England Objects to the Treaty of Versailles, June 1, 1919

Journal of Liberal History

History

  • The Age of Russell and Palmerston, 1846-1868

    The collapse of Sir Robert Peel's Conservative government, following the 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws, began a complex re-arrangement of British political parties; one that took more than a decade to complete. Paradoxically, by rejecting Peel, the remaining Tories held the advantage of unity in their desire to protect agricultural interests and the established…

  • The Midlothian Campaign

    A year after the defeat of his government in 1874, William Ewart Gladstone retired as leader of the Liberal Party. At 65, he deeply desired an interval between parliament and the grave to devote to religious affairs. Indeed, it was while engrossed in notes on Future Retribution that he was called away to write the…

  • Free Trade and the Repeal of the Corn Laws

    Belief in free trade became an enduring characteristic of British liberalism in the 19th century but its roots were complex. In part it stemmed from popular Radical hostility to monopoly in all its forms, in part from the diffusion of Smithian and Ricardian political economy and in part from the administrative pragmatism, reinforced by evangelical…

  • Popular Radicalism

    'Popular radicalism' embraced a range of causes and beliefs in nineteenth-century Britain. For most readers, it relates to agitation outside parliament to secure a democratic franchise on the basis of 'one-man, one vote'. Until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, very few people were arguing that women should get the vote on the same…

  • Fox to a friend on the French Revolution

    Letter from Charles James Fox to his friend, Mr Fitzpatrick, on the French Revolution.

  • Impact of the French and American Revolutions

    The French Revolution had important consequences for every major country in Europe. What was particularly remarkable about the impact of the French Revolution on Britain was its profound and abiding influence on the ideological climate and its impact on the development of politics inside and outside parliament.

  • Macaulay on the role of the Whigs

    Extract from a review of Henry Hallam’s The constitutional history of England in the Edinburgh Review, vol. 48, September 1828.

  • William IV’s dismissal of the Whig administration in 1834

    William IV's dismissal of Lord Melbourne's Whig government in November 1834 was the last time a British monarch tried to assert political authority by bringing down a government that had majority support in the House of Commons.

  • John Stuart Mill On Liberty

    The classic text on Liberalism, outlined in this article in the Journal of Liberal History.