[Illustration: Cobden]
There never was a "Manchester School," though a volume has been
published upon it. It never had professor nor special tenets. Manchester
stands for Free Trade and nothing more. Its three great leaders--Thomas
Thomasson, Richard Cobden, and John Bright--were also for Peace,
Retrenchment, and Reform, for the extension of the suffrage, and the
repeal of the taxes upon knowledge, because they were essential to the
popularity and maintenance of Free Trade. But Manchester took no special
interest, save in Free Trade, which was a local manufacturing necessity,
as well as a national one.
Mr. John Morley uses the term "Manchester School," as embodying the
personal convictions of the great Free Trade leaders. Manchester did
a great thing in adopting, adhering to, and enforcing Free Trade. That
itself is a noble distinction.
The advocacy of Thomasson, Cobden, and Bright included principles
loftier and wider than Manchester. The "Manchester School" is but a term
of courtesy used for convenience of reference, far less definite than
the "School of Bentham." The "School of Cobden" is intelligible, as
covering a larger area of thought than Manchester. As to Cobden, no
one can presume to give any new estimate of him, after John Morley has
written his Life. Therefore I confine myself to such personal incidents
as came under my own observation.
Once, when I had the pleasure to be a guest of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain
at Highbury, Mr. John Morley was present Conversation in the library
turning upon Cobden, I remarked that he had introduced more immorality
into politics than any other public man in my time. "How?" asked
Mr. Morley, with a quick, questioning look. I answered, "By advising
electors to vote for any candidate, irrespective of his politics, who
would vote for the repeal of the Corn Laws." This was in effect saying,
"Vote for the devil, provided the devil will vote for you," who, even
if he keeps faith with you, is a dangerous ally to put in power. In
a speech to the council of the Anti-Corn Law League in Manchester in
September, 1842, Mr. Cobden said: "We are no political body. We have
refused to be bought by the Tories;* we have kept aloof from the Whigs,
and we will not join partnership with either Radicals or Chartists;**
but we hold out our hand, ready to give it to all who are ready to
advocate the total repeal of the Corn and Provision Laws."
* Would the Tories have bought them? What could they have
done with them?
* Neither Radicals nor Chartists asked them. Both parties
conditionally opposed the Corn Law Repealers. Thomasson held
that the repeal of the Corn Laws could precede the Charter.
The Chartists contended that the Corn Laws could not be
repealed until the people had universal suffrage. Thomasson
was right.
This doctrine, sanctioned by Cobden's illustrious name, has demoralised
politics and placed every Prime Minister at the mercy of every
conscientious party strong enough to defeat him by an unscrupulous
conspiracy in Caves, or at the poll. The Independent Labour Party
founded their Ishmaelitish policy (of _more_ than aloofness) upon this
contagious Manchester speech--leaving out the friendly condition of
"readiness to give their hands" to any who advocate the interests of
Labour, which is their professed reason of being. Women who seek the
political emancipation of their sex adopt the policy of voting for
Tories, and Mr. Woodall, in their name, risked the wrecking of a Liberal
Government if it did not accede to their claim. Mr. Cobden, in inviting
electors to vote for Conservatives who were against the Corn Laws,
would have established Tory ascendancy in the land. Considering that
the stricken condition of the people was through their food being taxed,
Toryism might be a lesser evil than the denial of Free Trade. Cobden
might reasonably be of opinion that no party can do so much harm as
starvation, and therefore felt justified in possibly destroying the
Liberal party to save the people. But he should have qualified his
policy by restricting it to extreme cases, where the arrest of a
progressive Government is a lesser peril than refusing a particular
and paramount claim. Without such qualification Cobden's precedent
proclaimed a policy of selfishness which fights for its own hand against
the general interest of the State. This is the charge which Liberals
bring against the aristocracy. It is the policy of Self which makes the
multiplication of parties a public danger. Such unqualified advocacy
of reforms carries with it an element of national hostility. Justifying
himself by the example of Cobden, we have seen the publican going for
the bung, and the teetotaler for the teapot The anti-vaccinator will
risk poisoning the nation by Toryism in order to arrest the lancet; as
certain workmen will destroy Liberalism in the interest of Labour. Thus,
generally speaking, every party is for its own hand and none for the
State.
The great French Revolution, which promised the emancipation of
Europe, was destroyed by the determination of each party to obtain the
ascendancy of its own theories, at the peril of the Republic.
The Society for Repealing the Taxes upon Knowledge met in many places.
When Francis Place was chairman we met in Essex Street. At one time
we met in the rooms of the secretary, Mr. C. D. Collet, in Great Coram
Street, within a door or two of the house where a girl was killed, for
which a Dutch clergyman was arrested, and falsely and ignominiously
imprisoned for a time. Bright and Cobden attended committee meetings in
Great Coram Street.
One day when Cobden came, he walked to the House of Commons after the
meeting, through falling snow, in the quiet, meditative way peculiar
to him. As I had some duties in the House of Commons in those days, I
followed him, curious to see what streets he would go through, wondering
as I went along, at the disinterested and unnoted services so great a
man, of European fame, rendered to the interests of the working people.
Mistaken Chartists were denouncing Cobden, Bright, and Milner-Gibson
as Whigs--as mere middle-class advocates--these libelled leaders were
generously and disinterestedly labouring to confer upon the working
class the enfranchisement of the Press--although they knew full well
it would put larger means of assailing them into the hands of their
defamers. Why should Mr. Cobden walk through the snow to put new power
in their hands--save from nobleness of nature, which helped others,
irrespective of any advantage to himself--irrespective even of their
goodwill? He not only personally attended committees, as Bright and
Gibson also did, but often sent us letters explaining principle or
policy which implied constant thought upon the movement as well as
labour for it.
The "pale-faced manufacturer" was a champion of the industrial classes,
which he foresaw would come into the field, which were thought then good
enough for paying taxes, but who were to be kept out of the pale of the
governing classes.
Thus I conceived and retained a personal affection for Cobden,
notwithstanding his aversion for some views he supposed me to hold.
When it was advised that I should appear at the London Tavern to oppose
Mr. Peter Borthwick's design of setting up a separate society for the
repeal of the paper duty, which would divide the forces for the repeal
of the whole of the taxes upon knowledge, Bright hesitated as to the
propriety of sending me on that mission. "What I am thinking of," said
Bright, "is whether we shall not be taken as seeking the repeal of the
Thirty-nine Articles instead of the taxes on knowledge." Cobden was more
fearless in things intellectual. I was deputed to speak at the Borthwick
meeting.
Though Cobden's mind was engrossed in public affairs, public affairs
were never master of him. He always possessed himself.
Sir Alexander Burne's despatches were long withheld, and when produced,
at Mr. Blight's instigation, they were found to be so mutilated
that they were spoken of as the "forged" despatches. It was of that
transaction that Cobden said, "Palmerston was so impartial, that he
had no bias, not even towards the truth," showing that he could speak
epigrams that cut into a reputation.
One night Mr. Cobden brought to me in the Bill Room of the House of
Commons a blind young man, whom he said he wished to introduce to me. It
was Mr. Henry Fawcett, of whom he said great things might be expected
in the future. Mr. Cobden had procured for Mr. Fawcett an order for the
Speaker's Gallery. He was waiting for admission, as the doorkeeper told
him there was no room. Amid all the chatter and bustle of the Lobby, Mr.
Fawcett's ears were up that staircase, and he said, "I hear footsteps
coming down," which meant there was a vacant seat, and Mr. Fawcett was
admitted. No one else had heard the descending feet. It was that night
that Mr. Cobden told me, in answer to a question put to him, that he
"believed, had it not been for the occurrence of the Irish famine, all
the vast educative efforts of the Anti-Corn Law League would not have
effected the repeal of the Corn Laws at that time." Nevertheless,
the great propagandist activity of the League was the main element of
success. The Anti-Corn Law agitation of the League was a triumph of
argument aided by calamity. Subsequendy Mr. Fawcett became a professor,
and an authority on political economy. At Social Science meetings,
wherever or whenever I asked him to aid the Co-operative question of
Co-partnership--by defining it in debate, as public ideas were confused
about it--he would always find or make occasion to do so.
In order that Co-operation should be represented at his funeral, I
travelled across country through the early morning fog, from Leicester
to Trumpington, where he was buried. I found in the churchyard my
early friend, Sir Michael Foster, who had like regard for the dead
Postmaster-General. I was the only person known to be connected with the
Co-operative movement who was present at his grave that day.
How well Cobden could take care of himself appeared in a matter in which
my friend, Thornton Hunt, to my great regret, was in the wrong. The
_Times_ had published defamatory imputations on Mr. Cobden, who took
the editor, Mr. Delane, by the throat and held him with a grasp of such
vigour that when he died the marks of Cobdens fingers were upon the neck
of his reputation. The _Daily Telegraph_, of which Mr. Thornton Hunt
was consulting editor, published comments in defence of the _Times_ on
Cobdens letter to Delane, but refused to insert Cobden's letter of self
defence. Mr. Hunt, who had real regard for Cobden, wrote to assure him
of it, and gave as the reason for declining to insert his letter, his
fear lest it should damage his reputation. It was the same as saying to
Cobden, "Our readers have a great regard for you, but if you should
prove you are not a knave, you will sink in their estimation." The
ineffable meanness and audacity of this inspired Mr. Cobden with a
contemptuous indignation, and he told Mr. Hunt there was only one favour
he could do him, and that was not to take his reputation under his
repellent patronage.
Apart from instances such as the perfidy to Cobden, Mr. Delane was a
great editor, determining the fluctuating policy of the _Times_ (the
policy of the ascendancy of prevailing opinion, right or wrong),
selecting leading articles and defining the lines to be taken by the
writers. Robert Lowe (afterwards Lord Sherbrooke) received directions
which might themselves be printed as leaders in brief. As it was Mr.
Lowe's custom to throw Mr. Delane's letters into his paper basket, they
came into the hands of his butterman, who, having practical curiosity,
took them to Mr. James Beal, who, upon the advice of Mr. Bright, sent
them back to Mr. Lowe. All who saw the letters were surprised at the
fidelity of the articles as they appeared in the _Times_ to Mr. Delane's
preconceived comprehensive, explicit, and well-defined tenor.
It was a favourite story told against Cobden by his adversaries, that
when he visited the Central Illinois Railway, the company gave free
tickets to residents near each station, that the seeming crowd of
travellers might impose on Cobden to report well on its prospects.
It is what sharp business Americans might be supposed to do. But it did
not impose on the popular traveller, whom many naturally strove to see.
The chief of the company was candid to him* Mr. Morley has made clear
that what did influence Cobden was the prospect of advancing the welfare
of emigrants abroad.
At the Great Exhibition of 1851 a belief arose that international
commerce would increase. A friend of mine, Mr. Allsop, like Cobden, lost
a large fortune by premature enthusiasm. Mr. Cobden's was a like error,
but a generous one.
On the night of Cobden's last speech in Rochdale, I was one of the
audience in the great Mill Room in which he spoke. He sent to me a note
from the platform. It was the last I received from him. I was that night
more conscious than ever before of his wonderful self-possession in
speaking. He held up as it were, in the air, a chief sentence as he
spoke it, and supplied, before he left it, the qualification he saw it
needed, or the amplification he saw it required, so that malignity could
not pervert it, nor ignorance misunderstand it. After making the longest
speech of his life to the largest audience he had ever met in one room,
he was taken to the house of a friend, where he was kept standing on
the cold marble hearth in a fireless room, while his friends greeted
him until late that November night. To a man of Cobden's temperament
standing is painful after mental exhaustion. A cold followed the
fireless reception. I knew in Birmingham a speaker of great promise,
Mr. J. H. Chamberlain (unrelated to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain) who was
surrounded by his friends after a long and brilliant lecture, and when
at last he sat down, he died.
I was in Lavington Churchyard when Cobden was buried. On our walk from
the station there, Mr. Gladstone, who was before me, turned round to
shake hands with a friend. I saw at once that he was a Lancashire man,
which had never struck me before. He shook hands from the shoulder,
which I had observed Lancashire men did. In the churchyard I lingered
behind, and stood within a clump of trees overlooking the grave. When
Mr. Bright, who had left the other mourners, came there himself, I
moved noiselessly away. He remained alone, looking down on the last
resting-place of his star-bright colleague in counsel and in fight.
Cobden excelled among politicians of the people in enthusiasm of the
intellect. He regarded strong, lucid argument as the omnipotent force of
progress. When one morning the news came, "_Cobden is dead_" it was felt
in every workshop in the land that a great power for peace and industry
was lost to the nation. His disciples have grown with succeeding years,
and if he be regarded as the founder of a school, no nobler one exists
among politicians. He laid the foundations of Free Trade, not only
for Manchester, but for the world. As Mr. Morley tells us in his great
"Life," Mr. Gladstone "ranked the introduction of cheap postage for
letters, documents, patterns, and printed matter, and the abolition
of all taxes on printed matter as in the catalogue of Free Trade
legislation." "These great measures," says Mr. Morley, "may well take
their place beside the abolition of prohibitions and protective duties,
the simplifying of revenue laws, and the repeal of the Navigation Act"
These were all Cobden's ideals. Most of them he called into being, and
he was the principal enchanter who gave them a local habitation and a
name.
As with the "Manchester School," so with the term "Manchester men," it
is used with a geographical indefiniteness; as when we speak of any one
belonging to a shire instead of a town. Hence Cobden, who was a
Midhurst man, and Bright, who was a Rochdale man, are taken as typical
"Manchester men." As few readers have any definite idea of what a
"Manchester man" of the nobler sort individually is, I give a brief
biography of one of the most influential of them, who might be regarded
as the founder of the Cobden School.
Thomas Thomasson [1808-1876], manufacturer and political economist,
born at Turton, near Bolton, December 6, 1808, came of a Quaker family
settled in Westmoreland (1672). His grandfather came from Edgeworth,
near Bolton, about the middle of the seventeenth century, where he owned
a small landed estate, and built a house known as "Thomasson's Fold."
He gave the site for the Friends' Meeting House and burial ground
at Edgeworth. Mr. Thomasson's father, John, was born in 1776. He was
manager of the Old Mill, Eagley Bridge, Bolton, having also a share
in the business, and subsequently became a cotton spinner on his own
account. His son, Thomas Thomasson, the subject of this notice, erected
No. 1 Mill in Bolton in 1841, at a time of great depression in trade,
and great distress in the town--a fact which was mentioned by the Prime
Minister (Sir R. Peel) in the House of Commons as evidence that persons
did not hesitate to employ their capital in the further extension of the
cotton trade, notwithstanding its condition. Thomas Thomasson married
a daughter of John Pennington, of Hindley, a Liverpool merchant. Though
brought up a member of the Society of Friends, Thomasson attended the
Bolton Parish Church, his wife being a Churchwoman. But in 1855 he
heard the clergyman preach on the propriety of the Crimean War, which
he thought so un-Christian that he never went to church again. By
his vigorous speeches he gave the impression that he knew more of the
political economy of trade and commerce than any other manufacturer of
his time. Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden may be said to have learned from
him. When Mr. Bright went out to deliver his first speech at a public
meeting, he went to Mr. Thomasson on his way to take his opinion upon
what he had in his mind to say. At Thomasson's decease Mr. Bright bore
testimony to his remarkable capacity as a man of business, saying, "He
will be greatly missed by many who have been accustomed to apply to him
for advice and help." He was not merely an eminent manufacturer, he was
distinguished for his interest in public affairs. He assisted by money,
counsel, and personal exertions in securing the incorporation of Bolton.
He consented to join the first Council and was at the head of the poll,
considering it his duty to take part in promoting the improvements he
had advocated. He remained a member of the Council over eighteen years.
Under the old government it was usual to call out armed police, or the
military, for comparatively trifling disturbances, which greatly excited
Thomasson's indignation. He was a vigorous advocate for the town being
supplied with cheap gas and cheap water, which involved watchfulness and
advocacy extending over several years. He was foremost in insisting on
the sanitary improvements of the town, and that the inspector should
proceed against those who suffered nuisances on their premises. He gave
the instance of "a family living in a cellar, outside of which there was
a cesspool, the contents of which oozed through the walls and collected
under the bed." L300 being left towards the formation of an industrial
school, Thomasson gave L200 more that it might be put into operation. On
one occasion, when he was much opposed to the views of the Council,
he resigned rather than frustrate a compromise in which he could not
concur, but which others thought beneficial. He promoted petitions in
favour of Decimal Coinage, and refused to join in a petition against
the Income Tax, deeming direct taxation the best. For some time he was a
member of the Board of Guardians, but resigned because he "could not
sit and see men slaughtered by a stroke of the pen," alluding to what
he considered the illiberal manner in which relief was dispensed.
He promoted the establishment of a library and museum, and gave L100
towards establishing a school on the plan of the British and Foreign
Bible Society. When new premises were required for a Mechanics'
Institution, he gave L500 towards that project. He subscribed fifty
guineas towards a memorial statue of Crompton, the inventor, and
proposed that something should be given to his descendants, saying: "If
Crompton had been a great general and had killed thousands of people,
the Government would have provided him with a small county, and given
him a peerage; but as he had given livelihood to thousands of mule
spinners, it was left to the people to provide for his distressed
descendants." The town would have given Thomasson any office in
its power, but he would neither be Alderman, Mayor, nor Member of
Parliament. He declined testimonials or statue. He sought no distinction
for himself and accepted none; he cared alone for the welfare of the
nation and the town, and the working people in it.
At a time when the votes of workpeople were generally regarded as the
property of employers, Thomasson said: "If the men in his employ were
Tories and voted so"--which meant voting for the Corn Laws, to which
he was most opposed--" they would remain perfectly undisturbed by
him--their public opinion and conduct were free." He was distinguished
beyond any Quaker of his day for political sympathy and tolerance. His
principle was "to extend to every man, rich or poor, whatever privilege,
political or mental, he claimed for himself."
At a memorable occasion in the Bolton Theatre, when the Corn Law
question was contested, he may be said to have called Mr. Paulton into
public life, by sending him on to the platform to defend the cause of
repeal. Mr. Paulton became the first effective platform advocate of
that movement Thomasson was the chief promoter of the Anti-Corn Law
agitation, and the greatest subscriber to its funds. When the great
subscription was raised in 1845, he was the first to put down L1,000.
When it was proposed to make some national gift to Mr. Cobden,
Thomasson gave L5,000. He subsequently gave,L5,000 to the second Cobden
subscription. This is not all that he did. Mr. John Morley relates,
in his "Life of Cobden," that Thomasson, learning that Cobden was
embarrassed by outstanding loans, raised to pay for his Illinois shares,
amounting to several thousand pounds, Thomasson released the shares, and
sent them to Cobden, with a request that "he would do him the favour to
accept that freedom at his hands in acknowledgment of his vast services
to his country and mankind." On a later occasion, when aid was needed,
Mr. Thomasson went down to Midhurst and insisted that Cobden should
accept a still larger sum, refusing a formal acknowledgment and handing
it over in such a form that the transaction was not known to any one but
Cobden and himself. After Mr. Thomasson's death there was found among
his private papers a little memorandum of these advances containing the
magnanimous words: "I lament that the greatest benefactor of mankind
since the invention of printing was placed in a position where his
public usefulness was com-promised and impeded by sordid personal cares,
but I have done something as my share of what is due to him from his
countrymen to set him free for further efforts in the cause of human
progress."
In the repeal of the Corn Laws he always had in mind the welfare of his
own townsmen, who, he said, "were paying in 1841 L150,000 more for
food than they did in 1835," and every town in the country in a similar
proportion. He constantly sought opportunities of generosity which could
never be requited, nor even acknowledged, as he left no clue to the
giver. When in London, he would, two or three years in succession, call
in Fleet Street at my publishing house--then aiding in the repeal of the
taxes on knowledge and defending the freedom of reasoned opinion--and
leave L10, bearing the simple inscription, "From T.T." Several years
elapsed before it was known whose name the initials represented. All
this was so unlike the popular conception of a political economist, that
such incidents deserve to be recorded. Workmen whose views he did
not share would invite lecturers to the town, whom he would sometimes
entertain, and judging that their remuneration would be scant, he would
add L5 on their departure to cover their expenses. Thinking that Huxley
might need rest which his means might not allow, Thomasson offered to
defray the cost of six months' travel abroad with his family. It was not
convenient to the Professor to act upon the offer. At Thomasson's death
a note was found among his papers, saying, "Send Huxley L1,000," which
his son, afterwards member for Bolton, did in his father's name.
Thomasson was not one of those who strongly _wish_ improvement, but
feebly _will_ it. He willed what he wished, and gave his voice and
fortune to advance it. He was not a foolish philanthropist, with emotion
without wisdom; his aid was never aimless, but given discerningly to
reward or aid others who rendered public service. His merit was like
circumstantial evidence--if special acts did not exceed those of some
other men, the accumulated instances made a record which few have
excelled.
That was the character of a real "Manchester man"--on whom Charles
Kingsley poured out the vitriolic vials of his holy wrath. Yet Kingsley
had noble qualities--far above those with which the country clergyman
is usually credited. It requires discrimination to speak of men of the
"Manchester School" as persons--
"Who have only to close their eyes,
Be selfish, cold, and wise,
And they never need to know
How the workers' children grow,
And live out only half their time."
Thomasson did know this--wished to know this--took trouble to know
it--and gave both thought and fortune to make their lot better. Thomas
Bayley Potter was of that class, which includes Manchester careers worth
remembering.