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CHAMBERLAIN, JOSEPH (1836— )
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See also: His See also:programme was " See also:free See also: In later life Oxford- and See also:Cambridge gave him their doctors' degrees; and in 1897 he was made See also:lord See also:rector of See also:Glasgow
University (delivering an address on " Patriotism " at his See also:installation).
In 1876 Mr Dixon resigned his seat in See also:parliament, and Mr Chamberlain was returned for Birmingham in his place unopposed, as John See also:Bright's colleague. He made his See also:maiden speech in the House of See also:Commons on the 4th of See also:August 1876, on Lord Sandon's Education See also:Bill. At this period, too, he paid much See also:attention to the question of licensing reform, and in 1876 he examined the See also:Gothenburg system in See also:Sweden, and advocated a See also:solution of the problem in See also:England on similar lines. During 1877 the new federation of Liberal Associations which became known as the " See also:Caucus " was started under Mr Chamberlain's See also:influence in Birmingham—its secretary, Mr Schnadhorst, quickly making himself See also:felt as a See also:wire-puller of exceptional ability; and the new organization had a remarkable effect in putting life into the Liberal party, which since Mr See also:Gladstone's retirement in 1874 had been much in need of a stimulus. When the general election came in 188o, Mr Schnadhorst's See also:powers were demonstrated in the successes won under his auspices. The Liberal partynumbered 349, against 243 Conservatives and 6o Irish Nationalists; and the Radical See also:section of the Liberal party, led by Mr Chamberlain and See also:Sir See also: In June 1885 he made a speech at Birmingham, treating the reforms just mentioned as the " See also:ransom " that See also:property must pay to society for the See also:security it enjoys—for which Lord See also:Iddesleigh called him " See also:Jack See also:Cade "; and he continually urged the Liberal party to take up these Radical measures. At the general election of See also:November 1885 Mr Chamberlain was returned for See also:West Birmingham. The Liberal strength generally was, however, reduced to 335 members, though the Radical section held their own; and the Irish See also:vote became necessary to Mr Gladstone if he was to command a majority. In See also:December it was stated that Mr Gladstone in-tended to propose See also:Home See also:Rule for See also:Ireland, and in See also:January Lord See also:Salisbury's See also:ministry was defeated on the Address, on an See also:amendment moved by Mr Chamberlain's Birmingham henchman, Mr See also:Jesse Collings (b. 1831), embodying the " three acres and a cow " of the Radical programme. Unlike Lord Hartington (after-wards See also:duke of See also:Devonshire) and other Liberals, who declined to join Mr Gladstone in view of the altered attitude he was adopting towards Ireland, Mr Chamberlain entered the cabinet as president of the Local Government Board (with Mr Jesse Collings as parliamentary secretary), but on the 15th of See also: When the House met in August, it was decided by the Liberal Unionists, under Lord Hartington's leadership, that their policy henceforth was essentially to combine with the Tories to keep Mr Gladstone out. The old Liberal feeling still prevailing among them was too strong, however, for their leaders to take office in a See also:coalition ministry. It was enough for them to be able to tie down the Conservative' government to such measures as were not offensive to Liberal Unionist principles. It still seemed possible, moreover, that the Gladstonians might be brought to modify their Home Rule proposals, and in January 1887 a See also:Round Table See also:conference (suggested by Mr Chamberlain) was held between Mr Chamberlain, Sir G. Trevelyan, Sir See also: The visit also resulted, in November 1888, in his See also:marriage with his third wife, Miss Endicott, daughter of the United States secretary of war in President See also:Cleveland's first See also:administration.
At the general election of 1892 Mr Chamberlain was again returned, with an increased majority, for West Birmingham; but the Unionist party as a whole came back with only 315 members against 355 Home Rulers. In August Lord Salisbury's ministry was defeated; and on the 13th of February 1893 Mr Gladstone introduced his second Home Rule Bill, which was eventually read a third time on the 1st of See also:September. During the eighty-two days' discussion in the House of Commons Mr Chamberlain was the life and soul of the opposition, and his criticisms had a vital influence upon the attitude of the See also:country when the House of Lords summarily threw out the bill. His See also:chief contribution to the discussions during the later stages of the Gladstone and See also:Rosebery ministries was in connexion with Mr See also:Asquith's abortive Employers' Liability Bill, when he fore-shadowed the method of dealing with this question afterwards carried out in the See also:Compensation Act of 1897. Outside parliament he was busy formulating proposals for old See also:age See also:pensions, which had a prominent place in the Unionist programme of 1895. In
that year, on the defeat of Lord Rosebery, the union of the Unionists was sealed by the inclusion of the Liberal Unionist leaders in Lord Salisbury's ministry; and Mr Chamberlain became secretary of See also:state for the colonies. There had been much See also:speculation as to what his See also:post would be, and his nomination to the colonial office, then considered one of secondary rank, excited some surprise; but Mr Chamberlain himself realized how important that See also:department had become. He carried with him into the ministry his See also:close Birmingham municipal associates, Mr Jesse Collings (as under secretary of the home office), and Mr J. See also:Powell-See also:Williams (1840–1904) as See also:financial secretary to the war office. Mr Chamberlain's influence in the Unionist cabinet was soon visible in the Workmen's Compensation Act and other measures. This act, though in Sir See also:Matthew See also: Another " social " measure of less importance, which formed part of the Chamberlain programme, was the Small Houses Acquisition Act of 1899; but the problem of old age pensions was less easily solved. This subject had been handed over in 1893 to a royal commission, and further discussed by a select committee in 1899 and a departmental committee in 1900, but both of these threw See also:cold water on, the schemes laid before them—a result which, galling enough to one who had made so much See also:play with the question in the country, offered welcome material to his opponents for electioneering recrimination, as year by year went by between 1895 and 1900 and nothing resulted from all the confident talk on the subject in which Mr Chamberlain had indulged when out of office. Eventually it was the Liberal and not the Unionist party that carried an Old Age Pensions scheme through parliament, during the 1908 session, when Mr Chamberlain was hors de combat. From January 1896 (the date of the See also:Jameson See also:Raid) onwards See also:South See also:Africa demanded , the chief attention of the colonial secretary (see SOUTH AFRICA, and for details TRANSVAAL). In his negotiations with President See also:Kruger one masterful temperament was pitted against another. Mr Chamberlain had a very difficult part to play, in a situation dominated by suspicion on both sides, and while he firmly insisted on the rights of Great See also:Britain and of British subjects in the Transvaal, he was the continual object of Radical See also:criticism at home. Never has a statesman's personality been more bitterly associated by his political opponents with the developments they deplored. Attempts were even made to ascribe financial motives to Mr Chamberlain's actions, and the political See also:atmosphere was thick with suspicion and See also:scandal. The See also:report of the Commons committee (July 1897) definitely acquitted both Mr Chamberlain and the colonial office of any privity in the Jameson Raid, but Mr Chamberlain's detractors continued to assert the contrary. Opposition hostility reached such a See also:pitch that in 1899 there was hardly an act of the cabinet during the negotiations with President Kruger which was not attributed to the See also:personal malignity and unscrupulousness of the colonial secretary. The elections of 1900 (when he was again returned, unopposed, for West Birmingham) turned upon the individuality of a single See also:minister more than any since the days of Mr Gladstone's ascendancy, and Mr Chamberlain, never conspicuous for inclination to turn his other cheek to the smiter,was not slow to return the blows with interest. Apart from South Africa, his most important work at this time was the successful passing of the Australian See also:Commonwealth Act (1900), in which both tact and firmness were needed to See also:settle certain See also:differences between the imperial government and the colonial delegates. Mr Chamberlain's See also:tenure of the office of colonial secretary between 1895 and 1900 must always be regarded as a turning-point in the See also:history of the relations between the British colonies and the See also:mother country. His See also:accession to office was marked by speeches breathing a new spirit of imperial consolidation, em-bodied either in suggestions for commercial union or in more immediately practicable proposals for improving the " imperialestate "; and at the See also:Diamond See also:Jubilee of 1897 the visits of the colonial premiers to London emphasized and confirmed the new policy, the fruits of which were afterwards seen in the cordial support given by the colonies in the See also:Boer War. Even in what Mr Chamberlain called his " Radical days " he had never supported the " See also:Manchester " view of the value of a colonial empire; and during the Gladstone ministry of 1882–1885 Mr Bright had remarked that the junior member for Birmingham was the only See also:Jingo in the cabinet—meaning, no doubt, that he objected to the policy of laissez-faire and the timidity of what was afterwards known as " Little Englandism." While he was still under Mr Gladstone's influence these opinions were kept in subordination; but Mr Chamberlain was always an imperial federationist, and from 1887 onwards he constantly gave expression to his views on the desirability of See also:drawing the different parts of the empire closer together for purposes of See also:defence and See also:commerce. In 1895 the time for the realization of these views had come; and Mr Chamberlain's speeches, previously remark-able chiefly for debating See also:power and directness of See also:argument, were nowdominated by a newnote of constructive statesmanship, basing itself on the economic necessities of a See also:world-wide empire. Not the least of the anxieties of the colonial office during this period was the situation in the West Indies, where the See also:cane-See also:sugar See also:industry was being steadily undermined by the See also:European bounties given to exports of See also:continental See also:beet; and though the government restricted themselves to attempts at removing the bounties by negotiation and to measures for palliating the worst effects in the West Indies, Mr Chamberlain made no See also:secret of his repudiation of the See also:Cobden See also:Club view that See also:retaliation would be contrary to the doctrines of free trade, and he did his utmost to educate public See also:opinion at home into understanding that the responsibilities of the mother country are not merely to be construed according to the selfish interests of a nation of consumers. As regards foreign affairs, Mr Chamberlain more than once (and particularly at See also:Leicester on 30th November 1899) indicated his leanings towards a closer understanding between the British empire, the United States and See also:Germany ,—a See also:suggestion which did not See also:save him from an extravagant outburst of See also:German hostility during the Boer War. The unusually outspoken and pointed expression, however, of his disinclination to submit to See also:Muscovite duplicity or to " See also:pin-pricks " or " unmannerliness " from France was criticized on the See also:score of discretion by a wider circle than that of his political adversaries. During the progress of the Boer War from 1899 to 1902, Mr Chamberlain, as the statesman who had represented the cabinet in the negotiations which led to it, remained the object of constant attacks from his Radical opponents—the "little Englanders " and " See also:Pro-Boers," as he called them—and he was supported by the Imperialist and Unionist party with at least equal ardour. But as colonial secretary, except in so far as his consistent support of Lord See also:Milner and his enthusiastic encouragement of colonial assistance were concerned, he naturally played only a subordinate part during the carrying out of the military operations. Among domestic statesmen he was felt, however, to be the backbone of the party in power. He was the See also:hero of the one See also:side, just as he was the bugbear of the other. On the 13th of February 1902 he was presented with an address in a See also:gold See also:casket by the See also:city See also:corporation, and entertained at See also:luncheon at the See also:Mansion House, an See also:honour not unconnected with the strong feeling recently aroused by his See also:firm reply (at Birmingham, January 11) to some remarks made by See also:Count von Billow, the German chancellor, in the Reichstag (January 8), reflecting the offensive allegations current in Germany against the conduct of the See also:army in South Africa. Mr Chamberlain's speech, in See also:answer to what had been intended as a contemptuous rebuke, was universally applauded. His own imperialism was intensified by the way in which England's difficulties resulted in calling forth colonial assistance and so cementing the bonds of empire. The domestic crisis, and the See also:sharp cleavage between parties at home, had driven the See also:bent of his mind and policy further and further away from the purely municipal and national ideals which he had followed so keenly before he became colonial minister. The problems of empire engrossed him, and a new See also:enthusiasm for imperial projects arose in the Unionist party under his See also:inspiration. No See also:English statesman probably has ever been, at different times in his career, so able an advocate of absolutely contradictory policies, and his opponents were not slow to taunt him with quotations from his earlier speeches. As the war See also:drew to its end, new plans for imperial consolidation were maturing in his See also:brain. Subsidiary points of utility, such as the formation of the London and See also:Liverpool schools of tropical See also:medicine from 1899 onwards, were taken up by him with characteristic vigour. But the next step was to prove a See also:critical one indeed for the loyalty of the party which had so far been unanimous in his favour. The settlement after the war was full of difficulties, financial and others, in South Africa. When Mr See also:Arthur See also:Balfour succeeded Lord Salisbury as See also:prime minister in July 1902, Mr Chamberlain agreed to serve loyally under him, and the friendship between the two leaders was indeed one of the most marked features of the political situation. In November 1902 it was arranged that Mr Chamberlain should go out to South Africa, and it was hoped, not without See also:reason, that his personality would effect more See also:good than any See also:ordinary See also:official negotiations. At the time the best results appeared to be secured. He went from place to place in South Africa (December 26–February 25); arranged with the leading Transvaal financiers that in return for support from the British government in raising a Transvaal See also:loan they would See also:guarantee a large proportion of a Transvaal See also:debt of £30,000,000, which should repay the British See also:treasury so much of the cost of the war; and when he returned in March 1903, satisfaction was general in the country over the success of his mission. But meantime two things had happened. He had looked at the empire from the colonial point of view, in a way only possible in a colonial atmosphere; and at home some of his colleagues had gone a long way, behind the scenes, to destroy one of the very factors on which the question of a See also:practical scheme for imperial commercial federation seemed to See also:hinge. In the budget of 1902a See also:duty of a See also:shilling a See also:quarter on imported See also:corn had been reintroduced. This small tax was regarded as only wregistration duty. Even by free-trade ministers like Gladstone it had been See also:left up to 1869 untouched, and its removal by See also:Robert See also:Lowe (Lord See also:Sherbrooke) had since then been widely regarded as a piece of economic pedantry. Its reimposition, officially sup-ported for the See also:sake of necessary See also:revenue in war-time, and cordially welcomed by the Unionist party, had justified itself, as they contended, in spite of the criticisms of the Opposition (who raised the cry of the " dear See also:loaf "), by proving during the year to have had no general or See also:direct effect on the See also:price of See also:bread. And the more advanced Imperialists, as well as the more old-fashioned protectionists (like Mr See also:Chaplin) who formed an integral See also:body of the Conservative party, had looked forward to this tax being converted into a See also:differential one between foreign and colonial corn, so as to introduce a scheme of colonial preference and commercial consolidation between the colonies and the mother country. In South Africa—as in any other British See also:colony, since all of them were accustomed to tariffs of a protectionist nature, and the See also:idea of a preference (already started by See also:Canada) was fairly popular—Mr Chamberlain had found this view well established. The agitation in England against the tax had now blown over. The Unionist rank and See also:file were committed to its support,—many even advocating its increase to two shillings at least. But Mr See also:Ritchie, the chancellor of the See also:exchequer, having a surplus in prospect and taxation to take off, carried the cabinet in favour of again remitting this tax on corn. Mr Chamberlain himself had proposed only to take it off as regards colonial, and not foreign corn thus inaugurating a preferential system. But a majority of the cabinet supported Mr Ritchie. The remission of this tax, after all the conviction with which its restoration had been supported a year before, was very difficult for the party itself to See also:stomach, and on any ground it was a distasteful act, loyally as the party followed their leaders. But to those who had looked to it as providing a See also:lever for a See also:gradual See also:change in the established fiscal system,the volte-face was a See also:bitter See also:blow, and at once there began, though not at first openly, a split between the more rigid free-traders—advocates of cheap See also:food and free imports—and those who desired to use the opportunities of a See also:tariff, of however moderate a See also:kind, for attaining national and imperial and not merely revenue advantages. This idea, which had for some time been floating in Mr Chamberlain's mind (see especially his speech at Birmingham of May 16, 1902), now took full See also:possession of it. For the moment he remained in the cabinet, but the See also:seed of dissension was sown. The first public intimation of his views was given in a speech to his constituents at Birmingham (May 15, 1903), when he outlined a See also:plan for raising more See also:money by a rearranged tariff, partly to obtain a preferential system for the empire and partly to produce funds for social reform at home. On May 28th in the House of Commons he spoke on the same subject, and declared " if you are to give a preference to the colonies, you must put a tax on food." Considered in the light of after events, this putting the See also:necessity of food-taxes in the forefront was decidedly injudicious; but imperialist conviction and enthusiasm were more conspicuous than electioneering tact in the launching of Mr Chamberlain's new scheme. The movement See also:grew quickly, its supporters including a number of the cleverest younger politicians and journalists in the Unionist party. The idea of tariff reform—to broaden the basis of taxation, to introduce a preference, and to stimulate home See also:industries and increase employment—took firm See also:root; and the political economists of the party—Prof. W. See also:Cunningham, Prof. W. See also:Ashley and Prof. W. A. S. Hewins, in particular—brought effective criticism to See also:bear on the one-sided " free trade " in See also:vogue. The first demand was for inquiry. The country was still bearing an income-tax of elevenpence in the See also:pound; it appeared that the old See also:sources of revenue were inadequate; and meanwhile the See also:statistics of trade, it was argued, showed that the English free-import system hampered English trade while providing the foreigner with a free See also:market. Mr Chamberlain and his supporters argued that since 187o certain other countries (Germany and the United States), with protective tariffs, had increased their trade in much larger proportion, while English trade had only been maintained by the increased business done with British colonies. A scientific inquiry into the facts was needed. By the Opposition, who now found themselves the defenders of conservatism in the established fiscal policy of the country, this whole argument was scouted; but for a time the demand merely for inquiry, and the See also:production of figures, gave no sufficient occasion for dissension among Unionists, even when, like Sir M. See also:Hicks See also:Beach, they were convinced free-importers on purely economic grounds; and Mr Balfour (q.v.), as premier, managed to hold his colleagues and party together by taking the See also:line that particular opinions on economic subjects should not be made a test of party loyalty. The Board of Trade was set to work to produce fiscal See also:Blue-books, and hum-See also:drum politicians who had never shown any genius for figures suddenly blossomed out into arithmeticians of the deepest dye. The Tariff Reform League was founded in See also:order to further Mr Chamberlain's policy, holding its inaugural See also:meeting on July 21st; and it began to take an active part in issuing leaflets and in work at by-elections. Discussion proceeded hotly on the merits of a preferential tariff, and on August 15th a manifesto appeared against it signed byfourteen professors or lecturers on political See also:economy, including Mr Leonard See also:Courtney, See also:Professor See also:Edgeworth, Professor See also:Marshall, Professor Bastable, Professor See also:Smart, Professor J. S. See also:Nicholson, Professor Gonner, Mr Bowley, Mr E. Cannan and Mr L. R. See also:Phelps,—men of admitted competence, yet, after all, of no higher authority than the economists supporting Mr Chamberlain, such as Dr Cunningham and Professor Ashley. Meanwhile, the See also:death of Lord Salisbury (August 22) removed a weighty figure from the councils of the Unionist party. The cabinet met several times at the beginning of September, and the question of their attitude towards the fiscal problem became acute. The public had its first intimation of impending events in the See also:appearance on September 16th of Mr Balfour's Economic Notes on Insular Free Trade, which had been previously circulated as a cabinet memorandum. The next See also:day appeared the Board of Trade Fiscal Blue-See also:book. And on the 18th the resignations were announced, not only of the more rigid free-traders in the cabinet, Mr Ritchie and Lord George See also: Analysing the trade statistics as between 1872 and 1902, he insisted that British progress involved a relative decline compared with that of protectionist foreign countries like Germany and the United States; Great Britain exported less and less of manufactured goods, and imported more and more; the exports to foreign countries had decreased, and it was only the increased exports to the colonies that maintained the British position. This was the outcome of the working of a one-sided free-trade system. Now was the time, and it might soon be lost, for consolidating British trade relations with the colonies. If the mother country and her daughter states did not draw closer, they would inevitably See also:drift apart. A further increase of £26,000,000 a year in the trade with the colonies might be obtained by a preferential tariff, and this meant additional employment at home for 166,000 workmen, or subsistence for a See also:population of a far larger number. His See also:positive proposals were: (1) no tax on raw materials; (?) a small tax on food other than colonial, e.g. two shillings a quarter on foreign corn but excepting
See also:maize, and 5 % on See also:meat and See also:dairy produce excluding See also: In the Leeds speech he announced that, with a view to drawing up a scientific See also:model tariff, a non-political commission of representative experts would be appointed under the auspices of the Tariff Reform League to take See also:evidence from every trade; it included many heads of businesses, and Mr Charles See also:Booth, the eminent student of social and See also:industrial London, with Sir Robert See also:Herbert as chairman, and Professor W. A. S. Hewins as secretary. The name of " Tariff Commission," given to this voluntary and unofficial body, was a good See also:deal criticized, but though flouted by the political free-traders it set to work in See also:earnest, and accumulated a See also:mass of evidence as to the real facts of trade, which promised to be invaluable to economic inquirers. On January 18th, 1go4, Mr Chamberlain ended his See also:series of speeches by a great meeting at the See also:Guildhall, in the city of London, the See also: The revival in trade, and the production of new statistics which appeared to stultify Mr Chamberlain's prophecies of progressive decline, enabled the free-trade champions to reassure their audiences as to the very See also:foundation of his case, and to represent the whole tariff reform movement as no less unnecessary than risky. Moreover, the split in the Unionist party brought the united Liberal party in full force into the See also: The one important new development concerned the Liberal-Unionist organization. In January some See also:correspondence was published between' Mr Chamberlain and the duke of Devonshire, dating from the previous October, as to difficulties arising from the central Liberal-Unionist organization subsidizing local associations which had adopted the pro-gramme of tariff reform. The duke objected to this departure from See also:neutrality, and suggested that it was becoming " impossible with any advantage to maintain under existing circumstances the existence of the Liberal-Unionist organization." Mr Chamber-lain retorted that this was a matter for a general meeting of delegates to decide; if the duke was outvoted he might resign his See also:presidency; for his own part he was prepared to allow the local associations to be subsidized impartially, so long as they supported the government, but he was not prepared for the violent disruption, which the duke apparently contemplated, of an association so necessary to the success of the Unionist cause. The duke was in a difficult position as president of the organization, since most of the local associations supported Mr Chamberlain, and be replied that the differences between them were vital, and he would not be responsible for dividing the association into sections, but would rather resign. Mr Chamberlain then called a general meeting on his own responsi-bility in February, when a new constitution was proposed; and in May, at the See also:annual meeting of the Liberal-Unionist council, the free-food Unionists, being in a minority, retired, and the association was reorganized under Mr Chamberlain's auspices, Lord See also:Lansdowne and Lord See also:Selborne (both of them cabinet ministers) becoming See also:vice-presidents. On July 14th the reconstituted Liberal-Unionist organization held a great demonstration in the See also:Albert See also: The See also:formula was given in a See also:letter from Mr Balfour of February 14th (see BALFOUR, A. J.) which admitted the necessity of making fiscal reform the first See also:plank in the Unionist platform, and accepted a general tariff on manufactured goods and a small duty on foreign corn as " not in principle objectionable." It may be left to future historians to See also:attempt a considered See also:judgment on the English tariff reform movement, and on Mr Chamberlain's responsibility for the Unionist debacle of 1go6. But while his enemies taunted him with having twice wrecked his party—first the Radical party under Mr Gladstone, and secondly the Unionist party under Mr Balfour—no well-informed critic doubted his sincerity, or failed to recognize that in leaving the cabinet and embarking on his fiscal campaign he showed real devotion to an idea. In championing the cause of imperial fiscal union, by means involving the See also:abandonment of a system of taxation which had become part of British orthodoxy, he followed the guidance of a profound conviction that the stability of the empire and the very existence of the See also:hegemony of the United See also:Kingdom depended upon the See also:conversion of public opinion to a revision of the current economic See also:doctrine. There were doubtless miscalculations at the outset as to the resistance to be encountered. But from the purely party point of view he was entitled to say that he followed the path of loyalty to Mr Balfour which he had marked out from the moment of his resignation, and that he persistently, refused to be put in competition with him as leader. Even in the See also:absence of the new issue, defeat was foredoomed for Mr Balfour's administration by the ordinary course of political events; and it might fairly be claimed that " Chinese See also:slavery," " passive resistance," and labour irritation at the Taff Vale judgment (see TRADE UNIONS) were mainly responsible for the Unionist collapse. Time alone would show whether the system of free imports could be permanently reconciled with British imperial policy or commercial prosperity. It remained the fact that Mr Chamberlain staked an already established position on his refusal to See also:compromise with his convictions on a question which appeared to him of vital and immediate importance. Mr Chamberlain's own activity in the political field was cut See also:short in the See also:middle of the session of 1906 by a serious attack of See also:gout, which was at first minimized by his friends, but which, it was gradually discovered, had completely crippled him. Though encouragement was given to the idea that he might return to the House of Commons, where he continued to retain his seat for Birmingham, he was quite incapacitated for any public work; and this invalid See also:condition was protracted through-out 1907, 1908 and 1909. But he remained in the background as the inspirer and adviser of the Tariff Reformers. The cause made continuous headway at by-elections, and though the general election of January 1910 gave the Unionists no majority it saw them returned in much increased strength, which was chiefly due to the support obtained for tariff reform principles. Mr Chamberlain himself was returned unopposed for West Birmingham again. (H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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