550 John Coleridge

Constituency : Exeter  1865-73

John  re-took  one  of  the  Exeter  seats  for  the  Liberals  following  a  by-election  defeat  in  1864.

John  was  a  great-nephew  of  the  poet  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge. He  was  educated  at  Eton  and Oxford  and  became  a  barrister. From  1853  to  1854  he  was  secretary  to  the  Royal  Commission on the  City  of  London. He  was  an  Anglican but  spoke  in  favour  of  removing  religious  tests  at  Oxford.

John  came  to  prominence  during  the  debates  on  the  Second  Reform  Bill. He  believed  household suffrage  would  not  threaten  the  existing  order. Nevertheless  he  aided  Gladstone's  attempts  to  thwart Disraeli , putting  forward  the  fixed-line  franchise  Instruction  which  came  to  bear  his  name. This attempted  to  rally  Liberals  around  Gladstone's  stance  but  failed  to  do  the  trick. John  supported  Mill on  female  suffrage  and  led  an  attempt  to  get  a  court  ruling  that  the  Second  Reform  Act's  provisions  must  apply  to  women  under  the  Interpretation  Act  of  1850  in  a  case  known  as  Chorlton  v  Lings. 

Nevertheless  Gladstone  rewarded  him  when  he  came  to  power  in  1868. John  was  immediately appointed  Solicitor-General  then  promoted  to Attorney-General  in  1871. He  was  also  involved  to  some  extent in  the  Tichborne  case.  In  1872   he  gave  a  combative  speech  to  the  Social  Science  Association  when  he  linked  the  unreformed  hereditary  House  of  Lords  to  the  delay  in  overhauling  the  legal  system  on  Benthamite  lines.  He  referred  to  the  existing  Law  Lords  as  "smallest  dwarfs".In  1873  he  became  Chief  Justice  of  Common  Pleas  and  resigned  his  seat. The  Tories  won  the  by-election.

In  1874  he  was  elevated  to  the  Lords  as  Baron  Coleridge.  In  1880  he  became  Lord  Chief   Justice  of  England.  In  1888  as  Lord  Chief  Justice  he  felt  obliged  to  uphold  the  principle  set  by  Chorlton  v  Lings   and  deny  a  woman's   right  to  sit   on  the  London  County  Council. He  held  onto  the  office  despite  declining  health  until  his  death  in  1894  aged  74.

549 Joseph Samuda

Constituency : Tavistock 1865-8, Tower  Hamlets  1868-80

Joseph  replaced  Sir  John  Salusbury-Trelawny  at  Tavistock.

Joseph  was   a  London  Jew. With  his  brother  Jacob  he  set  up  Samuda  Brothers, a  firm  of  marine   engineers  and  shipbuilders  on  the  Isle  of  Dogs. Joseph  personally  superintended  many  of  the  ships built. In  1860  he  founded  the  Institute  of  Naval  Architects. He  was  also  involved  in  railway engineering  and  was  invited  to  trial  his  new  method  of  atmospheric  propulsion  on  the  London Brighton  and  South  Coast  Railway  but  problems  became  apparent  and  it  was  abandoned  in  1847. In  1856  he  and  his  wife  abandoned  Judaism. He  was  a  member  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works  from  1860  to  1865.

Joseph's  speeches  in  the  House  were  mainly  on  his  profession  and  were  noted  for  his  technical  knowledge.

When  Tavistock  was  reduced  to  a  single  member  in  1868  Joseph  switched  to  Tower  Hamlets. He was  fiercely  resented  as  an  apostate  by  the  local  Jewish  population  and  Lionel  Rothschild  came  in to  support  him  which  was  thought  to  have  contributed  to  his  own  defeat  in  the  City  of  London. In the  1870s  he  supported  Disraeli's  foreign  policy. The  displeased  Liberals  in  the  constituency  put James  Bryce  up  against  him  and  he  was  defeated.

He  died  in  1885  aged  71.

548 Frederick Goldsmid

Constituency : Honiton 1865-6

Frederick  replaced  George  Moffat  at  Honiton.

Frederick  was  a  Jewish  banker  from  London. He  was  educated  at  University  College, London. He was  an  active member  of  the  Metropolitan  Association  for  Improving the  Dwellings  of  the  Laboring Classes  and  a  patron  of  many  Jewish  charities.

He  died  in  1866  aged  54  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Julian  at  the  by-election.

547 Adolphus Young

Constituency : Great  Yarmouth 1857-9, Helston 1865-6, 1868-80

Adolphus  took  Helston  from  the  Tories.

Adolphus  was  a  solicitor  from  Berkshire. In 1837  he  emigrated  to  Australia  with  his  new  wife   where  he  practised  in  Sydney.  In  1842  he  was  appointed  sheriff  of   New  South  Wales.He  was also  involved  in  a  life  assurance  company  and  spent  a  year  on  the  New  South  Wales  Legislative Council.

Adolphus's  election  in  1865  was  declared  void  and  he  was  prevented  from  standing  in  the  by-election. He  reclaimed  the  seat  in  1868. In  Parliament  he  maintained  a  keen  interest  in  Australian affairs.

He  died  in  1885  aged  71.

 

546 John Vivian

Constituency : Penryn and Falmouth  1841-7, Bodmin 1857-9, Truro  1865-71 

John  took  Truro  from  the  Tories  for  his  third  and  final  stint  in  Parliament.

John  was  the  brother  of  Baron  Vivian. The  family  fortune  was  in  copper  mining. He  was  educated  at  Eton  before  joining  the  11th  Hussars as a  cornet. He  rose  to  the  rank  of  captain  before  retiring  in  1842. He  had  switched  to  Truro  for  the 1859  election  but  was  unsuccessful.

John  was  appointed  a  whip  in  1868.

Unusually  John  swapped  the  Commons  for  the  civil  service,  becoming  Permanent  Under-Secretary of  State  for  War  in  1871. The  Tories  won  the  by-election.

He  died  in  1879  aged  60.

545 Thomas Cave

Constituency : Barnstaple  1865-80

Thomas  replaced  John  Davie  at  Barnstaple.

Thomas  travelled  to  Canada  in  1859. He was  Sheriff  of  London  between  1863  and  1864.

Thomas  was  appointed  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  in  1866. In  1867  he  advocated  a  coal  tax  to  pay  off  the  National  Debt.

Thomas  was  the  father  of  Tory  politician  and  future  Home  Secretary  George  Cave.

He  died  in  1894  aged  69.

544 Robert Jardine

Constituency : Ashburton 1865-8,  Dumfries  Burghs  1868-74,  Dumfriesshire  1880-92 ( from 1886 Liberal Unionist )

In  the  south  west  of  England  the  Liberals  slipped  back  slightly  with  a  net  loss  of  four  seats, the most  notable  casualty  being  Palmerston's  running  mate,  George  Denman.

Robert  took  Ashburton  from  the  Tories  to  become  the  constituency's  last  ever  MP. His  uncle William  had  been  a  previous  MP.

Robert  was  the  head  of  the  Jardine  Matheson  &  Co  trading  concern  which  operated  in  China  and was  infamously  associated  with  the  opium  trade.  He  was  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Geographical Society.

Robert  returned  to  his  native  Scotland  when  the  seat  was  abolished  in  1868. He  won  Dumfries  Burghs  by  42  votes  over  fellow  Liberal  Ernest  Noel. He  swapped  to  the county  seat  for  the  1874  election  but  wasn't  elected  until  1880. In  1885  he  was  created  a  baronet.

Robert  joined  the  Liberal  Unionists  in  1886  but  held  his  seat.

He  died  in  1905  aged  79.

543 Charles Carington

Constituency : Wycombe  1865-8


Charles  replaced  Martin  Smith  at  Wycombe.


Charles  was  the  son  and  heir  of  Baron  Carington . He  was  educated  at  Eton  and  Cambridge.


Charles  succeeded  his  father  before  his  first  Parliament  was  over   and  his  brother  William  took  over  as  MP. Charles  joined  the  Royal  Horse  Guards  and  became  a  captain.


In  1881  Gladstone  made  him  Captain  of  the  Honourable  Corps  of  Gentlemen-at-Arms.  In  1885  he  went  to  Australia  as  Governor  of  New  South  Wales  serving  till  1890  and  making  a  favourable  impression. In  1892  he  became  Lord  Chamberlain  of  the  Household  and  served  till  1895. At  the  end  of  his  term  he  was  upgraded  to  an  earl.


Charles  was  elected  to  London  County  Council  as  a  Progressive  in  1892  and  served  till  1907. From  1896  until  1921  he  was  chairman  of  the  National  Liberal  Club's  general  committee.


As  a  safe  pair  of  hands  Charles  joined  the  Cabinet  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  in  1905  and  then   Lord  Privy  Seal   from  1911  to  1912. On  his  retirement  he  was  given  the  further  title,  Marquess  of  Lincolnshire.


Charles  suffered  a  family  tragedy  in  1915  when  his  only  son  died  of  injuries  suffered  during  the  battle  of  Ypres.


He  died  in  1928  aged  85. The  Times  described  him  as  "all  his  life  an  advanced  Liberal, even  a  Radical,  in  spite  of  old-fashioned  prejudices  ... To  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact , gentle  and  simple  alike, he  showed  the  same  genial  and  frank  good  nature".

542 Henry Labouchere

Constituency : Windsor 1865-6, Middlesex  1867-8, Northampton  1880-1906

Henry  was  the  other  victorious  Liberal  at  Windsor.

Henry  was  the  nephew  of  the  former  Taunton  MP  of  the  same  name. His  father  was  a  banker. He was  educated  at  Eton  and  Cambridge  where  his  degree  was  withheld  following  accusations  of cheating. His  family  arranged  for  him  to  enter  the  diplomatic  service  and  he  held  minor  posts  in various  capitals  between  1854  and  1864  despite  a  temperamental  unsuitability  for  the  work. When he  wrote  to  Russell  in  1864  refusing  a  posting  to  Buenos  Aires  in  arrogant  terms  he  was  promptly handed  his  cards.

Henry's  election  in  1865  was  overturned  on  petition. He  returned  for  Middlesex  in  a  by-election  in 1867  but  was  narrowly  defeated  in  1868.

In  1867  Henry  and  a  group  of  friends  set  up  a  new  theatre  company,  the  Queen's  Theatre, Long   Acre  which  lasted  for  12  years. One  of  the  actresses,  Henrietta  Hodson  became  his  mistress  for  20  years  until  her  husband's death  allowed  them  to  marry  in  1887.

In  1869  Henry  inherited  a  large  part  of  his  uncle's  fortune. This  allowed  him  to  pursue  a journalistic career  while  outside  Parliament. His  lively  style  gained  him  a  large  following  particularly  after  his reports  from  the  Paris  siege  of  1870.  In  1877  he  started  his  own  weekly  journal  Truth  , a  proto-Private  Eye  which  attracted  many  libel  suits. He  appears  in  the  lyrics  to  Gilbert  and  Sullivan's  His Excellency  after  a  feud  with  W S  Gilbert  developed.

Henry's  views  were  not  always  progressive. He  was  a  strong  opponent  of  female  suffrage. He  was fiercely  anti-Semitic  and  in  1879  had  a  physical  altercation  with  Edward  Levy-Lawson, proprietor  of the  Daily  Telegraph. He  supported  the  idea  of  voting  papers  to  expose  the  illiterate  and  putting  the  expenses  of  the  returning  officer  on  the  rates  even  though  he  thought  it  would  benefit  the  Tories.

Henry  returned  to  Parliament  in  1880  in  tandem  with  Charles  Bradlaugh  at  Northampton. Though  in fact  an  agnostic he  ironically  referred  to  himself  as  "the  Christian  Member  for  Northampton". He was  an  indecorous  Radical. Searle  describes  him  as  "a  lightweight  figure  who  inspired  considerable  mistrust  even  within  the  Liberal  ranks".

In  1884  Henry  tried  to  extend  laws  against  cruelty  to  animals. In  1885  he  successfully  added  the so-called  "Labouchere  Amendment"  to  the  Criminal  Law  Amendment  Act  which  allowed  for  the prosecution  of  homosexual  activity  short  of  sodomy. Historians  have debated  what  Henry's  precise motives  were  but  it  was  later  used  to  prosecute  Oscar  Wilde  who  Henry  knew  and  described  as an  "effeminate  phrasemaker"  ( ironically  Wilde  enjoyed  Henry's  writing ).

Henry  was  an  inveterate  political  intriguer. He  was  not  happy  with  the  Liberal  party  as  currently constituted  and  looked  to  construct  an  alliance  between  English  radicals  and  Irish  Nationalists  to  sideline  the  Whigs. When  the  Home  Rule  split  occurred  in  1886  Henry  chose  to  stick  with  Gladstone  and  worked  tirelessly  for  his  return  to  power.  He  tried  to  persuade  Chamberlain  to  remain  in  the  fold  telling  him  " there  never  was  such  an  opportunity  to  establish  a  Radical  party  and  to  carry  all  before  it ".  He  assured  him  that  the  Radicals  " do  not  love  the  Irish  but  hate  them  and  would  give  them  Home  Rule  on  the  Glastone  or  Canada  pattern  to  get  rid  of  them ".In  1887  he  wrote  despairingly  to  Harcourt  "Parties  just  now  do  not  hang  together by  principle. They  are  gangs  greedy  of  office".

 Henry's  move  to  the  Cabinet  in  1892  was  blocked  by  the  queen  , the  last  time  a sovereign  vetoed  an  individual  minister.  She  had  not  appreciated  his  success  in  reducing  the  estimates  on  royal  parks  and  palaces .Henry  wanted  the  ambassadorship  to  Washington  as  a consolation  prize  but  the  new  Foreign  Secretary Lord  Rosebery  was  another  personal  enemy  and wouldn't  countenance  it. When  Rosebery  became  Prime  Minister  in  1894  and  retreated  on  Home Rule,  Henry  proposed  an  amendment  to  the  Queen's  Speech  Calling  for  the  abolition  of  the  Lords' veto.

In  1897  Henry  was  accused  of  share-rigging  i.e  talking  down  companies  in  Truth   in  order  to reduce  share  prices  for  him  to  purchase.  His  defense  was  largely  regarded  as  inadequate.

Also  in  1897  he  became  chairman  of  the  National  Liberal  Club  after  the  radicals  captured  the executive.

In  1899  Henry  came  up  with  the  satirical  poem  The  Brown  Man's  Burden  in  mockery  of  Kipling's  romantic  imperialism.

When  Campbell-Bannerman  ignored  his  claims  in  1905  he  decided  not  to  contest  his  seat  and  retired  to  Florence.

He  died  in  1912  aged  80.

541 Sir Henry Hoare

Constituency : Windsor  1865-6, Chelsea  1868-74

Sir  Henry  was  one of  the  Liberal  victors  in  Windsor  where  they  took  both  seats  from  the  Tories.

Sir  Henry  was  a  baronet  who  had  succeeded  his  uncle  in  1857. He  was  educated  at  Eton  and Cambridge.  He  went  into  the  family  bank.

Sir  Henry  was  unseated  on  petition  in  1866, the  Liberals  winning  again  at  the  by-election  with different  candidates. Before  he  was  ejected  he  used  his  maiden  speech  to  fire  a  warning  shot   across  the  government's  bows  on  Reform : "There  are  in  this  House  a  majority  of  sixty  or  seventy Members  returned  at  the  last  general  election  to  support  the  late  Prime  Minister  ( i.e. Palmerston ), and  it  might  be  supposed  that  these  hon.  Gentlemen  will  remember  the  injunction, Nimium  ne  crede colori- that  they  will  not  follow  blindly  in  the  wake , or  support  the  propositions  of  the  Minister  of the  day".  He  later  gave  a  guarded  welcome  to  the  1866  Reform  Bill  saying  it  must  be accompanied  by  a  redistribution  of  seats  which  boosted  the  counties'  representation. His  last  speech in  1866  supported  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  church.

He  returned  for  Chelsea  in  1868 by  which  time  he  had  shed  his  allegiance  to  Palmerstonian  ideas  and  was  a  radical  but  lost  in  1874  when  the  intervention  of  a third  Liberal  candidate  allowed  the  sole  Tory  to  be  elected.

Sir  Henry  loved  hunting  and  horse  racing  and  lived  beyond  his  means. In  1883  he  had  to  sell family  treasures  to  remain  solvent  during  the  agricultural  depression.

In  later  years  Sir  Henry  moved  to  France. He  died  in  1894  aged  70.

540 Sir Charles Dilke

Constituency : Wallingford 1865-8

Charles  took  the  Tory  seat  of  Wallingford.

Charles  is  often  referred  as  Wentworth  to  distinguish  him  from  his  illustrious  son  of  the  same  name.

Charles  was  the  son  of  the  proprietor  of  The  Athenaeum . He  was  educated  at  Westminster  and Cambridge  and  involved  in  the  agitation  for  the  First  Reform  Act  in  1832. He  qualified  as  a barrister  but  never  practised.  He  worked  for  his  father  and  was  involved  in  the  Society  of  Arts and  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society. He  worked  with  Joseph  Paxton  on  setting  up  The  Gardeners' Chronicle  and  as  a  result  became  one  of  the  chief  promoters  of  the  Great  Exhibition  in  1851. He declined  both  a  knighthood  and  financial  remuneration  for  his  work.  He  was  one  of  the  five  royal commissioners  for  the  Great  London  Exposition  in  1862  and  did  accept  a  baronetcy  for  this service.

Charles  was  somewhat  alarmed  by  his  son's  radical  views  though  he  was  pleased  with  his  election for  Chelsea  in  1868.

Charles  lost  his  seat  in  1868 . He  felt  that  he  had  not  made  much  impression  in  the  Commons  and  hoped  his  son  would  have  a  greater  impact. The  following  year  was  sent  to  Russia  to  represent  England  in  a  horticultural  exhibition. However  his  health  was  failing  and  he  died  in  Moscow  in  May  1869 . He was  59.

539 Lord Edward Cavendish

Constituency  :  Sussex  East  1865-8,  North  Derbyshire  1880-85, West  Derbyshire  1885-91  ( from  1886  a  Liberal  Unionist )

Edward  took  the  second  seat  at  Sussex  East  from  the  Tories.

Edward  was  another  brother  of  Lord  Hartington. He  would  have  succeeded  him  as  Duke  of Devonshire  had  he  not  died  first. He  was  educated  at  Cambridge. He  was  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  Rifle  Brigade  and  was  serving  in  Canada  at  the  height  of  the  Trent  affair.. For  a  short  time  he  was  private  secretary  to  Earl  Spencer.

Edward's  defeat  in  1868  was  attributed  to  his  support  for  disestablishing   the  Irish  Church. He supported  the  Irish  Land  Act  of  1881 despite  misgivings  about  interfering  with  freedom  of  contract. He  spoke  against  an  amendment  denying  the  extension  of  the  franchise  to  Ireland  in  1884. Despite Edward's   loyalty  Gladstone  never  rewarded  him  with  office.

Edward  followed  his  brother  into  the  Liberal  Unionists  in  1886.

He  died  in  1891  aged  53. His  son  Victor  succeeded  him  in  the  seat  and  eventually  became  Duke of  Devonshire.

538 Lauchlan McKinnon

Constituency : Rye  1865-8

Lauchlan  succeeded  his  father  William   at  Rye.

Lauchlan  was educated  at  Westminster. He  was  a  Commander  in  the  Royal  Navy.

He  died  in  1877  aged  62.

537 Stephen Gaselee

Constituency : Portsmouth  1865-8

Stephen  took  the  second  Portsmouth  seat  from  the  Tories.

Stephen  was  the  son  of  a  judge. He  was  educated  at  Winchester  and  Oxford.  He  became  a barrister. He  contested  Portsmouth  for  the  first  time  in  a  by-election  in  1850.

Stephen  was  a  director  of  the  London  and  South  Western  Railway. He  instituted  a  scholarship  at  Portsmouth  Grammar  School.

Stephen  was  antagonistic  towards  Mill  and  voted  with  Disraeli  on  passing  the  fine  to  settle  the  matter. He  supported  household  suffrage  and  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  debates  around  the  Second  Reform  Act. He  opposed  the  idea  of  municipal  housing.

Stephen  was  defeated  in  1868.

He  died  in  1883  aged  76.

536 William Stone

Constituency : Portsmouth  1865-74

William  replaced  Francis  Baring  at  Portsmouth.

William  was  educated  at  Harrow  and  Cambridge. He  was  a  merchant  with  the  East  India  Company  and  the  director  of  a  bank.

Unsurprisingly, most  of  William's  interventions  were  on  naval  matters  including  calling  for  extra  funding  for  unemployment  relief   during  a  depression  in  1869.

William  was  defeated  in  1974.

He  died  in  1896  aged  62.

535 Charles Waring

Constituency : Poole  1865-8, 1874

Charles's  victory  gave  the  Liberals  both  Poole  seats.

Charles  was  a  railway  engineer . His  firm  worked  extensively  in  Europe  and  South  America.

Charles  was  defeated  in  1868  when  the  seat  was  reduced  to  just  one  member. He  was  re-elected  in  1874  but  disbarred  on  petition.

He  died  in  1887  aged  60.

534 Walter Pelham

Constituency  : Lewes  1865-74

Walter  replaced  John  Blencowe  at  Lewes.

Walter  was  the  son  and  heir  of  the  Earl  of  Chichester. He  was  educated  at  Harrow  and
Cambridge.

The  Tories  took  the  seat  in  1874  and  held  it  until  the  arrival  of  the  current  incumbent  Norman  Baker.

Walter  became  Earl  in  1886.

He  died  in  1902  aged  63.

533 Charles Martin

Constituency : Newport ( Isle  of  Wight ) 1841-52, West  Kent  1857-9 , Newport ( Isle  of  Wight )  1865-70

Charles  took  one  of  the  two  Newport  seats  back  from  the  Tories.

Charles  was  local  gentry, educated  at  Eton  and  Oxford  and  an  antiquarian. He  first  stood  for  the seat  in  1837. He  lost  the  seat  in  1852  and  tried  at  Maidstone  in  1853. He  came  back  for  West Kent  in  a  by-election  in  1857  but  lost  in  1859.  His  son  Philip  was  MP  for  Rochester. He  owned   Leeds  Castle  in  Kent.

Charles  held  the  seat  in  1868  when  it  was  reduced  to  one  member.

He  died  in  1870  aged  69.

532 Sir John Simeon

Constituency : Isle  of  Wight  1847-51, 1865-70

John  replaced  Charles  Clifford  on  the  Isle  of  Wight.

John  was   a  baronet  from  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  a  local  landowner. He  was  educated  at  Oxford.  He  joined  the navy. In  1848  he  joined  the  management  committee  of  the  Canterbury  Association  with  the  aim  of starting  an  Anglican  community  in  New  Zealand. He  gave  it  some  financial  support. He  opposed Jewish  emancipation. In  1851  he resigned  his  seat   and  his  position  in  the  C.A. as  a  result  of converting  to  Catholicism.

At  the  time  of  his  re-election  in  1865  John  was  the  only  Catholic  member  for  an  English constituency.

In  1870  John  was  seriously  ill  but  went  to  the  Commons  to  speak  against  the  rabidly  anti-Catholic Charles  Newdegate's   motion  for  the  state  inspection  of  convents. He  burst  a  blood  vessel  in  his throat  as  a  result. He  set  out  for  Switzerland   to  recuperate  but  died  en  route  aged  55.

531 Robert Hurst

Constituency : Horsham  1865-8, 1869-74,  1875-6

Robert  took  Horsham , his  father's  old  seat, from  the  Tories  by  2  votes.

Robert  was  educated  at  Westminster  and  Cambridge  and  became  a  barrister.  He  was  Recorder for Hastings  and  Rye. Most  of  his  parliamentary  interventions  were  on criminal  law  matters.

Robert  had  to  pay  off   a  lot  of  family  debts.

Robert  was  defeated  in  1868  but  his  Tory  opponent  chose  not  to  defend  himself  against  a  petition so  Robert  was  declared  re-elected.

Robert  was  fairly  defeated  in  1874  but  his  opponent  William  Vesey-Fitzgerald   ( who  had  bought his  father's  estate )  had  to  fight  a  by-election  in  1875  when  appointed  a  Charity  Commissioner. Robert  won  that  contest  but  when  a petition  was  launched  against  that  result  he'd  had  enough  and let  another  Liberal, James  Brown, take the  seat.

He  died  in  1905  aged  84.

530 Henry Cowper

Constituency : Hertfordshire  1865-85

Henry  restored  the  Liberals  to  one  of  the  three  Hertfordshire  seats  after  a  by-election  defeat  in  1864.

Henry  was  a  younger  son  of  Earl  Cowper. He  was  a notable  wit. He  was  described  by  Wilfrid   Blunt  as  representing  "the  Whig  tradition  in  its  most  attractive  form , that  of  the  cultured  politician  of a  hundred  years  ago, partly  humane, partly  sceptical, full  of  dignity  and  profoundly  immoral".

He  died  in  1887  aged  51.

529 Arthur Otway

Constituency : Stafford  1852-7, Chatham 1865-74, Rochester  1878-85

Sir  Arthur  took  Chatham  from  the  Tories.

Arthur  was  the  son  of  an  admiral  and  baronet. He  was  born  in  Scotland  but  brought  up  near Brighton. He  was  educated  at  Sandhurst. He  had  an  army  career  from  1839  to  1846  serving  in Australia  and  India. He  then  trained  as  a  barrister.  Having  served  in  India  he  saw  the  need  for reform  in  is  governance  and  joined  with  John  Bright  in  the  India  Reform  Society  in  the  1850s. He was  elected  for  Stafford  in  1852.  Nearly  all  of  his  interventions  in  his  first  term  as  an  MP concerned  India.

In  1868  Gladstone  appointed  Arthur  as  Under-Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs  serving  under Lord  Clarendon. He  resigned  in  1871  over  the  government's  Russian  policy.

Arthur  was  defeated  in  1874  but  returned  in  a  by-election  for  the  neighbouring  seat  of  Rochester  in  1878.  In  1881  he  succeeded  his  brother  to  become a  baronet. In  1883  he  became  Deputy Speaker  and  Chairman  of  Ways  and  Means  at  a  difficult  time  with  the  Irish  members  pursuing   their  obstructive  tactics. He  stood  down  in  1885.

He  died  in  1912  aged  89.

528 Henry Fawcett

Constituency : Brighton  1865-74,  Hackney  1874-84

Henry's  victory  reversed  a  by-election   ( which  he  had  contested ) defeat  of  1864.

Henry  was  the  second  most  famous  intellectual  to  enter  Parliament  in  the  1865  election. He  was educated  at  King's  College  School  and  Cambridge  and  became  a  fellow  there. In  1858  he  was blinded  by  his  father  in  a  shooting  accident  but  continued  in  his  studies. He  was  a  noted  supporter of  Darwin's   theories. In  1863  he  published  his  Manual  of  Political  Economy  and  became Professor  of  Political Economy  at  Cambridge  that  same  year. His  subsequent  books  included  The Economic  Position  of the  British  Labourer  and  Labour  and  Wages. He  was  a  populariser  rather  than  a  new  thinker  and  clung  to  old  ideas  like  the  classical  wage  fund  doctrine  despite  his  sympathies  for  the  trade  union  movement.

Henry  had  contested,  or  sought  selection  in,  quite  a  few  seats  before  being  returned  at  Brighton. Henry  was  a   supporter of  women's  suffrage  and  through  that  met  Elizabeth  Garrett  to  whom  he  made  a  rejected  marriage proposal  in  1865. He  then  turned  to  her  younger  sister  Millicent , the  secretary  of  the  London Society  for  Women's  Suffrage, who  did  accept  his  proposal. She effectively  became  his  secretary  although  he  encouraged  her  own  writings.

Henry  was  a  Benthamite  and  secularist,  an  associate  of  Mill  and  Peter  Taylor  in  Parliament. He later  found  that  his  support  for  female  emancipation  compromised  his  support  in  the  trade  union movement  as  the  TUC  feared  cheap  female  labour.

Henry  was  a  meritocrat  and  at  Cambridge  was  a  member  of  a  dining  group  the  Republican  Club. This  might  have  contributed  to  his  eventual  defeat  when  it  came  to  light  in  1871.

Henry  stuck  to  ideas  of  laissez-faire  and  self-reliance  despite  his  own  experience  of  mischance  but  made  an  exception  for  elementary  education. He  had  little  religious  conviction  and  disliked  both  Anglican  elitism  and  Nonconformist  sectarianism. By  the  end  of  the  1860s  he  had  gathered  together  his  own  little  group  of  radicals  the  "Fawcettites"  including  Charles  Dilke, Auberon  Herbert, Walter  Morrison  and  Edmund  Fitzmaurice. He  was  disappointed  by  the  caution  ( from  a  Radical  point  of  view ) of  Gladstone's  administration  and  criticised  it  from  the  backbenches  and  in  the  Fortnightly  Review.  He  lost  the  whip  in  1871  and  led  a  group  of  Liberals  to  defeat  the  Irish  University  Bill  in  1873 because  he  felt  Gladstone  had  compromised  too  much  to  appease  religious  groups. He  made  a  telling  speech  and  was  then  attacked  as  a  fanatic  in  Hartington's  speech. Gladstone  felt  this  seriously  weakened  the  government  in  the  run-up  to the  1874  election.

Henry  was  defeated  in  1874  but  immediately  nominated  and  returned  for  Hackney. He  was  able  to  repair  relations  with  Gladstone  through  support  for  the  anti-Turkish  campaign. He  also  became  involved  in  the  cause  of  effective  administration  of  India  even  though  he had  never  visited  the  country  and  displayed  little knowledge  of  its  culture  or  history. He  was  also  a  strong  supporter  of  proportional  representation.

In  1880  Gladstone  made  Henry  Postmaster-General  in  line  with  Gladstone's  policy  of  giving  prominent  radicals  junior  office  to  keep  them  quiet. He  encouraged  saving  through  the  Post  Office Savings  Bank  by  introducing  the  penny  saving  stamp.  He  allowed  savers  to  convert to  government stock. He  also  introduced  parcel  post  and  postal  orders. He  also  used  his  position  to  start  employing  female  medical  officers. He  was  not  in  the  Cabinet  because  it  was  felt  his  reliance  on  secretaries  would  breach  cabinet  confidentiality.He  advocated  a  royal  commission  on  the  blind  but  it  wasn't  established  until  after  his  death.

Henry  clashed  with  Gladstone  over  a  female  suffrage  amendment  to  the  1884 Reform  Act which  the latter  opposed. Henry  abstained  despite  being  a  government  minister. Gladstone  wrote  that  he regarded  this  as  tantamount  to  resignation  but  he  relented  to  avoid  bad  publicity.

He  died  of  pleurisy , after  an  earlier  bout  of  diphtheria,  in  1884  aged  51. He  was  greatly  mourned, even  by  the  queen, his  triumph   over  disability  having  made  him  a  popular  national  figure.

527 Bernhard Samuelson

Constituency : Banbury  1859, 1865-95

Bernhard  reclaimed  the  seat  he  had  briefly  won  at  a  by-election  prior  to  the  1859  election. He  replaced  fellow  Liberal ( with  Tory  support )  Sir  Charles  Douglas.

Bernhard  was  born  in  Hamburg  to  a  merchant  who  settled  in  Hull. He  was  in  the  business  of  exporting  engineering  machinery. In  1848  he  bought  a  business  selling  agricultural  equipment  operating  from  Banbury. He  was  also  responsible  for  building  blast  furnaces  in  Middlesbrough  and  Newport. He  helped  to  develop  the  former  town  and  was  regarded  as  a  good  employer.

In  1865  Bernhard's  Tory  opponent  Charles  Bell  tried  to  overturn  the  result  on  the  grounds  that  Bernhard  was  an  alien  but  was  unsuccessful  because  Bernhard's  grandfather  had  been  born  in  London. Bernhard  was  an  advanced  Liberal. In  1867  he  thought  it  disreputable  to  oppose  Disraeli's Reform  Bill  after  he  had  made  concessions.

Bernhard  brought  his  technical  knowledge  to  bear  in  committees  on  scientific  instruction, railways  and  patents  and  was  a  member  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  1878  Paris  Exhibition. He  was  a  great  supporter  of  technical  education  and  founded  a  technical  institute  in  Banbury  in  1884. He  was  made  a  baronet  in  the  same  year.

Bernhard  stood  down  in  1895.

He  died  in  1905  aged  84.

526 Nathan Rothschild

Constituency : Aylesbury  1865-85

In  the  south  east  there  was  a  lot  of  movement  with  19  seats  changing  parties  and  the  Liberals finishing  one  up  on  their  rivals.

There  wasn't  a  contest  at  Aylesbury  where  Nathan  had  a  pact  with  the  local  Tories  to  the  displeasure  of  some  local  Liberals  particularly  his  rival  for  the  nomination  Frederick  Calvert  who  was  less  forthright  about  opposing  church  rates. He  replaced  Sir  Thomas  Bernard.

Nathan  was  the  son  of  Lionel, MP  for  the  City  of  London. He  was  educated  at  Cambridge  where  he  became  friendly  with  the  future  Edward VII. He  became  a  partner  in  the  London  branch  of  the  family  bank. He  was  a   philanthropist  who  founded  the  Four  Per  Cent  Industrial  Dwellings  Company  to  improve  housing  for  the  Jews  of  Spitalfields  and  Whitechapel. He  was  also  ironically  a  trustee  of  the  London  Mosque  Fund.

Nathan  was  involved  in  the  financing  of  the  Suez  Canal  which  brought  him  closer  to  Disraeli  at  a  time  when  he  was  losing  confidence  in  Gladstone. over  the  Turkish  question. In  1876  he  became  a  baronet  on  the  death  of  his  uncle.

Gladstone  made  Nathan  a  peer  in  1885  when  Aylesbury  was  reduced  to  just  one  member. He  was  the  first  unconverted  Jew  to  sit  in  the  Lords. It  has  been  interpreted  as  a  reward  for  his  help  in  stabilising  Egyptian  finances  for  the  government. In  1886  he  went  with  the  rest  of  his  family  into  the  Liberal  Unionists.

Nathan  helped  Cecil  Rhodes  in  developing  the  British  South  Africa  Company  and  the  de  Beers  diamond  mining  venture  and  was  a  trustee  of  his  estate  after  1902. He  set  up  the  Rhodes  Scholarship  scheme  at  Oxford. He  refused  loans  to  Russia  until  he  saw  some  evidence  of  a  lessening  of  persecution  of  the  Jews.

In  1909  Nathan  was  a  prominent  opponent ( in  his  only  Lords  speech ) of  the  People's  Budget  and  was  singled  out  by  Lloyd  George  for  derision  in  a  speech  at  Holborn. He  was  also  one  of  the  Die-hards  recommending  opposition  to  the  Parliament  Act. Despite  this  Lloyd  George  called  him  into  the  Treasury  for  advice  on  the  outbreak  of  World  War  One  and  was  told  "Tax  the  rich  and  tax  them  heavily".

He  died  the  following  year  after  an  operation  aged  74.

525 John Stuart Mill

Constituency : Westminster  1865-8

There  was  no  doubt  which  was  the  most  famous  individual  contest  of  the  1865  election. As  noted  in  the  previous  post  the  Radicals  of  Westminster  were  not  happy  with  the  candidature  of  Robert  Grosvenor  to  replace  George  de  Lacey  Evans  and  eventually  alighted  on  John  , the  leading  self-designated  Philosophic  Radical ,as  an  alternative. This  eventually  led  to  the  withdrawal   of  the  second  Liberal  member,  John  Shelley, allowing  John  and  Grosvenor  to  run  in  tandem. John  made  a  number  of  caveats  so  as  not  to  soil  his  hands  with  the  dirty  business  of  politics  for  instance  no  canvassing, spending  money  or  giving  pledges,  but  was  elected  anyway. He  disliked  Palmerston  and  deplored  that  the  Liberal  members  were  rallied  under  his  banner. On  the  other  hand  he  refused  to  join  the  Reform  League  saying  "I  think  that  I  can  probably  do  more  good  as  an  isolated  thinker,  forming  and  expressing  my  opinions  independently".

So  who  was  this  guy ? John  was  born  in  London  to  a  Scottish  philosopher  and  economist  James  Mill, a  keen  adherent  of  the  utilitarianism  of  Jeremy  Bentham. Bentham  and  Francis  Place  were  heavily  involved  in  young  John's  education  with  the  explicit  aim  of  keeping  the  flame  alive  when  they  had  passed  on. As  a  result  he  became  a  child  prodigy  reading  classics  at  a  ridiculously  early  age. This  eventually  took  a  toll  on  his  mental  health  and  he  suffered  a  nervous  breakdown  at  20 from  which  he  eventually  recovered.

As  a  Nonconformist  ( actually  more  of  an  atheist ) John  could  not  go  to  Oxford  or  Cambridge and  instead  followed  his  father into the  East  India  Company in  1823. In  1851 he  married  Harriet  Taylor, an  intelligent  woman  in  her  own  right and  an  acknowledged  influence  on  his  work. That  year  his  progressive  views  on  Ireland  prompted  the  Irish  Tenants League  to  invite  him  to  stand  for  them  at  the  next  election  but  he  declined  on  the  grounds  that  he  was  a  civil  servant.

In  1848  he  published  Principles  of  Political  Economy  which  broke  with  strict  Ricardian  ideas  on  the  distribution  of  wealth  and  upheld the  legitimacy  of  social  reform.

In  1859  he  published  his  most  famous  work  On  Liberty , the  Bible  for  liberal  political  thought  to this  day. John  sought  to  define  the  ideal  relationship  of  government  to  the  individual  citizen. It  was grounded  in  Utilitarianism;  people  should  be  free  to  take  harmful  actions  provided  they  did  not  do  harm  to  others. Free  speech  was  a  necessity  for  intellectual  and  social  progress; giving  offence  did  not  constitute  "harm".  "Social  liberty" was  to  do  with  "the  nature and  limits  of  the  power  which  can  be  legitimately  exercised  by  society  over  the  individual". It  was  protected  by  certain  inalienable  rights  and  constitutional  checks. Government  should  only  be  concerned  with  the  protection  of  others  from  individual  action : "Over  himself, over  his  own  body  and  mind, the  individual  is  sovereign".  More  controversially  John  believed  that  these  principles  only  applied  to  "civilised"  societies  "Despotism  is  a  legitimate  mode  of  government  in  dealing  with  barbarians , provided  the  end  be  their  improvement, and  the  means  justified  by  actually  effecting  that  end". Censorship  was  anathema ,"the  undertaking  to  decide  that  question  for  others, without  allowing  them to  hear  what  can  be  said  on  the  contrary  side. And  I  denounce  and  reprobate  this  pretention  not  the  less  if  it  is  put  forth  on  the  side  of  my  most  solemn  convictions".

Utilitarianism,  published  in  1863, refines  Bentham's  theories  by  introducing  a  hierarchy  of  pleasures  with  intellectual  and  moral  pleasures  being  of  a  higher  order  than  physical  pleasures.Accordingly  philanthropy  is  of  a  higher  order  than  self-aggrandisement.

 John's  most  famous  Parliamentary  contribution  was  the  attempt  to  attach  a  female  suffrage amendment  to  the  Second  Reform  Act  in  1867. John  shared  some  of  Robert  Lowe's  fears  that  intelligence  and  merit  could  be  swamped  by  naked  class  interest  if  the  franchise  were  extended  too  widely  but  in  Considerations  On  Representative  Government  he  saw  the  solution  in  the  form  of  a  complex  construction  of  proportional  representation  and  plural  voting. Despite  this  he  supported  the  formation  of  labour  unions  and  farm  co-operatives. He  was  also  the  leading  campaigner  against  Governor  Eyre's  actions   in  Jamaica  forming  a  committee  to  try  and  get  him  prosecuted. When  Gladstone  agreed  to  reimburse  Eyre's  expenses  in  1868  John  wrote  "After  this  I  shall  henceforth  wish  for  a  Tory  government". Despite  this  Gladstone  looked  back  on  his  parliamentary  career  fondly  "I  rejoiced  at  his  advent  and  deplored  his  disappearance. He  did  us  all  good."

Disraeli  called  him  "the  finishing  governess"  and  Lowe  said  he  was  " a  little  too  clever  for  us  in  the House. He  reasons  with  a  degree  of  closeness  and  refinement  that  some  of  us, at  least, are  not quite accustomed  to ". John  took  some  account  of  these  criticisms  although  he  expressed  irritation  at  "the tiresome  labour  of  chipping  off  little  bits  of  one's  thoughts ,  of  a  size  to  be  swallowed  by  a  set  of diminutive  practical  politicians incapable  of  digesting  them".

John  thought  that  empire  "added  to  the  moral  influence  and  weight  in  the  councils  of  the  world, of  the  Power  which,  of  all  in  existence, best  understands  liberty".

In  1868  he  was  narrowly  forced  into  third  place  after  the  high  spending  Tory  WH  Smith  topped the  poll. John  had  spent  much  of  the  campaign  supporting  other  Radical  candidates, some  of  them opposing  sitting  Liberals. A  petition  against  Smith  was  unsuccessful  and  John  rejected  offers  of  other seats. One  of  Mill's  biographers  Biagini  pithily  observes " It  was  fitting  for  an  age  of  increasing consumerism  that  people  preferred  the  man  who  sold  books  to  the  one  who  wrote  them". John  himself  was  not  disheartened  saying  "It  is  doubtful  whether  there  remains  anything  of  the  first    importance  which  I  could  more  effectively  help  forward  by  being  in  Parliament".

In  1869  he  published  his  thoughts  on  women's  rights  in  The  Subjection  of  Women. He  saw oppression  of  women  as  a  relic  of  ancient  times  that  hindered  human  progress.

John  Vincent  wrote  that  John  "based  a  pyramid  of  analysis  on  a  pinpoint  of  information ".

In  his  last  years  John  formed  the  Land  Tenure  Reform  Association  advocating  heavy  taxation  of  unearned  increments  in  land  values  and  co-operative  agriculture, ideas  which  were  later  taken  up  by  Lloyd  George.

He  died  in  France  in  1873  aged  66.