Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- System of references
- Prologue: Original sin and the modern state
- 1 The passion for improving mankind
- 2 Good men fallen among Fabians
- 3 Imperialism
- 4 The State and the Nation
- 5 Human nature in politics
- 6 War
- 7 Hobson's choice
- 8 The bleak age
- Epilogue: Sans everything
- Bibliographical notes
- Appendix
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- System of references
- Prologue: Original sin and the modern state
- 1 The passion for improving mankind
- 2 Good men fallen among Fabians
- 3 Imperialism
- 4 The State and the Nation
- 5 Human nature in politics
- 6 War
- 7 Hobson's choice
- 8 The bleak age
- Epilogue: Sans everything
- Bibliographical notes
- Appendix
- Index
Summary
HOBHOUSE
By 1896 C. P. Scott had been editor of the Manchester Guardian for nearly twenty-five years, and when in November of that year Hobhouse first made it clear that he was interested in journalistic work, the circumstances were propitious. Scott was a Corpus man too, and since Arthur Sidgwick recommended Hobhouse as ‘quite the ablest of our younger “Greats” men, and a strong Liberal and progressive of the best type’ (20 November 1896), Scott was duly impressed. He was accustomed to go to Oxford for recruits to the editorial corridor. In 1879 W. T. Arnold, Mrs Humphry Ward's brother, had become a leader-writer, chiefly on the strength of his study of Roman provincial administration; and in 1890 C. E. Montague came from Balliol. Neither of them had actually got Firsts in Greats but in the case of Montague, who married Scott's daughter, the editor virtually refused to acknowledge the fact – ‘He never ought to have got a 2nd!’ Hobhouse had gilt-edged Oxford credentials and, although he had originally envisaged sending special articles for the paper from London, by coincidence Scott just then found himself a man short on the corridor because of the collapse of Arnold's health. A brief trial brought an unwontedly warm response from Scott, and Hobhouse was persuaded to settle in Manchester in 1897.
From his point of view the move offered a reputable and financially rewarding escape from the crabbed environment of Oxford.
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- Liberals and Social Democrats , pp. 62 - 99Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1978