Joseph Chamberlain

The Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836–2 July 1914) was a British statesman. In his early years he was a successful businessman, a radically minded Liberal, a campaigner for educational reform and became President of the Board of Trade. Later he re-emerged in alliance with the Conservatives, as an imperialist and protectionist, serving as Colonial Secretary. Despite never becoming Prime Minister, he is regarded as one of the most important British politicians of the late 19th century and early 20th century, a colourful character and a renowned orator. He was the father of Sir Austen Chamberlain (1863 to 1937) and Neville Chamberlain (1869 to 1940).

Early political career

Calls for reform

There were strong Radical and liberal traditions among shoemakers, in his adopted home city of Birmingham, while the Unitarian church of which he was a member had a tradition of social action. It was not surprising that Chamberlain became involved in Liberal politics, joining those in the Liberal Association calling for reform. The growth of Britain's urban population led to an urgent need to redistribute parliamentary seats and to enfranchise a sizeable proportion of urban males. In 1866, Lord John Russell's Liberal administration put a Reform Bill before the House of Commons, aiming to create 400,000 new voters. Whilst conservative supporters of the government, known as 'Adullamites', opposed the Bill for its disruption of the social order, Radicals criticised it on the basis that it failed to concede the secret ballot or household suffrage. The Bill was defeated and Lord Derby formed a minority Conservative administration. On 27 August 1866, a vast demonstration for reform was held in Birmingham, in which the Mayor marched alongside 250,000 people, one of whom was Chamberlain. John Bright addressed the huge middle and working-class crowd, Chamberlain recalling that 'men poured into the hall, black as they were from the factories?the people were packed together like herrings.' The Conservative government passed a Reform Bill in 1867, nearly doubling the electorate from 1,430,000 to 2,470,000 and in the 1868 General Election, the Liberal Party took power. Chamberlain was active in the election campaign, praising Bright and George Dixon, a Birmingham M.P.

Related Topics:
Unitarian - 1866 - Lord John Russell - Liberal - Lord Derby - 27 August - John Bright - 1867 - 1868 General Election

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In 1867 he helped found the Birmingham Education League with Jesse Collings. The Education League noted that of around four and a quarter million children of school age, two million children, mostly in urban areas, did not attend school with a further million in uninspected schools. More contentious was the government?s aid to Church of England schools, embodying a connection between church and state that was bound to offend Nonconformist opinion. Chamberlain was enthusiastic about the requirement for the provision of free, secular, compulsory education, stating that 'it is as much the duty of the State to see that the children are educated as to see that they are fed.' He also pointed to the success owed by the United States and Prussia to public education. The Birmingham Education League evolved into the National Education League, which held its first Conference in Birmingham in 1869. The League called for a school system supported by local rates and government grants, under local authorities subject to government inspection. By 1870, the League had more than one hundred branches, mostly in cities and drawing from trades unions and working men's organisations. Chamberlain was also prominent in the local campaign in support of Gladstone's Irish Church Disestablishment Bill against the House of Lords' obstructionism. Chamberlain seconded the motion in support of disestablishment at a debate held at Birmingham town hall, and he addressed the large, restless crowd attacking the hereditary powers of the House of Lords. The meeting broke up amidst fighting, but Chamberlain had become a figure of prominence among Birmingham Liberals, and he was elected to Birmingham Council for St. Paul's ward in November 1869.

Related Topics:
1867 - Jesse Collings - Church of England - Nonconformist - Prussia - 1869 - 1870 - Gladstone - House of Lords

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The Liberal government put forward proposals for an Elementary Education Bill in January 1870. W.E. Forster, Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education was responsible for the Bill and came under attack from Nonconformists because of the legislation's proposal to maintain church schools within the structure of national education and to put them on the rates. The absence of school boards or the provision of free, compulsory education caused consternation in the National Education League, and Chamberlain arranged for a large delegation to visit 10 Downing Street to persuade Gladstone to remove the role of the church in national education. On 9 March 1870, the Education League's delegation arrived to meet the Prime Minister, consisting of 400 branch members and 46 M.P.'s. In this first meeting between Gladstone and Chamberlain, the latter impressed the Prime Minister with his lucid speech, and Gladstone agreed during the Elementary Education Bill's second reading to make amendments that took church schools from rate-payer control and granted them support from government funds. Liberal M.P.'s, exasperated at the compromises in the legislation, voted against the government, and the Bill passed the House of Commons with support from the Conservatives. Chamberlain campaigned against the Act, and in particular clause 25, which gave school boards the power to pay the fees of poor children at voluntary schools, which theoretically allowed them to fund church schools. The Education League even stood in several by-elections against Liberal candidates who refused to support the repeal of clause 25. In 1873 a Liberal majority was elected to the Birmingham School Board, with Chamberlain as chairman. Eventually, a compromise was reached with the church component of the School Board agreeing to make payments from rate-payer's money only to schools linked with industrial education.

Related Topics:
W.E. Forster - 10 Downing Street - 9 March - 1873

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Chamberlain broadened his campaigning to take up the cause of rural workers, promoting their enfranchisement and cheaper land prices. This was reflected in his subsequent slogan coined in an article written for the Fortnightly Review, the four 'F's' ? 'Free Church, Free Schools, Free Land and Free Labour'. In another article entitled 'The Liberal Party and its Leaders', Chamberlain made a blistering attack on Gladstone's leadership and advocated a concerted Radical challenge to the direction of the party. By 1873, Chamberlain had made his reputation, especially in Birmingham, as a charismatic Radical politician, and sought to further his cause in the municipal arena.

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Mayor of Birmingham

In November 1873 Chamberlain stood as a Liberal candidate for the mayoralty of Birmingham, with the Conservatives denouncing his political Radicalism and disparaging him as a 'monopoliser and a dictator.' The Liberal Party swept the municipal elections having campaigned under the slogan 'The People above the Priests', a clear swipe at the High Toryism of Chamberlain?s opponents. As mayor, Chamberlain promoted many civic improvements, leaving the town (in words to Collings) 'parked, paved, assized, marketed, gas & watered and improved. Prior to his tenure in office, the city's municipal administration was notably lax with regards to public works, and many urban dwellers lived in conditions of great poverty. The city's water supply was considered a danger to public health ? approximately half of the city?s population was dependent on well water, much of which was polluted by sewage. Furthermore, piped water was only supplied three days per week, compelling the use of unhealthy well water and water carts for the rest of the week. Two rival gas companies, the Birmingham Gas Company and the Birmingham and Staffordshire Gas Company were locked in constant competition, in which the city's streets were continually dug up to allow for the laying of mains. Chamberlain established a municipal gas supply by forcibly purchasing the two companies on behalf of the borough for £1,953,050, even offering to purchase the companies himself if the ratepayers refused. The move was a success, and in its first year of operations, the municipal gas scheme made a profit of £34,000. Deploring the rising death rate from contagious diseases in the poorest sections of the city, in January 1876, Chamberlain forcibly purchased Birmingham's waterworks for a combined sum of £1,350,000, having declared to a House of Commons Committee that 'We have not the slightest intention of making profit...We shall get our profit indirectly in the comfort of the town and in the health of the inhabitants'. Despite this noticeable executive action, Chamberlain was mistrustful of central authority and burdensome bureaucracy, preferring to give local communities the responsibility to act on their own initiative.

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With the city's gas and water supply under municipal control, Chamberlain undertook other schemes with the intention of improving the quality of life in Birmingham. In July 1875 Chamberlain tabled an improvement plan that involved a programme of slum clearance in Birmingham?s city centre. Chamberlain had been consulted by the Home Secretary, R.A. Cross during the preparation of the Artisans' Dwellings Act, a prominent feature of the Disraeli ministry's programme of social improvement. Chamberlain proposed to build a new road through Birmingham's overcrowded slums, and brought 50 acres (200,000 m²) of property for such a purpose. Overriding the protests of local landlords and the Commissioner of the Local Government Board's inquiry into the scheme, Chamberlain appealed directly to the President of the Local Government Board, George Sclater-Booth. Having gained the support of central government and raised the funds for the programme, Chamberlain was able to implement the scheme, contributing £10,000 to the cost himself. However, the Improvement Committee concluded that it would be too expensive to transfer slum-dwellers to municipally built accommodation and so the land was let out as a business proposition on a 75 year lease. Those who had occupied the slums were eventually rehoused in the suburbs, not in the area of their previous residence, and the scheme as a whole lost local government £300,000. The death-rate in the newly christened Corporation Street dropped dramatically ? from approximately 53% per 1,000 between 1873 and 1875 to 21% per 1,000 between 1879 and 1881.

Related Topics:
Home Secretary - R.A. Cross - Disraeli - George Sclater-Booth

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Chamberlain's tenure in office was also notable for his promotion of cultural improvement. Public and private money was used for the construction of libraries, municipal swimming pools and schools. The Museum & Art Gallery was enlarged and a number of new parks were opened. Construction of the Council House was begun whilst the Victoria Law Courts were built in Corporation Street.

Related Topics:
Museum & Art Gallery - Council House - Victoria Law Courts

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The mayoralty helped give Chamberlain stature as a figure of both local and national renown, with contemporaries commenting upon his youthfulness and prominent dress, in which he sported 'a black velvet coat, jaunty eyeglass in eye, red neck-tie drawn through a ring'. His contribution to the city's improvement secured political allegiance of the so-called 'Birmingham caucus' for Chamberlain in return, a loyalty that would remain even with the shifts in his public career.

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