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Republicanism in Nineteenth Century England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

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To one familiar with the attitude of “near devotion” accorded the monarchy by the majority of Englishmen today, it may come as a shock to discover a lack of this devotion in mid-Victorian England. A sampling of comments from the radical press is a striking example. The regular arrival of Victoria's progeny evoked this impious suggestion in the Northern Star: That, rather than reciting national prayers of thanksgiving, congregations should sing “hymns of despair for their misfortune in being saddled with another addition to the brood of royal Cormorants.” The National Reformer referred to “our good kind, and dear Queen, who…could easily dispense with the allowance which her loyal subjects make her…unless she desires to be the last of England's monarchs…”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1962

References

page 47 note 1 Northern Star, 9 November 1844.Google Scholar

page 47 note 2 The National Reformer, 31 October 1869.Google Scholar

page 47 note 3 The Times (London), 27 June 1830.Google Scholar

page 47 note 4 Had George IV lived as long as Victoria, it is conceivable that England would be a republic today. William IV was, by contrast, moderately popular but never admired; his eccentricities and inept public utterances won him the nick-name “Silly Billy”.

page 48 note 1 Jeremy, Bentham, Works, Bowring ed. (Edingburgh, 1845), IX, pp. 12.Google Scholar

page 48 note 2 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, The Social Contract, trans. Cole, G. D. H. (New York, Every man's Library, 1913), pp. 3031.Google Scholar

page 48 note 3 The influence of the classics might be added here. See Zera, S. Fink, The Classical Republicans (Northwestern University Studies, 1945Google Scholar), which deals with seventeenth century England; for a parallel development in Franc e, see Harold, Parker, The Cult of Antiquity and the French Revolutionaries (Cambridge University Press, 1937).Google Scholar

page 48 note 4 Richard, Carlile (17901843Google Scholar), a champion of many radical causes - a secul arist, republican, and crusader for the freedom of the press also might be included here.

page 48 note 5 Schoyen, A. R., The Chartist Challenge (New York, 1958), p. 15.Google Scholar The title of association was changed to London Democratic Association in 1838.

page 49 note 1 The London Democrat, 20 April 1839Google Scholar, quoted by Rosenblatt, F., The Chartist Movement in its Social and Economic Aspects (Columbia University Press, 1916), p. 134.Google Scholar

page 49 note 2 Schoyen, , p. 32.Google Scholar

page 49 note 3 Schoyen, , p. 135.Google Scholar

page 49 note 4 The American industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, was raised in a republican atmosphere in Dumfermline, Scotland, and later returned from America to preach the virtues of repu blicanism to the British.

page 49 note 5 Anon, Memoranda of the Chartist Agitation in Dundee, (Dundee, 1889), p. 75.

page 49 note 6 The Reformers Almanac, 15 April 1848Google Scholar, quoted by Slosson, P. S., The Decline of the Chartist Movement (Columbia University Press, 1916), p. 96.Google Scholar

page 50 note 1 Joseph, Cowen, later (since 1876Google Scholar) M. P. from Newcastle, was a classical republican who was quite active in support of continental revolutionaries. The Poles, Italians and Hun garians all were given his support. “He was the chief banker and general agent in this country of the European revolutionaries.” Davidson, J. M., ”Joseph Cowen”, in: Eminent Liberals, (Boston, 1880), p. 55.Google Scholar

page 50 note 2 The Republican Record (Newcastle-upon-Tyne), January 1855, No. 1, p. 1. The criticism of the monarchy in connection with the Crimean War was not restricted to the radical press alone. The Morning Advertiser and The Times were especially critical of Albert, so much so that Victoria threatened to resign. See Kingsley, Martin, The Triumph of Lord Palmerston (New York, 1924), pp. 210212.Google Scholar

page 50 note 3 Harney left for America in 1863, hence the two - Harney and Bradlaugh – were never associated in the republican cause in England.

page 51 note 1 Bradlaugh ranked Carlile with Paine as a co-founder of the modern English republican movement, The National Reformer, 16 February 1873.

page 51 note 2 The National Reformer, 11 September 1870. In addition to his comments here, Brad-laugh spelled out in great detail the total cost of the monarchy in his Impeachment of the House of Brunswick.

page 51 note 3 The National Reformer, 1 October 1871.

page 51 note 4 The National Reformer, 1 September 1870.

page 51 note 5 The National Reformer, 12 May 1871.

page 52 note 1 Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 3rd Series, CCIV (February 16, 1871), p. 359.Google Scholar On the allowance for Arthur, eleven were opposed to any and fifty-three were for a reduction (CCVIII, p. 590).

page 52 note 2 The Times (London), 9 November 1871.Google Scholar When Queen Victoria read Dilke's Newcastle speech, she recalled that she had stroked his hair on meeting him as a boy with his father in the Exhibition Grounds in 1851. “I suppose”, she added, “I stroked it the wrong way.” Stephen Gwynn and Gertrude M. Tuckwell, The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke

page 52 note 2 vols. (London, 1917), 1, p. 10.

page 52 note 3 Christopher Charles Cattell, who also wrote under the name Charles “Cockbill” Cattell, was active in behalf of many radical causes - universal manhood suffrage, disestablishment and municipal government reforms.

page 52 note 4 The National Reformer, 12 March 1871.

page 52 note 5 The National Reformer, beginning with the February 26, 1871, issue, carried the announ cements of the founding and activities of each of the republican clubs.

page 52 note 6 Sir Charles Dilke did not join any of the republican clubs. Gwynn, and Tuckwell, , I, p. 144.Google Scholar

page 53 note 1 Charles, Bradlaugh, The Impeachment of the House of Brunswick (Boston, 1875), p. 6.Google Scholar

page 53 note 2 Bradlaugh, , p. 6.Google Scholar

page 53 note 3 Morning Advertiser quoted in The National Reformer, 25 June 1871.

page 53 note 4 Gwynn, and Tuckwell, , I, pp. 140–45.Google Scholar

page 53 note 5 Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 3rd Series, CCX (March 19, 1872), p. 253.Google Scholar

page 53 note 6 Leslie, Stephen, Life of Henry Fawcett, 3rd., (New York, 1886), p. 288.Google Scholar G. M. Young's comment on this incident is also interesting. See Young, G. M., Victorian England: Portrait of an Age (New York, 1954), p. 209.Google Scholar

page 54 note 1 The National Reformer, 7 April 1872.

page 54 note 2 Chartist republican then living in America.

page 54 note 3 The National Reformer, 9 March 1873.

page 54 note 4 Several estimates have been made on the number of clubs represented. Fisher, H. A. L., The Republican Tradition in Europe (London, 1911), p. 256Google Scholar, lists 54; The Times (London) mentions 50; and The National Reformer, 48 offical republican delegates plus several representatives of other interested groups.

page 54 note 5 The Times (London), 13 May 1873.Google Scholar

page 54 note 6 The National Reformer, 18 May 1873.

page 55 note 1 Joseph Chamberlain and John Morley displayed some interest in republicanism but shyed away from any definite endorsement.

page 55 note 2 Gwynn, and Tuckwell, , I, p. 145.Google Scholar

page 55 note 3 The Republican Record (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne), January 1855, No. 1, p. 2,

page 55 note 4 The Letters and Private Papers of William M. Thackeray, ed. Ray, G. N., 4 vols. (Harvard University Press, 1945), I, p. 458.Google Scholar

page 55 note 5 William, M. Thackeray, ”The Four Georges”, Works, Kensington èd., (New York, 1904) XXVI, p. 144.Google Scholar

page 56 note 1 William, J. Linton, The English Republic, ed. by Parkes, K. (London, 1891), p. xii.Google Scholar Linton also wrote and published a number of poems including The Plaint of Freedom dedicated to “the memory of Milton”.

page 56 note 2 Linton, , p. 40.Google Scholar

page 57 note 1 Linton, , pp. 141144.Google Scholar

page 57 note 2 W. E. Adams, the Cheltenham Chartist and former Fraternal Democrat, was the chief organizer. The largest and most active of these associations was in London where they claimed a membership of twenty and had an audience which included many of the conti nental republicans in exile. Adams, W. E., Memoirs of a Social Atom, 2 vols. (London, 1903), I, pp. 261269.Google Scholar

page 57 note 3 Bradlaugh might be an exception here. See Crane, Brinton, „Bradlaugh”, English Political Thougt in the Nineteenth Century (Harvard University Press, 1949).Google Scholar

page 57 note 4 Bradlaugh actually insisted on the term atheism rather than secularism, but the terms are sometimes used interchangeable in references to Bradlaugh's position. Linton might be included here, but he was a deist rather than an atheist. Harney was an agnostic. Dilke and many of the academic republicans were non-conformists.

page 58 note 1 Other academic republicans, in addition to those previously mentioned, were Frederic Harrison, the English Positivist, and Leslie Stephen. Swinburne wrote some revolutionary poetry – ”A Song of Italy, A Song in Time of Order” – for the republican cause and penned an ode celebrating the proclamation of the Third French Republic but would still be classified as an academic republican; he was not active in working toward an English Republic.

page 59 note 1 The republican agitation came to a climax in the early seventies before the onset of the Great Depression.

page 59 note 2 Trade union leader, Robert Applegarth, opposed Bradlaugh throughout, charging that attacks on the Royal Family were an attempt to divert the minds of the people from more important issues. Cole, G. D. H., British Working Class Politics (London, 1941), p. 62.Google Scholar

page 59 note 3 And imperialism won the support of some republicans, including Charles Dilke and Joseph Cowen, See Dilke's Greater Britain and Jones, E. R., Life and Speeches of Joseph Cowen (London, 1885), pp. 150151.Google Scholar

page 60 note 1 Lawrence, J. McCaffrey, “Home Rule and the General Election of 1874 in Ireland,” in: Irish Historical Studies, IX, No. 34, (September 1954), p. 194.Google Scholar Had Gladstone actually been interested in republicanism, ”what a turn our history might have taken.” Young, G. M., Victorian England: Portrait of an Age, p. 209.Google Scholar

page 60 note 2 Herman Ausubel, The Late Victorians (New York, 1955), p. 83, states that Disraeli's conversion to a vigorous imperialism was due partly to “his concern over the growth of republican and anti-monarchial agitation in the early seventies… Disraeli believed that the cry of Empire would arouse loyalty to the monarchy and defeat the republican agita tors.”

page 60 note 3 Specifically, one might mention the Cardwell Army reforms of 1870–71 which wrested control of the army from the Crown by making the commander-in-chief subject to the Secretary of State for War, and the work of the Committee on the Civil List in 1889 establishing the right of the House of Commons to inquire into the Civil List even during the continuance of the reign.

page 60 note 4 See Olive, J. Brose, Church and Parliament: The Reshaping of the Church of England, 1828–1860 (Stanford University Press, 1959Google Scholar), for a discussion of the metamorphosis of the Established Church in the 19th century.

page 60 note 5 Some republican sentiment has been evident in the twentieth century. At the annual Labour Party Conference in 1923 the following resolution was submitted (Mr. J. Vipond): “That the Royal Family is no longer necessary as part of the British Constitution…”, but wat is not approved. Republicanism also garnered some attention during the abdi cation (Edward VIII) crisis of 1936. See the Labour Party Report of the 23rd Annual Conference, London, 1923, pp. 250251Google Scholar and Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates, 5th Series, CCCXVIII (December 10, 1936), pp. 2192 and 2206.Google Scholar