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A Biography of Great Men – A History of Britain: 1836-1935 [HoD 3.03]

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While not an update, I'm afraid (though that is nearly complete) I just thought I'd rather belatedly take the opportunity to mention that the Q3 ACAs are currently active. If you are yet to vote, and should you wish to, then you can find all if the appropriate threads here. Votes for this AAR, while really not at all necessary, are always greatly appreciated. :)

In other news, if I don't have the next update up by Monday, feel free to voice your anger at my negligence.
 
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1851 General Election

The Results

Going into the final days of campaigning, the election began to develop an altogether different feel to those of its immediate predecessors. Namely, whereas the elections of 1847 and 1840 had existed within airs of general uncertainty – the former in terms of who would emerge as victor; the latter in terms of the country's political climate at the time – the election of 1851 was marked more by a stronger feeling: vindication. It was generally felt by both the governmental and opposition camps that, should they prove victorious, they would be exonerated. Indeed, both groups had points to prove. For Lord Stanley and his Conservatives, there was a need for confidence after the disaster that was the Who? Who? Ministry. For Lord Lansdowne, there was a desire to show that the Whigs had the ability to act and to govern – not just to oppose and politick. To a lesser degree, Lord Aberdeen also needed for results to go his way so as to add a dose of legitimacy to his rebelling group of followers (the implication also being that a good result would remove any comparisons with the lacklustre Stanleyites of the previous decade.) Therefore, when polls opened and campaigns finally wound to a close, all in Westminster were eager to find out whether they had been given the confidence of the electorate.

For the sitting government, a successful night would see them returned to the same side of the Commons the following day. Derby, well aware that his latest foray into governance was likely to have at least some effect on the final result, was under no illusions that he could expect a thumping majority. Indeed, were you to offer the premier a majority of any fashion on the evening of the 22nd of September 1851, he'd have likely made an unpleasant mess on your floor in his eagerness to bite your hand off. The Tory leader knew that it would either be minority governance or no governance at all as far as his party were concerned. The renewal of inter-Tory grudges along the lines of trade made certain that reconciliation was certainly not on the cards, leaving Derby still without allies in parliament.

Perhaps more important than the quantity of seats, however, was the quality of those Derby was hoping would fill them. Peel's total dominance of the Tory party during the final decade of his life had effectively (though, if should be noted, unwillingly) killed any hopes of the Stanleyites gaining vital cabinet experience, meaning that, by the time the Stanleyite Tories received their turn to rule, they were suffering from an embarrassing dearth of ministerial talent. So as to avoid a rerun of this phenomenon, it was therefore vital that all of Derby's 'good men' were returned without issue. In theory, the backing of the vast majority of the Conservative party as opposed to only a small grouping thereof would give his candidates some much-needed added clout on the ballot paper. Derby would be helped too by the fact that there were nowhere near enough Peelite (or, as some candidates chose to style themselves, 'Liberal Conservative') candidates to challenge every seat in the country. The battle, therefore, very much seemed the prime minister's to lose. Or at least as far as the rival Tory groupings were concerned.

Rather, Derby's main threat going into the election was the Whig Party. Seemingly reinvigorated after a period of complacency and then stagnation by the (outright) leadership of Lord Lansdowne, the Whigs had much to their favour by the time the polls closed: their upper echelons were stocked to the brim with talent and personality; their cause was stronger than ever thanks to a dire showing from Lord Derby and, perhaps most importantly, their seats were largely safe. Having secured 270 seats last time around (a figure bolstered slightly by 1851 by defections and by-elections) just one of the most prominent polls published at the time had them down as seeing this figure reduced by the morning of the 23rd of September. Spirits, therefore, were perhaps not unreasonably high, and many a bookmaker in the city had made a small fortune during the campaign season taking bets on a Whig premiership.

Meanwhile, the Peelites presented a more unknown quantity. Previously (and with the backing of the majority of the Conservative Party) Lord Aberdeen and his followers had been able to easily command a respectable number of seats – if not an outright majority, thanks to the then Lord Stanley. Ostracised from the main body of the party, however, Aberdeen had no precedent to go on as far as predictions were concerned – aside, of course, from the infinitely depressing Protectionist showing in 1847. His major obstacle would be an inability to field candidates in every seat, having around fifty men at his disposal at best[1]. Therefore, strategic placing was a necessity – something which, while not ideal, would at least ensure that Lord Aberdeen and his colleagues could be reasonably sure of some degree of success. At the very least, it was hoped amongst all opposition camps that the presence of two nominally-conservative candidates on some ballot papers would split the vote to such an extent that the Whigs could sneak a few more candidates into parliament at Derby's expense.

Outside of their respective strongholds (i.e. the industrial north and Ireland) little attention was given to predictions of how the Radicals and the Repealers would fare. For many, the Radicals were simply a more extreme Whig grouping and therefore did not merit individual comment; the Repealers were widely considered as being of no interest outside of Ireland. For both parties, there was also a sense that they were so stationary that any predictions were redundant. Nonetheless, each party did have hopes for the results. John Bright noted to the Examiner that he would consider ten seats a solid victory for the Radical cause, though few would have seriously thought such to figure likely based in the party's past showings. William Smith O'Brien, meanwhile, commented to a local Irish publication that he was aiming to secure around 30 seats.

The Results Arrive

Lord Derby started the night safe in the knowledge that there would be no repeats of the mishap over the seating of Lord George Bentinck for four years prior, and therefore found himself perhaps a more buoyant mood than one would have expected as the polls closed. This was a mood sustained by news from various (and largely insignificant) areas within London and the Home Counties of a handful of Tory victories. Derby, therefore, would not be completely alone in Parliament.

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Going into election night with seats already secured gave Lord Derby a great boost in confidence.

His first real test, however, was the City of London. A Whig safe seat for the past few elections, the constituency did have a blue streak under its more recent buff surface, giving the Tory leader hope that, maybe, he could sneak a member in via one of the City's numerous seats. His main problem, however, was his opposing candidates – Lionel de Rothschild and Lord John Russell. The former was not so much an issue, and indeed there was a chance that thanks to populist and anti-Semitic scaremongering by the News of the World, he could be driven into thrid-placed obscurity, allowing the Tory candidate, John Masterman, to take the second seat almost by default. For this to happen in many areas would be worthy of little note; in the City of London, one of the most cosmopolitan areas of the country, it would not be wholly expected. Therefore, Derby was left waiting for the results along with everyone else.

Lord Russell, for his part, was generally sure that he at least would be returned, though exercised greater worries about his Jewish colleague. Even if he were returned, getting him into Parliament at all would likely require at least a few by-elections and countless bills – giving Derby and his Tories plenty of time to regroup and take one of the constituencies seats. Either way, the result would shape Whiggish policy for the coming term, and so both Russell and Lansdowne paid it particular attention.

When the results finally reached St. James' (only a few minutes away in reality) there was jubilation in the Reform Club. Rothschild had secured a seat by a margin of just over 2% of the votes, meaning that, rather than being some sort of in-between shade of green, the City of London remained firmly yellowish in hue.

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The City of London was always Russell and Rothschild's for the taking, even if getting the latter seated would prove a bit more complicated.

Needless to say, it was not the result that Derby had hoped for. Nevertheless, he did not dwell on his shortcomings – likely because he knew that the seat was by no means secure for the whole term – and so moved on to awaiting the next sets of results, the most prominent amongst which coming from Buckinghamshire.

Derby's candidate for the seat was the charismatic, enigmatic and sometimes problematic Benjamin Disraeli – Conservative Leader in the Commons and general leading light of the new right wing. For the man affectionately known as "Dizzy" to be out of Parliament for the next session would be a disastrous blow to the Tories, and so it was necessary for all at the Carlton Club the he was seated without a hitch. Happily for them, the Whigs had not put up their strongest candidate to oppose him. Also happily for them, the constituents of Buckinghamshire had elected only two liberal members to Parliament since the passing of the Great Reform Act. It was therefore seen as being Dizzy's for the taking.

He ultimately did so in comfortable fashion, winning the seat by a margin of just under 3% and even increasing his majority by a fraction. Despite this, from defeat the Whigs could also claim success, with Cavendish increasing his own share of the votes substantially at the expense of Disraeli's colleague, Caledon Du Pré. As one commentator would note: "Lord Derby expended so much effort in tending to his flower that he neglected to tend to the grassroots". It was a form of complacency common in all parties, though with fewer 'flowers', it was one that had the potential to prove especially potent for Lord Derby, whose grassroots were arguably more important than any other (main) party's.

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The emergence of a Whiggish presence in Buckinghamshire proved upsetting for the Tory incumbents.

Derby's night would be improved even more by news from Midhurst, a small Sussex constituency of relatively little note. Nonetheless, it was transformed in 1851 to become immensely important, playing host to Spencer Horatio Walpole's continued parliamentary ambition. Spencer Horatio Walpole had, if nothing else, an auspicious name, which in itself was the result of auspicious breeding. His two-times great-uncle was Sir Robert Walpole, the Earl of Orford, and the man generally regarded as the first prime minister. His great-uncle, meanwhile, was Spencer Perceval – another prime minister, though infamous for his status as the only British premier to be assassinated. As the scion of these two luminous heritages, and having himself served as Home Secretary during the "Who? Who? Ministry", Walpole's place within the Tory party was well-valued. For Derby to lose him would not be ideal, to say the least.

The Conservative leader was abetted in his efforts to get Walpole into Parliament, somewhat ironically, by his opposition – or rather more precisely, by a lack thereof. Walpole's only competitor for the seat was an undistinguished Peelite, Samuel Warren. In truth, Warren had little chance of defeating such an influential figure within both the Tory party and the constituency (Walpole had been the sitting MP since 1847). Derby, therefore, was not unreasonable in his expectations of victory.

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Lord Derby's night continued well with news from Midhurst.

He duly received it. The results were announced just after eleven o'clock, and made their way to Clubland soon after. For Derby, the night was fast becoming something of an unexpected success, and some of his rather more idealistic fellow club members apparently began discussing how the cabinet would look just before midnight. In doing this, however, they were pre-empting one of the left's most potent weapons: the North.

Results from Manchester, the golden crown atop the yellowish bastion of Lancashire, arrived just after midnight, bringing with them a new direction for the night. As had been predicted in the aftermath of their controversial 'debate', both John Bright and Thomas Milner Gibson had lived up to expectations and each taken one of the city's two seats. Their only opposition, the perennial challenger and Chartist Jeremiah Thornberry, polled just 6% of the vote as the Mancunian electorate came out in force to show their support of free trade.

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Results from Manchester merely confirmed the inevitable.

Derby had never had any ambitions on the Manchester area, as evidenced by his refusal to out up a candidate of his own, and so remained confident that he would still be able to rack up enough seats to secure his much-needed majority. At half past midnight, however, news from Devon put a dampened on his optimism.

While defeating the popular and charismatic incumbent Viscount Palmerston was never a realistic aim (the man known as "Lord Cupid" had been the village's incumbent since 1835,) securing the second seat on offer in the constituency was not an unrealistic goal. This, therefore, was Derby's aim – to take advantage of a ballot paper saturated by liberals by taking the entire rightist vote. As it would turn out, this was not such a foolproof plan. While it cannot be doubted that Derby achieved his aims in that he secured the entire opposition vote, his miscalculation had come in overestimating how great an effect this would have – namely, there were not many Tories in Tiverton. Derby's candidate coming an ignominious third place behind both Whiggish candidates, taking just under 18% of the vote. Put simply, it was not the party's finest hour.

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Tiverton provided the Whigs with a solid base of support and a few extra seats.

While Russell and Lansdowne celebrated the recent string of good news to arrive at the Reform Club, Derby looked ahead – or rather, more accurately, he looked west. Ireland was an island of contradictions at the time, the most noticeable of which arguably its divided politics. The Protestant Northern provinces were staunchly Tory – a legacy of the region's traditional unionism and loyalty to the United Kingdom's traditional institutions. These were the areas that interested Derby most, largely safe seats with little opposition from the Whigs – certainly not from the Repealers. For the most part, however, Ireland was not so hospitable for the Conservatives. Outside of Ulster, the right wing seldom took any ground from the entrenched liberals and Repealers. Once the results for the north had reached St. James', therefore, Derby knew that there would be little good news until later on in the night.

In truth, few constituencies of note existed in Ireland at the time, with Irish MPs seldom in positions of influence, save for those few Irish peers sitting in the Commons. County Limerick, however, had played host to Repealers leader William Smith O'Brien's continued political ambitions, and so warranted reporting in London's clubs. When the news did arrive, it was unsurprising. The popular and often radical politician had secured his constituents' good graces once again and was returned to Parliament with little fuss. He was accompanied by the Whiggish William Monsell, a local (and popular) landowner in the county. James Mornington, nominally the least liberal of all the candidates on the ballot, performed respectably, though ultimately lost out by a little under 200 votes. It was good news for Lansdowne and Russell, though for Derby this marked the point where his night began to lose its momentum. Nevertheless, he was able to enjoy a final few victories.

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The right wing had long since abandoned staunchly liberal constituencies such as County Limerick.

Oxford University, as well tradition, declared its results last, just before the sun came up on the morning of September the 23rd. A staunchly Tory constituency, immensely proud of its political detachment from the government, Derby could always hope to win at least another seat to bolster his ranks. In 1851, however, it would prove to just be the one, with incumbent William Gladstone – the new star of the Liberal-Conservative bloc – very popular with the university's voters. Matters were not helped by the presence of two Conservative candidates on the ballot, splitting the blue vote to the extent that Gladstone was allowed to claim a sizeable plurality. While by no means a disaster for the outgoing prime minister, it was not an entirely convenient state of affairs. With the end of declarations, however, all that remained for for seats to be totted up before the new composition of Parliament was announced.

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Oxford's results offered little surprise for commentators.

The Aftermath

Despite the best efforts by the party's elite to limit the damage the previous government had had on their electoral performance, the Conservatives' worst fears were confirmed in time for them to be displayed in the morning papers: the Whigs had secured a majority, with Lansdowne taking 341 seats to Derby's 264. It was the Tories' worst performance in twenty years, effectively gifting the liberals a free hands to form a government.

This would not be as simple as it might first appear, however. With 49 seats still unaccounted for, there remained the matter of what to do with the smaller groupings in Parliament – the Peelites, Repealers and Radicals, none of whom would have been particularly well suited to life accompanying the Tories in opposition. It was therefore decided that these parties would sit on the government benches in a sort of coalition (in truth, an uneven partnership) with the Whigs. The Peelites certainly had many a talented statesman who would fit well in a Whig cabinet, making it rather easy for Lansdowne to offer Aberdeen and Gladstone a handful of governmental postings. Lansdowne would receive the Queen's summons to kiss hands on the morning of the 23rd. When he announced his government soon after, it would be the first in a new age for British politics. Without knowing, he had formed the United Kingdom's first Liberal government.

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Finally prime minister: Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne

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The 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom saw Lord Derby's and his Conservatives with a large minority in opposition.

The First Lansdowne Ministry

First Lord of the Treasury: The Marquess of Lansdowne (Whig)
Leader of the House of Lords: The Marquess of Lansdowne (Whig)
Lord Chancellor: The Lord Cranworth (Whig)
Lord President of the Council: The Earl Granville (Whig)
Lord Privy Seal: The Duke of Argyll (Peelite)
Chancellor of the Exchequer: William Ewart Gladstone (Peelite)
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: The Viscount Palmerston (Whig)
Secretary of State for the Home Department: Lord John Russell (Whig)
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies: The Earl of Aberdeen (Peelite)
First Lord of the Admiralty: Sir James Graham, Bt. (Peelite)
President of the Board of Control: Sir Charles Wood, Bt. (Whig)
President of the Board of Trade: John Bright (Radical)
First Commissioner of Works: The Lord Seymour (Whig)
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: The Earl of Carlisle (Whig)
Secretary at War: Thomas Babington Macaulay (Whig)
Paymaster-General: The Lord Stanley of Alderley (Whig)
Chief Secretary for Ireland: The Earl of Clarendon (Whig)
Leader of the House of Commons: Lord John Russell (Whig)


1: Exit polls giving the Peelites more than fifty seats did so not realising how few candidates the group had available. The Northern Star was particularly overshooting the mark in this regard.​
 
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Oh, the horror!
 
I'd better get my Whig wig.
 
Tommy4ever said:
I'd better get my Whig wig.
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Why? They're already out of fashion! :p

Top update Densley, nice to see that my prediction was spot on too. :)
 
Great update! It was particularly interesting to see the focus on individual candidates. The skills of individual politicians, as opposed to simply their ideology, are unfortunately often overlooked in actual politics. I suppose IRL the Peelites would have picked some beggars off the street to pose as candidates :p
 
Gen. Marshall said:
I suppose IRL the Peelites would have picked some beggars off the street to pose as candidates :p
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I'm tempted to make a joke about this, but I won't. Too cruel.
 
Hurrah for the yellows! Though I'm glad Disraeli won his seat, Britain wouldn't be the same without him. In your description of the News of the World, did you mean populist and anti-Semitic? I looked up what semiotic means, and it seems odd for the News of the world to be opposed to it.
 
99KingHigh said:
Oh, the horror!
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Oh, come off it! Dizzy's still here, isn't he? :p

Tommy4ever said:
I'd better get my Whig wig.
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Tanzhang (譚張) said:
Why? They're already out of fashion! :p
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Weren't they taken away as evidence, in any case? :D

Top update Densley, nice to see that my prediction was spot on too. :)
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Thanks Tanzhang! Your predictions were indeed spot on. :)

Gen. Marshall said:
Great update! It was particularly interesting to see the focus on individual candidates. The skills of individual politicians, as opposed to simply their ideology, are unfortunately often overlooked in actual politics. I suppose IRL the Peelites would have picked some beggars off the street to pose as candidates :p
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I've always liked looking at individuals within politics – especially seeing people's careers develop and seeing what impact they have on the political world. Therefore the approach appeals to me – more so when one considers that simply writing about how liberalism is dominant in x number of constituencies would get quite dull very soon and leave me with little to day aside from repeating myself.

After all, this is A Biography of Great Men. ;)

As for the Peelites, in our timeline (and as I've tried to convey here – I think with limited success, to be honest) they were just a group of rebellious Tories. When elections came, candidates ran under various banners (Gladstone, I believe, chose "Liberal-Conservative". Some used "Free-Trade Conservative", while others just used "Peelite" as if it were meant to mean something to the common man...) Most were just voted back in under whichever banner as, as I've also tried to portray, each constituency was effectively a seperate entity (odd as it sounds) and personality carried as much weight as what the person actually represented. Therefore, if they could find some paupers and convince people that they were cabinet ministers, they'd have a decent chance. :D

Thanks for the comment, as ever.

Tanzhang (譚張) said:
I'm tempted to make a joke about this, but I won't. Too cruel.
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If they were Protectionist Tories, on the other hand... :D

GreatUberGeek said:
Hurrah for the yellows! Though I'm glad Disraeli won his seat, Britain wouldn't be the same without him. In your description of the News of the World, did you mean populist and anti-Semitic? I looked up what semiotic means, and it seems odd for the News of the world to be opposed to it.
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I did, yes – though I certainly didn't mean anti-semiotic, which is what I seem to have wrote. Thanks for pointing that out.

We need both Bill and Ben around to get this dichotomy going. We've yet to even see the former exiled in the Ionian Islands, after all! :D


Thanks for the comments, all. It's good to finally have these elections finished! I'm hoping that I can get another update for you before Christmas. I'm looking forward to writing the next few years, at least. Some exciting stuff happens.

If anyone else has any views about the results, I'm always happy to hear them. :)
 
Wonderful update and glad to see Disraeli win his seat. Hope to see another update sooner rather than later
 
Terraferma said:
Wonderful update and glad to see Disraeli win his seat. Hope to see another update sooner rather than later
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All of this love for Disraeli is very interesting – especially considering he's yet to do anything in this timeline aside from inadvertently bring down a government! Nevertheless, I too am pleased that he retained his seat. God knows the Tories will need him in the coming years.

I'm also hoping for an update soon. If I can find the time, I'd like to have something out before the month ends.
 
Hey, Dizzy is awesome in any timeline.
 
DensleyBlair said:
Well, that's true enough. I think he's yet to reach his full awesomeness here, though.
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Well, it's not like we don't have time for him to blossom.
 
GreatUberGeek said:
Well, it's not like we don't have time for him to blossom.
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Worry not, he'll blossom in good time. ;)


I'm hoping to update relatively soon (I had sidelined Friday evening to write, though was sidelined by a three-and-a-half hour game of chess...) though I need to edit the screenshots for the next part in any case, which has slowed progress a bit.

As I say, I'm hoping to have something out soon, though.
 
If it was three and a half hours long, at least tell us who won. :D Did you use the Castle Hassle move?
 
GreatUberGeek said:
If it was three and a half hours long, at least tell us who won. :D Did you use the Castle Hassle move?
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I threw away a chance at victory by thinking two moves ahead – then forgetting to do the first move. :D If by "Castle Hassle" you mean castling, then yes, I did.
 
DensleyBlair said:
I threw away a chance at victory by thinking two moves ahead – then forgetting to do the first move. :D If by "Castle Hassle" you mean castling, then yes, I did.
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Dammit, DB! :p
Well, by Castle Hassle, I mean this ultra-über fantastic move. Both rooks hover 8 inches above the board and quickly move to the center, where they sit for several seconds, fire warning shots to blow up the bishops, and then descend to the playing surface where they crisscross and wipe out all the pawns, circle back around, and eliminate both knights and rooks.
 
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