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The Tory Triumph of 1868 in Blackburn and in Lancashire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. C. Lowe
J. C. Lowe
Affiliation:
Oxford Polytechnic
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Extract

In an article published in this journal several years ago Professor Vincent advanced the view that the Tories' triumph in Lancashire in 1868, when they won 22 out of 33 seats as against 12 out of 27 in 1865, was attributable less to the new franchise than to other changes in electoral arrangements, namely, boundary alterations and the creation of new seats.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , December 1973 , pp. 733 - 748
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

1 Vincent, J.R., ‘ The Effect of the Second Reform Act in Lancashire ’, Historical Journal, xi (1968),84–94. Lancashire is used in the strict geographical sense in this article, excluding the three Cheshire boroughs included by Vincent.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Vincent, , loc. cit. p. 94.Google Scholar

3 Vincent's views are repeated in Clarke, P.F., ‘ Electoral Sociology of Modern Britain ’, History, LVII, 189 (1972), 46–7.Google Scholar

4 See Appendix 2 for the Lancashire electorates.

5 Uncontested elections are indicated in Appendix x. Vincent's comparison of party votes is given in his Table 2 (p. 90). The word ‘ seats ’ is used in the sense that a two-member borough has two seats: hence the apparent discrepancy at times between the number of seats and the number of boroughs.

6 In 1869 the Tory majority was up by 50 per cent. In 1875, a candidate, defeated in 1874 and again in 1880, had a majority of 960 - five times that of his successful colleague in 1874.

7 Rochdale, Preston and Manchester, though in the latter there was a contest but on non-party lines.

8 Gains is used here rather loosely to mean both party gain and new seats won. They are shown in Appendix 1. The argument for Clitheroe being a special case rests on an assumption, Vincent, , loc. cit. pp. 86–7.Google Scholar

9 Ibid. pp. 85, 89. The county situation is briefly considered below, p. 744.

10 Evidence to the Harrington Committee, Blackburn Public Library. The description of the 1865 electorate is based on a detailed analysis.

11 The 1867 election in Blackburn, a Liberal success, was not. For Ashton, see Hanham, H.J.,Elections and Party Management (1959), p. 313, n. 2.Google Scholar

12 The Liberals founded clubs about two months before the Tories. Blackburn Standard, 9 May 1868, Blackburn Times, 6 June and 25 July 1868.

13 This seems to have been the case also in Hanham, Bury., op. cit. p. 103.Google Scholar

14 Blackburn Standard, 23 Sept. 1868, Blackburn Times, 6 June and 25 July 1868.

15 Hanham, , op. cit. p. 402.Google Scholar

16 Blackburn Standard, 23 Sept. 1863, Blackburn Times, 29 Aug. and 26 Sept. 1868. The very high totals for later years show that confusion arising from the new franchise was not the main reason.

17 Entries in Howell's note-book, Bishopsgate Institute, London.

18 Quoted in Hanham, , op. cit. p. 336.Google Scholar

19 The demands covered picketing, arbitration, T.U. funds and the Master and Servant laws. Blackburn Times, 10 and 17 Oct., 7 and 14 Nov. 1868.

20 Blackburn Standard, 14 Oct. 1868.

21 Blackburn Times, 17 Oct. 1868. The Liberal editor attributed the Circular to the revision court result.

22 These mill evictions were the main issue in the successful election petition trial of 1869.

23 Blackburn Times, 9 Nov. 1868.

24 Vincent, , loc. cit. p. 94.Google Scholar

25 Blackburn Times, 13 June, 17 and 24 Oct. 1868.

26 Hanham, , op. cit. p. 317Google Scholar. Both Tory candidates in Blackburn were of mature years - Hornby 63, Feilden 76!Blake, R., Disraeli (1966), p. 512 also comments on the negativeness of the address.Google Scholar

27 Blackburn Standard, 21 Oct. 1868.

28 This was the usual way of calculating majorities in two-member seats, though the defeated party sometimes used the alternative method, i.e. deducting third candidate's vote from the second's.

29 Vincent, , loc. cit. p. 88.Google Scholar

30 This paragraph is based on a detailed study of Blackburn in the period 1865–80, including an analysis of the 1865 electorate, when the drink trade voted 7 to 2 for the Conservatives, the publicans alone, 5 to I.

31 Blackburn Times, 9 May 1868. The systematic use of improper influence would have been rather out of character for this ‘ fine old English gentleman ’.

32 Baines, E., History of Lancashire, ed. Harland, J. (Manchester, revised edn, 1870), II, 80–1. Blackburn Times, 20 June, 11 July: Blackburn Standard, 23 Sept. 1868. Little Harwood had only six voters.Google Scholar

33 Blackburn Times, Oct. 1868 gives the figure of 845 but this seems rather high. The figure of 500 was given in Respondents' Brief (1869 Petition Trial), Lanes. C.R.O. 700 is probably about right.

34 Vincent, , loc. cit. pp. 87–8, 92.Google Scholar

35 Hansard, 8 June 1868 (1290). Crossley was a Liberal with links with the ‘ country party ’. Ibid. 25 June 1867 (527).

38 Blake, , op. cit. p. 473.Google Scholar

37 Cowling, M., 1867 Disraeli, Gladstone and Revolution (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 230–1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 Hansard, 8 June 1868 (1292).

39 Ibid. 25 June 1867 (531, 522).

40 Ibid. 21 June 1867 (271–85).

41 Blake, , op. cit. p. 473Google Scholar. Cowling, , op. cit. p. 232.Google Scholar

42 Vincent, J.R., The Formation 0f the Liberal Party (1966), p. 106.Google Scholar

43 Vincent, , ‘ Second Reform Act ’, p. 93.Google Scholar

44 Hanham, , op. cit. p. 284.Google Scholar

45 Speech by W. R. Cremer of the Reform League at Blackburn, Blackburn Times, 17 Oct. 1868. John Morley, speaking in Blackburn at about the same time, used the phrase ‘ mythic as a mermaid ’.

46 Clarke, P.F., Lancashire and the New liberalism (Cambridge, 1971), p. 33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 Pelling, H., The Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910 (1967), p. 253; Popular Politics and Society in Late Victorian Britain (1968), p. 46.Google Scholar

48 The 1851 religious census gave as percentages of the population: RevdHume, A., ‘ Remarks on the Census of Religious Worship ’, Transactions of Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, XII, 1859–60.Google Scholar In 1910, one-third of Preston's electorate was said to be Catholic (English as well as Irish). Clarke, , op. cit. p. 258.Google Scholar

49 Clarke, , op. cit. p. 53Google Scholar. See also his ‘ Electoral Sociology ’, p. 46. Further evidence can be pieced together for boroughs and townships in north-east Lanes, from Baines, ' History of Lancashire,1870 edn, pp. 34, 46, 82Google Scholar and from Pelling, 's Social Geography, pp. 241, 262–4.Google Scholar

50 This view is strongly argued in Inglis, K.S., The Churches and the Working Classes in Victorian England (1963), pp. 13–15, 35.Google Scholar

51 The editor of the Tory journal claimed that ‘ the Church has a strong hold upon the affections of the operative class in this town ’. Blackburn Standard, 5 July 1865.

52 The ‘ mildly Liberal ’ Bishop Fraser, quoted in Clarke, , op. cit. pp. 59–60Google Scholar.

53 Blackburn Times, 18 July, 17 Oct., Blackburn Standard, 14 and 28 Oct. 1868.

54 Blackburn Standard, 17 April 1853, Blackburn Times, 9 May to 13 June 1868.

55 Blackburn Times, 9 May, 18 July 1868. ‘ Advertisement’, dated 1867, Blackburn Public Library, Local History Collection. This was not uncommon. Jackson, J.A., The Irish in Britain (1963), p. 154.Google Scholar

56 This estimate of ten per cent is based on the 1851 figure of 6 per cent, compared to 10–20 per cent for the 1880s which is given in Pelling, , Social Geography, p. 241Google Scholar. The Irish vote is given as 1,800 in Blackburn in 1900 (Clarke, , op. cit. p. 431). For 1868, about 1,000 seems a fair estimate.Google Scholar

57 A direct link was created when a Temperance agent became prominent in the local Liberal party and campaigned for a Permissive Bill. Shaw, J.G., William Gregson - Temperance Advocate (Blackburn, 1891), p. 243.Google Scholar

58 See Appendix 2.

59 The Liberals' borough seats were made up of: 7 held; 2 gains; 2 new or additional seats.

60 Three new or additional seats plus Clitheroe.

61 These majorities of 261 and 131 (S.W. and N.E.) favour the vanquished - see n. 28. In the S.E. and N.W. the majorities were 988 and 1,385 (calculated similarly).

62 See Searby, P., ‘ W. E. Gladstone in the West Derby Hundred: the Liberal campaign in 1868 ’, Trans. Lancashire and Cheshire, in (1959–1960), 157–63.Google Scholar For Harrington's candidature, see Hanham, , op. cit. pp. 296–302Google Scholar. Harrington was said to be sure of winning a seat in Lancs, N.E.. Blackburn Times, 25 July, 1 Aug. 1868.Google Scholar

63 Seymour, C., Electoral Reform in England and Wales (Newhaven, 1915), pp. 301–3Google Scholar. The £12 occupiers were one-third of the electorate in S.W. Lanes. Ibid. pp. 286, 291.

64 They gained Warrington, Wigan (2), Oldham (2) and Manchester, losing one seat at Bolton and Blackburn.