But the utter ignorance of the Dudley Tories of the population amongst whom they live is no better exhibited than by “the strikes,” which are of habitual occurrence in this important district. If the history of the labour of this locality were written, it would be found that “strikes” amongst the pitmen were the rule, and continuous labour the exception. The pitmen in the Dudley district are always, in fact, in an incipient state of strike, or else in strike itself. It is evident that there must be something wrong in a system under which such a state of things as this exists. We do not hear of these repeated strikes in the cotton manufacturing districts, in the woollen trade, or in the clothing trade, at Manchester, or Bolton, or Huddersfield, or Leeds. Why should the population on the Dudley side of the coal country “strike” so much more frequently than they do upon the Wolverhampton and Bilston side of the same district? There must be a fault here, and we have little hesitation in attributing it to the want of sympathy of the employers for the employed.
In order to explain this more thoroughly it is necessary to describe shortly how the mines of this coal district are worked. We will take the district immediately adjacent to the town of Dudley. The great owner of the soil is Lord Ward. Lord Ward lets his land on royalties: that is to say, the person taking a lease of it engages to work the minerals upon the property, to pay so much per ton for all the coal and ironstone obtained, to get no more than a certain maximum quantity, which is agreed on, every year, but to pay as for a certain minimum quantity, whether he may get the maximum or none. This is the contract as between the owner of the soil and the ironmaster. But the ironmaster does not work the mines himself: he contracts with a middleman, called a butty-collier, who engages to open the mine for him, and to get a certain quantity of coal or ironstone per week, at a price to be agreed. The butty-collier employs a gang of men for this purpose. These men are consequently never brought into connexion with, nor do they in the slightest degree engage the sympathies of, their real employer. In many cases they do not even know the “butty,” for the butty contents himself with negotiating with the master, and contracts with the men through one of their own class, who is ordinarily called a “doggie.” The master never goes into the mines: the “butty” very rarely. But it is in these mines that the colliers exist from one week’s end to another; it is here that they live, and breathe, and have their being.
Now, the effect of this system of labour in the iron district is highly detrimental to every class engaging in the trade. The labourer, having nothing in common with the employer, is continually striking to get more out of him—and hence the “strikes” by which the trade is continually suffering. On the other hand the employer is led to treat the workman as a mere machine; as a machine without wants or feelings; as a machine in which he is only so far interested as he can work it. A remarkable proof of this position is to be found in the fact, that although accidents in the pit-work are in the fearful proportion of no less than seventy-two per cent. per annum to the number of labourers, yet there is not in the Town of Dudley, or in the country round about it, a hospital, or even a dispensary! “All cases requiring peculiar care must be sent to Birmingham,” twelve miles off!
When people are found so careless of the lives of the labourers by whom they live, how can it be expected that they can be anxious concerning their political position? The late Vicar of Dudley put it upon record that his rich fellow townsman cared nothing either for the spiritual or moral welfare of the poor. “I had the greatest possible difficulty,” he says, “in obtaining money for building district churches. On coming to the parish I found only two old endowed schools in one building, and they were in great difficulties.” This reverend gentleman and other clergymen detail the difficulties they have in extracting a sixpence from the richest masters in the district for the benefit of the poor, and the utter regardlessness which there is for their social or spiritual well being.
This ignorance of the working class—of their wants, wishes, feelings and interests—is no doubt a predisposing cause to the Toryism of the Dudley ironmasters. The system of their trade is another predisposing cause. Most people know, that virtually, the iron trade is a monopoly. The large ironmasters are continually struggling to maintain it so. You have heard probably of what are called “Ironmasters’ Quarterly Meetings.” Allow us an opportunity of exposing one of the greatest absurdities that ever existed in any trade. In the week after every legal quarter day the ironmasters of South Staffordshire perambulate the district to hold what they call their quarterly meetings, and to arrange what the price of iron shall be for the ensuing quarter. The ironmasters meet, say at Wolverhampton or at Dudley. They dine at the hotel. They fix the price of iron—the price that is to govern all the trade. One of them—a jolly red nosed old Tory—the most convivial of all the lot, and the most emphatic about the price, returns home after dinner, and finds a letter on his table requesting him to tender for a quantity of rails. Within twelve hours after he has “settled the price,” he is certain to be underselling all his neighbours. This “settling the price” of iron is a farce. But if so, what is the use of the quarterly meeting? Why, the use of the quarterly meeting is to keep up the monopoly, to afford an occasion for excluding “the new man” in the business—to present a favourable opportunity for a combination against the weaker and humbler manufacturer—and, in addition to all this, to put the screw upon the labourer, by combining to enforce the lowest rate of wages in the works and pits. For at these Ironmasters’ Quarterly Meetings, wages, forsooth, are regulated, as well as the price of iron. And you will find, if you examine the subject attentively, that these wages are fixed without regard to the quality of the labour or the skill of the workman, in the same way as the price of iron is fixed, without regard to its quality, or the nature of the supply.
Their monopoly, therefore, makes the Dudley ironmasters Tories by habit and Tories by position. We will now show how they are also Tories by self-interests and Tories by coercion. The coal-field, or as it is sometimes called “the great black cake,” is of limited extent. The lords of the soil are few in number. Lord Ward possesses the largest share of it. Sir Horace St. Paul was the next greatest proprietor. Now it is a matter of absolute necessity with the lessees, that they should be upon as good terms as possible with the owners of the soil. And we will explain the reasons why. When a coal-field is taken to work a considerable amount of capital is necessarily invested. Works have to be erected; a shaft has to be sunk. From the nature of the property no very large quantity of land can be taken at once. In a little time, probably, all that has been originally leased is worked out. The lessee has now to obtain a new piece of ground. You will see at once that in order to make his original pit and works available it is necessary that such new piece of ground should adjoin that he originally took. The instances are rare in which this adjoining ground does not belong to the same landlord. If the master is on good terms with the steward he gets it; if he is not, a large proportion of his capital is necessarily sacrificed. The self-interest, therefore, of these ironmasters induces them to go with the owner of the soil, and obliges them to submit to the coercion of the steward. At Dudley, as we shall presently find, this has gone so far that the constituency are content to swallow Lord Ward’s own agent as their representative in parliament, a person who rarely comes amongst them, who does the town no earthly good, and who is as careless about the fulfilment of his parliamentary duties as if he was sitting for Gatton or Old Sarum.
Such, then, to conclude this branch of the subject, are the circumstances under which the important town of Dudley is a Tory town. The explanation will set at rest all cavil as to the reason why this large manufacturing constituency should now send a Tory to the House of Commons. We started by saying that there was little hope of improvement—that an extension of the suffrage would probably have no effect whatever on the returns of this constituency. If the suffrage was household, it would be extended in Dudley to a lower class of “buttys” and “doggies,” who are all under the thumb and immediate influence of the master. If it was universal, it would be extended to the mining labourers, who in their turn are under the thumb and immediate influence of the “buttys” and “doggies.” Indeed the character of this particular population requires that, before the suffrage, another enlightener should be introduced, in the person of the schoolmaster. “The old collier of this town,” says the late Vicar of Dudley, “is a heavy, superstitious, gluttonous animal, most harmless, and naturally good natured, without a spark of political feeling, unless as regards his daily wages: all beyond is to him dreary and unreal.” Some years ago, the Chartists thought they had made an impression in the coal country; but it was a mistake. They were all powerful in Birmingham, but not in any way understood in Dudley. “The Chartists,” says a working man, “had a room in Dudley for a year or more before the strike. Occasionally Lecturers would come and lecture there. Not many men at any time enrolled their names. I should say 50 or 60 might be the most, and they paid 1d. a week, but the room could not have held that number at once.” Another working man says: “The men did not follow the Chartists from any principle, but fled to them for refuge in the strike, and were glad for any one to come and instruct them in the prices of iron and so forth. Political affairs had nothing to do with us; we had to deal with our masters. The Chartists never had any friends in Dudley.” A population of this sort evidently requires instruction in order duly to exercise political privileges.
And, now, having fully pointed out the position of Dudley as regards the social and political influences at work there, we proceed to give that which is more immediately the business of this article, the electoral history of the town. It is a short and dreary one, only marked by the occurrence of one exciting contest.
The large towns which were enfranchised in 1832 felt at the first election which occurred in them all the awkwardness of a first appearance in a new character. Parties were unformed, no combinations of any sort prevailed, and in the majority of cases accident rather than deliberate judgment determined the choice of the electorates. An accident threw the representation of Dudley into the hands of no less a person than the Solicitor-General, Sir John Campbell. Mr. Campbell had sat for Stafford in the parliaments of 1830 and 1831. But with the passing of the Reform Bill he was desirous of obtaining election by a different constituency, and indeed circumstances which had occurred at Stafford prevented his again sitting for that town. Dudley, a borough not far distant from Stafford, was selected, it is believed, by Mr. Joseph Parkes. Sir John Campbell went to Dudley in utter ignorance of the character of the constituency and of the men with whom he had to deal. But it was a new borough, a large borough, and a manufacturing borough, and therefore was supposed necessarily to be a Liberal borough. When Sir John Campbell got down he found apparently a very influential opponent in the field. This was Sir Horace St. Paul, one of the principal owners of the “great black cake.” The nomination of Sir Horace St. Paul, however, was not free from objection. He had represented Bridport in several preceding parliaments, and had been an opponent of the bill by which Dudley was enfranchised. For common honour the great body of the new electorate were obliged to set their faces against this. But there was another circumstance greatly to Sir Horace’s disadvantage. Although he owned a considerable part of the mineral property of the district, his possession of that property was far from beneficial to the iron and coal masters. Sir Horace St. Paul worked his own mines, and the ironmasters regarded him with some jealousy, as a rival in their business. The support he received from them was, therefore, anything but warm; and the political Union of Birmingham having declared for Sir John Campbell, “plain Jack” was enabled to secure a comparatively easy victory at the poll, where the numbers were—for Campbell, 348; St. Paul, 229. At this time there were only 670 voters on the poll, instead of 1000, as at present.
In February, 1834, Sir John Campbell having succeeded Sir Wm. Horne as Attorney-General, came down to Dudley to obtain his re-election. Circumstances, however, had vastly changed since 1832. The reform excitement had passed away. The Birmingham Political Union was defunct. The Liberal party had become less popular, and in Dudley Sir John Campbell had done nothing to secure for himself any local sympathy. The party which had brought him in in 1832 was a party without any influence or weight whatever in the town. They had succeeded mainly in consequence of the feeling of the day, and the fact of their having succeeded was sufficient to unite against them very strong and powerful influences. The Dudley Tories, in fact, had now begun to shew a formidable front, and were prepared stoutly to contest the seat.