The Eclipse of a Great Power

Modern Britain 1870-1992

Keith Robbins

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138179493
• eBook ISBN: 9781317894971
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

Covers both the expansion and the decline of the British Empire and the reasons behind this sudden eclipse in power.

PART ONE

1870–1901

FRAMEWORK OF EVENTS 1870–1901

1870	Order in Council reforms Civil Service (except Foreign Office): War Office Act – Commander-in-Chief subordinated to Secretary of State: Franco-Prussian War (July-Sept), followed by siege of Paris: Irish Land Act: W. E. Forster’s Education Act: Married Women’s Property Act. Papal infallibility decree: W. G. Grace and his brothers found Gloucestershire Cricket Club.
1871	Paris capitulates and armistice with Prussia signed (Jan): London conference abrogates Black Sea clauses of 1856 treaty: Trade Union Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act – trade unions legalized and their funds protected as Friendly Societies, picketing again illegal: ‘Parliamentary committee’ of TUC formed. University Tests Act – allows students to enter Oxford and Cambridge without religious tests: Abolition of ‘purchase’ in British Army (July): English FA Cup competition established: Bank holidays introduced in England and Wales.
1872	National Agricultural Labourers Union (May): Ballot Act – voting by secret ballot and abolition of public nomination (July): Geneva arbitration verdict on the Alabama case: Murder of Lord Mayo, Viceroy of India.
1873	Gladstone resigns after defeat of Irish University Bill (Mar) – resumes office when Disraeli refuses to form a minority administration: Judicature Act brings together (England and Wales) the Courts of Common Law, Chancery, Admiralty, Probate and the Divorce Court into one Supreme Court of Judicature, divided into the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal: Ashanti War – expedition from coastal settlements against Kumasi. Foundation of Girton College Cambridge.
1874	Kumasi falls (Feb) and first Ashanti War ends: Fiji islands annexed (Oct): General Election (Feb): New Cons. gvt appoints Royal Commission on the labour laws: Factory Act reduces working week to 56½ hours (Aug). Public Worship Act attempts to curb ritualism in the Church of England.
1875	Gladstone resigns Liberal leadership in the Commons (Jan) – Lord Hartington replaces him (Feb): Public Health Act – brings order and comprehensiveness to the duties of local authorities in sanitation and public health generally: Artisans’ Dwellings Act: Food and Drugs Act: Plimsoll’s Merchant Shipping Act: Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act – legalizes peaceful picketing: Employers and Workmen Act – penalty for breach of contract limited to payment of civil damages: Gvt purchase of Suez Canal Co. shares. Trial by Jury begins Gilbert and Sullivan partnership.
1876	Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India: Gladstone’s pamphlet on The Bulgarian Horrors …: Disraeli becomes earl of Beaconsfield. Hans Richter conducts concerts in London: Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone.
1877	Failure of Constantinople conference on reforming Ottoman Empire (Jan): London protocol on Turkish reforms (Mar) – Sultan rejects (Apr): Russia declares war on Ottoman Turkey (Apr): Annexation of Transvaal (Apr): Prisons Act – all local prisons brought under control of the Home Office: National Liberal Federation formed (Apr). All-England Lawn Tennis Championship first played at Wimbledon.
1878	Fleet sent to Constantinople. Derby (Foreign Secretary) resigns but later withdraws when fleet is recalled: Treaty of San Stefano between Russia and Turkey (Mar) – British gvt calls out reserves and sends Indian troops to Malta. Derby resigns and is succeeded by Salisbury (Apr): Britain administers Cyprus – Congress and Treaty of Berlin (June-July): Afghan War (Nov-May 1879). W. Booth founds Salvation Army: Roman Catholic hierarchy restored in Scotland: Convention for formation of a Universal Postal Union: Gilchrist and Thomas perfect their process for steel manufacture: Swan’s carbon filament lamp.
1879	Zulu War – British defeat at Isandhlwana (Jan) – peace (Sept): Further fighting in Afghanistan (Sept-Oct): Austro-German Dual Alliance signed: Irish Land League formed: Gladstone’s electoral campaign in Midlothian (Nov-Dec): Transvaal republic proclaimed (Dec). Edison perfects electric light.
1880	General Election (April) – Liberal victory: The Bradlaugh affair (May-June): Employers Liability Act – compensation for workmen if negligence by employer established for industrial injuries: ‘Boycotting’ begins in Ireland: Transvaal declares independence – war (Oct). First test match between England and Australia.
1881	British defeats at Laing’s Nek and Majuba Hill (Jan-Feb), Pretoria Convention (Apr) concedes independence to the two Afrikaner states subject to the suzerainty of the British Crown: Irish MPS obstruct Commons business (Jan-Feb), Habeas Corpus suspended in Ireland: Irish Land Act (Aug): imprisonment of Parnell (Oct): Beaconsfield dies (Apr), Salisbury leads Tories in Lords and Northcote in Commons: Rising of Arabi Pasha in Egypt (Sept). Revised version of the New Testament published.
1882	‘Kilmainham treaty’ – agreement between Gladstone and Parnell – and murders in Phoenix Park, Dublin (May): Arabi Pasha leads anti-foreign riots in Alexandria (June) – navy bombards Alexandria (July) – Bright resigns from Cabinet – Egyptians defeated at Tel-el-Kebir (Sept) – followed by occupation of Egypt and Sudan – Arabi Pasha banished: Married Women’s Property Act gives married women in England and Wales rights to separate ownership of property (Aug).
1883	Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act reduces election expenditure and increases penalties for corrupt practices (Aug): Mahdi rebellion leads to evacuation of the Sudan: Social Democratic Federation consolidated. Boys’ Brigade founded in Glasgow: J. Seeley’s Expansion of England.
1884	London convention on the Transvaal (Feb): Gordon sent to the Sudan – The Mahdi takes Omdurman: Imperial Federation League founded: Fabian Society formed: Royal Commission on the housing of the working classes appointed: Third Reform Act (Dec). Parsons produces first practical steam-engine for making electricity.
1885	The Mahdi takes Khartoum, General Gordon dies (Jan): Russian occupation of Penjdeh, Afghanistan, provokes Anglo-Russian crisis (Mar): Compromise settlement over Afghanistan frontier (Sept): Redistribution Act establishes modern pattern of constituencies (June): Convention regarding Egyptian finances: Gladstone resigns following hostile amendment to the budget – Salisbury PM (June): Scottish Secretaryship established: General Election (Nov): Gold discovered in the Transvaal: Third Burmese War begins (Oct).
1886	Annexation of Upper Burma (Jan): Salisbury resigns, being defeated in the Commons – Gladstone becomes PM: Irish Home Rule Bill introduced (Apr): Liberal party splits – gvt defeated (June): General Election – Cons. victory (Jul): Indian National Congress formed (Dec). Severn Tunnel opened: Royal Commission on the Scottish Highlands: First Amateur Golf Championship: English Historical Review commences.
1887	First Colonial Conference held (Apr): Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee: Mediterranean and Near Eastern agreements with Italy and Austria (Feb, March, Dec): ‘Bloody Sunday’ demonstrations in Trafalgar Square (Nov): Cymru Fydd group in Welsh politics.
1888	Local Government Act establishes county councils in England and Wales (Aug): Strike of women match workers employed by Bryant and May. Dunlop invents pneumatic tyre.
1889	London dock strike (Aug-Sept): Naval Defence Act: Formation of the London County Council. C. Booth, Life and Labour of the People in London (first vol.)
1890	Britain exchanges Heligoland for Zanzibar and Pemba: Housing of the Working Classes Act: Parnell resigns as leader of the Irish Nationalists (Dec). Failure of Baring’s Bank: Free elementary education in England: Forth bridge completed: H. M. Stanley, In Darkest Africa.
1891	Hartington becomes duke of Devonshire – J. Chamberlain succeeds him as Liberal Unionist leader in Commons: ‘Newcastle programme’ adopted by National Liberal Federation and ‘endorsed’ by Gladstone – encourages allotments, local option (drink), church disestablishment in Scotland and Wales and various electoral reforms: Death of Parnell (Oct). W. Morris, News from Nowhere: Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: Free primary education.
1892	General Election (July): Gladstone succeeds Salisbury as PM.
1893	First meeting of the Independent Labour party – in Bradford – under Keir Hardie: National Free Labour Association formed: Second Irish Home Rule Bill – rejected in the Lords (Sept): Matabele rising in S. Rhodesia (July): Franco-Russian alliance: Franco-British agreement on Siam.
1894	Gladstone resigns as PM – succeeded by Rosebery (Mar): Harcourt’s budget introduces death duties (Apr): Parish councils established in England: Spencer’s naval building programme: Uganda annexed.
1895	Rosebery gvt defeated in Commons, General Election, Salisbury PM, J. Chamberlain becomes Colonial Secretary: Jameson Raid (S. Africa) (Dec). London School of Economics and Political Science founded: National Trust formed.
1896	Jameson surrenders, Rhodes resigns as PM of Cape Colony (Jan): Further rising in Matabeleland (Mar-Oct): Rosebery resigns Liberal leadership (Oct). National Portrait Gallery opened; Daily Mail first published: Sunday opening of Museums.
1897	Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee: Second Colonial Conference: Workmen’s Compensation Act (Aug): Formation of the Scottish TUC. Tate Gallery opened.
1898	Kitchener defeats Mahdist forces at Omdurman (Sept): ‘Fashoda crisis’ between Britain and France follows: Irish Local Government Act follows the English pattern.
1899	Campbell-Bannerman succeeds Harcourt as Liberal leader (Jan): Bloemfontein Conference between Britain and the S. African republics (Mar-July): Settlement of British Guiana/Venezuela boundary dispute: Establishment of the Board of Education: Boer War begins (Oct), British forces sustain early defeats at Magersfontein and Colenso (Dec), Roberts and Kitchener appointed Commander-in-Chief and Chief of Staff respectively.
1900	Formation of the Labour Representation Committee to organize ‘Labour’ parliamentary candidatures (Feb): Capture of Bloemfontein (Mar), Relief of Mafeking (May) and annexation of Orange Free State: Boxer Rising in China (May): General Election (Oct) – Cons. victory. First issue of Daily Express.
1901	Inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia (Jan): Death of Queen Victoria (Jan): PM’s confidential memorandum on Britain’s ‘isolation’ (May): J. Chamberlain speaks on British-German relations at Edinburgh (Oct): Hay-Pauncefote treaty with the United States: Taff Vale judgement confirms that trade unions can be sued for damages for actions taken by their agents. Formation of the British Academy: B. S. Rowntree, Poverty.

Prologue

Strange though it may seem, in 1870 a small group of islands off the mainland of Europe dominated a large part of the world. The ‘British’ were established in Newfoundland and New Zealand, Cape Colony and Calcutta, Nova Scotia and New South Wales, to name but a few. Their influence was ubiquitous. A century later, with a few small exceptions, the British were confined to their islands. No other people in the modern world has experienced such a dramatic change. Yet, even in 1870, the vast area of the globe shaded red was deceptive, masking an infinite variety of control. While in a sense the empire was something which ‘belonged’ to the British Crown, and the British had settled in Canada, New Zealand, ‘Australia’ and ‘South Africa’, it did not constitute a homogeneous whole. The areas of settlement were substantially self-governing. Canadians, however, to take but one example, were not ‘foreigners’ and English-speaking Canadians considered themselves in some sense British. The citizens of Durban, Sydney, Toronto or Birmingham might all be accommodated within a framework of imperial unity. From the very outset, therefore, an ambiguity surrounded the British and a simple antithesis between exuberant self-confidence in 1870 and dismal self-doubt a century later is unsatisfactory. So is a contrast between an imperial state and a European state, or between cohesion and confusion in culture and religion. If such a view contains some truth, the full picture is more blurred. The eclipse of a Great Power is a complex process, operating at many different levels. Thus, this is not merely a history of England, with a few pious gestures to the periphery, but of the experience of the United Kingdom as a whole. Its social, cultural, political, economic and religious complexity is considered in a framework not normally attempted. It reflects a conviction that the conflicting conceptions the British had of themselves had, in turn, a subtle bearing on their place in the world.

CHAPTER 1

The nature of the United Kingdom

‘It certainly does look’, wrote the Home Secretary, Matthews, to Lord Salisbury in 1887, ‘as though the spirit of nationality, which has united Germany and Italy, were operating to disintegrate this country.’(122) Such private gloom contrasts strongly with the public celebrations which were to honour Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. It was a recognition that the United Kingdom, the heart of the empire, was a multinational state which could be divided in a number of ways. It could become a federation, or England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales could become sovereign states, or Ireland could separate from Great Britain. Such developments could happen, but most late Victorians believed that the United Kingdom could accommodate differences of culture, language and religion.

ENGLAND

England dominated the United Kingdom, much as Prussia dominated imperial Germany. The various acts of union which had produced the constitutional structure as it existed in 1870 reflected England’s strength. The disparity in power and population, evident enough in 1707 and 1801, had become even more marked in the nineteenth century. England was by far the most populous element in the United Kingdom and its population continued to grow at a proportionally faster rate [A]. England had a remarkable history as a centralized state. Even if regional differences of speech, custom and diet between, say, Yorkshire and Devon, were striking, English identity was not in doubt. England could absorb the steady trickle of immigrants from the European mainland and from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Some of these settlers mingled solely with their compatriots in church, club or pub and kept alive their consciousness of difference. The compact and distinctive pattern of non-English British settlement was particularly evident in a city like Liverpool, but it was repeated in other major English cities. A Scotsman even penetrated to Thomas Hardy’s ‘Casterbridge’.

Racial stereotypes were quite common in late-Victorian England – jokes and songs about the Irish were common, often made by the Irish themselves – but, while it would be unusual to find no friction in areas where the Irish settled extensively, communal violence was exceptional(123). It was not difficult for non-English Britons to rise to positions of the highest importance in business, administration and government in England, both locally and centrally. The English assumed, usually correctly, that everybody was in the process of becoming English; or, putting it differently, that the amalgam of ‘Britishness’ being formed in England would become the norm for the rest of the British Isles. These circumstances made it difficult for the English to worry about a specifically English nationality distinct from British nationality. The United Kingdom Parliament sat in England and the British Museum was situated in London. London was the capital both of the United Kingdom and of England and there was no need to show excessive devotion to St George.

IRELAND

In contrast, national identity was of great importance in Ireland, though it divided rather than united Irishmen(126). Such concern arose from the complex pattern of conquest and settlement in Ireland. Roughly two-thirds of the inhabitants of Ireland were Catholic and one-third Protestant, but not evenly distributed in these proportions throughout the country. Ireland had suffered badly during the mid-century famine, though not all parts equally. Death and emigration had halved the island’s population. Some economic historians have divided Ireland into a basically subsistence economy in the West and a money economy in the East. The Irish language was rapidly losing ground and Irish speakers were increasingly located in the West where living standards were lowest. Some Irishmen, particularly among the section of the Protestants who could be called ‘Anglo-Irish’, saw Ireland’s future as ‘West Britain’, a distinct but not detached part of the United Kingdom(147). Others saw this future as separate from that of the English-dominated world: an independent Gaelic state. Some blamed the London government for Irish economic difficulties and believed that improvement could only come when the Irish economy was controlled from Dublin. There were others, however, who were not interested in anglicized Dublin – the real struggle was to get Irish land into Irish hands(124). From the North, the Protestants of thrusting, expanding Belfast looked askance at southern pretensions. Even the Protestants did not constitute a solid front. Presbyterians and Methodists resented Anglican exclusiveness almost as much as they feared Catholic supremacy. These political, cultural, religious and economic rifts in Irish society meant that when the ‘spirit of nationality’ spread it evoked conflicting responses.

For their part, London governments had never been sure whether to treat Ireland as a quasi-colonial dependency or simply another part of the United Kingdom. The government of Ireland still retained special features. There was a Lord Lieutenant who represented the Crown, a separate administration presided over by the Chief Secretary for Ireland (a member of the United Kingdom government, though unlikely to be an Irishman), and separate courts (though they operated on the principles of English law). In other respects, however, Ireland was represented at Westminster as a constituent part of the United Kingdom; indeed, in terms of population, over-represented [D]. Nevertheless, violence was never far below the surface, particularly in the Irish countryside. When Gladstone came to power in 1868, the memory of Fenian activities in Chester, Manchester and London was still fresh in England. The Prime Minister declared that it was his mission to pacify (not to ‘liberate’) Ireland. Irish grievances, he supposed, could be met by settling the religious question and tackling the problem of land, not by tampering with the union between Britain and Ireland(124).

The minority Anglican Church in Ireland was disestablished in 1869, though it received adequate financial compensation(131). The same legislation withdrew grants previously paid to Roman Catholics and Presbyterians. Most Irish churchmen were prepared to accept the solution, but Gladstone’s opponents were worried about its implications for the Anglican Church in England and Wales. The land settlement produced similar fears. Gladstone’s Land Act (1870) attempted to compensate any tenant ‘unjustly’ evicted and to ensure that he received payment for improvements he had made. Legislation was difficult to fashion because different cultural attitudes towards land-ownership were involved. The ‘Bright clauses’ were designed to help tenants buy land, though some Liberals doubted whether it was their government’s business to establish Irish peasants on smallholdings. Some of Gladstone’s landed friends were afraid that any revision of the relationship between landlord and tenant might, in due course, apply outside Ireland. His Irish legislation, however, gained Gladstone little credit with the Irish Catholic hierarchy, as was demonstrated by the failure of his offer to set up a University of Dublin ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Editor’s foreword
• Preface
• Preface to the Second Edition
• List of maps
• PART ONE, 1870–1901
• PART TWO, 1901–1931
• PART THREE, 1931–1956
• PART FOUR, 1956–1975
• PART FIVE, 1976–1992
• Maps
• Bibliography
• Index