Dissenting Attitudes to Foreign Relations, Peace and War, 1840–18901

N. W. Summerton

doi:10.1017/S0022046900044432

Dissenting Attitudes to Foreign Relations, Peace and War, 1840–18901

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

N. W. Summerton

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N. W. Summerton: Affiliation:
A Principal, Department of the Environment, U.K.

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It may confidently be surmised that at all times in history many men and women have sighed for the abatement of systematic and organised violence between or within tribes, empires and states, particularly when personal involvement has seemed likely. Such sentiments must have been common in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, even though the combatants in war were relatively few; famine and pestilence, the indirect consequences of conflict, were severe enough to guarantee that. It has been estimated that in the seventeenth century, there were only seven years in which wars were not being fought somewhere in Europe. Calculations for the eighteenth century could be expected to yield similar results. Yet it was only towards the end of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (known to contemporary Englishmen as the Great War) that determined action was taken to establish organised movements for peace. The result was the establishment in 1815 and 1816 of two peace societies in the United States, and of the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace (commonly described as the Peace Society) in Great Britain. These remained virtually alone until other bodies were formed in Britain and on the Continent in the period after 1867. These in turn contributed to the movements which led to inter-governmental conferences for peace and disarmament in the first decade of the twentieth century and to the formation of the League of Nations after the First World War.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , April 1977 , pp. 151 - 178

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900044432 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

^{page 151 note 2} See Clark, G. N., The Seventeenth Century, 2nd ed., London 1955, 98.Google Scholar

^{page 152 note 1} E.g., Beales, A. C. F., The History of Peace: a Short Account of the Organised Movements for International Peace, London 1931Google Scholar; Curti, M. E., The American Peace Crusade, Durham, N.C., 1929Google Scholar; Hurst, M. E., The Quakers in Peace and War, London 1923Google Scholar; Trueblood, B. F., Historic Development of the Peace Idea, Washington 1924Google Scholar; Lyon, F. S. L., Internationalism in Europe, 1815–1914, Leyden 1963.Google Scholar See Taylor, A. J. P., The Trouble-Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, London 1957, 167–200 passim.Google Scholar

^{page 152 note 2} In Beales, op. cit., a list of 29 works published between 1882 and 1929 appears on pages 342–3, of which the greater part were issued between 1895 and 1914.

^{page 152 note 3} Quoted in ibid., 171.

^{page 152 note 4} ibid., 58–9; and Miall, C. S., Henry Richard, M.P.: a Biography, London 1889, 351–2.Google Scholar

^{page 152 note 5} Quoted in Beales, op. cit., 52–3.

^{page 153 note 1} A Methodist group which rejected the authority of Conference.

^{page 153 note 2} Beales, op. cit., 76.

^{page 153 note 3} Dictionary of National Biography, xxii, Supplement, 101.

^{page 153 note 4} ibid., ii. 984–8.

^{page 153 note 5} Hansard, 3rd series, cciii, 2 August 1870, col. 1441.

^{page 153 note 6} Dictionary of National Biography, 2nd Supplement, 567–9

^{page 154 note 1} Beales, op. cit., 94, 98–9, 184–5.

^{page 154 note 2} See Dictionary of National Biography and Miall, A., Life of Edward Miall, London 1884.Google Scholar

^{page 154 note 3} Miall, E., The Politics of Christianity, London 1863, 164. (Hereinafter cited as PC.)Google Scholar

^{page 155 note 1} A. Miall, op cit., 66.

^{page 155 note 2} PC, 151–7.

^{page 155 note 3} Binney, ‘Wellington’, in part a sermon preached on 17 October 1852, printed in Pamphlets, 1846–54 (Dr. Williams's Library, London, ref. 16.3.12), 13–14.

^{page 156 note 1} Newman Hall, ‘Wellington and War’, in ibid., 4–9.

^{page 156 note 2} Quoted in Hodder, E., The Life of Samuel Morley, London 1887, 345.Google Scholar

^{page 156 note 3} S. Morley to L. A. Chameronzow (Secretary, British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society), 22 January 1863, printed in ibid., 161–2.

^{page 156 note 4} PC, 158.

^{page 157 note 1} Hansard, 3rd series, cclx, 29 May 1881, cols. 1449–50.

^{page 157 note 2} Divisions 1881, No. 198, 9 May 1881. House of Lords Record Office. Some nonconformists, including J. F. Cheetham, J. J. Colman, Richard Davies, H. H. Fowler, Lewis Fry, and E. A. Leatham, voted with the majority.

^{page 157 note 3} A. Miall, Life of Edward Miall, 189–90, 192.

^{page 157 note 4} Newman Hall, ‘Wellington and War’, loc. cit., 5.

^{page 157 note 5} PC, 158–9.

^{page 158 note 1} PC, 142; Colman, H. C., Jeremiah James Colman: A Memoir, London 1905, 302, 318.Google Scholar See also A. Miall, Life of Edward Miall, 219; Vincent, J., The Formation of the Liberal Party, 1857–68, London 1966, 38Google Scholar; Divisions 1873, No. 112, 13 June 1873. See also Divisions 1872, No. 184, 25 June 1872. House of Lords Record Office.

^{page 158 note 2} PC, 99, 159,162.

^{page 158 note 3} PC, 159.

^{page 159 note 1} Hodder, The Lfe of Samuel Morley, 451.

^{page 159 note 2} Miall, Life of Edward Miall, 147. See also ibid., 82; PC, 65–8, 86–7; and C. S. Miall, Henry Richard, M.P., 243n.

^{page 159 note 3} H. C. Colman, Jeremiah James Colman, 62, 64; C. S. Miall, op. cit., 86.

^{page 159 note 4} See Briggs, A., Victorian People, revised ed., London 1965, 49–51.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 5} See, for example, PC, 63.

^{page 159 note 6} PC, 159, 170–3.

^{page 160 note 1} Hansard, 3rd series, cclx, 5 May 1881, cols. 1867–8. Despite his speech, Illingworth voted for the motion.

^{page 160 note 2} ibid., cclxi, 29 May 1881, cols. 1424–50; C. S. Miall, Henry Richard, 322–3; Beales, History of Peace, 166; J. Vincent, The Formation of the Liberal Party, 38.

^{page 160 note 3} PC, 159.

^{page 160 note 4} Beales, op. cit., passim.

^{page 160 note 5} ibid., 143.

^{page 161 note 1} PC, 159. See also, ibid., 173–4.

^{page 161 note 2} Hodder, Life of Samuel Morley, 345, 355–6.

^{page 161 note 3} Hansard, 3rd series, cclx, 5 May 1881, col. 1859.

^{page 161 note 4} H. C. Colman, Jeremiah James Colman, 265.

^{page 161 note 5} Cf., Sir Wilfrid Lawson: a Memoir, ed. Russell, G. W. E., London 1909, 133: ‘… to those who believe in “Progress”, it is depressing to find that we seem to be little better than our first parents’.Google Scholar

^{page 161 note 6} ibid., 92.

^{page 161 note 7} Hodder, op. cit., 345.

^{page 162 note 1} Beales, History of Peace, 81, 111–12, 124; Miall, Henry Richard, 79, 195.

^{page 162 note 2} Hodder, op. cit., 448.

^{page 162 note 3} Hansard, 3rd series, ccx, 12 April 1872, cols. 1151–5; Divisions 1872, No. 67, 12 April 1872, House of Lords Record Office.

^{page 162 note 4} Hansard, 3rd series, cciii, 2 August 1870, col. 1441; Divisions 1870, No. 224, 2 August 1870.

^{page 163 note 1} Russell, op. cit., 33.

^{page 163 note 2} H. C. Colman, Jeremiah James Colman, 266.

^{page 163 note 3} See Divisions 1862, No. 9, 27 February 1862; No. 10, 27 February 1862; No. 12, 3 March 1862; No. 14, 6 March 1862; No. 15, 6 March 1862; House of Lords Record Office.

^{page 163 note 4} The New House of Commons, reprinted from The Times, London 1880, 180–1. Fowler's first wife, Rachel Maria Howard, was the daughter of Robert Howard of Tottenham, who was associated first with the Quakers and later with the Plymouth Brethren (see F. R. Coad, A History of the Brethren Movement, revised ed., Exeter 1976, 77–9). His third wife was Rachael Pease, a daughter of Joseph Pease and widow of Charles Albert Leatham of Gunnergate, Yorkshire.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 1} Divisions 1871, No. 32, 23 March 1871; No. 39, 17 April 1871; Divisions 1872, No. 31, 11 March 1872; No. 32, 11 March 1872; No. 255, 29 July 1872; Divisions 1873, No. 15, 28 February 1873; No. 16, 28 February 1873. House of Lords Record Office.

^{page 164 note 2} Sir Wilfrid Lawson, ed. G. W. E. Russell, 51–3; Hansard, 3rd series, clxviii, 1862, cols. 165–85 passim.

^{page 165 note 1} PC, 31–4, 95, 148–54, 161–9; speeches of Miall during the Crimean War quoted in Miall, Life of Edward Miall, 189–92; Binney, op. cit. at 155 n. 3 above, 15–16.

^{page 165 note 2} Samuel Morley to Joshua Morley, 9 April 1848, quoted in Hodder, Life of Samuel Morley, 109.

^{page 165 note 3} PC, 154–8.

^{page 165 note 4} Anderson, Olive, ‘The Reactions of Church and Dissent towards the Crimean War’, in this Journal, xvi (1965), 210–11.Google Scholar

^{page 165 note 5} Miall, Life of Edward Miall, 190.

^{page 166 note 1} Hansard, 3rd series, CXXX, 17 February 1854, col. 910.

^{page 166 note 2} ibid., cciii, 9 August 1870, col. 1740.

^{page 166 note 3} PC, 154; Miall, op. cit., 193; Shannon, R. T., Gladstone and the Bulgarian Agitation 1876, London 1963, 7.Google Scholar

^{page 167 note 1} Hodder, op. cit., 448; Hansard, 3rd series, cxxx, 17 February 1854, col. 910; cciii, 9 August 1870, cols. 1742–4; ccx, 12 April 1872, cols. 1151–2; cclx, 26 May 1881, col. 1713; 12 July 1882, cols. 169, 180; Miall, op. cit, 274–5; H. C. Colman, Jeremiah James Colman, 289; Hansard, 3rd series, ccv, 23 February 1871, cols. 492–95, 525; Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1865, 189. George Dixon's religious connexion was apparently Anglican, but he married a sister of James Stansfeld who had Unitarian associations and he was a close associate of Joseph Chamberlain and Robert Dale.

^{page 167 note 2} Hansard, 3rd series, cciii, 1 August 1870, col. 1340; 9 August 1870, cols. 1741–2. Cf., below, 173 n. 1.

^{page 167 note 3} Anderson, Mosa, Henry Joseph Wilson: Fighter for Freedom, 1833–1914, London 1953, 15.Google Scholar Wilson was M.P. for Holmfirth, West Riding, from 1885 to 1914. On Scholefield see Dictionary of National Biography, xvii, 910–11. He is included in the list of dissenting Members in Cowherd, R. G., The Politics of English Dissent, New York 1956, 215Google Scholar, but I have been unable to establish his religious connexion.

^{page 168 note 1} Dale, A. W. W., The Life of R. W. Dale of Birmingham, London 1898, 130.Google Scholar

^{page 168 note 2} ibid., 253. Dale was speaking at a town meeting in Birmingham to protest against Russian treatment of the Poles.

^{page 168 note 3} ibid., 251–2

^{page 169 note 1} ibid., 130.

^{page 169 note 2} Hansard, 3rd series, cciii, 9 August 1870, col. 1741.

^{page 169 note 3} Cf., James's advice to Dale when the latter was preparing to address a meeting in support of ‘The Patriotic Fund’ during the Crimean War: ‘Without committing yourself to an approval of war, you may refer to his Lordship's great relation—the Lord Hill of Wellington's army—and draw a fine contrast between the war of the sword and the war of the Bible’: quoted in Dale, op. cit., 129.

^{page 169 note 4} ibid., 253.

^{page 169 note 5} See Shannon, Gladstone and the Bulgarian Agitation 1876, passim, especially 45–6, 86.

^{page 170 note 1} H. C. Colman, Jeremiah James Colman, 264–5, 285–6.

^{page 170 note 2} See ibid., 301, which records Colman's complaint that the tendency of Liberals to support the Conservatives forced him to vote with the Government despite his conscience.

^{page 170 note 3} I am indebted to Dr. D. W. Bebbington of the University of Stirling for this point.

^{page 170 note 4} See above, 159 n. 4 above, and associated text.

^{page 170 note 5} See Howard, C. H. D., Britain and the Casus Belli, 1822–1902, London 1974, 1 and passim.Google Scholar

^{page 171 note 1} Ramsay, A. A. W., Idealism and Foreign Policy. A Study of the Relations of Great Britain with Germany and France, 1860–1878, London 1926, 5.Google Scholar

^{page 171 note 2} See Shannon, op. cit.

^{page 171 note 3} Read, D., Cobden and Bright. A Victorian political partnership, London 1967, 110–17, 120, 124–7, 132, 143, 148.Google Scholar

^{page 172 note 1} See ibid., 103–4.

^{page 172 note 2} PC, 172; Hodder, Life of Samuel Morley, 153. See also Sir Wilfrid Lawson: a Memoir, ed. G. W. E. Russell, 167–8, for similar sentiments.

^{page 173 note 1} Read, op. cit, 120, 136, 148.

^{page 173 note 2} Rogers, J. Guinness, An Autobiography, London 1903, 216–18. This is contrary to the view expressed by G. R. Kitson Clark in his Introduction to Shannon, op. cit., xxiv.Google Scholar

^{page 173 note 3} Gladstone, W. E., Midlothian Speeches 1879, with introduction by Foot, M. R. D., Leicester 1971, 115–17.Google Scholar

^{page 173 note 4} ibid., 91–3.

^{page 173 note 5} ibid., 123.

^{page 174 note 1} On Gladstone's European outlook, see Shannon, Gladstone and the Bulgarian Agitation 1876, 4–12. In enunciating the principle of the love of freedom, Gladstone specifically recalled the names of Canning, Russell and Palmerston (the last in connexion with the creation of Belgium and the unification of Italy): Midlothian Speeches, 1879, 117.

^{page 174 note 2} Many of the nonconformists to which this essay refers began in their later years to take lengthy holidays on the Continent. Cf, Rev C. H. Spurgeon who while staying at Mentone met inter alios the Earl of Shaftesbury, Rev. Alexander McClaren, Sir Wilfrid Lawson, John Bright and George Müller: Spurgeon, C. H., Autobiography, ii, The Full Harvest, 1860–1892, revised ed., Edinburgh 1973, 214–15, 377.Google Scholar

^{page 174 note 3} Robert Dale took a degree of the university of London, but studied at Spring Hill Congregational College in Birmingham where the curriculum had only recently been revised. As might have been expected, some of the dissenters were educated at University College London.

^{page 175 note 1} PC, 95, 146, 158. See above, 157 n. 5.

^{page 175 note 2} Beales, History of Peace, 19–52; C. S. Miall, Henry Richard, 258, 275.

^{page 175 note 3} Hansard, 3rd series, cclx, 5 May 1881, col. 1857.

^{page 175 note 4} J. Guinness Rogers, An Autobiography, 224–5; H. C. Colman, Jeremiah James Colman, 301–2.

^{page 176 note 1} See Beales, History of Peace, particularly 9–11, 138.

^{page 176 note 2} Gladstone considered that there was also widespread public support for his Government's strong line on the protection of Belgian neutrality: ‘… the people of this country almost as one man cried out for measures to be taken in order to show their sympathy with that freedom, and their determination, within limits of reason, to do their best to preserve it’: Second Midlothian Speech, Dalkeith, 26 November 1879, Midlothian Speeches 1879, 65. In 1870 and 1871, the nonconformist politicians were, as we have seen, tending however still to place emphasis upon non-intervention.

^{page 177 note 1} ‘Notes on Army Reorganization’, Sir George Clarke, 27 March 1904, 2: CAB 17/17, Public Record Office. Clarke contrasted the situation with the 1870s when ‘Wild notions of our military intervention on European battlefields were in the air [in military circles], and the conditions of a maritime Empire were ignored. The conception of the Navy as the dominating factor in Imperial defence had been altogether lost’.

^{page 178 note 1} Pease to J. B. Hodgkin, 4 August 1914: quoted in Morris, A. J. A., Radicalism Against War, 1906–1914. The Advocacy of Peace and Retrenchment, London 1972, 401.Google Scholar Morris provides a definitive account of the influence of Radical views in the Liberal Government and parliamentary party on the Government's foreign policy in July and early in August 1914. See also Hazlehurst, Cameron, Politicians at War, July 1914 to May 1915, London, 1971.Google Scholar

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