Joseph Chamberlain, the son of a shopkeeper, was born in London
1836. After being educated at University College School he became
a successful businessman in Birmingham.
A member of the Liberal Party he became
involved in local politics and in 1868 was elected as a town councillor.
Chamberlain became mayor in 1873 and for the next three years introduced
a series of social reforms. The council's acquisition of land and
public utilities and the pioneering slum-clearance schemes, made Chamberlain
a national political figure.
Chamberlain was extremely popular in Birmingham,
and was elected unopposed in a parliamentary election held in 1876.
Chamberlain soon made his mark in the House
of Commons and after the 1880 General Election,
William Gladstone appointed Chamberlain
as President of the Board of Trade.
In 1885 General Election Chamberlain was
seen as the leader of the Radicals with his calls for land reform,
housing reform and higher taxes on the rich. However, he was also
a strong supporter of Imperialism, and resigned from Gladstone's cabinet
over the issue of Irish Home Rule. This
action helped to bring down the Liberal
government. Chamberlain now became leader of the Liberal
Unionists and in 1886 he formed an alliance with the Conservative
Party. As a result, Marquess of Salisbury,
gave him the post of Colonial Secretary in his government. Chamberlain
was therefore primarily responsible for British policy during the
Boer War.
In September 1903, Joseph Chamberlain resigned from office so that
he would be free to advocate his scheme of tariff reform. Chamberlain
wanted to transform the British Empire into a united trading block.
According to Chamberlain, preferential treatment should be given to
colonial imports and British companies producing goods for the home
market should be given protection from cheap foreign goods. The issue
split the Conservative Party and in
the 1906 General Election the Liberal
Party, who supported free trade, had a landslide victory.
Chamberlain was struck down by a stroke in 1906 and took no further
part in politics. Joseph Chamberlain, whose son Neville
Chamberlain also became a leading figure in politics, died in
1914.
(1)
Beatrice Webb, diary entry (1st January,
1901)
In 1882 came the catastrophe
of my life. At a London dinner-party I met Joseph Chamberlain. I was
ripe for love, revelling in newly acquired health and freedom, my
intelligence wide awake, my heart unclaimed. He had energy and personal
magnetism. But my intellect not only remained free but positively
hostile to his influence.
I met Sidney (Webb) one day early in January 1890; from the first
meeting I realised that he would fall in love with me. his energy,
his ingenuity, his faith in intellectual principles, his desire for
reform and capacity for absorbing knowledge, made him at once my comrade.
His lack of social position, even his lack of personal attractiveness
gave him in his relation to me, the odd charm of being in every respect
the exact contrary to Chamberlain and my ill-fated emotion for that
great personage.
(2)
Beatrice Webb, describing Joseph Chamberlain
making a speech in Birmingham Town Hall
(April 1884)
As he rose slowly and
stood silently before his people, his whole face and form seemed transformed.
The crowd became wild with enthusiasm. At the first sound of his voice
they became as one man. Into the tones of his voice he threw the warmth
and feeling which were lacking in his words, and every thought, every
feeling, the slightest intonation or irony and contempt was reflected
in the face of the crowd. It might have been a woman listening to
the words of her lover.
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