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Midlothian: the Triumph and Frustration of the British Liberal Party

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

M. A. Fitzsimons
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Extract

The contemporary British Liberal Party sturdily refuses to die. For nearly three decades family allegiances, traditional loyalties, and youthful hopes have preserved for it a dwindling minority status. The Liberals have sought to persuade the electorate with fresh faces and fresh ideas. Still drawing upon the nonconformist tradition they have offered the electorate only a chance to protest and not a possible government. This opportunity to protest against the Leviathan parties, Labour and Conservative, has been a major source of its occasional resurgence in by-elections. The Liberal Party is in many respects the victim of its success. Liberalism, broader than the Party, in pervading British society and parties, could not without drastic alteration become the distinguishing creed of a party. The proponents of change, the sectarian and radical Liberals, were divided, and their estate has been taken over by diverse heirs. Some of the views of Richard Cobden and John Bright became anachronistic, and others were enacted into law which Tories and Labour have preserved. Other elements of radicalism were associated with the Conservative and Labour Parties. Historically the interests attached to the Liberal Party did not cohere well. Even the moments of past liberal greatness, the periods of Gladstone's and Lloyd George's leadership, do not provide a sturdy base of future hope. These inspiring periods, indeed, seem to indicate that to be a dominant national force the Liberal Party requires leaders of unusual and towering genius who strain the bonds of party.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , April 1960 , pp. 187 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1960

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References

1 Gladstone to His Wife, ed. Bassett, A. Tilney (London, 1936), 04 6, 1872, p. 193Google Scholar. In a letter to Shaftesbury, December 11, 1871, Gladstone said that his Administration had already done the main portion of the work for which it had been constituted. British Museum, Add. Mss. 44541.

2 The Economist, April 17, 1872, pp. 413–414, 509–510.

3 These sentiments are to be found in many Gladstone letters, notably in a memorandum in British Museum, Add. Mss. 44641, f. 63, March, 1873.

4 Gladstone to Lord Russell, Morley, John, Life of Gladstone (London, 1903), 11, 461.Google Scholar

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7 British Museum, Add. Mss. 44113, folios 15–18, 44–65, 68.

8 On the reason for bringing Bright back to the Cabinet, Gladstone writing to Granville, (September 3, 1873) described Bright's return to office ”as a means of at least temporary reconciliation.” The Political Correspondence of Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville, 1868–1876, II, 405Google Scholar.

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11 British Museum, Add. Mss. 44385, Gladstone to Bright, Jan. 18, 1875.

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14 The Economist, Jan. 16, 1875, p. 58, using what appeared to be the sound base of Gladstone's many interests, predicted that he would not grow restless in retirement. For many another man that calculation would have been correct. Gladstone's search for a cause is expressed in his often noted letter to Mrs. Gladstone, April 6, 1874: ”I am as far as possible from feeling the want of the House of Commons… I am convinced that the welfare of mankind does not now depend on the State, or the world of politics: the real battle is being fought in the world of thought, where a deadly attack is made with great tenacity of purpose and over a wide field upon the greatest treasure of mankind, the belief in God, and the Gospel of Christ.” Gladstone to His Wife, pp. 201–202. Granville, understanding Gladstone, wrote to him on Dec. 10, 1874: ”Even without a ”cause” I trust that you will resume the place in earnest, in which all desire you to be.” The Political Correspondence of Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville, II, 462.

15 The lightness of leadership is Gladstone's own recommendation to Hartington. Feb. 2, 1875. British Museum, Add. Mss. 44144. Gladstone's niece, Lady Frederick Cavendish, in describing Hartington, her brother-in-law, penned an almost perfecfpicture of the ideal Whig: ”The worst of him is that I can't imagine him ever strongly zealous or earnest about anything; and he may be lazy; but this I don't expect, as the sense of responsibility will weigh much with him.” The Diary of Lady Frederick Cavendish, ed. Bailey, John (London, 1927), II, 188Google Scholar.

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24 Here the contrast between Gladstone's injunction about lightness of leadership, in view of Party divisions, and Gladstone's initiative is stark. On Gladstone's retirement, Lowe had said that when you have a hole in your breeches, it is best to sit still, and he thought that the Party had a very big hole in theirs. Frederick Cavendish to Gladstone, May 13, 1875, British Museum, Add. Mss. 44124.

25 The chief whip, W. P. Adam, wrote of this on November 21, 1877, that Gladstone's election following that of Hartington's for Edinburgh put the crown of success on ”our Scotch demonstration.” British Museum, Add. Mss. 44095.

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33 Dec. 19, 1880, British Museum, Add. Mss. 44145.

34 April 12, 1880, British Museum, Add. Mss. 43385. Arthur Kinglake observed to Mme. Novikov in May, 1880: ”Fancy, after all the thunders of Midlothian, our coming down in the Queen's Speech to 'ground game' (that means rabbits, Miss) and the burial of Dissenters!” Stead, W. T., The M.P. For Russia (London, 1908), II, 87Google Scholar.

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36 Bismarck's letter to the German Ambassador at St. Petersburg, February 26, 1884, was not included in the interwar publication of German documents, Die GrossePolitik. The German text may be found in Medlicott, , op. cit., pp. 341–343Google Scholar; an English translation in The Manchester Guardian, June 14, 1956. The Concert of Europe did not impress members of the British Foreign Office. See The Diaries of John Bright, ed. Walling, R. A. J. (London, 1930), p. 389Google Scholar.