1.
Order of the Bath
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The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for appointing a knight. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath, George I erected the Knights of the Bath into a regular Military Order. Prior to 1815, the order had only a class, Knight Companion. Recipients of the Order are now usually senior officers or senior civil servants. Commonwealth citizens who are not subjects of the Queen and foreign nationals may be made Honorary Members, in the Middle Ages, knighthood was often conferred with elaborate ceremonies. These usually involved the taking a bath during which he was instructed in the duties of knighthood by more senior knights. He was then put to bed to dry, clothed in a special robe, he was led with music to the chapel where he spent the night in a vigil. At dawn he made confession and attended Mass, then retired to his bed to sleep until it was fully daylight, in the early medieval period the difference seems to have been that the full ceremonies were used for men from more prominent families. Knights Bachelor continued to be created with the form of ceremony. The last occasion on which Knights of the Bath were created was the coronation of Charles II in 1661. From at least 1625, and possibly from the reign of James I, Knights of the Bath were using the motto Tria iuncta in uno, and wearing as a badge three crowns within a plain gold oval. These were both adopted by the Order of the Bath, a similar design of badge is still worn by members of the Civil Division. Their symbolism however is not entirely clear, the three joined in one may be a reference to the kingdoms of England, Scotland and either France or Ireland, which were held by English and, later, British monarchs. This would correspond to the three crowns in the badge, another explanation of the motto is that it refers to the Holy Trinity. The prime mover in the establishment of the Order of the Bath was John Anstis, Garter King of Arms, the Court remained the centre of the political world. The King was limited in that he had to choose Ministers who could command a majority in Parliament, the leader of an administration still had to command the Kings personal confidence and approval. A strong following in Parliament depended on being able to supply places, pensions, the attraction of the new Order for Walpole was that it would provide a source of such favours to strengthen his political position
2.
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
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The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is the lower house of the countrys parliament. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The House is a body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament. Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved, under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of its members. Although it does not formally elect the prime minister, the position of the parties in the House of Commons is of overriding importance, by convention, the prime minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Since 1963, by convention, the minister is always a member of the House of Commons. The Commons may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a motion of confidence or by passing a motion of no confidence, confidence and no confidence motions are sometimes phrased explicitly, for instance, That this House has no confidence in Her Majestys Government. Many other motions were considered confidence issues, even though not explicitly phrased as such, in particular, important bills that form a part of the Governments agenda were formerly considered matters of confidence, as is the annual Budget. Parliament normally sits for a term of five years. Subject to that limit, the minister could formerly choose the timing of the dissolution of parliament. By this second mechanism, the government of the United Kingdom can change without a general election. In such circumstances there may not even have been a party leadership election, as the new leader may be chosen by acclaim. A prime minister may resign if he or she is not defeated at the polls. In such a case, the premiership goes to whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, in practice this is usually the new leader of the outgoing prime ministers party. Until 1965, the Conservative Party had no mechanism for electing a new leader, when Anthony Eden resigned as PM in 1957 without recommending a successor and it fell to the Queen to appoint Harold Macmillan as the new prime minister, after taking the advice of ministers. By convention, all ministers must be members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords, a handful have been appointed who were outside Parliament, but in most cases they then entered Parliament either in a by-election or by receiving a peerage. Since 1902, all ministers have been members of the Commons
3.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom. The prime minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party, the office is one of the Great Offices of State. The current prime minister, Theresa May, leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016. The position of Prime Minister was not created, it evolved slowly and erratically over three hundred years due to acts of Parliament, political developments, and accidents of history. The office is therefore best understood from a historical perspective, the origins of the position are found in constitutional changes that occurred during the Revolutionary Settlement and the resulting shift of political power from the Sovereign to Parliament. The political position of Prime Minister was enhanced by the development of political parties, the introduction of mass communication. By the start of the 20th century the modern premiership had emerged, prior to 1902, the prime minister sometimes came from the House of Lords, provided that his government could form a majority in the Commons. However as the power of the aristocracy waned during the 19th century the convention developed that the Prime Minister should always sit in the lower house. As leader of the House of Commons, the Prime Ministers authority was further enhanced by the Parliament Act of 1911 which marginalised the influence of the House of Lords in the law-making process. The Prime Minister is ex officio also First Lord of the Treasury, certain privileges, such as residency of 10 Downing Street, are accorded to Prime Ministers by virtue of their position as First Lord of the Treasury. As the Head of Her Majestys Government the modern Prime Minister leads the Cabinet, in addition the Prime Minister leads a major political party and generally commands a majority in the House of Commons. As such the incumbent wields both legislative and executive powers, under the British system there is a unity of powers rather than separation. In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister guides the process with the goal of enacting the legislative agenda of their political party. The Prime Minister also acts as the face and voice of Her Majestys Government. The British system of government is based on an uncodified constitution, in 1928, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith described this characteristic of the British constitution in his memoirs, In this country we live. Our constitutional practices do not derive their validity and sanction from any Bill which has received the assent of the King, Lords. They rest on usage, custom, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, the relationships between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet are defined largely by these unwritten conventions of the constitution. Many of the Prime Ministers executive and legislative powers are actually royal prerogatives which are still vested in the Sovereign
4.
Edward VII
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Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, before his accession to the throne, he served as heir apparent and held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors. During the long reign of his mother, he was excluded from political power. He travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial duties, and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and the Indian subcontinent in 1875 were popular successes, as king, Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War. He reinstituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised and he died in 1910 in the midst of a constitutional crisis that was resolved the following year by the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the unelected House of Lords. Edward was born at 10,48 in the morning on 9 November 1841 in Buckingham Palace and he was the eldest son and second child of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was christened Albert Edward at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle and he was named Albert after his father and Edward after his maternal grandfather Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. He was known as Bertie to the family throughout his life. As the eldest son of the British sovereign, he was automatically Duke of Cornwall, as a son of Prince Albert, he also held the titles of Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Saxony. He was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 8 December 1841, Earl of Dublin on 17 January 1850, a Knight of the Garter on 9 November 1858, and a Knight of the Thistle on 24 May 1867. In 1863, he renounced his rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in favour of his younger brother. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were determined that their eldest son should have an education that would prepare him to be a constitutional monarch. At age seven, Edward embarked on an educational programme devised by Prince Albert. Unlike his elder sister Victoria, Edward did not excel in his studies and he tried to meet the expectations of his parents, but to no avail. Although Edward was not a diligent student—his true talents were those of charm, sociability and tact—Benjamin Disraeli described him as informed, intelligent, after the completion of his secondary-level studies, his tutor was replaced by a personal governor, Robert Bruce. After an educational trip to Rome, undertaken in the first few months of 1859, he spent the summer of that year studying at the University of Edinburgh under, among others, in October, he matriculated as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford. Now released from the strictures imposed by his parents, he enjoyed studying for the first time
5.
Arthur Balfour
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Entering Parliament in 1874, Balfour achieved prominence as Chief Secretary for Ireland, in which position he suppressed agrarian unrest whilst taking measures against absentee landlords. He opposed Irish Home Rule, saying there could be no half-way house between Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom or becoming independent. From 1891 he led the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, serving under his uncle, Lord Salisbury, a brilliant debater, he was bored by the mundane tasks of party management. In July 1902 he succeeded his uncle as Prime Minister and he oversaw reform of British defence policy and supported Fishers naval innovations. He secured the Entente Cordiale with France, leaving Germany in the cold and he cautiously embraced the imperial preference championed by Joseph Chamberlain, but resignations from the Cabinet over tariffs left his party divided. He also suffered from public anger at the stages of the Boer war. He resigned as Prime Minister in December 1905 and the month the Conservatives suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 election. He resigned as party leader later in 1911, Balfour returned as First Lord of the Admiralty in Asquiths Coalition Government. In December 1916 he became Foreign Secretary in David Lloyd Georges coalition and he was frequently left out of the inner workings of foreign policy, although the Balfour Declaration on a Jewish homeland bore his name. He continued to serve in positions throughout the 1920s, and died on 19 March 1930 aged 81. Arthur Balfour was born at Whittingehame House, East Lothian, Scotland and his godfather was the Duke of Wellington, after whom he was named. He was the eldest son, third of eight children, and had four brothers, Arthur Balfour was educated at Grange preparatory school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, and Eton College, where he studied with the influential master, William Johnson Cory. He went to the University of Cambridge, where he read moral sciences at Trinity College and his younger brother was the Cambridge embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour. Margot Tennant wished to marry him, but Balfour said, No, I rather think of having a career of my own. His household was maintained by his sister, Alice. In middle age, Balfour had a 40-year friendship with Mary Charteris, Lady Elcho, later Countess of Wemyss, in 1874 he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Hertford until 1885. In spring 1878, Balfour became Private Secretary to his uncle and he accompanied Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin and gained his first experience in international politics in connection with the settlement of the Russo-Turkish conflict. At the same time he became known in the world of letters, Balfour divided his time between politics and academic pursuits
6.
H. H. Asquith
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He had a central role in the design and passage of major liberal legislation. In August 1914, Asquith took the United Kingdom into the First World War, Asquiths father owned a small business but died when Asquith was seven. Asquith was educated at City of London School and Balliol College and he trained as a barrister and after a slow start to his career achieved great success. In 1886, he was adopted as Liberal candidate for East Fife, in 1892, he was appointed as Home Secretary in Gladstones fourth ministry, remaining in the post until the Liberals lost the 1895 election. In 1908, Asquith succeeded him as minister, with David Lloyd George as chancellor. With their first majority government since the 1880s, the Liberals were determined to advance their agenda, an impediment to this was the unelected House of Lords, dominated by the Conservatives. When Lloyd George proposed, and the House of Commons passed, the Peoples Budget of 1909, meanwhile the South Africa Act 1909 passed. Asquith called an election for January 1910, and the Liberals won, Asquith was less successful in dealing with Irish Home Rule. Repeated crises led to gun running and violence, verging on civil war, bitter rivalries inside and between the three major parties worsened when Asquith was unable to forge the coalition into a harmonious team. It was weakened by his own indecision over strategy, conscription, Lloyd George organised his overthrow and replaced him as Prime Minister in December 1916. Asquith remained as leader of the Liberal Party, but was unable to quell the internal conflict, the party rapidly declined in popularity and was ruined by the 1918 general election. Asquith accepted a peerage in 1925 and died, aged 75 and his roles in creating the modern British welfare state, 1906-1911 have been celebrated, but his weaknesses as a war leader and as a party leader after 1914 have been emphasised by historians. Asquith was born in Morley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the couple also had three daughters, of whom only one survived infancy. The Asquiths were an old Yorkshire family, with a long nonconformist tradition and it was a matter of family pride, shared by Asquith, that an ancestor, Joseph Asquith, was imprisoned for his part in the pro-Roundhead Farnley Wood Plot of 1664. Both Asquiths parents came from families associated with the Yorkshire wool trade, Dixon Asquith inherited the Gillroyd Mill Company, founded by his father. Emilys father, William Willans, ran a successful wool-trading business in Huddersfield, both families were middle-class, Congregationalist, and politically radical. Dixon was a man, cultivated and in his sons words not cut out for a business career. He was described as a man of character who held Bible classes for young men
7.
Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)
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The Leader of Her Majestys Most Loyal Opposition is the politician who leads the official opposition in the United Kingdom. The current Leader of the Opposition is Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, the Leader of the Opposition is normally viewed as an alternative prime minister, and is appointed to the Privy Council. They lead an Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet which scrutinises the actions of the Cabinet led by the prime minister, There is also a Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords. In the nineteenth century party affiliations were generally fixed and leaders in the two Houses were often of equal status. A single, clear Leader of the Opposition was only definitively settled if the leader in Commons or Lords was the outgoing prime minister. However, since the Parliament Act 1911 there has been no dispute that the leader in the House of Commons is pre-eminent, the Leader of the Opposition is entitled to a salary in addition to their salary as a Member of Parliament. In 2010, this additional entitlement was available up to £73,617, the first modern Leader of the Opposition was Charles James Fox, who led the Whigs as such for a generation, except during the Fox–North Coalition in 1783. He finally rejoined the government in 1806, and died later that year, for there to be a recognised Leader of the Opposition, it is necessary for there to be a sufficiently cohesive opposition to need a formal leader. The emergence of the office coincided with the period when wholly united parties became the norm. This situation was normalised in the Parliament of 1807–1812, when the members of the Grenvillite and Foxite Whig factions resolved to maintain a joint, dual-house leadership for the whole party. The Ministry of all the Talents, in which both Whig factions participated fell at the 1807 general election, during which the Whigs had re-adopted traditional factions, the prime minister of the Talents ministry, Lord Grenville had led his eponymous faction from the House of Lords. Meanwhile, the government leader of the House of Commons, Viscount Howick, led his faction, howicks father, the 1st Earl Grey died on 14 November 1807. As such the new Earl Grey vacated his seat in the House of Commons and this left no obvious Whig leader in the House of Commons. Grenvilles article in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography confirms that he was considered the Whig leader in the House of Lords between 1807 and 1817, despite Grey leading the larger faction. Grenville and Grey, political historian Archibald Foord describes as being duumvirs of the party from 1807 to 1817, Grenville was at first reluctant to name a Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, commenting. All the elections in the world would not have made Windham or Sheridan leaders of the old Opposition while Fox was alive, eventually they jointly recommended George Ponsonby to the Whig MPs, whom they accepted as the first Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. Ponsonby proved a leader but as he could not be persuaded to resign. Lord Grenville retired from politics in 1817, leaving Grey as the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords
8.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
9.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
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He was the last prime minister to head his full administration from the House of Lords. In 1868 upon the death of his father, Cecil was elevated to the House of Lords and he became prime minister in June 1885 when the Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone resigned, and held the office until January 1886. When Gladstone came out in favour of Home Rule for Ireland, Salisbury opposed him and formed an alliance with the breakaway Liberal Unionists and he died a year later, in 1903. Historians agree that Salisbury was a strong and effective leader in foreign affairs, Paul Smith characterises his personality as deeply neurotic, depressive, agitated, introverted, fearful of change and loss of control, and self-effacing but capable of extraordinary competitiveness. A representative of the aristocracy, he held the reactionary credo, Whatever happens will be for the worse. Lord Robert Cecil was the son of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. He was a descendant of Lord Burghley and the 1st Earl of Salisbury. The family owned vast rural estates in Hertfordshire and Dorset and this wealth increased sharply in 1821, when he married the rich heiress of a merchant prince who had bought up large estates in Essex and Lancashire. Robert had a childhood, with few friends, he filled his time with reading. He was bullied unmercifully at the schools he attended, in 1840, he went to Eton College, where he did well in French, German, Classics, and Theology, however, he left in 1845 because of intense bullying. The unhappy schooling shaped his outlook on life and his negative views on democracy. He decided that most people were cowardly and cruel, and that the mob would run roughshod over sensitive individuals, in December 1847 he went to Christ Church, Oxford, where he received an honorary fourth class in mathematics conferred by noblemans privilege due to ill health. Whilst at Oxford he found the Oxford movement or Tractarianism to be an intoxicating force, in April 1850 he joined Lincolns Inn but subsequently did not enjoy law. His doctor advised him to travel for his health, and so in July 1851 to May 1853 Cecil travelled through Cape Colony, Australia, including Tasmania, and New Zealand. He found the Kaffirs a fine set of men – whose language bears traces of a very high former civilisation and they were an intellectual race, with great firmness and fixedness of will but horribly immoral as they lacked theism. In the Bendigo goldmine of Australia, he claimed there is not half as much crime or insubordination as there would be in an English town of the same wealth. Ten thousand miners were policed by four men armed with carbines, a Maori chief offered Cecil five acres near Auckland, which he declined. He entered the House of Commons as a Conservative on 22 August 1853 and he retained this seat until entering the peerage and it was not contested during his time as its representative
10.
William Vernon Harcourt (politician)
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Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt, KC was a British lawyer, journalist and Liberal statesman. A talented speaker in parliament, he was regarded as aloof. He failed to engender much emotional response in the public and became only a reluctant, Harcourt was the second son of the Rev. Canon William Vernon Harcourt, of Nuneham Park, Oxford and his wife Matilda Mary Gooch and his father was himself the fourth son and eventually heir of Edward Harcourt, Archbishop of York and his wife Lady Anne Leveson-Gower. Anne was a daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford and her maternal grandparents were Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater and his second wife Rachel Russell. Rachel was a daughter of Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford, William was therefore born a Vernon, and by his connection with the old families of Vernon and Harcourt was related to many of the great English houses, a fact of which he was proud. In later life his descent from the Plantagenets was a joke among his political opponents, williams childhood was an austere one, educated at home by a Swiss governess, he was sent to a private school at Southwell, Nottinghamshire when he was eight. Williams father denied him a school education, sending him to be educated in classics at the small class of Rev. John Owen Parr. In 1840, Parr moved to Preston and William witnessed the Preston bread riots there in 1842 and he left Parr in 1844 and, after two more years study at home, William entered Trinity College, Cambridge to pursue his interest in mathematics. At Cambridge he became an Apostle, graduating with honours in the classics tripos in 1851. At Cambridge, William rejected his familys Tory instincts and began to write for the Morning Chronicle in support of Sir Robert Peel, williams father encouraged him to seek a Cambridge fellowship or a career in politics but William chose law and journalism. He entered Lincolns Inn in 1852 and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1854 and he quickly made his mark as a speaker, his reception into London society being eased by his uncle George Harcourt and aunt Frances Waldegrave. From 1855 William started to write for the Saturday Review, becoming increasingly a follower of William Ewart Gladstone and he practised in railway law, commentating, especially in The Times on international law. He also wrote on the Trent Affair and the Alabama controversy and he became a Queens Counsel in 1866, and was appointed Whewell professor of international law at the University of Cambridge in 1869. Harcourt entered parliament as Liberal member for Oxford, and sat from 1868 to 1880, being appointed Solicitor General and knighted in 1873. He was re-elected in the Liberal victory at the United Kingdom general election,1880 and, though he had not been a supporter of Gladstone in opposition. A mandatory re-election was then required on acceptance of such an office, though Hall was subsequently unseated for political corruption, a seat was found for Harcourt at Derby, by the voluntary retirement of Samuel Plimsoll. He continued to represent that constituency until 1895, when, having been defeated at the general election and his name became connected with the passing of the Ground Game Act 1880 and the Arms Act 1881
11.
Secretary of State for War
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The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas. In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War, the position was re-instated in 1854. In 1946, with the creation of a cabinet-level Minister of Defence separate from the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for War ceased to be a cabinet position. On 1 April 1964, with the creation of the Secretary of State for Defence position, in charge of a new united Ministry of Defence, for 1801–1854 see Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
12.
William Ewart Gladstone
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William Ewart Gladstone, FRS, FSS was a British Liberal and earlier conservative politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times, more than any other person, Gladstone was also Britains oldest Prime Minister, he resigned for the final time when he was 84 years old. Gladstone first entered Parliament in 1832, beginning as a High Tory, Gladstone served in the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel. After the split of the Conservatives Gladstone was a Peelite – in 1859 the Peelites merged with the Whigs, as Chancellor Gladstone became committed to low public spending and to electoral reform, earning him the sobriquet The Peoples William. Gladstones first ministry saw many reforms including the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, after his electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned as leader of the Liberal Party, but from 1876 began a comeback based on opposition to Turkeys reaction to the Bulgarian April Uprising. Gladstones Midlothian Campaign of 1879–80 was an example of many modern political campaigning techniques. The government also passed the Third Reform Act, Back in office in early 1886, Gladstone proposed Irish home rule but this was defeated in the House of Commons in July. The resulting split in the Liberal Party helped keep out of office, with one short break. In 1892 Gladstone formed his last government at the age of 82, the Second Home Rule Bill passed the Commons but was defeated in the Lords in 1893. Gladstone resigned in March 1894, in opposition to increased naval expenditure and he left Parliament in 1895 and died three years later aged 88. Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as The Peoples William or the G. O. M, Gladstone is consistently ranked as one of Britains greatest Prime Ministers. Born in 1809 in Liverpool, at 62 Rodney Street, William Ewart Gladstone was the son of the slave-owning merchant Sir John Gladstone. Although born and brought up in Liverpool, William Gladstone was of purely Scottish ancestry, in 1814 young Willy visited Scotland for the first time, as he and his brother John travelled with their father to Edinburgh, Biggar and Dingwall to visit their relatives. William and his brother were both made freemen of the burgh of Dingwall, in 1815 Gladstone also travelled to London and Cambridge for the first time with his parents. In London he attended a service of thanksgiving with his family at St Pauls Cathedral following the Battle of Waterloo, William Gladstone was educated from 1816 to 1821 at a preparatory school at the vicarage of St Thomass Church at Seaforth, close to his familys residence, Seaforth House. In December 1831 he achieved the double first-class degree he had long desired, Gladstone served as President of the Oxford Union debating society, where he developed a reputation as an orator, which followed him into the House of Commons. At university Gladstone was a Tory and denounced Whig proposals for parliamentary reform, following the success of his double first, William travelled with his brother John on a Grand Tour of Europe, visiting Belgium, France, Germany and Italy. On his return to England, William was elected to Parliament in 1832 as Tory Member of Parliament for Newark, partly through the influence of the local patron, the Duke of Newcastle
13.
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
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Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny. Rosebery first came to attention in 1879–1880 by sponsoring the successful Midlothian campaign of William Ewart Gladstone. He briefly was in charge of Scottish affairs and this finest performance in office came as chairman of the London County Council in 1889. He entered the cabinet in 1885 and served twice as minister, paying special attention to French. He succeeded Gladstone as prime minister and leader of the Liberal party in 1894 and he resigned the party leadership in 1896 and never again held political office. He was widely known as a brilliant orator, a sportsman and marksman. All of these activities attracted him more politics, which grew boring. Furthermore, he drifted to the right of the Liberal party, winston Churchill, observing that he never adapted to democratic electoral competition, quipped, He would not stoop, he did not conquer. Rosebery was a Liberal Imperialist who favoured strong national defence and imperialism abroad and social reform at home, historians judge him a failure as foreign minister and as prime minister. Archibald Philip Primrose was born on 7 May 1847 in his parents house in Charles Street, Mayfair and his father was Archibald Primrose, Lord Dalmeny, son and heir apparent to Archibald Primrose, 4th Earl of Rosebery, whom he predeceased. Lord Dalmeny was a title used by the Earls eldest son and heir apparent, during the Earls lifetime. Lord Dalmeny was MP for Stirling from 1832 to 1847 and served as First Lord of the Admiralty under Lord Melbourne. Roseberys mother was Lady Wilhelmina Stanhope, a historian who wrote under her second married name the Duchess of Cleveland. Lord Dalmeny died on 23 January 1851, having predeceased his father, when the title passed to his son. In 1854 his mother remarried to Lord Harry Vane, the relationship between mother and son was very poor. His elder and favourite sister Lady Leconfield was the wife of Henry Wyndham, Dalmeny attended preparatory schools in Hertfordshire and Brighton and then Eton which he attended between 1860 and 1863, he then went to Brighton College between 1863 and 1865. His remarkable intellect, displayed in debates, attracted the attention of William Johnson Cory, michael Matthew Kaylors Secreted Desires, The Major Uranians, Hopkins, Pater and Wilde explores their personal relationship. Dalmeny proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford, through the years 1865 until 1869, remarkably the three Prime Ministers from 1880 to 1902, namely Gladstone, Salisbury and Rosebery, all attended both Eton and Christ Church
14.
Edward Stanhope
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Edward Stanhope was a British Conservative Party politician. Born in London, Stanhope was the son of Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, by his wife Emily Harriet, daughter of General Sir Edward Kerrison. Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope was his brother and Philip Stanhope. He was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, Stanhope studied law, being called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1865. In 1861 he played three first-class cricket matches for Kent, in 1874 Stanhope was elected to the House of Commons for Mid Lincolnshire, a seat he held until 1885, and then represented Horncastle until his death. He soon rose to a position of prominence within the party, in 1875 he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, and in 1878 moved up to Under-Secretary of State for India, where he was a key assistant to India Secretary Lord Cranbrook. After the Tories fall from power in 1880, Stanhope supported Commons leader Sir Stafford Northcote against younger Tories led by Lord Randolph Churchill in internal Conservative party squabbling. As War Secretary, Stanhope fought for reform against the high officers – most notably the Duke of Cambridge, the Commander in Chief, and Sir Garnet Wolseley. In December 1893, Stanhope died suddenly of a heart attack, leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Edward Stanhope CricketArchive, Edward Stanhope
15.
Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne
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In 1917, during the First World War, he wrote to the press vainly advocating a compromise peace. He has the distinction of having held positions in both Liberal Party and Conservative Party governments. He held the courtesy title Viscount Clanmaurice from birth until 1863, upon his mothers death in 1895, he succeeded her as the 9th Lord Nairne in the Peerage of Scotland. After studying at Eton and Oxford, he succeeded his father as 5th Marquess of Lansdowne and he was heir to a vast estate, including Bowood House, an Irish estate of over 121,000 acres, and also great wealth. At one of his properties, Derreen House, Lord Lansdowne started to create a great garden from 1871 onwards. For most of the rest of his life, he spent three months every year at Derreen, Lord Lansdowne entered the House of Lords as a member of the Liberal Party in 1866. He served in William Gladstones government as a Lord of the Treasury from 1869 to 1872 and he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for India in 1880, and, having gained experience in overseas administration, was appointed Governor General of Canada in 1883. The present-day town of Lansdowne, Garhwal in Uttarakhand, India, was established in 1887, Lord Lansdowne was Governor General during turbulent times in Canada. His Irish connections made him unpopular with the Catholic Irish element, Sir John A. Macdonalds government was in its second term and facing allegations of scandal over the building of the railway, and the economy was once again sliding into recession. The North-West Rebellion of 1885 and the controversy caused by its leader, Louis Riel, to calm the situation he travelled extensively throughout western Canada in 1885, meeting many of Canadas Indian peoples. His experiences in western Canada gave Lansdowne a great love of the Canadian outdoors and he was an avid fisherman, and was also intensely interested in winter sports. His love of the wilderness and Canadian countryside led him to purchase a second residence on the Cascapédia River in Quebec, Lansdowne proved himself an adept statesman in helping to negotiate a settlement of a potentially serious dispute between Canada and the United States in 1886-87 over fishing rights. He was also a supporter of development, presiding over the inaugural session of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1884. Lord Lansdowne departed Canada, with its clear skies, its exhilarating sports and he gave his wife a great deal of the credit for his success in Canada. One of her happiest and most successful endeavours while at Rideau Hall was a party she threw for 400 Sunday school children, lady Lansdowne was decorated with the Order of Victoria and Albert and the Imperial Order of the Crown of India. Lord Lansdownes military secretary, Lord Melgund, later became Lord Minto, Lord Lansdowne was appointed Viceroy of India in the same year he left Canada. The viceroyalty, which he held from 1888 to 1894, was offered to him by the Conservative prime minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury and he worked to reform the army, police, local government and the mint. There was a local rebellion in 1890, which was quickly suppressed
16.
Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Earl of Cranbrook
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Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Earl of Cranbrook GCSI PC, known as Gathorne Hardy until 1878, was a prominent British Conservative politician, a moderate, middle-of-the road Anglian. He held cabinet office in every Conservative government between 1858 and 1892 and notably served as Home Secretary from 1867 to 1868 and as Secretary of State for War from 1874 to 1878. Gathorne Hardy was the son of John Hardy, of Bradford Manor. His father was the owner of the Low Moor ironworks. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Oriel College, Oxford and he established a successful legal practice on the Northern Circuit, being based at Leeds, but was denied when he applied for silk in 1855. Hardy had unsuccessfully contested Bradford in the 1847 general election, however, after his fathers death in 1855 he was able to concentrate fully on a political career, and in 1856 he was elected for Leominster. Only two years later, in 1858, he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs in the administration of the Earl of Derby. He remained in office until the government fell in June 1859. In 1865 Hardy reluctantly agreed to stand against William Ewart Gladstone in the Oxford University constituency, Gladstones response was Dear Dream is dispelled. The Conservatives returned to office under Derby in 1866, and Hardy was appointed President of the Poor Law Board and he was admitted to the Privy Council at the same time. During his tenure in office he notably carried a poor law amendment bill through parliament. Cranbrook also supported the Reform Act of 1867, which increased the size of the electorate to one in five. By May Disraeli had recognised Gathorne Hardys value to the Conservatives as a star in the Commons, proving a capable debater, a resilient antagonist to Gladstone. In 1867 he succeeded Spencer Walpole as Home Secretary and was forced to deal with the Fenian Rising of that year, by accepting an amendment that all ratepayers should be enfranchised, Disraeli had created a new Victorian constitution, which surprisingly Hardy and others were prepared to accept. One new entrant in 1868, an admirer of Disraeli, the Radical, Sir Charles Dilke thought Hardy the most eloquent Englishman, but Hardy himself, not so easily deceived remained a stalwart Tory to the end. The Liberals came to power under Gladstone, in opposition, Hardy occasionally acted as opposition leader in the House of Commons when Disraeli was absent. There was criticism of the Anglican Church in Ireland, which Liberals intended to disestablish in its entirety, a committed Anglican Hardy opposed the measure on religious grounds. Being an orthodox Anglican he considered fragmentation of the church as contrariwise to Conservative principles, in the I have faith in the principles we are professing, and when I am told by the right hon
17.
Chief Secretary for Ireland
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The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. The Chief Secretary was ex officio President of the Local Government Board for Ireland from its creation in 1872, British rule over much of Ireland came to an end as the result of the Irish War of Independence, which culminated in the establishment of the Irish Free State. In consequence the office of Chief Secretary was abolished, as well as that of Lord Lieutenant, the dominant position of the Lord Lieutenant at Dublin Castle had been central to the British administration of the Kingdom of Ireland for much of its history. The appointment of a Secretary was intended to both improve Irish administration, and to keep the Lord Lieutenant in line. The role of Secretary of State for Ireland and Chief Secretary of Ireland were originally distinct positions, while the Irish administration was not responsible to the parliament, it nevertheless needed to manage and influence it in order to ensure the passage of key legislative measures. In 1800 the Act of Union was passed by the Irish parliament, merging the kingdom into the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with effect from 1 January 1801. The Chief Secretaryship was of importance in the run-up to the eventual enactment, on the second attempt, of the Act of Union. The Chief Secretarys exercise of patronage and direct bribery were central to delivering a majority for the Union. Upon the Union the Irish parliament ceased to exist, however, the existing system of administration in Ireland continued broadly in place, with the offices of Lord Lieutenant and Chief Secretary retaining their respective roles
18.
Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet
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Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet OM PC was a British statesman and author. In a ministerial career stretching almost 30 years, he was most notably twice Secretary for Scotland under William Ewart Gladstone and he broke with Gladstone over the 1886 Irish Home Rule Bill, but after modifications were made to the bill he re-joined the Liberal Party shortly afterwards. Also a writer and historian, Trevelyan published The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, his maternal uncle, in 1876. Trevelyan was born in Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, the son of Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society, and earned second place in the first class of the Classical Tripos in 1861. That same year he wrote his Horace at the University of Athens, in 1862 Trevelyan went out as a civil servant to India, where he spent several years. In 1865 he was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Tynemouth and North Shields, at the general election of 1868 he was returned for the Hawick Burghs, which he continued to represent until 1886. In the session of 1874 he brought forward his Household Franchise Bill, among other causes which he warmly supported were womens suffrage, a thorough reform of metropolitan local government, and the drastic reform or abolition of the House of Lords. He was also in favour of the veto and other temperance legislation. In 1880 Trevelyan was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty under Gladstone and he held this office until May 1882, when, after the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish, he became Chief Secretary for Ireland and sworn of the Privy Council. From November 1884 to June 1885 he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with a seat in the cabinet, in February 1886 he became Secretary for Scotland and Vice-President of the Scottish Education Department in Gladstones third administration, but resigned in March over Irish Home Rule. The same year he succeeded his father in the baronetcy, at the general election of 1886 Trevelyan lost his seat for Hawick. In August 1887 he re-entered the House of Commons as member for Glasgow Bridgeton, from 1892 to 1895 he was again Secretary for Scotland and Vice-President of the Scottish Education Department. He resigned his seat in parliament in early 1897 and retired into private life, in 1911 he was appointed a member of the Order of Merit. During his stay in India, Trevelyan contributed Letters of a Competition Wallah to Macmillans Magazine, cawnpore, an account of the massacre there during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, was published in 1865. In 1867 he wrote The Ladies in Parliament, a political brochure in verse. In 1876 he published The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, in 1899 he published the first volume of a History of the American Revolution, which was completed in 1905. In the latter year, as Interludes in Prose and Verse, he republished his early classical jeux desprit, Trevelyan married Caroline, daughter of Robert Needham Philips, MP for Bury, in 1869
19.
Sir William Hart Dyke, 7th Baronet
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Sir William Hart Dyke, 7th Baronet PC, DL, JP was an English Conservative politician and tennis pioneer. The second son of Sir Percival Hart Dyke, 6th Baronet and Elizabeth Wells, Hart Dyke was educated at Harrow School and Christ Church and he was described as one of the best amateur rackets players of his day. In 1860, won the championship from a player at the Princes Club. In 1873 he played tennis in a significant early match with John Moyer Heathcote. He succeeded father to the baronetcy in 1875, and was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1880, lady Hart Dyke only survived her husband by a month and died in August 1931. Leigh Rayments list of baronets Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Sir William Hart Dyke
20.
Robert Loyd-Lindsay, 1st Baron Wantage
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Lindsay was born in 1832, the second son of Lieutenant General Sir James Lindsay, 1st Baronet and Anne, daughter of Sir Coutts Trotter, 1st Baronet. His elder brother Coutts Lindsay succeeded his grandfather as second Baronet in 1837. Lindsay fought as a captain in the Scots Guards during the Crimean War and he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 20 September 1854 at the Battle of the Alma and 5 November at the Battle of Inkerman. At Inkerman, at a most trying moment, he, with a few men, charged a party of Russians, driving them back, and running one through the body himself. —London Gazette On 9 November 1858 Lindsay was appointed as Equerry to HRH The Prince of Wales, the brief period as Equerry was due to his engagement and impending marriage to The Honorable Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd. Lindsay was later involved in the movement, serving as Colonel of the Royal Berkshire Volunteers. He was one of the first recipients of the Volunteer Officers Decoration and he was also Lieutenant Colonel of the Honourable Artillery Company from 13 November 1866 to 17 August 1881. Lindsay sat as Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Berkshire from 1865 until 1885 and he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1881. In 1885 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Wantage and he then served as Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire from 1886 until his death. Having been initiated as a freemason, passed and raised in Malta en route to the Crimea in 1854 and he was appointed the first Chairman of the Council of the National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom on 25 November 1890. Lord and Lady Wantage lived at Lockinge House at East Lockinge in Berkshire and he died on 10 June 1901, aged 69. On his death, Florence Nightingale, a personal friend since the Crimea wrote, Lord Wantage is a great loss. And what he has gained for us can never be lost and it is my experience that such men exist only in England. A man who had everything that this world could give him, but who worked as hard, a man whose life makes a great difference for all. All are better if he had not lived, and this betterment is for always it does not die with him. That is the estimate of a great life. God bless him and we will bless him, and we will bless God for having made him. Lady Wantage erected a monument to Lord Wantage on the Ridgeway, as he had no children the title died with him
21.
Arthur Hayter, 1st Baron Haversham
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Arthur Divett Hayter, 1st Baron Haversham PC, known as Sir Arthur Hayter, Bt, from 1878 to 1906, was a British Liberal politician. He served as Financial Secretary to the War Office under William Gladstone from 1882 to 1885, Hayter was the only son of Sir William Hayter, 1st Baronet, by Anne Pulsford, eldest daughter of William Pulsford. He was educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, Hayter sat as Member of Parliament for Wells from 1865 to 1868, for Bath from 1873 to 1885 and for Walsall from 1893 to 1895. He chaired the public accounts committee from 1901 to 1905 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1901, in January 1906 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Haversham, of Bracknell in the County of Berkshire. Lord Haversham married Henrietta Hope in 1866 and they lived at South Hill Park at Easthampstead, now part of Bracknell in Berkshire. There were no children from the marriage and the baronetcy and barony became extinct on Lord Havershams death 10 May 1917, hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Lord Haversham
22.
John Cranch Walker Vivian
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John Cranch Walker Vivian was an English Liberal politician from the Vivian family who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1841 and 1871. Vivian was the son of the Lieutenant-general Sir Richard Hussey Vivian and his first wife Eliza De Crespigny. Born at the Château de Rosamel in Frencq, France, he was educated at Eton College and he became a lieutenant in December 1837, captain in April 1840 and retired in 1842. Vivian was a Deputy Lieutenant and JP for Cornwall, Vivian was elected Member of Parliament for Penryn and Falmouth in July 1841 and held the seat until July 1847. He was elected MP for Bodmin in April 1857 and held the seat until May 1859, at the 1865 general election he was elected Member of Parliament for Truro and he held the seat until 1871. He was appointed a Lord of the Treasury in December 1868 and he held that office until 1871 when he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War, thereby vacating his seat. Vivian died at the age of 60 at his home at The Priory, Richmond, Vivian married firstly in 1840 Louisa Woodgate, daughter of Henry Woodgate. She died in 1855 and he married secondly in 1861 Florence Grosvenor Rowley and they were divorced in August 1869 after she eloped with the Marquess of Waterford. Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by John Vivian
23.
Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby
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An avid sportsman, he built Stanley House Stables in England, and is famous in North America for presenting Canada with the Stanley Cup. Stanley was also one of the inductees of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Derby was the son of Prime Minister Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby. He was born in London and was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and he received a commission in the Grenadier Guards, rising to the rank of Captain. Derby left the army for politics, serving as a Conservative Member of Parliament, in government, he served as a Civil Lord of the Admiralty, Financial Secretary to the War Office, Secretary to the Treasury, War Secretary and Colonial Secretary. In 1886 he was created Baron Stanley of Preston, in the County Palatine of Lancaster and he served as President of the Board of Trade, remaining in that office until he was appointed Governor General of Canada. Stanley was appointed the Governor General of Canada and Commander in Chief of Prince Edward Island on 1 May 1888, during his term as Governor General, he travelled often and widely throughout the country. During his visit he dedicated Stanley Park, which is named after him and he also experienced the joys of fishing and avidly pursued the sport whenever his busy schedule allowed. When Sir John A. Macdonald died in office of heart failure on 6 June 1891 and he asked Sir John Abbott to take over as prime minister. Once the government was in place, Abbott resigned for health reasons, Derby helped cement the non-political role of the governor general when, in 1891, he refused to agree to a controversial motion in the House of Commons. The opposition to the bill was introduced by the provinces who were motivated by mistrust of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. Derby declined to interfere, citing the proposed disallowal as unconstitutional, in holding to this decision, he gained popularity by refusing to compromise the viceregal position of political neutrality. Derbys wife, whom Sir Wilfrid Laurier described as an able and witty woman, in 1891, she founded the Lady Stanley Institute for Trained Nurses on Rideau Street, the first nursing school in Ottawa. She was also a fan of hockey games at the Rideau Rink. Derbys sons became avid ice hockey players in Canada, playing in amateur leagues in Ottawa, in 1892, Derby gave Canada a treasured national icon, the Stanley Cup. He originally donated the trophy as a cup for Canadas best amateur hockey club. Since 1926, only teams of the National Hockey League have competed for the trophy and this now famous cup bears Derbys name as tribute to his encouragement and love of outdoor life and sport in Canada. In recognition of this, Derby was inducted into the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945 in the Honoured Builders category, the original size of the Stanley Cup was 7 inches and is now around 36 inches and 35 pounds
24.
Father of the House
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Father of the House is a term that has by tradition been unofficially bestowed on certain members of some legislatures, most notably the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. In some legislatures the term refers to the oldest member, the term Mother of the House or Mother of Parliament is also found, although the usage varies between countries. It is used simply as the alternative to Father of the House. The Father of the House is a title that is by tradition bestowed on the member of the House of Commons who has the longest unbroken service. If two or more members have the length of current uninterrupted service, then whoever was sworn in earliest. In the House of Commons, the only conventional leadership required of the Father of the House is to preside over the election of a new Speaker whenever that office becomes vacant. The relevant Standing Order does not refer to this member by the title of Father of the House, the current Father of the House of Commons is Kenneth Clarke, Conservative MP for Rushcliffe, who began his continuous service at the 1970 general election. Dennis Skinner, Labour MP for Bolsover, also began service at the 1970 general election. Should Clarkes service conclude before Skinners, Skinner would be next in line to serve as Father of the House, however Skinner has stated he would refuse. Michael Foot was the remaining member from the 1945 election between 1987 and 1992, but was never Father of the House because he had been out of Parliament between 1955 and a 1960 by-election. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was simultaneously Father of the House and Prime Minister from May 1907 until shortly before his death in April 1908. The current Father of the House of Lords is Lord Carrington, after the House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, Carrington was given a life peerage to enable him to continue to sit. Should Carrington cease to be a Member of the House of Lords, Lord Denham who sat first on 13 December 1949 and he is a hereditary peer who was elected to remain in the House under the provisions of the 1999 Act. The senior sitting life peer by date of creation is Baroness Masham of Ilton, the Parliament of Northern Ireland, including the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, was prorogued in 1972 and abolished completely in 1973 leaving the title of Father of the House defunct. In Australia, the current member of the House of Representatives with the longest period of continuous service, similarly, the current member of the Senate with the longest period of continuous service is known as Father of the Senate. The longer serving of the two Fathers is called Father of the Parliament, as in Britain, these terms have no official status. Where two or more members have equal length of service, more than any other members. Some state parliaments, however, follow the British convention of giving precedence by order of swearing into office, the Father of the House and the Father of the Senate in Australia have no parliamentary role at all
25.
Sir John Kennaway, 3rd Baronet
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Sir John Henry Kennaway, 3rd Baronet CB PC DL was an English Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for East Devon from 1870 to 1885 and he was then MP for the new Honiton constituency from 1885 until the January 1910 general election. Kennaway was made a Privy Counsellor in 1897 and appointed CB in the 1902 Coronation Honours, from 1908 to 1910 he was Father of the House of Commons. In 1904 he was appointed as a member of the Royal Commission On Ecclesiastical Discipline and he also served as President of the Church Missionary Society. He was a governor at the Kings School Ottery St Mary, as homage to him the school has named one of its houses after him—Kennaway
26.
Stirling Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)
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Stirling Burghs was a district of burghs constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1708 to 1918. By 1832, the burgh of Queensferry had become the burgh of South Queensferry, in 1918, Stirling became part of Stirling and Falkirk Burghs and Dunfermline became part of Dunfermline Burghs, with the other burghs being represented as part of their respective counties. Henry Campbell-Bannerman was returned unopposed at the 1885 General Election and again on 10 February 1886 having accepted office as Secretary of State for War, at a by-election on 25 August 1892, having accepted office as Secretary of State for War, Henry Campbell-Bannerman was returned unopposed. Black Bond Stirling Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with S
27.
Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede
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Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede was a British politician, writer, and social activist. He was the son of Sir Henry Ponsonby, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria. Frederick Edward Grey Ponsonby, 1st Baron Sysonby, was his elder brother, however, he uses this phrase in quotation marks as an epigram at the start of the book and does not present it as his own words. Its likely origin is the almost identical line spoken in 1917 by the United States Senator Hiram Johnson, Ponsonby was a Page of Honour to Queen Victoria from 1882 to 1887. He was educated at Eton College, while at Eton, Ponsonby was whipped for organising a steeplechase in his dormitory. Ponsonby studied at Balliol College, Oxford, before joining the Diplomatic Service and taking assignments in Constantinople, at the 1906 general election, Ponsonby stood unsuccessfully as Liberal candidate for Taunton. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Stirling Burghs at a by-election of 1908, Ponsonby was defeated at the 1918 general election, when he stood as an Independent Democrat in the new Dunfermline Burghs constituency. He then joined the Labour Party and returned to the House of Commons at the 1922 general election as member for the Brightside division of Sheffield. In 1930, Ponsonby was raised to the peerage as a hereditary Baron and he served as leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords from 1931 until 1935, resigning because he was opposed to the partys policy on sanctions against Italy for its invasion of Abyssinia. In May 1940 Ponsonby resigned from the Labour Party, opposing its decision to join the new government of Winston Churchill. He wrote a biography of his father won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1942, Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victorias Private Secretary, His Life. Ponsonby died on 23 March 1946 and was succeeded by his son Matthew Henry Hubert Ponsonby, on 12 April 1893 he married Dorothea Parry, daughter of Hubert Parry and Elizabeth Maude Herbert, herself a daughter of Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, who during the 1920s became well known as a figure of the Bright Young People, and a son, Matthew. The Priory and Manor of Lynchmere and Shulbrede, the Camel and the Needles Eye. Henry Ponsonby, his Life from his Letters, Arthur Ponsonbys Dream Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Arthur Ponsonby
28.
Glasgow
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Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, and third largest in the United Kingdom. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is now one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and it is situated on the River Clyde in the countrys West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians, Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain. From the 18th century the city grew as one of Great Britains main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America. Glasgow was the Second City of the British Empire for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, reaching a peak of 1,128,473 in 1939. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers about 2.3 million people, at the 2011 census, Glasgow had a population density of 8, 790/sq mi, the highest of any Scottish city. Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is well known in the sporting world for the football rivalry of the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow is also known for Glasgow patter, a dialect that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow is the form of the ancient Cumbric name Glas Cau. Possibly referring to the area of Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral now stands, the later Gaelic name Baile Glas Chu, town of the grey dog, is purely a folk-etymology. The present site of Glasgow has been settled since prehistoric times, it is for settlement, being the furthest downstream fording point of the River Clyde, the origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotlands second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, there had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth, sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives as the Glasgow Fair. Glasgow grew over the following centuries, the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the towns religious and educational status and landed wealth. Its early trade was in agriculture, brewing and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe, Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. The citys Tobacco Lords created a water port at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde. By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgows River Clyde, at the time, Glasgow held a commercial importance as the city participated in the trade of sugar, tobacco and later cotton
29.
10 Downing Street
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Situated in Downing Street in the City of Westminster, London, Number 10 is over 300 years old and contains approximately 100 rooms. A private residence occupies the floor and there is a kitchen in the basement. At the rear is a courtyard and a terrace overlooking a garden of 0.5 acres. Adjacent to St Jamess Park, Number 10 is near Buckingham Palace, the London residence of the British monarch, and the Palace of Westminster, originally three houses, Number 10 was offered to Sir Robert Walpole by King George II in 1732. Walpole accepted on the condition that the gift was to the office of First Lord of the Treasury rather than to him personally, Walpole commissioned William Kent to join the three houses and it is this larger house that is known as Number 10 Downing Street. The arrangement was not an immediate success, despite its size and convenient location near to Parliament, few early Prime Ministers lived there. Costly to maintain, neglected, and run-down, Number 10 was close to being demolished several times but the property survived and became linked with many statesmen, in 1985 Margaret Thatcher said Number 10 had become one of the most precious jewels in the national heritage. Number 10 Downing Street was originally three properties, a mansion overlooking St Jamess Park called the House at the Back, a house behind it. The town house, from which the building gets its name, was one of several built by Sir George Downing between 1682 and 1684. Downing, a spy for Oliver Cromwell and later Charles II, invested in property. In 1654, he purchased the lease on land south of St Jamess Park, Downing planned to build a row of town houses for persons of good quality to inhabit in. The street on which he built them now bears his name, straightforward as the investment seemed, it proved otherwise. The Hampden family had a lease on the land that they refused to relinquish, Downing fought their claim, but failed and had to wait thirty years before he could build. When the Hampden lease expired, Downing received permission to build on land further west to take advantage of recent property developments. The new warrant issued in 1682 reads, Sir George Downing. to build new, subject to the proviso that it be not built any nearer than 14 feet of the wall of the said Park at the West end thereof. Between 1682 and 1684, Downing built a cul-de-sac of two-storey town houses with coach-houses, stables, over the years, the addresses changed several times. In 1787 Number 5 became Number 10, Downing employed Sir Christopher Wren to design the houses. Although large, they were put up quickly and cheaply on soft soil with shallow foundations, the fronts were façades with lines painted on the surface imitating brick mortar
30.
Perthshire
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Perthshire, officially the County of Perth, is a registration county in central Scotland. It extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west and it was a local government county from 1890 to 1930. Perthshire is known as the big county and has a variety of landscapes, from the rich agricultural straths in the east. Perthshire was an administrative county between 1890 and 1975, governed by a county council and this Local Government council was superseded in 1930, when a joint Local Government council was formed with the neighbouring small county of Kinross-shire, linking the two. The parish of Muckhart and Glendevon was made part of Clackmannan District Council, longforgan was included in the City of Dundee District, in Tayside Region Council. The remainder of the council was combined with the council of Kinross, the two-tier system introduced in 1975 was superseded by a system of unitary authorities in 1996. The area of the council is now divided between the Local Government council areas of Clackmannanshire, Perth and Kinross and Stirling. The area included in Dundee in 1975 was transferred to Perth, the coat of arms of the County of Perth appears to have been granted for use on the colours and standards of the volunteer and militia units of the county raised at the end of the eighteenth century. The grant document was discovered in the Lyon Office in 1890, the shield is very similar to the Scottish royal arms, reflecting that Perthshire was the home county of the House of Dunkeld and contains the former royal capital, Scone. Further royal references are made on the canton, which shows Scone Palace surmounted by the Crown of Scotland, the crest is a Highland soldier, reflecting that the famous Black Watch were formed in the county. The supporters are an eagle and a warhorse, the former from the arms of the city of Perth, of the twelve burghs in Perthshire, only Perth was made a large burgh. There were ten small burghs, Blairgowrie and Rattray being united into a single burgh, in 1947 Pitlochry was created a small burgh. In 1894 parish councils were established for the parishes, replacing the previous parochial boards. The parish councils were in turn replaced by district councils in 1930, the Royal Burgh of Perth originally formed part of the Perth burghs constituency along with burghs in Fife and Forfarshire. The Representation of the People Act 1832 made Perth a separate burgh constituency, the remainder of the county returned a single member as the parliamentary county of Perthshire. The parishes of Tulliallan, Culross, Muckhart, and the Perthshire portions of the parishes of Logie and Fossaway were annexed to constituency of Clackmannanshire, in 1885 seats in the House of Commons were redistributed, Perthshire received three seats. Perthshire Eastern Perthshire Western In 1918 there was a further redistribution, in 1950 it was renamed Perth and East Perthshire. These boundaries continued in use until 1983, when new constituencies were formed based on the Local Government regions and districts created in 1975
31.
Liberal Party (UK)
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The Liberal Party was a liberal political party which was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom in the 19th and early 20th century. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free-trade Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American, by the end of the nineteenth century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite splitting over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to power in 1906 with a landslide victory, by the end of the 1920s, the Labour Party had replaced the Liberals as the Conservatives main rival. The party went into decline and by the 1950s won no more than six seats at general elections, apart from notable by-election victories, the partys fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party in 1981. At the 1983 General Election, the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, at the 1987 General Election, its vote fell below 23% and the Liberal and Social Democratic parties merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. A splinter group reconstituted the Liberal Party in 1989 and it was formed by party members opposed to the merger who saw the Lib Dems diluting Liberal ideals. Prominent intellectuals associated with the Liberal Party include the philosopher John Stuart Mill, the economist John Maynard Keynes, the Liberal Party grew out of the Whigs, who had their origins in an aristocratic faction in the reign of Charles II, and the early 19th century Radicals. The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown, although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for themselves, the more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of democracy for its own sake. The great figures of reformist Whiggery were Charles James Fox and his disciple, after decades in opposition, the Whigs returned to power under Grey in 1830 and carried the First Reform Act in 1832. The Reform Act was the climax of Whiggism, but it brought about the Whigs demise. As early as 1839 Russell had adopted the name of Liberals, the leading Radicals were John Bright and Richard Cobden, who represented the manufacturing towns which had gained representation under the Reform Act. They favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the Church of England, avoidance of war and foreign alliances, for a century, free trade remained the one cause which could unite all Liberals. This allowed ministries led by Russell, Palmerston, and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen to hold office for most of the 1850s and 1860s, a leading Peelite was William Ewart Gladstone, who was a reforming Chancellor of the Exchequer in most of these governments. The formal foundation of the Liberal Party is traditionally traced to 1859 and this was brought about by Palmerstons death in 1865 and Russells retirement in 1868. After a brief Conservative government Gladstone won a victory at the 1868 election. The establishment of the party as a membership organisation came with the foundation of the National Liberal Federation in 1877. John Stuart Mill was a Liberal MP from 1865 to 1868, for the next thirty years Gladstone and Liberalism were synonymous. William Ewart Gladstone served as prime minister four times, called the Grand Old Man later in life, Gladstone was always a dynamic popular orator who appealed strongly to the working class and to the lower middle class
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University of Glasgow
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The University of Glasgow is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotlands four ancient universities. Along with the University of Edinburgh, the University was part of the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century and it is currently a member of Universitas 21, the international network of research universities, and the Russell Group. Glasgow University served all of students by preparing them for professions, the law, medicine, civil service, teaching. It also trained smaller but growing numbers for careers in science, originally located in the citys High Street, since 1870 the main University campus has been located at Gilmorehill in the West End of the city. Additionally, a number of university buildings are located elsewhere, such as the Veterinary School in Bearsden, and it is the second-oldest university in Scotland after St Andrews and the fourth-oldest in the English-speaking world. The universities of St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen were ecclesiastical foundations, as one of the Ancient Universities of the United Kingdom, Glasgow University is one of only eight institutions to award undergraduate masters degrees in certain disciplines. The University has been without its original Bull since the mid-sixteenth century, in 1560, during the political unrest accompanying the Scottish Reformation, the then chancellor, Archbishop James Beaton, a supporter of the Marian cause, fled to France. He took with him, for safe-keeping, many of the archives and valuables of the Cathedral and the University, including the Mace, although the Mace was sent back in 1590, the archives were not. If they had not been lost by time, they certainly went astray during the French Revolution when the Scots College was under threat. Its records and valuables were moved for safe-keeping out of the city of Paris, the Bull remains the authority by which the University awards degrees. Teaching at the University began in the chapterhouse of Glasgow Cathedral, subsequently moving to nearby Rottenrow, the University was given 13 acres of land belonging to the Black Friars on High Street by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1563. The Lion and Unicorn Staircase was also transferred from the old site and is now attached to the Main Building. To continue this work in his will he founded Andersons College, in 1973, Delphine Parrott became its first woman professor, as Gardiner Professor of Immunology. In October 2014, the university court voted for the University to become the first academic institution in Europe to divest from the fuel industry. The University is currently spread over a number of different campuses, the main one is the Gilmorehill campus, in Hillhead. The University has also established joint departments with the Glasgow School of Art, the Universitys initial accommodation including Glasgow University Library was part of the complex of religious buildings in the precincts of Glasgow Cathedral. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Hamilton Building was replaced with a very grand two-court building with a decorated west front facing the High Street, called the Nova Erectio, over the following centuries, the Universitys size and scope continued to expand. In 1757 it built the Macfarlane Observatory and later Scotlands first public museum and it was a centre of the Scottish Enlightenment and subsequently of the Industrial Revolution, and its expansion in the High Street was constrained
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Trinity College, Cambridge
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Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. With around 600 undergraduates,300 graduates, and over 180 fellows, by combined student numbers, it is second to Homerton College, Cambridge. Members of Trinity have won 32 Nobel Prizes out of the 91 won by members of Cambridge University, five Fields Medals in mathematics were won by members of the college and one Abel Prize was won. Other royal family members have studied there without obtaining degrees, including King Edward VII, King George VI, along with Christs, Jesus, Kings and St Johns colleges, it has also provided several of the well known members of the Apostles, an intellectual secret society. In 1848, Trinity hosted the meeting at which Cambridge undergraduates representing private schools such as Westminster drew up the first formal rules of football, Trinitys sister college in Oxford is Christ Church. Like that college, Trinity has been linked with Westminster School since the schools re-foundation in 1560, the college was founded by Henry VIII in 1546, from the merger of two existing colleges, Michaelhouse, and Kings Hall. At the time, Henry had been seizing church lands from abbeys, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, being both religious institutions and quite rich, expected to be next in line. The King duly passed an Act of Parliament that allowed him to any college he wished. The universities used their contacts to plead with his sixth wife, the Queen persuaded her husband not to close them down, but to create a new college. The king did not want to use royal funds, so he combined two colleges and seven hostels to form Trinity. Contrary to popular belief, the lands granted by Henry VIII were not on their own sufficient to ensure Trinitys eventual rise. In its infancy Trinity had owed a great deal to its college of St Johns. Its first four Masters were educated at St Johns, and it took until around 1575 for the two colleges application numbers to draw even, a position in which they have remained since the Civil War. Bentley himself was notorious for the construction of a hugely expensive staircase in the Masters Lodge, most of the Trinitys major buildings date from the 16th and 17th centuries. Thomas Nevile, who became Master of Trinity in 1593, rebuilt and this work included the enlargement and completion of Great Court, and the construction of Neviles Court between Great Court and the river Cam. Neviles Court was completed in the late 17th century when the Wren Library, in the 20th century, Trinity College, St Johns College and Kings College were for decades the main recruiting grounds for the Cambridge Apostles, an elite, intellectual secret society. In 2011, the John Templeton Foundation awarded Trinity Colleges Master, Trinity is the richest Oxbridge college, with a landholding alone worth £800 million. Trinity is sometimes suggested to be the second, third or fourth wealthiest landowner in the UK – after the Crown Estate, the National Trust, in 2005, Trinitys annual rental income from its properties was reported to be in excess of £20 million
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Merchant
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A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people to earn a profit. A merchant historically was anyone involved in business as long as industry, commerce, the status of the merchant has varied during different periods of history and among different societies. There are two types of merchant, A wholesale merchant is a wholesaler who operates in the chain between produce and retail merchant, typically dealing in large quantities of goods, some wholesale merchants only organize the movement of goods rather than move the goods themselves. A retail merchant or retailer, sells merchandise to end-users or consumers, a shop-keeper is a retail merchant. Merchants have existed as long as business, industry, trade, a merchant class characterized many pre-modern societies. Open air, public markets were known in ancient Babylonia and Assyria, China, Egypt, Greece, India, Persia, Phonecia and these markets typically occupied a place in the towns centre. Surrounding the market, skilled artisans, such as metal-workers and leather workers and these artisans may have sold wares directly from their premises, but also prepared goods for sale on market days. In ancient Greece markets operated within the agora, and in ancient Rome the forum, the nature of direct selling centred around transactional exchange, where the goods were on open display, allowing buyers to evaluate quality directly through visual inspection. Relationships between merchant and consumer were minimal, the Phoenicians plied their ships across the Mediterranean, becoming a major trading power by 9th century BCE. The Phoenicians imported and exported wood, textiles, glass and produce such as wine, oil, dried fruit and their trading skills necessitated a network of colonies along the Mediterranean coast, stretching from modern day Crete through to Tangiers and onto Sardinia. The Phoenicians not only traded in goods, but were also instrumental in transporting the trappings of culture. The Phoenicians extensive trade networks necessitated considerable book-keeping and correspondence, in around 1500 BCE, the Phoenicians developed a phonetic alphabet which was much easier to learn that the pictographic scripts used in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Phoenician traders and merchants were responsible for spreading their alphabet around the region. Phoenician inscriptions have been found in sites at a number of former Phoenician cities and colonies around the Mediterranean, such as Byblos. The Romans defined merchants or traders in a narrow sense. Merchants were those who bought and sold goods while landowners who sold their own produce were not considered to be merchants, being a landowner was a respectable occupation. On the other hand, the trade of merchant was not considered respectable, although they may have lacked high social standing, merchants in ancient Rome often made handsome profits. Umbricius Scauras, for example, was a manufacturer and trader of fish sauce in Pompeii and his villa, situated in one of the wealthier districts of Pompeii, was very large and ornately decorated in a show of substantial personal wealth
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First Lord of the Treasury
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The First Lord of the Treasury is the head of the commission exercising the ancient office of Lord High Treasurer in the United Kingdom, and is now always also the Prime Minister. As of the beginning of the 17th century, the running of the Treasury was frequently entrusted to a commission, as of 1714, it has permanently been in commission. The commissioners have always since that date been referred to as Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the term Prime Minister was initially, but decreasingly, used as a term of derogation, it was first used officially in a royal warrant only in 1905. William Pitt the Younger once opined that the Prime Minister ought to be the person at the head of the finances, as of 1827, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has always been Second Lord of the Treasury when he was not also Prime Minister. By convention, the other Lords Commissioners of the Treasury are also Government Whips in the House of Commons,10 Downing Street is the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, and not of the Prime Minister. As all modern prime ministers have simultaneously been First Lord of the Treasury, thereafter the posts of First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister have continually been held by the same person, see the list of 20th century British prime ministers. Chief Baron of the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury List of Lords Commissioners of the Treasury E. B, roy, ed. Handbook of British Chronology, 3rd Edition Haydn, Joseph Timothy. The Book of Dignities HM Government, First Lord of the Treasury
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Free trade
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Free trade is one of the most debated topics in economics of the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. Arguments over free trade can be divided into economic, moral, the World Trade Organization was created to open up markets and promote international trade based on the Free Trade paradigm. The WTO creates and monitors agreements to reduce trade barriers, and arbitrates in disputes over foreign market access and its definition of Free Trade is trade on a level playing field, so that the unlimited exchange of goods between countries is not necessarily Free. Therefore, any import restriction makes the domestic society as a whole worse off than it would be with unlimited imports, the artificial handicap of a foreign subsidy seems much less just to local production than advantages deriving from geography, natural resources, or native skill. Electorates often prefer fairplay to Utilitarian considerations, if trade barriers are already low, the threat of a trade war of tit-for-tat tariff increases may reduce the temptation for either partner in bilateral trade to raise import barriers. It would tend to decrease the power and revenue flowing to government bureaucrats. In the history of trade, two types of arguments have been advanced in favor of allowing purchases from abroad, and free trade in the broader sense. One set of arguments for free trade could be classified as moral arguments listed below, another set of arguments is essentially economic, that free trade will make society more prosperous. These are mostly technical arguments from the discipline of economics, starting especially with Smiths The Wealth of Nations, the 18th and 19th century intellectuals who backed free trade rarely did so under the rubric of increasing material wealth. In many cases this was given as the least important reason for free trade, rather, they argued that international society would be improved by increased commerce. Some of these, and later, sociopolitical arguments are listed here, adam Smith thought that protectionism against free trade was a scam on the public on behalf of producers, carried out in the name of nationalism. Even if overall economic interests had not been harmed by tariffs, classical economic analysis shows that free trade increases the global level of output because free trade permits specialization among countries. Specialization allows nations to devote their resources to the production of the particular goods. The benefits of specialization, coupled with economies of scale, increase the production possibility frontier. An increase in the production possibility frontier indicates that the absolute quantity of goods. Not only are the quantity of goods and services higher. Free trade policies are often associated with general laissez-faire economic politics and parties, voluntary exchange, by virtue of its voluntary nature, is assumed to be beneficial to the parties involved—why else would they engage in the exchange. Thus, the restriction of voluntary exchange restricts commerce and ultimately the accumulation of wealth in the absence of real-world externalities such as infant industry protection, here is the production possibilities frontier for a fictional country, Country A
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United Kingdom general election, 1900
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The United Kingdom general election of 1900 was held between 26 September and 24 October 1900, following the dissolution of Parliament on 25 September. Also known as the election, it was held at a time when it was widely believed that the Second Boer War had effectively been won. The Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury with their Liberal Unionist allies, secured a majority of 130. This was largely due to the Conservatives winning 163 uncontested seats, the Labour Representation Committee, later to become the Labour Party, participated in a general election for the first time even though they had only been in existence for a few months. As a result, Keir Hardie and Richard Bell were the only LRC members of parliament in 1900 and this was the first time that Winston Churchill was elected to the House of Commons. He had stood in the seat, Oldham, in a by-election the previous year. It was also the general election of the Victorian era. All parties with more than 1,000 votes shown, mPs elected in the United Kingdom general election,1900 Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918 F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts, 1832-1987. The life of Joseph Chamberlain, volume Three 1895-1900, pp 571-92 on dissolving Parliament, newcastle and the Boer War, Regional Reactions to an Imperial War. Online Marsh, Peter T. Joseph Chamberlain, Entrepreneur in Politics pp 492-502, the Conservative party, patriotism, and British politics, the case of the general election of 1900. Journal of British Studies 40#1, 107-145
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Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
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United Kingdom general election, 1906
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The United Kingdom general election of 1906 was held from 12 January-8 February 1906. The Liberals, led by Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman, won a majority at the election. The election saw a 5. 4% swing from the Conservative Party to the Liberal Party, the Labour Representation Committee was far more successful than at the 1900 and after the election would be renamed the Labour Party with 29 MPs and Keir Hardie as leader. The Irish Parliamentary Party, led by John Redmond, achieved its seats with a low number of votes. Many working-class people saw this as a threat to the price of food, hence the debate was nicknamed Big Loaf, the Liberals landslide victory of 125 seats over all other parties led to the passing of social legislation known as the Liberal reforms. This was the last election in which the Liberals won a majority in the House of Commons. A coalition between the Conservative and Liberal Unionist parties had governed the United Kingdom since the election of 1895. Arthur Balfour had served as Prime Minister from 1902 until 5 December 1905, Balfour had hoped that under a Liberal government splits would reemerge, which would therefore help the Conservative Party achieve victory at the next election. The Unionist government had become divided over the issue of free trade. This culminated in Joseph Chamberlains resignation from the government in May 1903 to campaign for reform in order to protect British industry from foreign competition. This division was in contrast to the Liberal Partys belief in free trade, the issue of free trade became the feature of the Liberal campaign, under the slogan ‘big loaf’ under a Liberal government, ‘little loaf’ under a Conservative government. Dont be deceived by Tory tricks, the Boer War had also contributed to the unpopularity of the Conservative and Unionist government. The war had also unearthed the poor state of the country in the early 1900s. The Conservative and Unionist Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour had been blamed over the issue of ‘Chinese Slavery’, the local school boards that they largely controlled were abolished and replaced by county governments that were usually controlled by Anglicans. Worst of all the hated Anglican schools would now receive funding from taxes that everyone had to pay. One tactic was to refuse to pay local taxes, the education issue played a major role in the Liberal victory in 1906, as Dissenter (nonconformist( Conservatives punished their old party and voted Liberal. However the Liberals failed repeatedly to repeal or modify the 1902 law, the landslide Liberal victory led to many Conservative and Unionist MPs losing what had previously been regarded as safe seats. This resulted in prominent Conservative ministers being unseated from their constituencies, the result in Manchester East saw a large 22. 4% swing to the Liberal candidate Thomas Gardner Horridge, much larger than the national 5. 4% swing to the Liberals
Sinclair, John (1912). "Campbell-Bannerman, Henry". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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