Striving for a world transformed by justice and peace - a TL from 1827

[pipisme]

In accordance with precedent Henry Goulburn didn't resign as Prime Minister, but stayed in office until such time as his Conservative government was defeated on a motion of no confidence.

Parliament reassembled on 27 June 1848. The next day Lord John Russell, the leader of the Liberal Party, tabled a motion of no confidence in the government. This was to be debated in the House of Commons on 4 and 5 July. Russell was a member of the House of Commons.

In order to win a majority the Liberals would need the votes of the Grahamites (free trade liberal Conservatives) or the Repeal Association. In order to secure of the former Russell promised the repeal of the Corn Laws and the removal of all other tariff barriers, and cabinet posts for the three most prominent Grahamites: Sir James Graham, Sidney Herbert and Lord Aberdeen. This was enough to secure their support.

The Repeal Association of Irish MPs led by Daniel O'Connell wanted the repeal of the Act of Union and the restoration of the Irish Parliament of 1782-1800. Russell made favourable noises about repeal, which was enough to satisfy O'Connell and most of his colleagues.

In the no confidence debate Russell promised that a Liberal government would appoint a royal commission on the franchise.

In the vote at the end of the debate on 5 July, the no confidence motion was passed by 353 votes to 260. The Commonweal, Chartist and Irish Confederate MPs abstained to show their independence of the Conservatives and Liberals. 8 Repeal Association MPs also abstained because they didn't trust Russell to repeal the Act of Union. As the Grahamites walked through the opposition lobby there were shouts of "traitors" from the government benches.

Henry Goulburn resigned the next day and Lord John Russell became Prime Minister.

 

[pipisme]

Here is a list of the members of the cabinet which was formed by Lord John Russell on 6 July 1848.

Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons: Lord John Russell
Lord Chancellor: Lord Cottenham
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords: The Earl of Aberdeen
Lord Privy Seal: The Earl of Minto
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Sir Charles Wood
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: The Marquess of Lansdowne
Secretary of State for the Home Department: Sir George Grey
Secretary of State for the Colonies: Viscount Palmerston (1)
First Lord of the Admiralty: Sir Francis Baring
President of the Board of Control: (2) Sir John Cam Hobhouse
President of the Board of Trade: Sir James Graham
Chief Secretary for Ireland: Henry Labouchere
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: The Earl Grey
Paymaster General: The Earl Granville
Postmaster General: Benjamin Disraeli
Secretary of State for War: Sidney Herbert
First Commissioner of Woods and Forests: The Earl of Carlisle.

Aberdeen, Graham and Herbert were Grahamites, or free trade Conservatives. All the other ministers were Liberals.

(1) Palmerston was a member of the House of Commons.
(2) He was the minister responsible for British policy towards India.

 

[pipisme]

From a letter dated 7 July 1848 written by Benjamin Disraeli to his sister, Sarah.

Russell has appointed his cabinet. I have managed to get in as Postmaster General. I can't deny that I am disappointed. I had hopes of the Chief Secretaryship [for Ireland], or the Presidency of the Board of Control. But there were men who had greater claims than me to these posts. But at least I am on the ladder of political advance. You know I have talked and written about my political ambitions. Of course a practising Jew, like me, will never become Prime Minister, at least not in my lifetime, while being a radical Liberal is an almost insurmountable barrier.

Herbert, Labouchere and I are the only plain misters in the new cabinet. But it is mostly a Whig cabinet in all but name, and the Whigs live, breathe, eat and drink snobbery.

Pam [Viscount Palmerston] is bitterly disappointed at not being appointed Foreign Secretary, and having to accept the consolation prize of Colonial Secretary.

Wood [Sir Charles Wood] the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, drinks the pure milk of the Manchester School, and is devout believer in the leave well alone economic doctrine. I fear what that will mean in Ireland. I don't think Wood cares all that much if the Irish (at least the Roman Catholic Irish) starve, die of disease or emigrate.

I do not want throw away my political prospects by resigning from the government in a futile gesture of rebellion. So I will keep my head down and attend assiduously to the work of my department. But there may come a time when the only honourable action would be to resign on a matter of principle.

I am sympathetic to the Commonwealers [the Commonweal Party], though as a free trader I am opposed to their wanting to keep the Corn Laws. But the Liberal Party (more specifically its radical section) still best represents my political principles.

Your loving brother
Benjamin.

 

[pipisme]

The members of Young Ireland had some hope that the new Liberal government would be better than the previous Conservative government. But Sir Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord John Russell's Liberal government was a moralist and a fervent believer in laissez-faire economics. In other words he believed that the famine in Ireland was a calamity sent by Providence and that the government should provide as little relief as possible. Although he was not formally responsible for policy in respect of Ireland, he held the purse strings.

 

[stevep]

The members of Young Ireland had some hope that the new Liberal government would be better than the previous Conservative government. But Sir Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord John Russell's Liberal government was a moralist and a fervent believer in laissez-faire economics. In other words he believed that the famine in Ireland was a calamity sent by Providence and that the government should provide as little relief as possible. Although he was not formally responsible for policy in respect of Ireland, he held the purse strings.

pipisme

I think that's largely OTL isn't it? Ireland would have been better off with Peel staying in charge and more intervention sooner.

Steve

 

[pipisme]

Yes it is OTL about Charles Wood. I agree about Peel but in this TL he was assassinated in January 1844.

 

[pipisme]

The bill repealing the Corn Laws received the royal assent in late November 1848. It had negible effect on the famine in Ireland. But I don't want to get bogged down on the details of the Russell government's policy towards Ireland, which was basically the same as in OTL.

 

[pipisme]

On 18 August 1848, the first child was born to Jane Francesca Dillon and John Blake Dillon. A boy he was named Thomas for Thomas Davis (14 October 1814-16 September 1845), the writer and poet who was the chief organiser of the Young Ireland movement.

Thomas Dillon achieved fame as a writer and an Irish nationalist leader. However his career was destroyed by a sex scandal.

 

[pipisme]

I have decided to put a butterfly net over the European revolutions of 1848. Because there were so many of them, I do not have time to research and write an alternate timeline for them.

In Easter 1847 a Greek mob had pillaged the house in Athens of a Portuguese Jewish merchant called David Pacifico, but who became known to history as Don Pacifico. He claimed British citizenship because he had been born in Gibraltar. But he had lived much of his life in Portugal and had been the Portuguese consul in Athens before being dismissed for forgery. Before his house was pillaged Pacifico had acquired a British passport. This is the same as in OTL.

Pacifico made vast and inflated claims against the Greek government. When his claims were not met, in 1850 he asked the British government to impose a naval blockade of the Greece coast. Following the refusal by the Marquess of Lansdowne, the Foreign Secretary, to Pacifico's request Lord Palmerston resigned from the government as Colonial Secretary on 2 March 1850.

(1) In OTL Palmerston, who was Foreign Secretary, agreed to impose the naval blockade.

 

[stevep]

pipisme

That could be an interesting butterfly in itself. Both how the career of Palmerston develops and how feeling in Britain is affected by the issue. Could be a hard line back-lash on some other point or it could be largely ignored.

Steve

I have decided to put a butterfly net over the European revolutions of 1848. Because there were so many of them, I do not have time to research and write an alternate timeline for them.

In Easter 1847 a Greek mob had pillaged the house in Athens of a Portuguese Jewish merchant called David Pacifico, but who became known to history as Don Pacifico. He claimed British citizenship because he had been born in Gibraltar. But he had lived much of his life in Portugal and had been the Portuguese consul in Athens before being dismissed for forgery. Before his house was pillaged Pacifico had acquired a British passport. This is the same as in OTL.

Pacifico made vast and inflated claims against the Greek government. When his claims were not met, in 1850 he asked the British government to impose a naval blockade of the Greece coast. Following the refusal by the Marquess of Lansdowne, the Foreign Secretary, to Pacifico's request Lord Palmerston resigned from the government as Colonial Secretary on 2 March 1850.

(1) In OTL Palmerston, who was Foreign Secretary, agreed to impose the naval blockade.

 

[pipisme]

There was the following limited cabinet reshuffle after the resignation of Palmerston on 2 March 1850:

Henry Labouchere from Chief Secretary for Ireland to Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Benjamin Disraeli from Postmaster General to Chief Secretary for Ireland.
Sir George Cornewall Lewis from Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office to Postmaster General, and a member of the cabinet.

Disraeli was delighted that he was now Irish Secretary. Though Ireland was now recovering from the Famine, he wanted to bring justice and fairness to landlord/tenant relationships, and to disestablish the Protestant Church of Ireland which was the Church of a minority of Irish people. The fact that he was a practising Jew was much commented upon. It was hoped that this would enable him to reconcile the two main religious traditions in Ireland.

He and Anna, his wife, moved into the Chief Secretary's Lodge in Phoenix Park, Dublin. They worshipped at the synagogue in Adelaide Road. (1) Disraeli is generally regarded by historians as being a successful Chief Secretary. Disraeli Crescent is a desirable residential road in south Dublin.

(1) Here is an article about the history of the Jews in Ireland: http://www.jewishireland.org/history.html .

 

[stevep]

pipisme

Could be useful if Dizzy could loosen the Gordian knot of Irish internal differences. Hopefully something will work out better than OTL.

Steve

There was the following limited cabinet reshuffle after the resignation of Palmerston on 2 March 1850:

Henry Labouchere from Chief Secretary for Ireland to Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Benjamin Disraeli from Postmaster General to Chief Secretary for Ireland.
Sir George Cornewall Lewis from Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office to Postmaster General, and a member of the cabinet.

Disraeli was delighted that he was now Irish Secretary. Though Ireland was now recovering from the Famine, he wanted to bring justice and fairness to landlord/tenant relationships, and to disestablish the Protestant Church of Ireland which was the Church of a minority of Irish people. The fact that he was a practising Jew was much commented upon. It was hoped that this would enable him to reconcile the two main religious traditions in Ireland.

He and Anna, his wife, moved into the Chief Secretary's Lodge in Phoenix Park, Dublin. They worshipped at the synagogue in Adelaide Road. (1) Disraeli is generally regarded by historians as being a successful Chief Secretary. Disraeli Crescent is a desirable residential road in south Dublin.

(1) Here is an article about the history of the Jews in Ireland: http://www.jewishireland.org/history.html .

 

[pipisme]

There was widespread opposition to the decision by the Liberal government of Lord John Russell not to impose a naval blockade on Greece in pursuit of Don Pacifico's claims against the Greek government. This opposition was expressed by large demonstrations in London and other major cities, and by editorials in The Times and other newspapers.

On 6 March 1850 Henry Goulburn, the leader of the Conservative Party, tabled a motion for debate in the House of Commons, which condemned the Russell government's decision in the Don Pacifico affair. Palmerston and a number of other Liberals expressed their support for the motion.

On 8 March Russell said that he would treat the motion as a matter of confidence in his government.

The two day debate on 13 March and 14 March was notable for two speeches - one by Palmerston and the other by John Bright, the radical Liberal and Quaker.

Palmerston's speech of over three hour long has come down in history as the Civis Romanus Sum speech. In it he strongly attacked the government and declared that as all Roman citizens were able to claim the protection of the Roman Empire, by declaring "Civis Romanus Sum", so all British citizens should receive the protection of the British empire. (1)

Bright passionately defended the government's decision as being the only morally right one. To impose a naval blockade on Greece would have been an act of war. He said that Britain could not be the policeman of the world.

Russell and Goulburn spoke in the debate but their was little memorable in their speeches. The high-minded/priggish Grahamites [this TL's analogy to the Peelites in OTL] spoke in support of the government. The vote at the end of the debate was as follows:
For the motion: 281
Against the motion: 288.
53 Liberals voted in favour the motion. Grahamite, Commonweal, Chartist, Irish Repeal and Irish Confederate members voted against the motion. So the government survived by seven votes.

During the 1850s the Grahamites would join the Liberal Party, while Palmerston and his followers (inevitably dubbed the Palmerstonians, or Palmies) would join the Conservative Party.

(1) Here is an extract from Palmerston's speech in the House of Commons on the Don Pacifico affair on 25 June 1850: http://www.historyhome.co.uk/polspeech/foreign.htm

 

[Cuāuhtemōc]

That was a very nice update. I wonder if the British blockade DOES lead to war.

 

[pipisme]

Originally posted by Cuauhtemoc
That was a very nice update. I wonder if the British blockade DOES lead to war.

Thank you. In this TL there was no British blockade of Greece.

 

[stevep]

Pipisme

Interesting extract. I know he's normally criticised for his actions on the Don Pacifico affair but he seems to make a decent case for action being required to protect the interests of British citizens and dependants, or an I being too innocent?

TTL the government has survived the vote but it has caused a split in the party and with Pammy still rumbling in opposition this could make for an uncertain future. On the other hand the Grahamites joining the party could bring an early check on the Brightites?

Steve

 

[pipisme]

Steve

I have not read Palmerston's speech in the Don Pacifico debate in 1850 in OTL, but historians generally consider it to be brilliant and an oratorical classic.

Gladstone spoke for at least two hours in the same debate. Roy Jenkins summarises it in pages 118-120 of his biography of Gladstone, from which the following quotation is taken:

Does he [Palmerston] make the claim that we are uplifted upon a platform high above the standing-ground of all other nations. It is indeed, too clear, [...] that he adopts in part that vain conception that we, forsooth, have a mission to be the censors of vice and folly, of abuse and imperfection, among the other countries of the world; that we are to be the universal schoolmasters; and that all those who hesitate to racognise our office, can only be governed only by prejudice or personal animosity, and should have the blind war of diplomacy forthwith declared against them. [...] I understand it to be [the duty of a Foreign Secretary] to conciliate peace with dignity. I think it to be the very first of all his duties studiously to observe, and to exult in honour among mankind, that great code of principles which is termed the law of nations.

Roy Jenkins considered that after Palmerston, Gladstone made the next best speech in that debate.

There were between 15 and 20 Brightite, or radical Liberal MPs, with a further 25 to 35 or so sympathetic to them to varying degrees. Disraeli was in the first category and was the most radical member of Russell's cabinet.

 

[stevep]

There were between 15 and 20 Brightite, or radical Liberal MPs, with a further 25 to 35 or so sympathetic to them to varying degrees. Disraeli was in the first category and was the most radical member of Russell's cabinet.

pipisme

I find that interesting as OTL wasn't Dizzy rather hostile to free trade ideas OTL?

Steve

 

[pipisme]

Originally posted by stevep
wasn't Dizzy rather hostile to free trade ideas OTL?

He was against free trade but not passionately so. In his election address for Buckinghamshire in 1847 his "principal pledge was to give free trade a fair run". (1) By 1850 he had to come accept that the Conservative had no choice but to accept free trade.

On 5 September 1841, when Sir Robert Peel had filled the major and most of the minor posts in his government, Disraeli wrote him a begging letter in effect asking for a job. Mary Anne, his wife, also wrote to Peel on her husband's behalf. But as we know Peel didn't give Disraeli a job in his government.

"Disraeli was much mortified at his rebuff. Although he kept the facts of the application and refusal a profound secret, he was bitterly disappointed. It would be oversimplifying matters to say that his eventual conflict with Peel was directly caused by this episode, but his attitude to his leader naturally became more critical."

If Disraeli was a member of Peel's cabinet in the winter of 1845/1846 he might have agreed to the repeal of the Corn Laws.

In this TL Disraeli converted to the Jewish religion during his stay in Jerusalem in March 1831, and became a practising Jew. On his return to England he became involved in liberal/radical circles. In January 1835 he was elected as a Whig MP for the London constituency of Marylebone, though he could not take his seat until February 1838. Being a free trader went with the liberal/radical package. Disraeli didn't aspire to become a country gentlemen, and he didn't need the support of protectionist Tory squires in the House of Commons. In this TL he is a city lover and doesn't buy a country house like Hughenden.

(1) The quotations and information about Disraeli in OTL are taken from the book Disraeli by Robert Blake.

 

[pipisme]

By 1850 Ireland was recovering from the Famine, but the improvement in conditions meant that other deep-seated problems had to be dealt with. One of these was the position of the Church of Ireland. Although only between 10% and 14% of the Irish people were members, it was the established church in Ireland. Like the Church of England was the established church in England. In the four historic provinces of Ireland membership of the Church of Ireland was 6% in Connaught, 7% in Munster, 13% in Leinster and 22% in Ulster. In many Irish parishes there was not a single Protestant. (1)

Benjamin Disraeli, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, pressed hard in cabinet for legislation to be introduced in the House of Commons disestablishing the Church of Ireland. However although Lord John Russell, the Prime Minister, was in favour, two leading members were opposed: Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sir George Grey, the Home Secretary. If it came to a choice between Disraeli resigning, and Wood and Grey leaving, Russell would much prefer the former. The other cabinet ministers were in favour, but not to the extent of being prepared to resign over the issue.

(1) These figures are 2% higher than in 1868 in OTL as stated in the book The History of England During the Reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) by Sidney Low and Lloyd G. Sanders, published 1907.