The Government of England (Vol. I)

by A. Lawrence Lowell

Among the different kinds of political organisation those here called non-partisan are by far the oldest. Yet the term itself may be misleading. It does not mean that they have confined their efforts to cultivating an abstract public opinion in favour of their dogmas, for they have often sought to elect to Parliament men who would advocate them there. Nor does it mean that they have had no connection with the existing parties, for sometimes one of the parties has countenanced and supported their views, and in that case they have thrown their influence in favour of the candidates of that party. The term is used simply to denote a body whose primary object is not to achieve victory for a regular political party. Curiously enough, such a group of persons often comes nearer than the great parties of the present day to Burke's definition of party as "a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed." For each of the leading parties includes men who are not wholly at one in their principles. Party aims are complicated and confused, and are attained only by a series of compromises, in which the ultimate principle is sometimes obscured by the means employed to reach it. A party in modern parliamentary government would be more accurately defined as a body of men united by the intent of sustaining a common ministry.

Their Early History.

Various organisations of the kind termed here "non-partisan" arose during the latter part of the eighteenth century. The first of these of any great importance appears to have been the Society for Supporting the Bill of Rights, founded in 1769 to assist Wilkes in his controversy with the House of Commons, and in general to maintain the public liberties and demand an extension of the popular element in the constitution. Finding that the society was used to promote the personal ambition of Wilkes, some of the leading members withdrew, and founded the Constitutional Society with the same objects. Ten years later county associations were formed, and conventions composed of delegates therefrom met in London in 1780 and 1781 to petition for the redress of public grievances. Other societies were established about the same time, and they were not always of a radical character. The Protestant Association, for example, was formed under the lead of Lord George Gordon to maintain the disabilities of the Roman Catholics, and brought about the riots of June, 1780, which are still called by his name.

The political societies of those days were short-lived, and most of them died soon; but the outbreak of the French Revolution sowed the seed for a fresh crop. In 1791 the working classes of the metropolis organised the London Corresponding Society, and the next year men of less extreme views founded the Society of the Friends of the People to promote moderate reform. Whether radical or moderate, however, associations of that kind could not live in those troublous times. The repulsion and alarm provoked by the course of events in France were too strong to be resisted, and a number of repressive statutes were passed to break them up. First came an Act of 1794 to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, then in the following session another to prevent seditious meetings, and, finally, a statute of 1799, which suppressed the London Corresponding Society by name, and any others that were organised with branches. These acts and a series of prosecutions drove out of existence all the societies aiming at political reform; and during a few years, while the struggle with France was at its height, the course of domestic politics was unvexed by such movements. But the distress that followed the wars of Napoleon caused another resort to associations, which was again met by hostile legislation.

The Catholic Association, and Movements for Reform.

The repressive statutes were, however, temporary, and when the last of them expired in 1825, the way for popular organisations was again free. The Catholic Association had already been formed in Ireland to procure the removal of religious disabilities, and just as it disbanded, with its object won, in 1829, the shadow of the coming Reform Act brought forth a number of new political societies in England. In that very year Thomas Atwood founded at Birmingham the Political Union for the Protection of Public Rights, with the object of promoting parliamentary reform; and after the introduction of the Reform Bill similar unions, formed to support it, sprang up all over the country. An attempt was even made to affiliate them together in a great national organisation; but the government declared the plan illegal, and it was abandoned. Among the most interesting of the societies of this kind were those organised in London. Here, in 1831, the National Union of the Working Classes was founded by artisans, disciples of Robert Owen, commonly known as the "Rotundanists," from the name of the hall where their meetings were held. But Francis Place, the tailor, a notable figure in the agitations of the day, had no sympathy with the socialistic ideas of these men, and dreaded the effect of their society upon the fate of the Reform Bill. He had a much keener insight into the real situation, and started as a counterstroke the National Political Union, with the sole object of supplying in London the popular impulse needed, in his opinion, to push the measure through.[462:1] The Bill was no sooner passed than the many associations, which had been founded upon a union of the middle and lower classes to effect a particular reform, began to die out.

The Anti-Slavery Societies.

Meanwhile two successive organisations of a non-partisan, and, indeed, of a non-political, character, had been carrying a purely humanitarian movement to a triumphant end. The Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in 1787, and strove, by the collection of evidence, by petitions, pamphlets and corresponding local committees, to enlighten public opinion and persuade Parliament. After working for a score of years, supported by the tireless efforts of Wilberforce in the House of Commons, it prevailed at last upon Parliament to suppress the slave-trade by the Acts of 1806 and 1807. Sixteen years thereafter the Anti-Slavery Society was formed to urge the entire abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions, and this it brought about in 1833, the strength of its advocates in the Commons, backed by popular agitation outside, being great enough to compel Lord Grey's government to bring in a bill for the purpose.[462:2]

Non-Party Organisations after 1832.

The Chartists.