The Education Bill of 1906 and the Decline of Political Nonconformity

Noel J. Richards

doi:10.1017/S0022046900055615

The Education Bill of 1906 and the Decline of Political Nonconformity

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

Noel J. Richards

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Noel J. Richards: Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, U.S.A.

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The early years of the twentieth century prior to the outbreak of World War I have been described as a period in which the Liberal Party was in a state of decline. One significant aspect of this decline was the deterioration of what in the late nineteenth century has been labelled as political nonconformity. Gladstone's statement that Nonconformists supplied the backbone of British Liberalism perhaps best symbolises the political significance of this group for the vitality of the Liberal Party.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , January 1972 , pp. 49 - 63

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900055615 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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^{page 49 note 1} A debate continues to exist regarding the time of the decline of the Liberal Party. One side stresses the pre-war period; the other, the war years. This debate is one of the topics covered in Thompson, J. A. (ed.), The Collapse of the British Liberal Party, Lexington Mass., 1969Google Scholar.

^{page 49 note 2} Glaser, John F. discusses this concept in his article ‘English Nonconformity and the Decline of Liberalism’, American Historical Review, lxiii (1958)Google Scholar. As the author of this article points out, the terms ‘Dissenters’, ‘Nonconformists’ and ‘Free Churchmen’ can be used interchangeably to refer to Protestants outside the Church of England.

^{page 49 note 3} Gladstone, W. E., “The County Franchise and Mr. Lowe Thereon”, The Nineteenth Century, ii (1877), 552Google Scholar.

^{page 50 note 1} Lidgett, John Scott, My Guided Life, London 1936, 184Google Scholar. Lidgett was President of the National Free Church Council in 1906.

^{page 50 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 50 note 3} SirMarchant, James, Dr. John Clifford, Life, Letters and Reminiscences, London 1924, 126Google Scholar. Clifford was a Baptist who was one of the leaders of the Passive Resistance Movement.

^{page 50 note 4} Birrell, Augustine, Things Past Redress, London 1937, 184Google Scholar. Birrell was the author of the Education Bill of 1906.

^{page 51 note 1} House of Commons. Rowland, Peter, The Last Liberal Governments, London 1968, 31Google Scholar states 157; whereas Halevy, Elie, The Rule of Democracy 1905–14, New York 1952, i. 64 states 180Google Scholar.

^{page 51 note 2} Glaser, art. cit., 360.

^{page 51 note 3} The Times, 7 May 1906.

^{page 51 note 4} Jenkins, Roy, Mr. Balfour's Poodle, London 1954, 24Google Scholar.

^{page 51 note 5} The Times, 13 November 1906.

^{page 51 note 6} The British Friend, iv (1906), 33Google Scholar.

^{page 51 note 7} Spender, J. A., ‘The New Government and Its Problems’, The Contemporary Review lxxxxix (1906), 466Google Scholar.

^{page 51 note 8} The British Friend, xv (1906), 85Google Scholar.

^{page 52 note 1} John Clifford to R. M. Smith, 1906, in Marchant, Dr. John Clifford, 128.

^{page 52 note 2} 4 Parliamentary Debates, civ (1906), 1024Google Scholar.

^{page 52 note 3} Archbishop of Canterbury to Augustine Birrell, 15 December 1905: Bell, G. K. A., Randall Davidson Archbishop of Canterbury, London 1935, i. 514Google Scholar.

^{page 52 note 4} Lidgett, My Guided Life, 187–8.

^{page 52 note 5} H. Gladstone to H. Campbell-Bannerman, 30 November 1905: Rowland, The Last Liberal Governments, 345–6.

^{page 52 note 6} Parliamentary Debates, ciii (1906), 24Google Scholar.

^{page 52 note 7} Ibid., civ. III 1.

^{page 53 note 1} Ibid., 1023.

^{page 53 note 2} Ibid., 1086.

^{page 53 note 3} Ibid., 1090.

^{page 53 note 4} The British Friend, xv (1906), 2Google Scholar.

^{page 53 note 5} The Times, 1 May 1906Google Scholar.

^{page 54 note 1} Bell, Randall Davidson, i. 512.

^{page 54 note 2} Lidgett, My Guided Life, 191–2.

^{page 54 note 3} Bell, Randall Davidson, i. 514.

^{page 54 note 4} J. H. Hollowell to Augustine Birrell, 22 April igo6 in Claridge, William and Evans, William, James Hirst Hollowell and the Movement for Civic Control in Education, Manchester 1911, 121Google Scholar.

^{page 54 note 5} Claridge and Evans, James Hirst Hollowell, 126.

^{page 55 note 1} Calchas, , ‘Liberalism and the Coining Debacle’, Fortnightly Review, n.s. ccccxcvi (1908), 580Google Scholar.

^{page 55 note 2} The Times, 4 May 1906.

^{page 55 note 3} Spender, John Alfred, The Life of the Right Honorable Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, London 1923, ii. 276Google Scholar.

^{page 55 note 4} The British Friend, iv (1906), 30Google Scholar.

^{page 55 note 5} MacDonald, J. Ramsay, “The Education Bill: the Secular Solution”, Fortnightly Review, n.s. ccccxcvi (1908), 707Google Scholar.

^{page 55 note 6} Report of Proceedings at the 39th Annual Trades Union Congress, September 1906, 175–6; Report of Proceedings at the 40th Annual Trades Union Congress, September 1907, 188.

^{page 56 note 1} Spender, The Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, ii. 274.

^{page 56 note 2} Sir Almeric Fitzroy, Memoirs, London, n.d., i. 287.

^{page 56 note 3} Henry Campbell-Bannerman to Lord Ripon, 7 April 1906 in Rowland, The Last Liberal Governments, 348.

^{page 56 note 4} Fitzroy, Memoirs, i. 291.

^{page 56 note 5} Quoted in Bell, Randall Davidson, i. 5:6.

^{page 56 note 6} Spender, The Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, ii. 276.

^{page 56 note 7} The Times, 1 May 1906.

^{page 57 note 1} Spender, The Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, ii. 276–7; The British Friend, xv (1906), 113.

^{page 57 note 2} Bell, Randall Davidson, i. 520.

^{page 57 note 3} The Times, 1 May 1906.

^{page 57 note 4} Balfour Memorandum of 4 July 1906, quoted in Dugdale, Blanche, Arthur James Balfour, New York 1937, ii. 19–20Google Scholar.

^{page 57 note 5} Fitzroy, Memoirs, i. 305.

^{page 57 note 6} The British Friend, xvi (1907), 1.

^{page 58 note 1} Rogers, J. Guinness, ‘Educational Concordat Not Compromise: a Reply’, Fortnightly Review, n.s. ccccbcx (1906), 333–4, 346Google Scholar.

^{page 58 note 2} Lidgett, My Guided Life, 195.

^{page 58 note 3} Ibid., 191.

^{page 58 note 4} King Edward vii noted the above on a letter to him from the archbishop of Canterbury: Magnus, Philip, King Edward the Seventh, London 1964, 354Google Scholar.

^{page 58 note 5} Magnus, King Edward the Seventh, 355–6.

^{page 58 note 6} Private letter written by Balfour cited in Dugdale, Arthur James Balfour, ii. 20.

^{page 59 note 1} Fitzroy, Memoirs, i. 292.

^{page 59 note 2} Bell, Randall Davidson, i. 513–14.

^{page 59 note 3} Herbert Gladstone to Augustine Birrell, 8 December 1906: Rowland, The Last Liberal Governments, 350.

^{page 60 note 1} Fitzroy, Memoirs, i. 309.

^{page 60 note 2} The Times, 24 November 1906; ibid., 28 November 1906.

^{page 60 note 3} Ibid., 28 November 1906.

^{page 60 note 4} Ibid., 24 November 1906.

^{page 60 note 5} Ibid., 28 November 1906; Halevy in his analysis of the defeat of the 1906 Education Bill states that not only the Nonconformists but the entire electorate was apathetic over the issue. He wrote: ‘The great mass of the electorate took no interest in the struggle, and the Anglican Church and the supporters of the status quo could take advantage of their indifference’: The Rule of Democracy 1905–1914, 68.

^{page 60 note 6} Fitzroy, Memoirs, i. 310.

^{page 60 note 7} Ibid.

^{page 61 note 1} Spender, The Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, ii. 279.

^{page 61 note 2} Jones, Harry, Liberalism and the House of Lords, London 1912, 108Google Scholar.

^{page 61 note 3} The Times, 29 November 1906.

^{page 61 note 4} Spender, The Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, ii. 312.

^{page 61 note 5} Williams, C. R., ‘The Welsh Religious Revival, 1904–5’, The British Journal of Sociology, iii (1952)Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 1} Owen, Frank, Tempestuous Journey, London 1954, 149Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 2} Ibid., 153.

^{page 62 note 3} The British Friend, xvi (1907), 170–1Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 4} The Times, 22 December 1906.

^{page 62 note 5} Spender, The Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, ii. 338–9.

^{page 62 note 6} Claridge and Evans, James Hirst Hollowell, 148.

^{page 63 note 1} Marchant, Dr. John Clifford, 128.

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