British Politics
| Published date | 01 December 1980 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1980.tb01267.x |
| Date | 01 December 1980 |
| Subject Matter | Books |
BOOKS
BRITISH
POLITICS
J.
R.
Vincent, (ed.),
Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative Party: The Political Journals
Lord Stanley, remembered better if at all as the 15th Earl
of
Derby, occupied a curious but central
position in mid-Victorian party politics.
A
dutiful lieutenant to his father and friend of Disraeli, he
was quite unlike either of them, being in his own words ‘a moderate man, of aristocratic
sympathies, and detesting political enthusiasts’, but also convinced that ‘the party of innovation
must succeed, and that resistance is foolish’. Though nothing
of
a popular politician himself nor a
commanding figure in the House of Commons, he was an earnest and capable administrator and
looked upon by many influential people as a possible successor to Palmerston. Then as now the
desire in high places for moderation, consensus and coalition was strong. The discovery and
publication of his journals is another step in Professor Vincent’s endeavour to take
us
behind the
scenes to discover the innermost secrets
of
high politics. The Journals reflect the changing moods
and preoccupation
of
the ruling class and do indeed emphasize the difference between con-
temporary concerns and the reconstructions of hindsight. Disraeli is put into context, and his
dependence on Derby emphasized as is the uncertainty of his position. Perhaps most interesting is
the fear and distrust
of
Gladstone, who was seriously thought to be on the brink of insanity. There
is much of interest on the strength of party, the behaviour
of
Members
of
Parliament in the
so-
called golden age of the independent MP, the business habits of ministers, as well as shrewd
observations of character and intriguing gossip.
of
Lord Stanley
184949
(Hassocks, Harvester,
1978),
xviii+404
pp.,
f18.70.
JAMES CVRNFVRD
D.
Wormell,
Sir John Seeley and the Uses
of
History
(Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press,
1980),
x+233 pp., €15.00.
On hearing of Gladstone’s wish to appoint him Regius Professor of Modern History at
Cambridge, Seeley commented, ‘he can have no reason to think that
I
have given any special
attention
to
Modern History’; and indeed his own research was to remain exiguous. Deborah
Wormell makes sense of his influential career, drawing discriminatingly upon a cache
of
family
papers which contain indications of Seeley’s peculiar disposition, and subjecting his writings to
systematic analysis. What impressed contemporaries was Seeley’s conception of history as a school
of
statesmanship. He preached that history was the ‘root’ and political science the ‘fruit’. His most
famous book,
The
Expansion
of
England
(1883),
presented a timely view of Britain’s historical
destiny as lying in imperial federation, and sold
80,000
within two years. Its ideological impact and
the connexion with Seeley’s rejection of Gladstonian Liberalism are deftly appraised by the
author. What particularly upset Seeley was that fellow students of history and politics should
become Home Rulers-he declared it ‘a humiliating
reductio ad absurdurn’
for his ‘favourite notion
of making politics
a
matter of teaching’. The influence of a form
of
positivism here, both in
indicating a scientific methodology and in postulating a moral consensus, is a further theme,
taking
us
back to the Broad Church dimension of his thought. This careful study shows that
Deborah Wormell had triumphantly completed her apprenticeship as a historian before her
tragically early death in
1979.
P.
F. CLARKE
A.
Sykes,
Tarff Reform in British Polirics
1903-13
(Oxford, Clarendon Press,
1979),
ix
Alan Sykes has written by far the best book to date on tariff reform, replacing those of Semmel,
Searle and Rempel to become the standard account. He has unravelled a highly complex story, and
+352 pp..
f16.00.
BOOKS
621
his description
of
the evolving themes of radical Unionism has an impressive lucidity. It now
becomes easier to see how the conflicting ideologies of Edwardian politics fit into a single
triangular pattern of Conservative, Liberal and Labour. Tariff Reform was gradually transformed
from an imperial vision into a negative tactic
to
contain Labour, and its dynamic was sapped by
years
of
compromise and delay. The need
for
increased revenue
to
pay for social and defence
spending became its chief justification; the importance of W. A.
S.
Hewins and of Bonar Law
before
1910
are recognized at last.
What is less satisfactory is the low horizon at which the book aims. There is no discussion
of
the
Tariff Reform League
or
of shifting opinions in the localities, nothing on the industrial supporters
and opponents of tariffs. The book is aimed at specialists and makes few concessions to others;
hence, a baffling number of minor characters
flit
across the page without either identification
or
explanation. There is little help from the index, which is quite inadequate (thirty-two un-
differentiated entries under ‘working classes’ is typical of much of it). And is
it
quite fair to end
with the conclusion that radical Unionism was a fraud, unless the writer looks a little beyond
1913?
For
it
was only after the First World War, under that keen tariff reformer Stanley Baldwin,
that the radical Unionists took control of their party.
JOHN RAMSDEN
A.
W.
Wright,
G.
D.
H.
Cole and Socialist Democracy
(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1979),
Almost ten years ago Dame Margaret Cole published a valuable biography of her late husband.
Dr Wright’s book is not designed to replace this but to supplement
it
with a careful and critical
study of his ideas. His task has been attempted previously, but much
less
effectively. Dr Wright’s
study is rigorous as well as lucid and well-written. He
is
not afraid
to
point out the ‘tensions’ and
‘ambiguities’ of
Cole’s
work, and correctly regards him as more a catalyst
of
thought than as an
original thinker. The first half of the book is taken up with an account
of
Guild Socialism, bringing
out both its strengths and its weaknesses. In
so
far as ‘participation’ is again in the forefront
of
contemporary interest, he regards Cole’s work as being
of
renewed importance today. But there is
a hint of scepticism in his treatment of the subject, influenced no doubt by the increasing caution
of Cole’s own approach in later years. The latter part of the study deals with Cole’s attitude to
unemployment in the inter-war years. and the author provides a valuable corrective to Skidelsky
and others who would have
us
believe that only Keynes and Mosley thought of stimulating the
economy by means
of
a programme of public works. Finally, there is a discussion
of
Cole’s interest
in the idea of establishing a ‘Third Force’ between Russia and America after
1945.
The author
points out that for most of his career Cole was really a ‘little Englander’, with scant interest in the
politics of other countries; and
it
was ironic that after his death he was hailed as a great
internationalist.
301
pp.,
f12.50.
HENRY PCLLING
B.
Wasserstein,
Britain and the Jews
of
Europe
1939-1945
(Oxford, Clarendon Press:
Oxford University Press, 1979),
viii
+
389
pp..
f7.95.
This modestly priced book contains a difficult subject within a small compass.
It
deals with British
policy towards the Jews of Europe under Nazi persecution during the Second World War. Writing
with restrained emotion, the author concentrates on the control exercised over refugees and on the
Bermuda Conference
of
April
1943
to handle their problems. He demonstrates how little was done
to
aid Jews wishing
to
emigrate to Palestine,
or
to frustrate the Nazi programme
of
extermination.
A vast amount of archival material has been digested, and the account is well organised
to
explain
the context of British policy towards Palestine. But the author’s explanation of bureaucratic
indifference to the plight of the Jews would be more convincing
if
it did not depend
so
much on his
detection of anti-Semitism and what he calls a certain ‘blindness to reality’. Whatever the
weaknesses of the Colonial Office’s Middle East department, which incidentally recognized the
many ramifications
of
its position on the proposed partition of Palestine. there were a number of
specific calculations about the Arabs which
it
seemed at least possible to effect. The bureaucrats
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