Constituency : Lancashire North 1857-68, Radnor 1869-80, NE Lancashire 1880-5, Rossendale 1885- 92
Spencer is one of the more intriguing politicians of the period, a party leader who genuinely didn't want to be Prime Minister. Spencer was the nephew of the childless Duke of Devonshire and hence his eventual heir. He was brought up and privately educated at Holker Hall in Lancashire before going to Cambridge and as a result had a plain unpretentious air lacking some social graces. In 1858 his father's elevation to the dukedom made him Marquess of Hartington and he was generally known by that name until his own succession in 1891. Spencer was earmarked for a high place in Whig politics early on when he accompanied his cousin Lord Granville to the coronation of Tsar Alexander II in 1856. In 1857 his father placed him in the seat of Lancashire North where he was elected unopposed at the age of 24.
Spencer first made his mark in the Commons when he was selected to move the amendment to the Queen's Speech in 1859 at the Willis's Tea Room meeting which established the Liberal Party. Spencer's speech was a success and the Derby government fell to Palmerston's new coalition of forces. Spencer was a great admirer of Palmerston and never really deviated from his policies of moderate domestic reform and enhancing national prestige abroad. Like Palmerston he was admired on both sides of the House. In 1861 he welcomed Gladstone's budget and called for Palmerston to dissolve if they were not accepted.
Spencer also travelled in the early years of the government ; in 1862 he went to the USA where he met President Lincoln though this did not affect his general support for the South. He was ever mindful of the cotton interests of his native Lancashire.
In 1863 Palmerston confirmed his appreciation of the young aristocrat by appointing Spencer to a post at the Admiralty but almost immediately switched him to Under-Secretary of State for War. As his senior Earl De Grey was in the Lords he was the departmental spokesman in the Commons and managed to impress them with his mastery of detail. He also had a good relationship with the queen's cousin the Duke of Cambridge who was Commander-in-chief.
Spencer retained his post after Palmerston's death but in 1866 was promoted to Secretary by Russell becoming the youngest Cabinet member for many years. Although from a similar background He did not admire Russell or share his obsession with Parliamentary Reform and his speech on the 1866 Bill was halting and lacklustre.
In 1868 his seat was contested for the first time and he lost which was widely attributed to anti-Irish feeling caused by Fenian outrages in Lancashire and the Liberal commitment to disestablish the Irish Church. A safe seat was soon found for him at Radnor and on his return in 1869 he joined the government as Postmaster-General. This was actually a demotion but Gladstone soon rectified matters by making him Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1870, a post he accepted with reluctance and tried to relinquish in 1873. In 1874 he came out firmly against Home Rule.
The following year Spencer became leader of the Liberal party on Gladstone's retirement. He did not want to be seen as the candidate of the right but up against W E Forster this was inevitable. However Forster had forfeited much of his Nonconformist support by his 1870 Education Bill and Spencer's mistress Louise , Duchess of Manchester worked on him to stand down. Spencer's leadership has been much criticised for lack of vigour against the resurgent Tories. He didn't enjoy speaking and had a drawling, laconic delivery which suggested a lack of passion and his personal relations with Disraeli were suspiciously good. Like Palmerston again he was a good reader of the mood of the House. He also acquired the Palmerstonian habit of taking naps ( or at least pretending to ) on the front bench which was less excusable in a much younger man. He listened to and adapted to public opinion rather than trying to shape it. On the other hand he was a much more approachable party manager than Gladstone and had a greater concern to maintain party unity.
Spencer also had a good relationship with the Court, assuring Queen Victoria that he was only opposing the Royal Titles Bill to forestall a more Radical response. When Gladstone re-emerged over the Bulgarian horrors Spencer tried to steer a middle course while letting it be known that Gladstone could resume the leadership if he chose. He was only mildly critical of the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 but more effective in over Afghanistan.
Spencer was not insensitive to the shifting tides of opinion and expressed his support for a further franchise extension in 1877. On the other hand he brusquely declined an invitation to address the National Liberal Federation the following year divining Chamberlain's intentions to radicalise the party.
Spencer was not happy representing a Welsh seat and in 1880 he chose to contest North East Lancashire which he wrested from the Tories in the Liberal victory. Disraeli advised the Queen to send for Spencer who was much more palatable to her than Gladstone anyway. Spencer sounded out whether Gladstone would serve under him and when the answer was negative he and Granville told Victoria that there was no alternative to Gladstone.
Gladstone offered Spencer a choice of posts and he took Secretary of State for India. It was not a good choice as he became frustrated at the impossibility of one man mastering all the detail. He did however manage to reverse Disraeli's policy in Afghanistan. At the same time Ireland remained a concern. He strongly supported Forster in the Commons.He reluctantly made a speech in favour of Gladstone's Compensation for Disturbance Bill and persuaded him to include fixity of tenure in his Second Land Act.
In 1882 he returned to his old post of Secretary for War but his time there was overshadowed by the murder of his brother Frederick in Ireland that year. Frederick had been a much greater admirer of Gladstone than his brother and a vital conduit between the two who grew much further apart after his death. Spencer was not unambitious but saw that Gladstone was holding the Whigs and Radicals together and whoever put him out would lose the subsequent contest. In 1883 he started to express a desire to retire. However he enjoyed a strong body of support in the party who were becoming alienated from Gladstone and the policy spasms and the Radicals were willing to back him as an interim leader until his succession after which they would be in control. He was also a close friend of Lord Rosebery. In 1885 he made a strong anti-Radical speech in his constituency and became locked in a fierce rivalry with Chamberlain for the Liberal succession which spilled over into the campaign.
Spencer chose General Gordon for the Sudan expedition and had to threaten to resign to get Gladstone to agree to the relief expedition. He would have sent a new expedition in 1885 if it had not been for an apparent new threat from Russia.
Spencer was dismayed by Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule but agreed that he had to be allowed to present his proposals to Parliament. In 1886 he voted against the Liberal amendment turning Salisbury's government to preserve his freedom of action but disavowed any desire to lead an opposition grouping. He was now centre stage. He declined Gladstone's offer of office but rebuffed Churchill's attempt to convert him saying that would aid Chamberlain's takeover of the Liberal Party.
When the proposals came out Chamberlain himself opposed them and the two men came together in an unlikely alliance agreeing that a reorganised system of county councils and a sweeping measure of land purchase could solve the Irish problem without weakening imperial ties. Both men also expected that a defeat on Home Rule would be the end of Gladstone and Liberal reunion could quickly follow. Spencer made a great speech on the Second Reading and 92 Liberals followed him into the opposition lobbies to defeat the measure.
Contrary to expectations Gladstone dissolved and another election took place. A pact between Spencer's followers to be known as Liberal Unionists and the Tories was quickly drawn up and was electorally successful with most of them getting back in and holding the balance of power. Salisbury then offered Spencer his second chance of the premiership as leader of a Unionist coalition government but Spencer was still not prepared to countenance a permanent break from the Liberal party and sat on the opposition front bench with Gladstone to the latter's mounting irritation. However he did give Salisbury assurances of general support. He gave the same answer in 1887 to Salisbury's approach after the resignation of Randolph Churchill.
Despite Spencer's own desire for reunion the Liberal Unionists were constituted as a separate organisation in August 1886 and he was elected their leader without a contest. The tide was going the other way and in 1887 he was denounced as a deserter by Granville. He rebuffed the schemes of Churchill and Chamberlain to set up a new National party forcing the former into a ridiculous approach to Gladstone. Gladstone's pertinacity frustrated his hopes and in 1891 he felt obliged to renounce his desire for reunion when Gladstone accepted the Newcastle Programme.
That year he finally became Duke of Devonshire and went to the Lords where he led the resistance to Gladstone's Second Home Rule Bill couching Ulster resistance in Whig terms. He was not implacably hostile to the Liberal government and managed to persuade the Upper House to let the Parish Councils Bill through. When his friend Rosebery succeeded Gladstone hopes of a reunion revived although Chamberlain's antagonistic behaviour in the Commons made it unlikely. Then came Harcourt's death duties which Spencer took as a personal affront ( maybe it was ) although ironically Salisbury persuaded him not to oppose them in the Lords for fear of reviving the Rosebery government.
Salisbury was vindicated by the 1895 election result which gave the Conservatives an independent majority. He offered the Liberal Unionists a share in the government which Spencer now accepted rather than be in the wilderness with an irrelevant rump. He became Lord President of the Council with special responsibilities for education. He was the main architect of the 1902 Education Act the prime ( some would say only) domestic achievement of the Salisbury government although Balfour got the credit as its Commons pilot. He was offended not to be consulted when the King sent for Balfour in succession to Salisbury but he really had little cause for complaint.
As a committed Free Trader, Spencer decisively broke with Chamberlain over Tariff Reform.
Chamberlain's bag man Jesse Collings found himself being physically evicted from Chatsworth when he tried to persuade the Duke of its merits. Balfour initially persuaded Spencer not to resign from the Cabinet when Chamberlain did but then lost him after making a speech in favour of retaliatory tariffs in October 1904. By this time the majority of Liberal Unionists were Chamberlain's men so Spencer resigned the presidency and went to sit on the crossbenches with Rosebery. He accepted the presidency of the Free Food League , briefly making common cause with Winston Churchill.
Spencer took no part in the 1906 election campaign. In 1907 he defended his own Act against Birrell's proposals helping to ensure their defeat in the Lords but he was not out for a confrontation and was quick to support the emasculated proposals. He could see trouble brewing and supported Lord Newton's moderate Lords reform plans.
Spencer was socially popular despite the frequent lapses in manners and pursued his passion for horseracing though it has been suggested he exaggerated this to evince a gentlemanly disdain for conviction politics
He did not live to see the great confrontation with Asquith's government for now his health gave way and he died in Cannes in 1908 aged 74. He had no direct heirs for again like Palmerston he had waited until his mistress became a widow and then married her. He is usually thought of as "the last of the Whigs".
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