Among those who initially refused: Edmund Blackburn, Gerald Potter, H. J. Wilson, Morley himself.

⁴⁹ University of Sheffield, H. J. Wilson, R.F. Martineau correspondence, 1-3 August 1873, and Chamberlain to Wilson, 10 July 1873, H.J. Wilson Papers, Box 4.

⁵⁰ West Sussex County Record Office, Chamberlain to Maxse, 28 August 1873, Frederic Maxse Papers.

⁵¹ For the electoral policies of the United Kingdom Alliance and the Liberation Society, see my “Pressure Groups,” pp. 114-82. See also, Hamer, , Politics, pp. 91–121, 200–26.

⁵² University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Morley, 19 August 1873, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/13.

⁵³ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Morley, 23 August 1873, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/15.

⁵⁴ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Morley, 19 August 1873, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/13.

⁵⁵ Chamberlain, Joseph, “The Liberal Party and Its Leaders,” Fortnightly Review, n.s. XIV (September 1873), 287–303.

⁵⁶ British Museum Library, Chamberlain to Dilke, 17 March 1874, Charles Dilke Papers, Add. MS 43855. See also, University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Morley, 13 March 1874, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/34; Sheffield Public Library, Chamberlain to H.J. Wilson, 6 November 1875, H.J. Wilson Papers, 5889; Chamberlain to Henry Allon, 13 February 1874, in Peel, Albert (ed.), Letters to a Victorian Editor (London, 1929), p. 43. During this period, Chamberlain became more involved in the work of the Liberation Society and in Liberal Party politics. He served as mayor of Birmingham from 1873 to 1876 and stood unsuccessfully for parliament at Sheffield in the general election of 1874. In June 1876, he was returned unopposed at a Birmingham by-election, replacing his old league rival, George Dixon.

⁵⁷ For the league's role in the 1874 election, see my “Pressure Groups,” pp. 219-20, 224-57; Adams, , History, pp. 298–333; Monthly Paper, February and March 1874.

⁵⁸ Monthly Paper, August 1876, pp. 5, 8, 9. See also British Museum Library, “1876 Memoirs,” Charles Dilke Papers, Add. MS 43932; and British Library of Political and Economic Science, Morley to Frederic Harrison, 3 August 1876, Frederic Harrison Papers.

⁵⁹ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Morley, 6 February 1877, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/158.

⁶⁰ Adams, , History, pp. 320, 328–29; Monthly Paper, December 1876, pp. 3, 4; Monthly Paper, March 1877, p. 3; National Education League, Eighth Annual Report (Birmingham, 1876), pp. 7–14.

⁶¹ The standard account of the founding of the NLF is Herrick, Francis H., “The Origins of the National Liberal Federation,” Journal of Modern History, XVII (June 1945) pp. 116–29. Following Garvin, Herrick sketched the link between the NLF and the caucus, and the NLF and the National Education League. He argued persuasively against Ostrogorski's view that the NLF was established in response to the Eastern Question agitation and the problems engendered by the minority clause of the 1867 Reform Act. See also, Garvin, , Chamberlain, I, 252–57.

⁶² Wright, J.S., quoted in National Liberal Federation, Proceedings Attending the Formation of the National Liberal Federation of Local Associations (hereafter, Proceedings) (Birmingham, 1877), p. 22.

⁶³ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Morley, 6 February 1877, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/158.

⁶⁴ See, for example, Chamberlain's speeches in National Liberal Federation, Proceedings, and his earlier articles, “The Liberal Party and Its Leaders,” Fortnightly Review, n.s. XIV (September, 1873), 287–302, and “The Next Page of the Liberal Programme,” Fortnightly Review, n.s. XVI (October, 1874), 405–29.

⁶⁵ For a detailed discussion of this point, see the author's “Pressure Groups,” pp. 50-111, 372-90.

⁶⁶ The term “caucus” was used by critics of the Birmingham system to suggest a resemblance to the corrupt system of American machine politics. Although they protested the inaccuracy, proponents of the caucus gradually came to use the term themselves. See Chamberlain, Joseph, “The Caucus,” Fortnightly Review, n.s. XXIV (November 1878), 721–41. For the structure of the Birmingham caucus, see Ostrogorski, M., Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties (hereafter, Democracy), I, (London, 1902), pp. 165–67, and Hanham, , Elections, pp. 133–37.

⁶⁷ Constitution of the National Liberal Federation in its First Annual Report (Birmingham, 1879), p. 35.

⁶⁸ National Liberal Federation, Proceedings, p. 14.

⁶⁹ Ibid., p. 16.

⁷⁰ For the activities of the National Liberal Federation, see its First Annual Report (Birmingham, 1879), p. 10, Second Annual Report (Birmingham, 1880), p. 9, and Watson, Robert Spence, The National Liberal Federation from its Commencement to the General Election of 1906 (London, 1907), pp. 12–13.

⁷¹ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Collings, 26 February 1878, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/16/79.

⁷² Many moderates who did not endorse Chamberlain's political aims supported the caucus for precisely this reason. For the spread of the caucus, see Hanham, , Elections, pp. 125–37.

⁷³ See Fraser, Peter, Joseph Chamberlain, Radicalism and Empire, 1868-1914 (London, 1966), p. 24.

⁷⁴ For the significance of this distinction, see Beer's, Samuel illuminating study, British Politics in the Collectivist Age (New York, 1969), pp. 33–34, 70.

⁷⁵ Ostrogorski, , Democracy, I, 194–203, 230–40; Reid, Wemyss T., Life of the Rt. Hon. William Edward Forster, II (London, 1888), pp. 206–20.

⁷⁶ The major arguments pro and con can be found in Hanham, , Elections, pp. 140–45.

⁷⁷ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Collings, 2 March 1877, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/16/64.

⁷⁸ Hanham, , Elections, pp. 149–53.

⁷⁹ University of Birmingham, Chamberlain to Morley, 6 February 1877, Joseph Chamberlain Papers, JC 5/54/58. The officers of the NLF included Chamberlain, J.S. Wright, Jesse Collings, Francis Schnadhorst, and J. Thackery Bunce. The exception was Herbert New, chairman of the finance committee.

⁸⁰ According to H.J. Wilson's computation, the Birmingham Liberal Association sent twenty-five delegates to the inaugural meeting. The second largest delegations were Leeds and Manchester, each with sixteen. In the margin of his copy of a NLF committee meeting of December 1878, Wilson penned: “Eighteen of twenty-eight representatives seem to be readers of the Birmingham Daily Post.” Sheffield Public Library, H.J. Wilson Papers, 2588/10, 2588/14.

⁸¹ University of Sheffield, A.J. Mundella to R.E. Leader, 10 July 1879, Leader-Mundella Letters. See also their correspondence of 5 June 1877, 20 June 1877, 23 June 1877.

⁸² Sheffield Public Library, Schnadhorst to H.J. Wilson, 15 December 1879, H.J. Wilson Papers, 5934a.