British Party Politics, 1852–1886

343 Pages·1998·32.811 MB·English

by  Angus Hawkins (auth.)

BRITISH PARlYPOLITICS, 1852-1886
BRITISH PARTY POLITICS,
1852-1886
ANGUS HAWKINS
First published in Great Britain 1998 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-333-57081-4 ISBN 978-1-349-26167-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-26167-3
First published in the United States of America 1998 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-17537-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hawkins, Angus.
British party politics, 1852-1886 I Angus Hawkins.
p. em.-(British history in perspective)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-17537-5 (cloth)
I. Great Britain-Politics and govemment-1837-1901.
2. Political parties-Great Britain-History-19th century.
I. Title. 11. Series.
DA560.H338 1997
320.941-dc21 97-9%3
CIP
©Angus Hawkins 1998
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WlP 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10987654 3 2 I
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements Vlll
Introduction 2
1 Parliamentary Government 9
The Nature of Parliamentary Government 11
The Critics qf Parliamentary Government: Peel and the
~uti 30
The Critics qf Parliamentary Government: Radical
Traditions 35
Summary 44
2 Mid-Victorian Parties, 1852-9 4 7
The Aberdeen Coalition, 1852-5 50
Palmerston's First Ministry, 1855-8 56
Derby's Conservative Government, 1858-9 66
Conservative Defeat and Liberal Union 72
3 Palmerston and Liberalism, 185~5 79
Palmerston's Liberal Leadership 80
Gladstone: the 'People's Chancellor' 86
Liberal Government: Finance, Reform, Religion and
Foreign Policy 89
Bright Resurgent and Gladstone 'Unmuzzled', 186~5 101
Palmerston's Departure 106
v
Contents
4 'A Leap in the Dark', 1866-4J 109
The Myths of 1867 112
Liberal Dissension, 1866 115
Conservative Riform, 1866--7 119
The Impact of Riform 131
5 Gladstone and Liberalism, 1868-74 141
Gladstone's Liberal Leadership 141
Liberal Riform, 1868-73 149
Liberal Discord, 1872-4 159
6 Disraeli and Conservatism, 1874-80 178
Disraeli' s Conservative Leadership 178
Conservative Riform 186
Empire and Foreign Policy 195
Conservatism Becalmed, 1878-80 206
Disraeli' s Legacy 210
7 The Crisis of Liberalism, 1880-4) 217
Liberal Opposition and the Midlothian Campaigns,
218
187~80
Liberal Government: Ireland, Egypt, Bradlaugh, and
Riform, 1880-5 226
'Elijah's Mantle' 242
The Home Rule Crisis, 1886 246
Gladstone's Legacy 260
8 The Rise of the Party System 266
The Emergence of Party Government, 1867-86 268
The Ascendancy of the Party System after 1886 281
Notes 291
Annotated Bibliography 309
Index 317
Vl
For Emma and Kate
AcKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In writing a survey text a large number of debts of various kinds
are incurred which can only be inadequately, but no less grate
fully, acknowledged. The comments of Michael Bentley, Tom
Buchanan, Terry Jenkins, Bruce Kinzer, John Powell, John
Prest, and the unfailingly supportive editorship ofJeremy Black
were invaluable. My heavy debt to the scholarship of others is
indicated in the notes. The unstinting efforts of Linda Cox saw
the typescript through to completion. Valery Rose and Jocelyn
Stockley expertly guided it through the press. My colleagues at
Oxford and family enabled this project to be finished when much
else demanded my time. I hope they find what follows worthy of
their valued friendship and unfailing support.
Vlll
INTRODUCTION
Between 1852 and 1886 the structure ofBritish politics changed
profoundly. Parliamentary government gave way to a modern
party system. In the 1850s parliament stood as the prestigious
centrepiece of British politics. Governments were made and
unmade in the House of Commons. Parliament largely deter
mined the national political agenda, instructed the nation on the
great issues of the day, and provided the authoritative setting for
party leaders to proclaim their policies. In the mid-1860s the
liberal commentator James Fitzjames Stephen described the
House of Commons as 'the only real depository of all political
power' .1 Sovereignty, the absolute source of constitutional
authority, rested in Westminster. Parliamentary sovereignty
legitimised executive (cabinet) power. Walter Bagehot, in his
celebrated study The English Constitution published in 186 7,
observed that the cabinet governed subject to the endorsement
of the Commons. The 'efficient secret' of the English Constitu
tion, according to Bagehot, was the nearly complete fusion of the
executive and legislative powers in a government subject to
parliament.2 In this way Westminster was generally seen to
check the dangers of both despotism- an arbitrary executive
and democracy - a wayward populace. Parliament's relations
with the constituencies, extra-parliamentary organisations, elec
tors and the nation beyond were loose, sporadic, and often
informal. Parliamentary elections and the rituals of constituency
contests were more a function of local dynamics and provincial
allegiances than national imperatives. It was within Westminster
that the selection of governments, the scrutiny of official policy
and the definition of the national need occurred.
British Party Politics, 1852-1886
This was part of the Whig achievement of the years after 1830.
For the 36-year period between 1830 and 1866 Whigs were in
power, alone or in coalition, for all but just under nine years.
They saw themselves as the natural party of government. They
wished for the increasingly diverse and complex social interests
being advanced by economic and intellectual progress to be
balanced and integrated, the rule of law preserved, liberties
safeguarded, and social order, protecting property and wealth,
to be maintained. Central to these aspirations stood Westminster
as the authoritative arena of national politics. It was in parlia
ment that political ills were cured, remedial reforms were passed,
the wisdom of the nation was expressed and governments were
chosen. All this required parliamentary parties sufficiently cohe
sive to withstand the Royal prerogative (the Crown's ability to
choose the government), yet sufficiently fluid to ensure that the
Commons, not the electorate, was sovereign. It was these con
stitutional assumptions that framed the party politics of the
1850s. They formed the foundation of mid-Victorian parliamen
tary government.
Between 1867 and 1884 the structure of parliamentary gov
ernment was dismantled and the sufficiency of parliament chal
lenged. By 1886 the contrasting assumptions and values of a
modern party system were supplanting the axioms of Whig
parliamentary government. Parties themselves, rather than par
liament, now exercised that sovereignty which legitimised gov
ernment authority. Governments were becoming the product of
electoral mandate, with parties themselves possessing increasing
autonomy. The power of choosing who should hold office was
passing from the Commons directly to the electorate as organised
by mass national parties. As William Gladstone, Liberal leader
and four times premier, declared momentously in a speech at
Greenwich in january 1874: 'That authority which was in 1868
amply confided by the nation to the Liberal party and its leaders
... can in no way be so legitimately and effectually restored as
by an appeal to the people.'3 The following year it was recog
nised that 'the floor ofthe House [of Commons] has ceased to be
the exclusive, or even the most effective, standing-point from
which to address the true rulers of the country'. 4 The necessary
2