The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain

by Jonathan Parry

Liberalism was the dominant political force of Victorian Britain. Between 1830 and 1886 a coalition of anti-Conservatives known at various times as Whigs, Reformers, and Liberals was in office for over forty years and lost only two out of fourteen general elections. This book presents the first modern overview of Liberal government during its nineteenth-century heyday. Arguing that Liberalism was a much more coherent force than has generally been recognized, Jonathan Parry gives an account of its rise and fall, in the process reinterpreting the pattern of political development during this period.

After a review of the origins of Liberalism before 1830, Parry examines in turn the strategies of successive Liberal leaders from Grey to Gladstone and Hartington. Parry argues that nineteenth-century Liberalism tried to maintain the rule of a propertied but socially diverse, rational, and civilized elite, in the belief that this was the best means to administer the state economically and equitably and to promote an industrious and virtuous citizenship. Because of the widespread popularity of the economic, foreign, and religious policies followed to, this end, and because of the flexible, sometimes cynical, presentational skills of Liberal leaders, the Liberal party became the most popular party for much of the century. After 1867, however, Gladstone's idealist religious temper diverged from the Liberal mainstream and led in 1886 to the destruction of the party as the natural ruling body in England.

Genres: History, Politics, British Literature

383 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 1994

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book Jonathan Parry sets himself a challenging task: to describe the emergence of Victorian liberalism and how it came to dominate British politics for over half a century. To that end he provides a sweeping overview of nineteenth-century British political history, one that challenges many shibboleths. Parry traces the origins of Victorian liberalism not so much to the Whigs of the pre-Victorian era but to the liberal Toryism of George Canning. Many of his policies and approaches would be adopted by the Liberal Party that began to coalesce in the 1830s, and were best personified by Canning's former colleagues Lord Palmerston during his nearly decade long tenure as prime minster in the 1850s and 1860s.

Parry sees this period as establishing the Liberals' main electoral pitch -- that of efficient, responsible government managed by a propertied elite. Though the Peelite Palmerston emerged in the mid-1850s as the politician best equipped to pull together the disparate factions that made the Liberal governments of the era possible, Parry sees Lord John Russell as the dominant figure in the party from the 1840s until the 1860s. By contrast, his successor William Gladstone, the beloved "Grand Old Man" of the Liberal Party is portrayed as a destabilizing, almost megalomaniacal figure who ultimately splits the party over the issue of Irish Home Rule. Parry concludes his book by arguing that as a result of this split, the Conservatives inherited the winning approach and used it to dominate British politics in the century that followed.

Parry's book offers a thought-provoking analysis of British politics in the Victorian era. By reconsidering personalities and events from a different perspective, he provides a refreshing reexamination of a key period in British political history. Though some may question the conclusions he draws as a result, no student of the period can afford to ignore his work or the insights he provides in it.