The British Election of 1874: Frederic Harrison and the Liberal-Labour Dilemma

Abstract

The role of such left-wing Liberals as Frederic Harrison, Professor E. S. Beesly, A. J. Mundella, Vernon Harcourt, and Tom Hughes in bringing the English working classes into politics on the side of the Liberals in the late 1860's and early 1870's has long been appreciated. What has not, perhaps, been sufficiently realized is the quandary in which these middle-class radicals found themselves when the general election of 1874 approached. The years following the Hornby v. Close case and the appointment of the great royal commission on trade unions in 1867 had seen a rapid development in the political consciousness of the workmen—especially of the unionists—which was, from the point of view of the radicals, all to the good; but they had also seen the politically conscious among the working classes turning bitterly against the Liberals. The milestones in the latter of these two important political trends were the Liberals' Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1871, the Gas Stokers' and Chipping Norton cases and the persistent refusal of the Gladstone Government to respond to the demands of the unions' lobby for the reform of the labour laws of the country. Labour feeling with regard to the Liberal party was reflected, for example, in the discussions of the Labour Representation League in 1871. A meeting of September 2 voiced strong disapproval of the Government's treatment of the working-class legislative demands and of its general attitude of hostility. The meeting decided to initiate discussions on the advisability of forming a third party. There was also a great deal of criticism of the Liberals at the Trades Union Congress of 1872 and, in the following year, the Parliamentary Committee of the Congress minced no words in discussing the matter in its report on the year's work. After reciting the fruitless efforts of the labour lobby during the 1872 session, the report concluded with the remark that a Liberal government under which such a legal situation could be consolidated was a mockery. And in two bye-elections in August, 1873, at Dundee and Greenwich, the workmen supported independent candidates in opposition to the official Liberals. Gladstone's cabinet shuffle of that same month probably did little to improve relations. Robert Lowe, who took the Home Office, was considered an enemy of the working classes and John Bright was well known as an opponent of unions and of all state action in industrial affairs.