Chamberlain, Joseph

views updated

CHAMBERLAIN, JOSEPH

CHAMBERLAIN, JOSEPH (1836–1914), British politician.

Joseph Chamberlain was born into a striving middle-class Unitarian family in 1836. Trained in business practices by his father, Chamberlain learned more than economic lessons. Controlling outcomes, managing variable markets, and exerting power over potential business rivals helped construct an aggressive and competitive personality. He learned his lessons well: in 1854 he moved to Birmingham from his native London to begin work in a new family business. As a young man, he made important contacts among Birmingham's business elite and became known as a leading entrepreneur and civic booster. He was chairman of the school board, served on the town council, and was three times Birmingham's mayor (1873–1876). Redesigning the mayoralty from its traditional role as a ceremonial institution into a dynamic policy-making office, Chamberlain dominated Birmingham political life. He became a radical Liberal member of Parliament at a by-election in 1876. The following year, he established the National Liberal Foundation, the first and most famous "caucus." Designed to promote progressive causes, such as free nonsectarian education and an extension of the franchise, the NLF also served as an important vehicle for Chamberlain's ever expanding ambition.

When the general election of 1880 returned William Ewart Gladstone for his second administration, Chamberlain—with only four years' parliamentary experience—effectively stormed the cabinet. He threatened the Liberal leadership with the formation of an independent "pure left" party unless he was given office. Appointed president of the board of trade (1880–1885), Chamberlain had only a mixed record: his uncompromising attitude occasionally alienated important interests, especially shipowners. He enjoyed more success in cultivating opinion in the countryside. His personal "Unauthorized Programme" of 1885 advocated a more active government role in improving the life of the poor by, for example, making smallholdings and allotments available to agricultural workers. To his critics, leading Liberals among them, Chamberlain sounded suspiciously socialistic.

During Gladstone's brief third administration in 1886, Chamberlain broke with the Liberal Party over Home Rule for Ireland. Fearful that Home Rule would lead to Irish independence, Chamberlain revealed his emerging imperialist convictions. Leading a knot of like-minded Liberal Unionists in the House of Commons, he contributed to the defeat of Home Rule and the resignation of Gladstone. Although he was out of office for nearly a decade, his intensifying imperial ideas inclined Chamberlain and his followers to act on occasion with Salisbury's (Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, third marquis of Salisbury) Conservative government. After a brief Liberal interlude from 1892 to 1895, the Conservative and Unionist alliance was again returned to power at the general election of 1895. Chamberlain, weary of the political wilderness, eagerly accepted the position of secretary of the colonial office (1895–1903) as his reward for supporting Conservative initiatives. His primary aims during the new Salisbury administration were to develop the economic viability of the colonies, to protect British access to global markets, and to consolidate the British Empire. In pursuing these aims, he was one of the architects of the Boer War (1899–1902). By the war's end, Chamberlain had come to symbolize "both the will and the power" (as one admirer wrote) of British imperialism.

Capitalizing on his reputation as imperial spokesman, Chamberlain launched a new national campaign in 1903. It was the last great campaign of his life. He proposed an imperial union based on a system of reciprocal preferential tariffs by which England and its colonies would establish economic advantages over foreign imports, thus strengthening the empire through material ties of trade and commerce. As a sign that he had not forgotten his radical past, he promised that under such a system, domestic workers would have higher wages and the government greater revenues, sufficient to fund social legislation such as old-age pensions. Creating a Tariff Reform League to harness financial and political support and beating the drum for tariff reform at enthusiastic meetings throughout the country, Chamberlain seemed to carry all before him.

Alarmed at his early success, the Liberals—condemning tariff reform as a risky protectionist policy—fell back on their traditional support of free trade. It was not, however, the Liberals who defeated Chamberlain's policy, but Chamberlain himself. As the campaign progressed, it became increasingly clear that Chamberlain was determined to force Arthur James Balfour, the Conservative and Unionist prime minister (1902–1905), either to declare for tariff reform or to resign. It seemed to many suspicious Conservatives that the ungentlemanly Chamberlain wanted the party leadership for himself. Matters came to a head when Balfour retired from office in December 1905. The ensuing general election was disastrous for the Unionist alliance: the Liberals won in a landslide. Chamberlain had overreached himself. He had split the Conservative Party just as he had the Liberals two decades earlier. His health undermined by his constant political maneuvering, he suffered a stroke in July 1906. Partially paralyzed for the rest of his life, he died on 2 July 1914.

Although he never attained the highest political office and his imperial dreams did not withstand the test of time, Chamberlain nevertheless accomplished much. In Birmingham, he created a model for municipal reform. On a national scale he brought to an emerging and expanding electorate the most critical issues of the day in a clear and incisive manner. Most particularly, in emphasizing the importance of public education and national welfare, he strengthened the view that the modern state had fundamental responsibilities for all its citizens.