The Government of England Part 53

FOOTNOTES:

[449:1] Formerly the Parliamentary Groom in Waiting acted also as a whip; but the office was abolished in 1892.

[451:1] Parker, "Sir Robert Peel," III., 144-47.

[452:1] Macdonagh, "Book of Parliament," 372-78.

[454:1] Malmesbury, "Memoirs of an Ex-Minister," I., 382.

[456:1] See, for example, Sir Richard Temple, "Life in Parliament," and especially pp. 39-40.

CHAPTER XXVI

NON-PARTY ORGANISATIONS OUTSIDE OF PARLIAMENT

[Sidenote: Different Kinds of Political Organisations.]

The political organisations outside the walls of Parliament may, for convenience, be cla.s.sified under four heads; although the groups so set apart are not always perfectly distinct, and a particular organisation is sometimes on the border line between two different groups. These four heads are:--

1. Non-party organisations, whose object is to carry into effect some one project or line of policy, but not to obtain control of the general government, or to act as an independent political group in the House of Commons.

2. Local party organisations, each confined to one locality, whose primary object is to nominate party candidates and carry the elections in that place, although they may incidentally bring their influence to bear on the national policy of the party.

3. National party organisations, whose object is to propagate the principles of the party, to aid in carrying the elections throughout the country, and also to formulate and control to a greater or less extent the national party policy. Of the organisations formed for such a purpose, the most famous was early dubbed by its foes the "Caucus," and under that t.i.tle the career of these bodies on the Liberal and the Conservative side will be described in Chapters XXIX. and x.x.x., the Labour Party being treated in a later chapter by itself.

4. Ancillary party organisations. These are handmaids to the party, which make no pretence of trying to direct its policy, but confine themselves to the work of extending its popularity, promoting its interests, and preparing the way for its success at the polls. They will be discussed hereafter, but a few words must be said here about the most important of them all, because without a knowledge of its character, the history of the caucus, with which it has come into contact, can hardly be understood. It is the central a.s.sociation, or central office, of the party, composed of paid officials and agents, with or without the help of a group of wealthy and influential men. It raises and disburses the campaign funds of the party, and takes charge of general electioneering interests; but it always acts in close concert with the party leaders and the whips, and is, in fact, under their immediate direction and control. The central office is thus a branch of the whip's office, which attends to the work outside of Parliament, and it is really managed by a princ.i.p.al agent or secretary directly responsible to the parliamentary chiefs.

[Sidenote: They are Distinct from the Organs of State.]

Unlike the instruments of party inside of Parliament, all of these four cla.s.ses of exterior political organisation are wholly unconnected with the const.i.tutional organs of government; save that the central office is directed by the whip. Outside of Parliament, as in the United States, the organisation of parties is artificial or voluntary, that is, the mechanism stands quite apart from that of the state, and its effect thereon is from without, not from within. From this fact have flowed important consequences that will be noted hereafter.

[Sidenote: The Non-Party Organisations.]

Among the different kinds of political organisation those here called non-partisan are by far the oldest. Yet the term itself may be misleading. It does not mean that they have confined their efforts to cultivating an abstract public opinion in favour of their dogmas, for they have often sought to elect to Parliament men who would advocate them there. Nor does it mean that they have had no connection with the existing parties, for sometimes one of the parties has countenanced and supported their views, and in that case they have thrown their influence in favour of the candidates of that party. The term is used simply to denote a body whose primary object is not to achieve victory for a regular political party. Curiously enough, such a group of persons often comes nearer than the great parties of the present day to Burke's definition of party as "a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed." For each of the leading parties includes men who are not wholly at one in their principles. Party aims are complicated and confused, and are attained only by a series of compromises, in which the ultimate principle is sometimes obscured by the means employed to reach it. A party in modern parliamentary government would be more accurately defined as a body of men united by the intent of sustaining a common ministry.

[Sidenote: Their Early History.]

Various organisations of the kind termed here "non-partisan" arose during the latter part of the eighteenth century. The first of these of any great importance appears to have been the Society for Supporting the Bill of Rights, founded in 1769 to a.s.sist Wilkes in his controversy with the House of Commons, and in general to maintain the public liberties and demand an extension of the popular element in the const.i.tution.

Finding that the society was used to promote the personal ambition of Wilkes, some of the leading members withdrew, and founded the Const.i.tutional Society with the same objects. Ten years later county a.s.sociations were formed, and conventions composed of delegates therefrom met in London in 1780 and 1781 to pet.i.tion for the redress of public grievances. Other societies were established about the same time, and they were not always of a radical character. The Protestant a.s.sociation, for example, was formed under the lead of Lord George Gordon to maintain the disabilities of the Roman Catholics, and brought about the riots of June, 1780, which are still called by his name.

The political societies of those days were short-lived, and most of them died soon; but the outbreak of the French Revolution sowed the seed for a fresh crop. In 1791 the working cla.s.ses of the metropolis organised the London Corresponding Society, and the next year men of less extreme views founded the Society of the Friends of the People to promote moderate reform. Whether radical or moderate, however, a.s.sociations of that kind could not live in those troublous times. The repulsion and alarm provoked by the course of events in France were too strong to be resisted, and a number of repressive statutes were pa.s.sed to break them up. First came an Act of 1794 to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, then in the following session another to prevent seditious meetings, and, finally, a statute of 1799, which suppressed the London Corresponding Society by name, and any others that were organised with branches. These acts and a series of prosecutions drove out of existence all the societies aiming at political reform; and during a few years, while the struggle with France was at its height, the course of domestic politics was unvexed by such movements. But the distress that followed the wars of Napoleon caused another resort to a.s.sociations, which was again met by hostile legislation.

[Sidenote: The Catholic a.s.sociation, and Movements for Reform.]

The repressive statutes were, however, temporary, and when the last of them expired in 1825, the way for popular organisations was again free.

The Catholic a.s.sociation had already been formed in Ireland to procure the removal of religious disabilities, and just as it disbanded, with its object won, in 1829, the shadow of the coming Reform Act brought forth a number of new political societies in England. In that very year Thomas Atwood founded at Birmingham the Political Union for the Protection of Public Rights, with the object of promoting parliamentary reform; and after the introduction of the Reform Bill similar unions, formed to support it, sprang up all over the country. An attempt was even made to affiliate them together in a great national organisation; but the government declared the plan illegal, and it was abandoned.

Among the most interesting of the societies of this kind were those organised in London. Here, in 1831, the National Union of the Working Cla.s.ses was founded by artisans, disciples of Robert Owen, commonly known as the "Rotundanists," from the name of the hall where their meetings were held. But Francis Place, the tailor, a notable figure in the agitations of the day, had no sympathy with the socialistic ideas of these men, and dreaded the effect of their society upon the fate of the Reform Bill. He had a much keener insight into the real situation, and started as a counterstroke the National Political Union, with the sole object of supplying in London the popular impulse needed, in his opinion, to push the measure through.[462:1] The Bill was no sooner pa.s.sed than the many a.s.sociations, which had been founded upon a union of the middle and lower cla.s.ses to effect a particular reform, began to die out.

[Sidenote: The Anti-Slavery Societies.]

Meanwhile two successive organisations of a non-partisan, and, indeed, of a non-political, character, had been carrying a purely humanitarian movement to a triumphant end. The Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in 1787, and strove, by the collection of evidence, by pet.i.tions, pamphlets and corresponding local committees, to enlighten public opinion and persuade Parliament. After working for a score of years, supported by the tireless efforts of Wilberforce in the House of Commons, it prevailed at last upon Parliament to suppress the slave-trade by the Acts of 1806 and 1807. Sixteen years thereafter the Anti-Slavery Society was formed to urge the entire abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions, and this it brought about in 1833, the strength of its advocates in the Commons, backed by popular agitation outside, being great enough to compel Lord Grey's government to bring in a bill for the purpose.[462:2]

[Sidenote: Non-Party Organisations after 1832.]

[Sidenote: The Chartists.]

Since 1832 the non-party organisations have been, on the whole, more permanent, and more widely extended than before; and, with some marked exceptions like that of the Chartists, they have tended to rely less upon a display of physical force, and more upon appeals to the electorate--a change following naturally enough upon the enlargement of the franchise. Chartism developed out of a large number of separate local organisations of workingmen, who realised that they had gained no political power from the Reform Act, and demanded a reform of Parliament in a really democratic spirit. The movement took its name from the People's Charter, with its six points, published in 1838 by the London Working Men's a.s.sociation. To this the various local bodies adhered, sending the next year delegates to a great People's Parliament in London. But the violence of the language used by the Chartists opened a door for prosecution; the leaders became frightened, and for the moment the agitation lost its force. In 1840 it was reorganised, and was supported by several hundred affiliated bodies. From first to last, however, it was weakened by dissensions among the leaders, relating both to the methods of operation and to subordinate issues. The movement culminated in 1848, in the ma.s.s meeting on Kennington Common, which was to form in procession, and present a mammoth pet.i.tion to Parliament. The plan had caused grave anxiety; troops were brought up, thousands of special constables were sworn in; but at the last minute Feargus O'Connor, the leader of the Chartists, lost his nerve, and gave up the procession. The great demonstration was a fiasco, and soon after the whole movement collapsed.

[Sidenote: The Anti-Corn-Law League.]

One of the many reasons for the failure of Chartism was the existence at the same time of the most successful non-partisan organisation that England has ever known, the Anti-Corn-Law League. This, like the Anti-Slavery a.s.sociation of an earlier day, was formed to advocate a single specific reform, and to its steadfast fidelity to that principle its success was largely due. It excluded rigidly all questions of party politics, and in fact its most prominent leader, Cobden, always retained a profound distrust of both parties. The reform embodied, however, in the eyes of its votaries, both an economic and a moral principle, so that they were able to appeal at the same time to the pocket and the conscience of the nation--a combination that goaded Carlyle into his reference to Cobden as an inspired bagman preaching a calico millennium.

As the League appealed to more than one motive, so it used freely more than one means of making the appeal. After a number of local a.s.sociations had been formed, a meeting of delegates from these, held in 1839, founded the League, which proceeded to organise branches all over the country, sent forth speakers and lecturers, worked the press, collected information, issued pamphlets by the ton, pet.i.tioned Parliament, and strove to elect candidates who would support its views.

All this was done upon a huge scale with indefatigable energy. The movement derived its force from the middle-cla.s.s manufacturers, but they strained every nerve to indoctrinate the working cla.s.ses in the cities, and later the rural population, until at last public opinion was so far won that the crisis caused by the failure of the Irish potato crop brought about the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. The League had done its work and dissolved.

[Sidenote: Other Non-Partisan a.s.sociations.]

There have been, and still are, a large number of other a.s.sociations of a non-partisan character, which bestir themselves about some political question. Often they exist in pairs to advocate opposing views, like the Marriage Law Reform a.s.sociation, and the Marriage Law Defence Union, the Imperial Vaccination League, and the National Anti-Vaccination League.

These a.s.sociations are of many different kinds. Some of them are organised for other objects, concerning themselves with legislation only incidentally, and taking no part at elections, like the a.s.sociation of Chambers of Commerce, and the a.s.sociation of Munic.i.p.al Corporations.

Some exist primarily for other purposes, but are very active in politics, like certain of the trade unions;[464:1] others are formed solely for the diffusion of political doctrines, but generally abstain from direct electoral work, like the Fabian Society, with its socialist ideals; and, finally, there are organisations which, although not primarily partisan, in fact exert themselves vigorously to help the candidates of one of the great parties. To the last cla.s.s belongs the Liberation Society, formerly very active in urging the disestablishment of the Church, and throwing its influence in favour of the Liberals; and also its opponent, the Committee for Church Defence, equally strong on the side of the Conservatives. More active than either of them at the present day is the Free Church Federation, which has been brought into the political arena by its repugnance to the Education Act of 1902. In the same category must be placed the National Trade Defence a.s.sociation, an organisation formed by the liquor dealers to resist temperance legislation, and perhaps Mr. Chamberlain's recent Tariff Reform League, both of which support the Tories. It so happens that the societies that oppose the last two bodies are not so consistently devoted to the Liberals. Then there are societies of another type formed for a transitory purpose in foreign affairs: such as the Eastern Question a.s.sociation of 1876, which opposed Disraeli's Turkish policy, and the present Balkan Committee working for freedom in Macedonia.

All a.s.sociations that attempt to influence elections are in the habit of catechising the candidates and publishing their answers, sometimes producing a decided effect upon the vote. Now it may be suggested that societies which take an active part in elections, and always throw their influence on the same side, ought not to be cla.s.sed as non-partisan, but rather as adjuncts to the great parties; and yet they differ from the true ancillary organisations because their primary object as societies (whatever the personal aim of individual members may be) is not to place the party in power, but to carry through a particular policy with which that party happens to be more nearly in sympathy than its rival.

FOOTNOTES:

[462:1] Graham Wallas, in his "Life of Francis Place," gives a graphic description of the movements in London.

[462:2] For these movements see Clarkson's "History of the Slave Trade,"

"The Life of Wilberforce," by his sons, and "The Memoirs of Sir T.

Fowell Buxton."

[464:1] This does not refer to the political labour organisations that have grown out of the trade unions, but must now be cla.s.sed as regular parties. For the earlier political activity of the trade unions, as such, see Sidney and Beatrice Webb, "Industrial Democracy," I., 247 _et seq._

CHAPTER XXVII

LOCAL PARTY ORGANISATIONS

Contrasted with those bodies which are non-partisan, but extend over the whole country, or at least over an indefinite area, stand the local party organisations. Before the Reform Act of 1832 local organisations such as exist to-day for the election of parliamentary candidates were almost unknown. They would, indeed, have been of little use in most of the old electorates. Not to speak of the rotten boroughs, which were sold for cash, a large number of the smaller const.i.tuencies were pocket boroughs, in the hands of patrons who would not have suffered any one else to influence the voters. In 1807, when Lord Palmerston was elected to Parliament for Newtown in the Isle of Wight, Sir Leonard Holmes, who controlled the seat, made a stipulation that he should "never, even for an election, set foot in the place. So jealous was the patron lest any attempt should be made to get a new interest in the borough."[466:1]