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CHURCHILL, LORD RANDOLPH HENRY SPENCE...
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See also:CHURCHILL, See also:LORD See also:RANDOLPH See also: In the new parliament of 188o he speedily began to See also:play a more notable We. With the assistance of his devoted adherents, See also:Sir Henry See also:Drummond See also:Wolff, Sir John See also:Gorst and occasionally of Mr See also:Arthur See also:Balfour, and one or two others, he constituted himself at once the audacious opponent of the Liberal See also:administration and the unsparing critic of the Conservative front bench. The " See also:fourth party," as it was nicknamed, was effective at first not so much in damaging the government as in awakening the opposition from the apathy which had fallen upon it after its defeat at the polls. Churchill roused the Conservatives and gave them a fighting issue, by putting himself at the See also:head of the resistance to Mr See also:Bradlaugh, the member for See also:Northampton, who, though an avowed atheist or agnostic, was prepared to take the parliamentary See also:oath. Sir See also:Stafford See also:Northcote, the Conservative See also:leader in the See also:Lower House, was forced to take a strong See also:line on this difficult question by the See also:energy of the fourth party, who in this See also:case clearly expressed the views of the bulk of the opposition. The See also:long and acrimonious controversy over Mr Bradlaugh's seat, if it added little to the reputation of the English legislature, at least showed that Lord Randolph Churchill was a parliamentary See also:champion who added to his audacity much See also:tactical skill and shrewdness. He continued to play a conspicuous See also:part throughout the parliament of 188o-1885, dealing his blows with almost equal vigour at Mr See also:Gladstone and at the Conservative front bench, some of whose members, and particularly Sir See also:Richard See also:Cross and Mr W. H. See also: He was equally severe on the domestic policy of the administration, and was particularly See also:bitter in his See also:criticism of the Kilmainham treaty and the rapprochement between the Gladstonians and the Parnellites. It is truethat for some See also:time before the fall of the Liberals in 1885 he had considerably modified his attitude towards the Irish question, and was himself cultivating friendly relations with the Home See also:Rule members, and even obtained from them the assistance of the Irish See also:vote in the English constituencies in the See also:general See also:election. By this time he had definitely formulated the policy of progressive Conservatism which was known as "Tory See also:democracy." He declared that the Conservatives ought to adopt, rather than oppose, reforms of a popular See also:character, and to See also:challenge the claims of the Liberals to pose as the champions of the masses. His views were to a large extent accepted by the See also:official Conservative leaders in the treatment of the Gladstonian See also:Franchise Bill of 1884. Lord Randolph insisted that the principle of the bill should be accepted by the opposition, and that resistance should be focused upon the refusal of the government to combine with it a See also:scheme of redistribution. The prominent, and on the whole judicious and successful, part he played in the debates on these questions, still further increased his See also:influence with the See also:rank and See also:file of the Conservatives in the constituencies. At the same time he was actively spreading the See also:gospel of democratic Toryism in a series of See also:platform See also:campaigns. In 1883 and 1884 he invaded the See also:Radical stronghold of See also:Birmingham itself, and in the latter See also:year took part in a Conservative See also:garden party at See also:Aston See also:Manor, at which his opponents paid him the compliment of raising a serious See also:riot. He gave See also:constant See also:attention to the party organization, which had fallen into considerable disorder after 1880, and was an active See also:promoter of the See also:Primrose See also:League, which owed its origin to the happy See also:inspiration of one of his own " fourth party " colleagues. In 1884 the struggle between stationary and progressive Toryism came to a head, and terminated in favour of the latter. At the See also:conference of the Central See also:Union of Conservative Associations, Lord Randolph was nominated chairman, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the parliamentary leaders of the party. The split was averted by Lord Randolph's voluntary resignation; but the See also:episode had confirmed his See also:title to a leading See also:place in the Tory ranks. It was further strengthened by the prominent part he played in the events immediately preceding the fall of the Liberal government in 1885; and when Mr See also:Childers's See also:budget resolutions were defeated by the Conservatives, aided by about See also:half the Parnellites, Lord Randolph Churchill's admirers were justified in proclaiming him to have been the " organizer of victory." His services were, at any See also:rate, far too important to be refused recognition; and in Lord See also:Salisbury's See also:cabinet of 1885 he was appointed to no less an See also:office than that of secretary of See also:state for See also:India. During the few months of his See also:tenure of this See also:great See also:post the See also:young See also:free-See also:lance of Tory democracy surprised the permanent officials and his own See also:friends by the assiduity with which he attended to his departmental duties and the rapidity with which he mastered the complicated questions of See also:Indian administration. In the autumn election of 1885 he contested Central Birmingham against Mr See also:Bright, and though defeated here, was at the same time returned by a very large See also:majority for See also:South See also:Paddington. In the contest which arose over Mr Gladstone's Home Rule scheme, both in and out of parliament, Lord Randolph again See also:bore a conspicuous part, and in the electioneering See also:campaign his activity was only second to that of some of the Liberal Unionists, the marquess of Hartington, Mr See also:Goschen and Mr See also: He continued, for some years longer, to take a considerable See also:share in the proceedings of parliament, giving a general, though decidedly independent, support to the Unionist administration. On the Irish question he was a very candid critic of Mr Balfour's See also:measures, and one of his later speeches, which recalled the acrimonious violence of his earlier See also:period, was that which he delivered in 1890 on the See also:report of the See also:Parnell See also:commission. He also fulfilled the promise made on his resignation by occasionally advocating the principles of See also:economy and See also:retrenchment in the debates on the naval and military estimates. In See also:April 1889, on the See also:death of Mr Bright, he was asked to come forward as a See also:candidate for the vacant seat in Birmingham, and the result was a rather angry controversy with Mr Chamberlain, terminating in the so-called " Birmingham compact " for the See also:division of See also:representation of the Midland See also:capital between Liberal Unionists and Conservatives. But his See also:health was already See also:precarious, and this, combined with the See also:anomaly of his position, induced him to relax his devotion to parliament during the later years of the Salisbury administration. He bestowed much attention on society, travel and sport. He was an ardent supporter of the See also:turf, and in 1889 he won the Oaks with a See also:mare named the Abbesse de Jouarre. In 1891 he went to South Africa, in See also:search both of health and relaxation. He travelled for some months through Cape See also:Colony, the See also:Transvaal and See also:Rhodesia, making notes on the politics and See also:economics of the countries, See also:shooting lions, and recording his impressions in letters to a See also:London newspaper, which were afterwards republished under the title of Men, Mines and Animals in South Africa. He returned with renewed energy, and in the general election of 1892 once more flung himself, with his old vigour, into the strife of parties. His seat at South Paddington was uncontested; but he was active on the platform, and when parliament met he returned to the opposition front bench, and again took a leading part in debate, attacking Mr Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill with especial energy. But it was soon apparent that his See also:powers were undermined by the inroads of disease. As the session of 1893 wore on his speeches lost their old effectiveness, and in 1894 he was listened to not so much with interest as with pity. His last speech in the House was delivered in the debate on See also:Uganda in See also:June 1894, and was a painful failure. He was, in fact, dying of general See also:paralysis. A See also:journey See also:round the See also:world was undertaken as a forlorn See also:hope. Lord Randolph started in the autumn of 1894, accompanied by his wife, but the malady made so much progress that he was brought back in haste from See also:Cairo. He reached See also:England shortly before See also:Christmas and died in London on the 24th of January 1895. Lord Randolph Churchill married, in January 1874, Jennie, daughter of Mr Leonard See also:Jerome of New See also:York, U.S.A., by whom he had two sons. In 1900 See also:Lady Randolph Churchill married Mr G. See also:Cornwallis-See also:West. His See also:elder son, WINSTON CHURCHILL (1874— ), was educated at See also:Harrow, and after serving for a few years in the See also:army and acting as a See also:special correspondent in the South See also:African See also:War (being taken prisoner by the Boers, Nov. 15, 1899, but escaping on Dec. 12), was elected Unionist member of parliament for See also:Oldham in October 1900. As the son of his See also:father, his political future excited much interest. His views, however, as to the policy of the Conservative party gradually changed, and having during 1904–1905 taken an active part in assisting the Liberal party in parliament, he stood for N.W. See also:Manchester at the general election (1906) and was triumphantly returned as a Liberal and free-trader. He was made under-secretary for the colonies in the new Liberal government. In this position he became asconspicuous in parliament as he had already become on the platform as a brilliant and aggressive orator, and no politician of the See also:day attracted more interest or excited more controversy. He was promoted to cabinet rank as president of the Board of See also:Trade in Mr See also:Asquith's government in April (1908), but was defeated at the consequent by-election in Manchester after a See also:con-test which aroused the keenest excitement. He was then returned forDundee,andlater in the year married See also:Miss Clementine See also:Hozier.
An interesting and authoritative See also:biography of Lord Randolph, by his son Winston (who had already won his spurs as a writer in his See also:River War, 1899, and other books on his military experiences), appeared in 1906; and a brief and intimate appreciation by Lord See also:Rosebery, inspired by this biography, was published a few months later. Lord Randolph's earlier speeches were edited," with an introduction and notes, by See also: Escott, Randolph Spencer Churchill (1895) ; H. W. See also:Lucy, See also:Diary of Two Parliaments (1892); and Mrs Cornwallis-West, The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill (i.e. of the author) (1908). (S. J. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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