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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2014
The question of why the Liberal Party failed to absorb and channel the increased political activity of the working class after 1885 is one that historians continue to debate. This paper is an attempt to assess the viability of the Liberal Party as a vehicle for working class political aspirations within the context of a single by-election in Sheffield, a city with a strong tradition of Liberal-Labour cooperation. To put the 1894 by-election in perspective, one must first look briefly at the development of the Liberal Party in relation to the demand for Labour Members of Parliament in the last third of the nineteenth century.
1.The Early Movement Toward Labour Representation
The beginning of the movement for direct trade union representation in parliament is usually dated from 1868, when William Newton of the Engineers, William Cremer of the Carpenters and Joiners, and George Howell of the Bricklayers stood for election. All three were defeated despite some Liberal support “notably (if secretly) from party headquarters.” In the following year the Labour Representation League was launched. According to its prospectus, “its principal duty will be to secure the return to Parliament of qualified working men", and it proposed to organize workers' votes regardless of party despite the radical connections of many union leaders. But its party affiliation was soon apparent, and by 1875 the League declared: “we have ever sought to be allied to the great Liberal Party, to which we by conviction belong.”
I wish to thank Mrs. J. P. Short, a librarian in the archives of the Sheffield City Library, who directed my attention to the correspondence which is the basis of this article, and Professor Sidney Pollard who criticized the draft.
1. See, for example, three books published in 1971: Clarke, P. F., Lancashire and the New Liberalism (Cambridge)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cowling, Maurice, The Impact of Labour 1920-1924: The Beginning of Modern British Politics (Cambridge)Google Scholar; and Douglas, Roy, History of the Liberal Party 1895-1970 (London)Google Scholar.
2. Clegg, H. A., Fox, Alan and Thompson, A. F., A History of British Trade Unions Since 1889, I, 1889-1910 (Oxford, 1964), (hereafter Trade Unions), 49Google Scholar.
3. “Prospectus of the League,” quoted in Cole, G. D. H., British Working Class Politics 1832-1914 (London, 1941), p. 50Google Scholar.
4. Ibid., p. 72.
5. Clegg, Fox and Thompson, , Trade Unions, 52Google Scholar.
6. Quoted Ibid., p. 250.
7. Ibid., pp. 252-53.
8. Ibid., p. 51.
9. Ibid., p. 53.
10. Ibid., p. 279. See footnote 3 on that page which quotes Alexander Murray, later Liberal Chief Whip, as saying that “in his old age Gladstone had stressed the need for Liberal encouragement of labour candidates in working-class constituencies, ‘lest the cleavage between Capital and Labour should become too conspicuous and engulf the traditional party system’“ (from Times (London), Oct. 7, 1901.Google Scholar)
11. Cole, , British Working Class Politics, p. 113Google Scholar.
12. Ibid., p. 114.
13. Ibid., p. 113.
14. Hammill, Fred, “Labour Representation," The Fortnightly Review, new series, LV (1894), 551Google Scholar.
15. Clegg, Fox and Thompson, , Trade Unions, 287Google Scholar.
16. Ibid., p. 281.
17. Pelling, Henry, The Origins of the Labour Party, 1880-1900 (London, 1954), p. 17–4Google Scholar.
18. A. G. Wolfe to Keir Hardie, June 15, 1894. The Francis Johnson Collection. This letter, as well as the one from F. Sharp to Keir Hardie cited below, were made available through the courtesy of R. Bruce Aubry of Bristol, to whom the author is most grateful.
19. Sheffield City Library Archives [hereafter SA], J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 12, 1894, Miscellaneous Documents 5950 [hereafter MD with number under which the library catalogues the material]. Some of these letters, which form the major source for this paper, are also entitled “Wilson Papers.”
20. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 13, 1894, MD5950.
21. “Big and Little Guns,” South Yorkshire Notes, I, No. 3, (1899), 215Google Scholar.
22. SA, A. J. Mundella to H. J. Wilson, June 15, 1894 (copy), MD5950.
23. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 15, 1894.
24. SA, See election handbill, “Mr. Langley's Answer to Mr. Charles Hobson,” and Hobson's letter, Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 25, 1894, both in MD5951; also newspaper reports of Liberal meeting June 22, 1894.
25. Letter from Hobson, , Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 25, 1894Google Scholar.
26. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 12, 17 and 19, 1894, MD5950.
27. Addy, S. O. and Pike, W. T., Sheffield at the Opening of the Kith Century: Contemporary Biographies (Brighton, 1900), p. 64Google Scholar.
28. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 17, 1894, MD5950.
29. Letter from Hobson, , Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 25, 1894Google Scholar.
30. SA, See questions to H. J. Wilson from J. W. Wilson and penciled notes of answers in J. W. Wilson's letter June 17, 1894, MD5950. Fred Maddison, in fact, replaced A. J. Mundella as M.P. for Brightside after the latter's death in 1897.
31. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 19, 1894, MD5950.
32. William J, Clegg was a militant temperance advocate as well as Councilman, Alderman and Mayor for two and one-half years. He died in 1895.
33. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 19, 1894, MD5950.
34. Ibid.
35. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 23, 1894, ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 25, 1894, MD5950. Frederick Percy Rawson, J.P., was a member of the Town Council for twelve years (1878-90). Cutlery manufacturer and merchant, he was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Hallamshire Liberal Association and the Sheffield United Liberal Committee and Treasurer of the Sheffield Central Liberal Committee. He was described as “almost the head-centre of Radicalism for close on half-century so far as Sheffield was concerned”. See Stainton, J. H., The Making of Sheffield 1865-1914 (Sheffield, 1924), p. 343Google Scholar.
38. An indication of Liberal sensitivity to labour demands is revealed by some notes which appear to be in Henry Wilson's hand, dated May 1894, and which recount a visit paid by him and another Liberal to Councillor Aizelwood on behalf of the Brightside Liberal Association, to discuss whether Aizelwood would stand again in the coming municipal elections. Wilson wrote: “We said that … recognizing that what is known as ‘Labour Policy’ has made considerable progress … in our ranks, we thought there would be considerable difficulty in returning him again …” and concluded that they left convinced that the Brightside Executive was right, and “it would be absolutely impossible to carry a candidate who expressed himself so unsympathetically toward the aims and aspirations of Labour men.” SA, MD5987.
39. Mendelson, J., Owen, W., Pollard, S., and Thornes, V. M., The Sheffield Trades & Labour Council 1858-1958 (Sheffield, n.d.), p. 45Google Scholar.
40. Sheffield Federated Trades Council, Annual Report 1891-92 (Sheffield, 1892), p. 6Google Scholar, gives an excellent example. It reports on a debate at the Town Council over a fair contracts clause and lists the political affiliation of those who voted for the penalty clause proposed by the Labour men — mostly Liberal. It passed. Where a motion to change the time of meetings to one more favorable to the working men failed, no breakdown of the vote is reported.
41. SA, Hobson to H. J. Wilson, Oct. 25, 1890, MD5955. Andrew Hall, Secretary of the Sheffield and District General Labourers Union, had attacked the Sheffield Trades Council as “simply a tool in the hands of the Liberal party.” Workmen's Times, Oct. 10, 1890.
42. SA, Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, June 21, 1892, clipping, MD5948.
43. Letter from Hobson, , Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 25, 1894Google Scholar.
44. SA, Stuart Uttley to H. J. Wilson, June 30, 1894, marked “Private and Confidential,” MD5950.
45. SA, Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, Aug. 13, 1894. This article brought a letter from Charles Parks on Aug. 14, challenging Hobson's analysis and asserting that local workers who knew the facts would not take him seriously. Indeed, Parks maintained, if Hobson had had a straight fight with the Tory, Hill Smith would have won. MD5954. A somewhat different opinion was expressed prior to the election by F. Sharp, Secretary of the Brightside I.L.P. In a letter to Keir Hardie, June 21, 1894, he wrote that if Hobson had a straight fight he might just win, but added “if the Liberals intend to fight he will not stand a ghost of a chance.” Johnson Collection.
46. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, July 2, 1894.
47. Letter from J. W. Wilson to the Daily Chronicle, quoted in Ibid., June 27, 1894.
48. Workmen's Times, Oct. 10, 1890.
49. Letter from Hobson, Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 25, 1894.
50. SA, Handwritten notes of Mr. C. Moore's recollection of meeting in Albert Hall, Sheffield on July 1, 1894, MD5950.
51. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 20, 1894.
52. Sharp to Hardie, June 21, 1894, Johnson Collection.
53. Mendelson et alii, Sheffield Trades & Labour Council, pp. 46-47.
54. Wolfe to Hardie, June 15, 1894, Johnson Collection.
55. Sharp to Hardie, June 21, 1894, ibid.
56. See, for example, comments of Hobson and J. W. Wilson on pages 52 and 59-60 above.
57. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 20, 1894.
58. Ibid., June 25, 1894.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid., June 26, 1894.
61. Wolfe to Hardie, June 15, 1894, Johnson Collection. It should perhaps be noted that Wolfe had been expelled from the S.D.F. (where he had been an active opponent of the I.L.P.) just a few weeks before this letter was written. His enthusiastic account of his progress on behalf of the I.L.P. may, therefore, be exaggerated. Felling, in Origins, p. 174, says there was no I.L.P. branch in Attercliffe prior to the election. However, there had been attempts to form one. See, for example, the report on Sheffield in the Workman's Times on Oct. 29, 1892, which stated that an I.L.P. branch had just been founded in Attercliffe. In the same paper, the editor reported having received a list of 138 adherents to the National I.L.P. from Sheffield.
62. Wolfe to Hardie, June 15, 1894, Johnson Collection.
63. Sharp to Hardie, June 21, 1894, ibid.
64. SA, Unsigned fragment of a letter from Osgathorpe Hills (H. J. Wilson's Sheffield home), June 22, 1894, 9:20, addressed to “Dear H,” MD5950.
65. Stainton, , Making of Sheffield, p. 351Google Scholar.
66. SA, Uttley to H. J. Wilson, Feb. 4, 1886, MD5955.
67. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 28, 1894, MD5950.
68. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 30, 1894.
69. SA, Uttley to H. J. Wilson, June 30, 1894, MD5950.
70. C. H. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, July 2, 1894, ibid.
71. J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, July 2, 1894, forwarding Whiteley note sent to Langley, ibid. This idea is supported by the unenthusiastic comment of Sharp to Hardie regarding Hobson's candidature. See page 61 above.
72. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 30, 1894.
73. SA, Langley election handbill, MD5951.
74. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 30, 1894. See also, SA, Henry Wilson's notes for speech, MD5951.
75. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, June 26, 1894, MD5950.
76. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 28, 1894.
77. Daily Chronicle, June 26, 1894, quoted in Ibid., June 26, 1894.
78. Letter from J. W. Wilson to the Daily Chronicle, quoted in Ibid., June 27, 1894.
79. Daily Chronicle, quoted in Ibid., June 28, 1894.
80. A telegram from T. Ellis to H. J. Wilson, dated June 30, 1894, said “Private Symonds letter is in parts untrue and at the present stage extremely mischievous. Advise you to be very careful and on your guard.” SA, MD5950.
81. A. G. Symonds to J. W. Wilson, quoted in Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 30, 189-4.
82. See reports of Stanhope's attempts at negotiation in Ibid., July 2, 1894; also, same date, interview with Keir Hardie; also SA, H. J. Wilson to Hardie and Smith, July 1, 1894, and response, MD5950.
83. SA. F Schnadhorstr to H. T. Wilson, June 29, 1894, MD5950.
84. SA, Telegram, Schnadhorst to H. J. Wilson, June 30, 1894, ibid.
85. SA, The Hammer: An Organ of Reform, July 7, 1894, clipping, MD5952.
86. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, July 6, 1894.
87. Ibid.
88. SA, The Echo, July 7, 1894, clipping, MD5952.
89. SA, The Hammer, July 7, 1894, clipping, ibid.
90. SA, Daily News, July 6, 1894, clipping, ibid.
91. SA, Westminster Gazette (Extra Special), July 6, 1894, clipping, ibid.
92. SA, Daily Chronicle, July 6, 1894, clipping, ibid.
93. SA, Westminster Gazette, July 11, 1894, clipping, ibid.
94. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, July 6, 1894, MD5954.
95. SA, Clegg to H. J. Wilson, July 16, 1894, and penciled notes of Wilson reply, ibid.
96. SA, H. J. Wilson and Rawson to Attercliffe Division Sheffield Liberal Association, Sheffield Federated Trades Council, and Sheffield Labour Association, July 24, 1894, typed copy, ibid.
97. SA, Clegg to H. J. Wilson, July 17, 1894, with note regarding Wilson's reply, Clegg to Wilson, July 27, 1894; Wilson to Clegg, Aug. 1, 1894, copy; Clegg to Wilson, Aug. 7, 1894, ibid.
98. SA, Statement of the United Liberal Committee, Aug. 9, 1894, ibid.
99. SA, Hobson to H. J. Wilson, Aug. 20, 1894, ibid.
100. SA, J. W. Wilson to H. J. Wilson, Aug. 20, 1894, ibid.
101. SA, H. J. Wilson and Rawson to Attercliffe Liberal Association, Sheffield Labour Association and Sheffield Federated Trades Council, Sept. 13, 1894, and replies from the Labour Association and the Trades Council, Sept. 17, 1894, ibid.
102. Sheffield Federated Trades Council, Annual Report 1894-95 (Sheffield, 1895), p. 6.
103. Mendelson et alii, Sheffield Trades & Labour Council, p. 45.
104. SA, Quoted in typed copy of letter written to H. J. Wilson and Rawson by Uttley, as Secretary of the Federated Trades Council, regarding the attempts to meet with Labour and Liberal groups; received by Wilson Jan. 11, 1895, MD5953.
105. SA, Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Nov. 1, 1894, clipping, MD5988.
106. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Nov. 1, 1894, quoted this from an article which it described as appearing in “the organ of official Liberalism … which gave its support to the opponent of Mr. Frank Smith.” Clipping, ibid.
107. SA, H. J. Wilson to Langley, Jan. 2, 1894, copy, MD5953.
108. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Oct. 31, 1894.
109. SA, Rawson and H. J. Wilson to Attercliffe Liberal Association, Sheffield Federated Trades Council and Labour Electoral Association, Dec. 31, 1894, draft copy, MD5953.
110. SA, Uttley to Rawson, Feb. 14, 1895, forwarded to H. J. Wilson with note from Rawson, Feb. 19, 1895, ibid.
111. SA, penciled note, probably in H. J. Wilson's hand, March 2, 1895, ibid.
112. Mendelson et alii., Sheffield Trades & Labour Council, p. 45.
113. MacDonald to Hardie, n.d., quoted in Stewart, William, J. Keir Hardie: A Biography (London, 1921), p. 92Google Scholar.
114. Mendelson et alii, Sheffield Trades & Labour Council, p. 51.
115. Pelling, Henry, “Labour and the Downfall of Liberalism” in Popular Politics and Society in Late Victorian Britain (London, 1968), p. 105Google Scholar.
116. See, for example, letter from J. W. Wilson to the Daily Chronicle, quoted in Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 27, 1894.
117. Ibid., June 25, 1894.
118. Pelling, , Origins, pp. 173–74Google Scholar.
