Striving for a world transformed by justice and peace - a TL from 1827

The Commonwealth Party election manifesto pledged that a Commonwealth government would bring the coal industry, railways and telephone service into public ownership, with one tnird owned by the government, one third by workers, and one third by users. Priority would be given to establishing a national telephone service with the aim of every home and business which wants one, having a telephone connection by the year 1900. There would not be a return to council housing. Local housing co-operatives would continue to provide housing. They would be allowed to receive a limited amount of money from local councils.
 
In its section on foreign policy, the Commonwealth Party election manifesto pledged that a Commonwealth Party government would convene a conference of other nations. Its purpose would be to draw up laws on the conduct of warfare and the rights of neutral nations, and establish a Court of Arbitration to settle disputes between nations. A Commonwealth government would continue with Britain's alliances with Austria-Hungary-North Italy, Bavaria, Rhineland, and Southern Italy and Sicily. It would support the Ottoman Empire in opposition to Russia gaining Constantinople and access to the Mediterranean, but favour the liberation of Christian nations from Ottoman rule. A Commonwealth government would oppose attacks by any government on native independent nations in Africa or Asia.

As regards imperial policy, a Commonwealth government would make Burma a separate colony from India, but not restore the independence of Upper Burma. It would add more colonies to the British Empire only if it would be for the welfare of their native inhabitants, not for imperial grandeur. The objective of imperial policy was the advancement of British colonies to ultimate independence within the British Empire.
 
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The Commonwealth Party election manifesto promised that a Commonwealth government would remove from trade unions liability for damages caused by the calling of a strike. Thus reversing the Clyde Valley judgement of 1889. The manifesto also said that a Comnonwealth government would designate more national parks.

Robert Applegarth, the Commonwealth Party leader, and shadow cabinet ministers, refused to rule out increases in taxes by a Commonwealth government. They said it would be irresponsible to do so. The Conservatives and Liberals made much of the coalition government's record in ending the war in Ireland, and reducing income tax, In their manifestos both parties promised to reduce income tax.

One difference between the two parties was on tariffs. The Tories said they would impose tariffs of imports of manufactured goods to match those levied by other countries on British exports. All parties were opposed to tariffs on food imports. The Liberals were opposed to all tariffs.

In the April 1886 general election, the Conservative Party stood aside for Liberal candidates in 18 constituencies. In 39 constituencies the Liberals did not put up candidates in competion with the Conservatives. Because of the electoral pact between the two parties, these 57 constituencies were not contested by both parties.
 
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Angharad Griffiths stood again as Commonwealth Party candidate for Swansea. The constituency was a Commonwealth/Liberal marginal and the party leaders, Robert Applegarth and Sir Charles Dilke, and other leading members of those two parties visited the town, and spoke at packed election meetings to rapturous applause from party members and supporters. Angharad's children and their spouses, Maire Griffiths and her siblings, and Helen Price, campaigned vigorously for her re-election.

Throughout Britain and Ireland the election campaign happened as was customary, with cabinet and shadow cabinet ministers travelling the length and breadth of the country speaking at public meetings in cities, towns and villages.
 
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On election day, Saturday 26 April 1990, polling stations were open from 7 am to 10 pm. As the results came in, it soon became clear that the Commonwealth Party were on the way to a landslide victory. The Swansea result was declared at 1.38 am on 27 April. The percentage votes for each party were as follows (1886 general election):
Angharad Griffiths (Commonwealth): 56.6 (51.4)
Liberal: 30,4 (48.6)
Conservative: 13.0 (n/a)
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Commonwealth majority: 26,2 (2.8)
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The swing from Liberal to Commonwealth was 11.7%.
Helen, and those members of Angharad's family who did not have child care responsibilities, were at the count and declaration in Swansea Town Hall. When the Returning Officer had read out the result, Angharad and Helen hugged and kissed each other.

All the results were declared by the evening of Monday 29 April. There were no counts on Sunday. The number of seats in the House of Commons won by each party were as follows:
Commonwealth: 377 (264)
Conservative: 189 (270)
Liberal: 37 (68)
Irish Conservative: 5 (4)
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Total: 649 (649)
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The Commonwealth majority over all other parties was 105.
 
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The number of seats won by each party in the House of Commons by the nations of the UK were as follows (1886 general election):
England:
Commonwealth: 302 (196)
Conservative: 149 (228)
Liberal: 20 (47)
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Total: 471 (471)
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Ireland:
Irish National: 41 (43)
Conservative: 14 (13)
Commonwealth: 10 (10)
Irish Conservative: 3 (2)
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Total: 68 (68)
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Scotland:
Commonwealth: 41 (37)
Conservative: 17 (18)
Liberal: 9 (12)
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Total: 67
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Wales:
Commonwealth: 24 (21)
Liberal: 8 (9)
Conservative: 2 (4)
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Total: 34 (34)
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Universities:
Conservative: 7 (7)
Irish Conservative: 2 (2)
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Total: 9 (9)
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Commonwealth gained 91 seats from Conservative, 22 from Liberal and one from Irish National. Conservative gained nine seats from Liberal and one seat from Commonwealth. Irish Conservative gained one seat from Irish National.

The percentage votes for each party were as follows:
Commonwealth: 45.1 [37.6]
Conservative: 33.7 [36.9]
Liberal: 16.1 [20.3]
Irish National: 4.5 [4.7]
Others 0.6 [0.5]
The swing from Conservative to Commonwealth was 5.35%. The turnout was 84.7% [81.2%]
 
Two Liberal cabinet ministers and four junior ministers were defeated in the general election. The cabinet ministers were the Foreign Secretary and party leader, Sir Charles Dilke, in Saffron Walden; and Henry Campbell-Bannerman, First Lord of the Admiralty, in Stirling Burghs. Both men lost to the Commonwealth Party. Dilke fell from first to third place. The junior ministers defeated were William Harcourt, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Middlesbrough West; Marquess of Hartington, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Darwen: George Shaw-Lefevre, Under Secretary of State Home Office, Bradford Central; Louisa Twining, Parliamentary Secretary, Health and Local Government Board, Hackney North. Harcourt and Shaw-Lefevre lost to Commonwealth: Hartington and Twining to Conservative.

In England, Commonwealth gained 19 seats from Liberal, and Conservative took 8 seats from Liberal. In Scotland the Liberals lost two seats to Liberal and one seat to Conservative. The Liberals lost one seat to Commonwealth in Wales. Conservative gains from Liberal were because the Liberal vote fell more than the Conservative vote.
 
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In the general election, the Tories did better in Ireland than in the rest of the UK. They gained Belfast South from Commonwealth. This was attributed to the end of the war in Ireland, and middle class voters returning to the Tories.

Robert Applegarth appointed his cabinet on 29 and 30 April 1890. The members were as follows:
Prime Minister: Robert Applegarth
Lord Chancellor: Lord George Jessel
Lord President of the Council: George Potter
Lord Privy Seal: Lord Anthony Mundella
Chancellor of the Exchequer: William Chadwick
Foreign Secretary: Donald Mackenzie (1)
Home Secretary: Sarah Taylor (1)
To be continued.

(1) Mackenzie and Taylor are fictional characters.
 
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Cabinet continued:
First Lotd of the Admiralty: Thomas Mann
President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries: Joseph Arch
Colonial Secretary: Robert Cunninghame Graham
President of the Board of Education: Charles Conybeare
President of the Health and Local Government Board: Robert Blatchford
Secretary of State for India: William Morris
Secretary of State for Ireland: Caitlin Healy (1)
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: Lady Margaret Roberts (2)
Postmaster-General: John Bruce Glasier
Secretary of State for Scotland: John Ferguson
President of the Board of Trade: Ann Hewitson (3)
Secretary of State for Wales: Herbert Lewis
Secretary of State for War: William Abraham
First Commissioner of Works: Sidney Buxton.
Important junior ministers:
Attorney-General: Sir Llewellyn Atherley-Jones
Solicitor-General: Sir John Newell (4)
Paymaster-General: Thomas Burt.

(1), (2) (3) and (4) are fictional characters.
 
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The number of women MPs elected for each party in the general election were as follows (1886 general election):
Commonwealth: 61 (37)
Irish National : 6 (4)
Conservative: 5 (6)
Liberal: 5 (7)
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Total: 77 (54)
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The substantial increase in the number of women Commonwealth MPs was more because of the large increase in the number of Commonwealth MPs, than because they were elected for safe seats. 23 of the female Commonwealth MPs had majorities of less than 10 percent. That is 37.7%, a higher proportion than male Commonwealth MPs.
 
There was a lot of coverage in the newspapers of the new government, with profiles of its members. I will profile some of them.

The Foreign Secretary, Donald Mackenzie, was elected Commonwealth MP for Sutherland, in the June 1870 general election. He had previously been an elementary school teacher. He was a member of the Liberal Party until February 1866. His parents were crofters. He was Scotland Secretary from 1871 to 1881, then Home Secretary from 1881 to 1886. He was in the mainstream of the Commonwealth Party. He was born in July 1830, He was married with five adult children - three daughters and two sons. He and his wife, Mairi, have been married in May 1851.

Mackenzie was tall and handsome with a full beard and moustache. He wore a kilt and full Scottish costume in the Mackenzie tartan when in Sutherland. He and Mairi had fine voices and sang in a local choir. In 1874 when he was Scotland Secretary, he authorised the construction of a monument on the west coast of Sutherland to commemorate the people forced to emigrate by the Highland Clearances.
 
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The Home Secretary, Sarah Taylor, was born on 18 April 1837 in the slum district of Vauxhall in Liverpool. Her father was a casual labourer in Liverpool docks, her mother was a seamstress. Sarah, her parents and siblings, all lived in one room. When she was ten years old she left school, and went to work as a maid of all work for a middle class family. They lived in a three storey house. Sarah lived in and had her own attic room. In July 1849 Sarah's parents died in a cholera outbreak in Liverpool.
 
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When Sarah was fifteen years old she became friends with John Rathbone, the sixteen year old son of the master of the house (born 17 November 1835). Their relationship soon became sexual and she lost her virginity to him. In due course she became pregnant. When her pregnancy was too advanced to be concealed, she was dismissed from service as a maid in the Rathbone household. John could not marry her because of class differences. Not that he wanted to anyway. He denied that he was the father of her baby. She gave birth to a girl on 4 October 1853. She named her daughter Ellen, after her mother.

Sarah lived in lodgings and worked at home as a seamstress. When when she was nineteen years old in 1856, she fell in love with a twenty-two year old man. She became pregnant by him and gave birth to a son on 3 August 1857, and to another son on 1 February 1859. In January 1860., when she was pregnant again, her boyfriend left her because he did not want the responsibility of another child. He refused to zmarry Sarah. Because she could not now afford to pay the rent, and her brother and sister could not take her and her three children in because they were married with children of their own, Sarah and her children went into Brownlow Hill workhouse in Liverpool.
 
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Sarah gave birth to a baby girl in the workhouse on 15 March 1860. She named her daughter Hannah. All of her children had her surname. In September 1860 she met Fanny Smyttan, who was visiting the workhouse. (1) Fanny was the Liverpool Organiser for the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act (LNA). The two women became friends. In mid December 1860, Fanny offered Sarah the paid job of Assistant Liverpool Organiser for the LNA, which she accepted. So she and her children left the workhouse and moved into lodgings. When she could afford it she rented a two bedroom house in Liverpool.

With four young children, Sarah had to arrange child care for when she was at work. Ellen, her eldest daughter, was at elementary school, and she took Hannah to work with her. Her two sons were looked after by neighbours, also Ellen during the school holidays. In March 1864 Sarah was appointed Liverpool Organiser for the LNA , when Fanny became North West England Organiser. In June 1864 she joined the Commonwealth Party and the Commonwealth Women's Fellowship.

She had been brought up as a member of the Church of England, but fell away from the practice of her faith when she left home, though she still considerec herself to be a Christian. In September 1866 she joined the Congregationalist Church in Liverpool.

In 1868 Sarah was elected as a Commonwealth member of the West Derby Board of Guardians, which covered Liverpool. In the October 1874 she was elected Commonwealth MP for Liverpool Kitkdale, which she gained from the Tories. She held the seat in every subsequent general election. She had male friends, but not a sexual relationship with any of them. In 1877 she was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, and in 1878 President of the Local Government Board, later the Health and Local Government Board.

Sarah was an attractive looking woman. She was 5ft 4 in tall with dark brown hair and brown eyes, and rather on the large side.
 
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The First Lord of the Admiralty, Tom Mann, was born in Coventry on 15 April 1856. His father was a colliery clerk. He attended school from ages 6 to 9 years old. When he left school he did odd jobs on the colliery farm. He got a job as a trapper in a colliery when he was 10 years old. The colliery closed in 1870 and the family moved to Birmingham. Tom soon found work as an engineering apprentice. He completed his apprenticeship in 1877 and moved to London. But he could not find work as an engineer, so did various unskilled jobs. In 1879 he found work in an engineering shop. In 1881 he joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. (1)

Meanwhile he had been hearing speeches by Commonwealth Party politicians and reading books by Commonwealth and other socialist authors. In 1881 he joined the Commonwealth Party. In the 1882 general election he stood as Commonwealth Party for the safe Tory constituency of Norwood in south London. In the 1886 general election he was elected Commonwealth MP for Shoreditch Haggerston in the east end of London. He was unmarried.

(1) Tom Mann's life in this paragraph was as in OTL and is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mann.
 
The President of the Board of Agriculture, Joseph Arch, was born in Warwickshire on 10 November 1826, the son of a farm labourer. He founded the National Agricultural Labourers Union. He was elected Commonwealth MP for Norfolk South West in the 1882 general election.

The Colonial Secretary, Robert Cunninghame Graham, was born in London on 24 May 1852. He was the eldest son of Major William Bontine and the Honourable Anne Elizabeth Elphinstone-Fleeming. His maternal grandmother was Spanish, and was the first language he learned. It was his mother 's first language. After attending Harrow public school, ahd completing his education in Brussels, he led an adventurous life. (1)

After the death of his father in 1883 he returned to the UK and became involved in politics. He joined the Commonwealth Party and was elected Commonwealth MP for Renfrewshire West in the 1886 general election.

(1) As in OTL. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunninghame_Graham, second paragraph of section headed Youth.
 
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The President of the Health and Local Government Board, Robert Blatchford, was born on 17 March 1851 in Maidstone, Kent. His father was a comedian and his mother was an actress. His father died in 1853. Robert served in the army in Irish regiments from 1871 to 1877, and rose to become a sergeant major. (1) He was elected Commonwealth MP for Halifax in the 1878 general election. In April 1882 he was appointed Under Secretary of State at the War Office, and promoted to Secretary of State for War in March 1884. He served in that post until the Commonwealth Party was defeated in the 1886 general election.

He believed in the socialist values of the Commonwealth Party as a way of bringing happiness to a miserable world. He did not agree with Sunday observance or teetotalism. He was married with three children.

(1) His life up to 1877 was as in OTL. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Blatchford.
 
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William Morris was a surprise choice for Secretary of State for India. However he used Indian motifs and themes in his wallpaper designs. He was anti-imperialist and sympathetic to the aspirations of some Indians for dominion status within the British Empire.

Morris was head of the Commonwealth Party publicity department from April 1869 to June 1878, when he was elected Commonwealth MP for St. Pancras North in the general election. Immediately after the election he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Office of Works. In June 1880 he was promoted to First Commissioner of Works and served in that post until April 1886. In this TL he converted to the Catholic Church and was married with nine children.
 
Caitlin Healy, the Secretary of State for Ireland, was the first woman to hold that post. She was a dressmaker and married to Daniel Healy, a carpenter. They were both practising Catholics. They had four adult daughters and two adult sons. Caitlin was elected Commonwealth MP for Limerick City in a by- election on 20 October 1879, when she was forty-nine years old . She was an attractive woman, 5ft 5 in tall, slim with long black hair and dark brown eyes.

She was born Caitlin Murphy on 25 April 1830, the eldest of four boys and three girls, in south east County Clare. Her parents were peasant farmers who rented a plot of land from their landlord, on which they grew potatoes and raised lifestock. They all lived in a one room cabin. It was like as described here:
http://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/0...the-homes-of-irelands-19th-century-rural-poor. Their first language was Irish. Her parents died of hunger in the Great Famine in August 1847, when her father was 49 years old, and her mother was 45 years old. She and her siblings walked to Limerick, where they were admitted to the workhouse. About a month later they found lodgings in the city. Caitlin's brothers were 4, 6, 8 and 9 years old. Her sisters were 13 and 15 years old. She found work as an unskiiled seamstress. She later developed her skills and became a dressmaker working from home. Her two sisters and two elder brothers found work. Her two younger brothers went to school.

In July 1849 she met Daniel Healy. He was twenty-five years old. They both went to St. Saviours Dominican Catholic Church in Limerick. (1) Their friendship grew and they fell in love. They were married in St.Saviours in October 1850, when she was twenty and Daniel was twenty -six years old. This is the church they go to every Sunday for Mass. They made love for the first time on their wedding night. Their first child, a daughter, was born on 18 July 1851. They named her Niamh.

Caitlin joined the Commonwealth Party in 1870. Four years later she was elected as a Commonwealth member of Limerick City School Board.

(1) For St. Saviours church see http://www.archiseek.com/2016/dominican-church-limerick
 
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Caitlin Healy, as Secretary of State for Ireland, was responsible for matters not devolved to the Irish government and parliament. such as social insurance, old age pension, and the postal, telegraph and telephone services. The Irish Office also liased between the UK and Irish governments. In the five counties in the north of Ireland, Healy was also responsible for areas covered by the Boards of Agriculture and Fisheries, Education, Health and Local Government, and Trade, and the Home Office.

An interview between Healy and the editor of The Irish Times and Healy was published in that newspaper in the issue dated Monday 5 May 1890. They exchanged a few words in Irish at the start of the interview. She went on to say that her Catholic faith was of the greatest importance to her. She was a socialist because she was a Catholic, with its values of practical love of neighbour, equality, and solidarity.

She spoke about growing up on a small farm in County Clare, and living with her parents and six brothers and sisters in a one room cabin. During the Famine we ate grass. Het mother and father gave up food so she and her brothers and sisters had enough to eat. They starved to death. She knew what it was like to live in abject poverty, and to go to bed hungry, night after night.

Although she and her sisters and brothers were resident in Limerick workhouse for only a month, she would never forget the harsh and inhumane regime, how they were treated with contempt, and the degrading work. Then she revealed something she had never shared with anyone, except her husband. 'Me and my sisters heard from women in the workhouse that they earned money by prostituting themselves. So that was what I decided to do, for the sake of my brothers and sisters. I was a seventeen year old virgin . After a few times letting men having sexual relations with me , it did not hurt and I got used to it. After three weeks I had earned enough money for us to leave the workhouse, We rented three rooms in a house, and I earned money by doing unskilled seamstress work.'
 
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