ORIGINS OF ANIMOSITY
The importance of newspapers in nineteenth-century British politics has long been recognized by historians. Lord Palmerston understood keenly the power of the press and cultivated good relations with a number of papers. This article will elucidate more thoroughly than heretofore his early forays into the world of press intrigue. Palmerston did not, however, earn the regard of The Times, at least not until much later in his career. The Times, edited by Thomas Barnes from 1817 until his death in 1841, was the most powerful newspaper of the era. This article will examine the origins of its long-running feud with Palmerston, demonstrating the personal and political differences at the heart of its inception.
Palmerston and the politics of foreign policy, 1846-55
This thesis considers the career of Lord Palmerston during the important, but
hitherto rather neglected, period of his political career immediately preceding his
accession to the premiership in 1855, in a broader context than has previously been
attempted. By combining a high political, that is governmental, approach to the
question with what might be termed a low one - essentially all non-governmental
factors - the reasons for Palmerston's supposed political invincibility, or at least
longevity, can be more clearly understood. Such a focus simultaneously reveals a
great deal about the nature and working of the Victorian constitution and the
political influence of parts of the population traditionally regarded as falling beyond
its pale.
Through an examination of political manoeuvring in government, making
extensive use of private papers, this thesis demonstrates the extent and ways in
which Palmerston was able to exercise an influence over and manipulate his Cabinet
colleagues, thereby securing their approbation for his foreign policy at a time when
there were great pressures from the Crown and Parliament to remove him. The
analysis is followed though to the history of the Aberdeen Coalition (1852-55) to
explain why Palmerston came to be allied with many of his former adversaries in the
first place and secondly how he managed, from his official post at the Home Office,
to continue to wield great influence over the conduct of foreign policy - a question of
special importance given that it was this government which was faced with the
problem of managing the Crimean War.
It is clear, however, that personal and party political relationships are
incomplete means by which to explain Palmerston's career and elucidate the general
theme of the politics of foreign policy. Palmerston's political strength rested to a
large extent on the rather nebulous perception that he was 'popular', carrying with
him the support of the country and embodying the mood of the nation. Public
opinion, generally conceived, had a profound and complicated impact on politics
during this period, particularly on Palmerston, yet this is an aspect of Palmerston's
political life rarely examined by historians. It is in this thesis' attempts to underpin
an account of political life at the centre with an analysis of political forces and
influences beyond that a great deal of the work's originality is to be found.
Examination of the role of the press, various forms of extra-parliamentary opposition
(and support) across all social classes, and parliamentary opposition, including not
only on what grounds were attacks made but why and with what effect, add a unique
contribution to our understanding of Palmerstonianism and demonstrate the success
and considerable good fortune Palmerston enjoyed in manipulating political life to
his own ends.
Earl Fitzwilliam and the Corn Laws
THE city in arms against a countryside tenaciously opposed to reform, farmer and squire resolutely allied and equally devoted to the cause of high prices and high rents, such in broad outline, until quite recently, has been the conventional account of the agitation against the Corn Laws in Victorian England. There has been more than a little of Manchester philosophy in the telling of the story, and this may account for a somewhat deceptive neatness that only a touch of myth can bring to the rough edges of historical reality. Seen from another point of view, from the land and its politics instead of from the city, historians in the past several years have shown how profitable it is to look at this old subject in a new way. I have in mind the work of Mr. Mosse on the Anti-League and, especially, the illuminating essays by Mr. Kitson Clark: "The Electorate and the Repeal of the Corn Laws," and "The Repeal of the Corn Laws and the Politics of the Forties." 1 In these Mr. Kitson Clark has provided students of nineteenthcentury England with a map of a difficult terrain that henceforth they will all have to use. My own aim is by comparison a most humble one: merely to draw in a few contour lines, perhaps a trifle more distinctly. I hope to do this by exploring the mind and career and landed possessions of a great Whig magnate who saw fit to devote a good part of his life to attacking the Corn Laws. He was Charles William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, fifth Earl Fitzwilliam, whose life spanned the years 1786 to I857. He sat in the House of Commons as Lord Milton from i8o6 to I833, Whig member for the county of Yorkshire for most of that time, and a critic of agricultural protection for the last eight years of it. In I833 he succeeded to vast landed estates, but persisted in denouncing the Corn Laws, despite the more hostile atmosphere of the House of Lords. The ideas and activities of this landed aristocrat should furnish some insight into the workings of the aristocratic mind, especially the Whig aristocratic mind, on the central issue of the Corn Laws.