by Catherine, daughter of Mr. J. Swanston. He was born in Glasgow in
1817, and after passing some time at a private school, was sent to
Glasgow University, where he finished his education. He is married to
Jane Catherine, daughter of the late Mr. John Lowndes, formerly of
Arthurlie, Renfrewshire. Mr. Graham succeeded to his father's place as
head of the firm of William Graham & Co., merchants. The principal
business in which he is engaged is that of cotton-spinning, the firm
owning the Lancefield Factory, which, if not one of the largest, is at
any rate one of the oldest establishments of its kind in Glasgow, and
carries the memory back to the days when cotton and not iron was the
industrial King of the West. At the Lancefield Factory there are upwards
of 1000 hands employed, principally women, and the annual output of
cotton is nearly equal to that of some of the largest mills in
Manchester. Besides being a cotton-spinner, however, Mr. Graham is also a
wine importer on a very considerable scale, and is largely engaged in
the East India produce trade. Vintages of the choicest quality, and
ports of the heaviest "body," are imported by the firm direct from
Lisbon and Oporto, where they have branch establishments; and so
conspicuous for their excellence are the wines which they import, that
when _paterfamilias_ wants to impress upon his guest that he is enjoying
an unmistakeable treat, he announces that the grateful beverage under
discussion "was imported direct by William Graham & Co." In his father's
days, Mr. Graham represented the house both in India and on the
Continent, and since he became head of the firm, he has devoted himself
with the utmost assiduity to the management and direction of affairs at
home. Thus, unlike either of his colleagues, Mr. Graham takes an active
personal supervision of a large mercantile concern, at the same time
that he earns the credit of being one if the most regular attenders in
the House of Commons. Indeed, he makes it a matter of duty to attend the
House closely, and it is a fair matter of doubt whether there are
half-a-dozen members--not in office--who attend to their Parliamentary
duty with more punctuality and unfailing attention than the three
representatives for Glasgow.
On the retirement from Parliamentary duties, through commercial
misfortunes, of Mr. Buchanan, who had for many years been the senior
member for the city, Mr. Wm. Graham came forward as a candidate. His
address to the electors, dated the 11th May, 1865, contained the
following:--"A native of Glasgow, an alumnus of her University, and
connected with the city by the closest ties of business and of
friendship, I have felt that for the honour and usefulness of such a
position the cares of business may well be, to some extent,
relinquished, and the duties and responsibilities of public life
undertaken; and should I be fortunate enough to secure your suffrages,
my best efforts and most anxious attention shall not be spared
faithfully to represent the views and advocate the interests of this
great community.... I may at least say, in a few words, that from my
earliest recollection I have been strongly attached to Liberal
principles, and that nothing can ever alter my faith in the truth and
wisdom of what are known as Liberal opinions in civil and religious
politics, or diminish my deep interest in the social, civil, and
religious progress of the country." On the following day Mr. Dalglish
took his constituents by surprise by announcing that it was not his
intention to seek re-election. On the 10th June, Mr. John Ramsay issued
an address, in which he enunciated his advocacy of economy and
retrenchment in the public expenditure, recommended a judicious
extension of the franchise, and stated, in reference to the Maynooth
grant, which at that time engaged at a considerable amount of attention,
that he "would oppose any further grants from the national exchequer,
either in favour of the Roman Catholics or any other body." Mr. Ramsay
set forth, in conclusion, that "his business connection with Glasgow for
nearly thirty years past had made him acquainted with local affairs, and
it would be his pleasure, as he should regard it his duty, to give
unremitting attention to every measure fitted to advance the interests
of the city." The candidature of Mr. Graham was from the first looked
upon with a great deal of favour by a large body of the more influential
electors, and his general committee, of which Mr. Archibald Orr Ewing of
Ballikinrain was chairman, and Bailie J. W. Anderson was
deputy-chairman, comprised the names of Mr. Wm. Kidston, Sir James
Lumsden, Mr. Alex. Dennistoun of Golfhill, Mr. Colin R. Dunlop, Mr. Alex.
Crum Ewing, Mr. John Orr Ewing of Tillichewan, Mr. W. J. Davidson of
Ruchill, and Mr. J. C. Wakefield. At the nomination, which took place on
the 12th of July, the show of hands was declared to be in favour of Mr.
Dalglish (who had been induced to stand again) and Mr. Graham--the
latter, indeed, obtaining a larger display than either of the other two
candidates. The poll, which was demanded on behalf of Mr. Ramsay, took
place on the following morning, and from the outset Mr. Graham was a long
way ahead of either of his opponents. At four o'clock the poll stood--
Graham, 8113
Dalglish, 6707
Ramsay, 5837
Thus giving a majority of 2276 for Mr. Graham, and a majority of 878 for
Mr. Dalglish. On entering Parliament at the commencement of the session
of 1866, Mr. Graham had the honour of being selected to second the
Address to her Majesty, which was moved by Lord H. Cavendish. This he
did in a singularly able and practical address, which was listened to
with great attention by the House. The _Daily Telegraph_, in its
Parliamentary summary, referring to this occasion, said:--"Mr. Graham,
the new member for Glasgow, spoke like an _habitue_ of the House of
twenty years' standing. He had caught the very manner of the place,
spoke fluently, almost eloquently, and exhibited both political and
commercial knowledge. It was an undoubted success, and Mr. Gladstone, who
had listened attentively, warmly congratulated him when he sat down."
In reference to Mr. Graham's political tendencies and conduct, we may
remark that although he has mainly been a supporter of the policy of Mr.
Gladstone's Government, he has at the same time, on questions of
principle, held himself entirely independent of any Government or party.
He is more especially associated with that section of the House which
represents the English Nonconformists and the Presbyterians of all three
countries. Next in importance to religious progress and toleration as a
matter of Parliamentary policy, Mr. Graham advocates the reduction of the
national expenditure, holding that the present scale thereof is
excessive beyond any possible justification. Therefore, in every case
where such a reduction appeared in his view to be honestly aimed at, he
has been in the habit of acting with the economists.
Although he has never been a prominent speaker in the House, Mr. Graham
is, in his own way, a very useful member, and he is specially called
into requisition when any matter of an ecclesiastical or educational
kind is under consideration. In many ways he has shown an anxiety to be
useful, and to those of his constituents who make calls upon his time
and services he is always most accessible and ready to oblige. Although
a Liberal, he is not in favour of extensive changes, and he is opposed
to any interference with religious questions, whether by endowments or
State connection, by the Government.
Mr. Graham, we may add, is a magistrate and deputy lieutenant of
Lanarkshire.
MR. GEORGE ANDERSON.
Mr. George Anderson, the junior member for the city of Glasgow, was born
at Liverpool in 1819, and is thus in his 52d year. He is a son of George
Anderson, Esq., of Luscar, Fifeshire, by his marriage with Miss Rachel
Inglis. His father, who had been in early life in the navy, was for some
years managing partner of the firm of Messrs. Dennistown & Co. at Havre
and New Orleans, from which he left to be manager of the one branch of
the old Glasgow Bank (with which the same house was largely connected)
at Kirkcaldy, of which town he was afterwards for many years the
highly-respected Provost.
Mr. Anderson was educated partly at Havre, partly at the High School of
Edinburgh, and subsequently at the University of St Andrews. On coming
to Glasgow in 1841, he entered the concern of Alex. Fletcher & Co.,
flaxspinners, St. Rollox, and was latterly managing partner of that
extensive manufacturing establishment, employing nearly 2000 workpeople;
and through his experience there, during 25 years, he acquired that
knowledge of the grievances and wants of the working classes which has
enabled him to legislate for them since. Mr. Anderson had never taken any
part in Municipal affairs, but he had in other ways always done his fair
share of public work. The Polytechnic Institution, the Fine Art
Exhibitions that preceded the present Institute, the Art Union, the
Philosophical Society, the Lock Hospital--of all of these he had been an
active promoter or director. In connection with the West of Scotland
Angling Club, of which he was a zealous member, he had successfully
introduced the grayling into Scotland--an achievement in
acclimatisation worthy of being remembered. While President of the
Glasgow Skating Club he published a treatise on the art of skating,
which is still the most popular manual on the subject, and has, we
believe, reached a third edition. In 1859, on the starting of the
Volunteer movement, Mr. Anderson took an enthusiastic part, and was among
the original officers of the 4th Lanark, with which corps he has
continued, being still its senior major; while he has repeatedly
advocated, in the House, the claims of the Volunteers to increased
assistance as an economical measure for national defence.
His candidature for the City of Glasgow, in 1868, was promoted by the
local branch of the Reform League, conjointly with the trade delegates,
who held a conference to deliberate on the matter. Previous to that
time, our junior member was well known among the _proletariat_ for his
well-timed efforts to effect the abolition of the arrestment of wages.
In 1852 he started the subject of wages arrestment by a series of
letters in the _Reformer's Gazette_, _Daily Mail_, and _Herald_. The
subject had long been felt to be a sore grievance and rock of offence
among the working classes, and periodical agitations had taken place
without leading to any decided action. From the very first Glasgow took
the initiative in seeking to modify or get rid altogether of a law which
pressed with greater severity on the lower orders than, perhaps, any
other enactment that ever found its way into the Statute Books of
Scotland. The late Neale Thomson, of Camphill, gave great assistance in
that agitation, and a very exhaustive and able pamphlet on the
arrestment of wages was published by Mr. Anderson in 1853, which led to
the appointment of a Royal Commission; but though the report was
entirely favourable to Mr. Anderson's views, nothing came of it, as under
the L10 franchise the small shopkeepers were too strong for them, and
the work which they had been sanguine of completing in 1854 was left for
himself to do alone in 1870. Mr. Anderson wrote frequently on the
currency question. His most recent production (published in 1866) was a
pamphlet entitled "The Reign of Bullionism"--having previously read a
paper on the subject of the Bank Acts to the Social Science Congress at
Manchester--in which he advocated a national issue of note currency, and
the abrogation of the Bank of England charter, and all other banks'
monopoly. His literature was not all, however, of so practical a
character; not long before he had edited, jointly with Mr. J. Finlay, a
volume containing fifty of the best of the poems written on the
centenary of Robert Burns--one of his own, which had been highly
commended at the Crystal Palace competition, being among them. The
volume is, perhaps, the most fitting tribute to the memory of our
national poet that has appeared, and we believe it is now out of print.
In the education question Mr. Anderson had always taken a keen interest.
Besides lectures and papers to the Philosophical Society, the
Educational Institute, and the Social Science Congress he published two
pamphlets pointing out how utterly worthless the half-time education
clauses of the Factory Acts had proved, and urging compulsory education,
or, in default of that, a _quasi_ compulsion in the form of an
educational test, in place of an age test, for youthful labour. He also
came prominently before the public on the occasion of an agitation which
took place in 1867 in reference to the subject of an education bill for
Scotland. It will be remembered that two parties in the city sought to
influence the Government of the day for different ends. One party was
composed of the religious, while the other represented the unsectarian
element, and by both memorials were sent to Parliament urging the claims
of Scotland to a more comprehensive system of national education. Mr.
Anderson, of course, espoused the cause of the unsectarian party, who
went in for compulsory education; and he addressed a meeting in the City
Hall, at which several resolutions approving of an unsectarian as
opposed to a religious scheme of education were passed by a considerable
majority of those present. The Reform Bill of 1868 gave Glasgow a third
member, and Mr. Anderson was fixed upon as the most suitable
representative of the interests of labour. His candidature, which as we
have already indicated, had been invited by the Reform Leaguers and
Trades Delegates of the city, was warmly supported by the working
classes. A three-cornered constituency, the electors of Glasgow could
only vote for two candidates; and as there was a Tory in the field, in
the person of Sir George Campbell, it became a rather nice question as
to how the three Liberal candidates were to be returned. The Liberal
party were equal to the emergency. They agreed to vote for the two
lowest candidates on the list throughout the polling, irrespective
altogether of personal predilections or sympathies in favour of either.
In this way the battle was won in the Liberal interest, and Glasgow
vindicated her claim to be esteemed the most Liberal constituency in the
kingdom. At the close of the poll, the return was as follows:--
Robert Dalglish, 18,287
W. Graham, 18,062
G. Anderson, 17,803
Sir G. Campbell, Bart., 10,812
Since he entered Parliament, Mr. Anderson has amply justified the choice
of his constituents. He stands in the front rank of advanced Liberals,
and is in favour of "Reform being carried to its fullest extent, by
three-cornerism being abolished, by dispensing with the payment of
rates, and by adopting the Ballot." Retired altogether from private
business, Mr. Anderson has every facility, apart from his bent and
disposition, for taking an active and intelligent part in public
affairs, and he has approved himself a most industrious and zealous
legislator. No man is closer in his attendance on the House of Commons.
During his first session in Parliament he was present at 128 out of 160
divisions; his second year in Parliament, though he was away ill for a
month, was marked by a scarcely less scrupulous and regular attention to
his duties, for he was present at 171 out of 264 divisions; and in his
third session he was present at 262 out of 270.
Mr. Anderson made his maiden speech in Parliament on the 3rd day of
March, 1869. The occasion was the second reading of Mr. Fawcett's
Election Expenses Bill, which proposed to throw the expenses of
elections on the ratepayers. In the course of his address, which was
listened to with the utmost attention, Mr. Anderson said--"To the great
bulk of those whom he addressed, the payment of L200 or L300 was in all
probability a matter of trifling importance; but undoubtedly the
necessity for incurring even that expense had a great effect in limiting
the field from which constituencies might choose their members; and if
the House were anxious to avoid the charge of desiring to keep
Parliamentary honours and political power in the possession of one
class--namely, the class of very wealthy men--they must legislate in the
direction proposed by the hon. member for Brighton (Mr. Fawcett). It
should be remembered that in limiting the field from which
constituencies might choose their members, the House thereby tended to
limit its own intellectual power."
Again, in Committee of Supply on the army estimates, Mr. Anderson
addressed the House on the 11th March, 1869; and on the 17th June, 1869,
he electrified the "Colonels" of the House by declaring, while speaking
of the great expense of the non-effective services and pensions, that
"he thought the whole system of pay and pensions in the army was rotten
and wrong.... Officers ought to provide for old age out of their
incomes, and even if their pay were proportionately increased, the
service would gain in efficiency if the change made it less
aristocratic, by throwing it open to men without private fortunes, who
must live on their pay." Mr. Anderson has persistently, both in season
and out of season, kept "pegging away" at the bugbear of Army Reform,
and on the 2d August, 1870, he attacked the abuse of sinecure Colonels,
and abuses in the higher branches of the army; such as the Colonelcies
held by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the chief military
secretary, and others. Mr. Cardwell, in his reply, alleged that these
were honorary, but was afterwards obliged to admit that the Prince and
the Duke were each paid for one colonelcy, the former L1350, and the
latter L2200. He moved large reductions in the salaries of the
commander-in-chief and the military secretary, in respect of their
holding incomes from colonelcies, and repeated his motion in 1871.
Although he was defeated in these motions, the result has been the
restriction of the salary of the military secretary by L700 a year, and
a prospective reduction of the commander-in-chief's by L450 at next
vacancy. But it is hardly to be expected that these reductions will
induce Mr. Anderson to desist from further attempts in the same
direction. In 1871 he was selected to second Mr. Trevelyan's motion on
army reform, and in speaking on that occasion he again attacked the
sinecure colonelcies and other abuses in the administration of the army.
He systematically opposes all increase of expenditure, particularly on
the army, and in 1870, on the outbreak of the Franco-German war, when
Government asked a vote of two millions for increased army expenditure,
he was one of a minority of seven who opposed it. In the debate on the
abolition of purchase, Mr. Anderson denounced the injustice of razing
over regulation prices, and thus rewarding men for knowingly breaking
the law. He pointed out that it would lead to officers getting not one,
but two over regulation prices, and he afterwards supported Mr. Ryland's
motion against that payment.
It is, however, to his Wages Arrestment Act and the Citation Amendment
(Scotland) Act that Mr. Anderson stands indebted for his prestige and
popularity as a legislator. The first of these is the bill which he
introduced last session with the object of limiting the arrestment of
wages. In Glasgow, and elsewhere throughout Scotland, the provisions of
the measure were discussed with a good deal of personal feeling--one
party arguing that the security afforded to shopkeepers by the power of
arresting wages enabled them to give credit to working men when they
could not otherwise venture to do so; while another class contended that
extravagance and distress were the results of too easy access to credit.
The general impression, however, appears to be that the bill will be
productive of the most beneficial results both to the small shopkeepers
and to their customers--the two classes most directly interested in its
operation.
In reference to the Citation Amendment (Scotland) Act, which has put an
end to keyhole citations in small debt cases throughout Scotland, we may
remark that Mr. Anderson aimed, in introducing this measure, at the
amelioration of the poorer classes, on whom the keyhole system pressed
with undue severity. Previous to the passing of the new Act the officer
appointed to serve a summons was permitted--if he did not find the
defender at home, or could not obtain access to his house--to place the
summons in the keyhole, after six knocks at the door, or to affix it to
the gate; and whilst many accidents might readily occur to prevent its
reaching the hands of the proper party, it was also not unfrequent for
some one interested to take it away, and thus a decree in absence was
too readily obtained.
In the Trades' Union and Criminal Amendment Bills he attempted several
amendments on behalf of the working man, and was successful in some,
particularly in excluding the jurisdiction of Justices of Peace from
such cases in Scotland, which renders that Act less oppressive in
Scotland than it is in England.
We may briefly indicate, in reference to the rest of Mr. Anderson's
Parliamentary career, that he has voted in favour of Mr. Mundella's
motion against the increase of the Army Estimates. He has supported the
bill for the legalizing of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, and
voted in favour of the Irish Church and Land Bills. On the 9th May,
1871, he voted in favour of Mr. Miall's proposed resolution for the
disestablishment of the Church of England; while as cognate to this
subject, we may add, that he has opposed Mr. M'Laren's Annuity Tax
(Edinburgh) Bill, as well as the Church Rates (Scotland) Bill; though,
in speaking to his constituents in 1871, he claimed to have been the
means of bringing about the settlement of the Annuity Tax question.
During the last two sessions he has repeatedly called the attention of
the Home Secretary to the prevalence and results of betting
advertisements, and urged the need of further legislation. On mercantile
subjects Mr. Anderson is considered somewhat of an authority, and in
1869, when the English Bankruptcy Bill came on, his knowledge of the
Scotch system, which the English commercial members wished to adopt, was
of some use, and enabled him to take a considerable share in the
discussion of the clauses, and to carry a number of amendments, though
failing in some important ones, he has taken an active part also in
amending the Assurance Companies Bill, and in almost every discussion
bearing upon the commercial relations of the country. Speaking against
Mr. Delahunty's Money Law (Ireland) Bill in the session of 1869, he
declared with reference to the proposed abolition of small notes in
Ireland, that "if the House came to the conclusion that small notes
ought to be abolished in Ireland, a proposal to abolish them also in
Scotland would probably follow; and that it was only with the assistance
of her small notes that Scotland had maintained her place in commerce
and manufactures by the side of so enormously wealthy a country as
England." It is worthy of note that Mr. Anderson is a convert to the
abolition of the game laws, which until the session of 1870 he had
wished to see only amended, not repealed. He is also in favour of the
abolition of the laws of entail and hypothec. Mr. Anderson seems to have
a thorough detestation of anything like jobbery. He has several times,
by judicious questions in the House, succeeded in stopping a job--such,
for instance, as the Colonel Shute scandal, and the proposed pension to
the Military Secretary--and though he is a general supporter of Mr.
Gladstone's Government he never hesitates either to vote or to speak
against them when he thinks them wrong; and as no Government can see any
merit in merely supporting them when they are right, he is naturally no
great favourite in high quarters.
Mr. Anderson voted against any grant to Prince Arthur, and explained
that he "thought it unfair that savings by the abolition of old offices
on the civil list should go to the Crown, while the burden of
establishing new princes was to be thrown on the people." He has also
voted in a minority of four in favour of Sir Charles Dilke's motion for
enquiring into the expenditure, under the various classes prescribed by
the Civil List Act, declining to accept the general opinion that the
vote was a Republican vote, merely because Sir C. Dilke moved it, and as
a protest against the Government for refusing the information, and the
Opposition Benches for endeavouring to howl down the motion.