The purpose of this study is to present a survey and examination of the political developments in the West Yorkshire industrial centre of Halifax between 1890 and 1914. It is produced within the context of the debate concerning the timing and reasons for the change-over of national support from Liberal and Conservative to Labour and Conservative in the first quarter of the twentieth century, and the impact of the emergence of the Labour Party in the 1890s. The main objective is to determine if the local Liberal Party was already in decline before 1914. There are two major questions. First, was the party able to sustain its working-class support and predominant local position by introducing • progressive , policies? Or, secondly, did it lose support because it failed to change its traditional emphasis and was undermined by the incursions from the vigorous working-class Labour and business-directed Conservative parties? A further objective is to discover the reasons for the establishment and growth of the local Labour movement, together with its consequent political implications, and to establish the causes for the advance of Halifax Conservatism. Several local political features are studied including the changes in socio-economic and political structures, party policies, organisation and tactics - at both general and local elections. This was a vital period for Halifax politics in which the entrenched, formerly • paternalistic , and employer-run Liberal Party received challenges from both the left and the right. Possibly the most important local event was the emer.qence of a trade-union dominated Labour movement in 1892, which arose as a response to the divisive strike situation of the late nineteenth century and was underpinned by a rising working-class consciousness. Thereafter, the new party began to erode the Liberals' working-class Radical support and, as a side-effect, benefited the Tories through· the split-vote system. At the same time, Conservatism began to advance slowly, though fitfully, drawing in the middle-class business vote by its patriotic, protectionist and municipal retrenchment policies. On the 'other hand, Liberalism proved to be increasingly unattractive to both the working classes and the middle classes. The former voters were disillusioned by the continued traditionalistic emphasis of the party which widened its policies but did not fully embrace 'progressive' principles. The latter, conversely, viewed Municipal Liberal 'advanced' initiatives to be too extreme and expensive, particularly on the rates. Therefore, although the Liberals applied political tactics, they could not prevent the party's gradual political decline before 1914.

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The cleavage in voter loyalties that was to sustain the Second Party System in Ohio was created in the thirty years before 1830. Its origins are to be found in the national disputes of the 17908, which by 1802 had become involved with the issue of Ohio statehood. These early divisions were more deep-rooted than commonly assumed, dictating political behaviour for over a decade and providing political experiences that became controlling influences on later developments. However, the more immediate origin of the divisions established by the 1830s was the many-sided crisis of 1819-22, which made men look to politics for the solution of their problems, break with older loyalties and create new ones. In Ohio the demands for a non-slave-holding President and positive federal economic legislation melded into what became the National Republican and Whig parties, though a minority of Ohioans - for reasons peculiar to particular localities and particular ethnocultural groups - insisted on supporting Andrew Jackson in 1824 and subsequent years. The contest between these two groupings drew unprecedented numbers of new voters to the polls in 1828, most of whom committed themselves to Jackson, thus establishing the balanced distribution of party strength that was to persist for decades. Jackson's advantage in 1828 came from neither superior party organization nor the "rise of democracy," but from the opportunity to harness social resentments of long standing which had previously disrupted rather than reinforced party ties. Jackson's partisans could also call upon old-party loyalties that dated back to the War of 1812, and so created a party that bore some resemblance to the Jeffersonian Democrats, even if the crisis of the early 1820s had forged a nationalist opposition party far more powerful electorally in Ohio than the Federalists had ever been.

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This study covers aspects of political life at Kingston-upon-Hull between 1678 and 1835, and is part history and part edition. The historical section is an essay on the character and course of Hull politics between these dates. The edition on which that essay is based, consists of a selection from the surviving correspondence. The resulting picture is fragmentary, but it does contribute to our understanding of Hull at that time. The years 1678 to 1835 were marked by a political stability at Hull established during the first ten years and challenged only during the concluding five. Until the mid 1830's local political power was held by a merchant-maritime oligarchy which in times of need called upon local magnates who served the town as High Stewards. The Crown had some influence at Hull, as it was a garrison town and port; but the town corporation, Trinity House, Dock Company, and a number of wealthy families, some of whom had reached gentry status, held the monopoly of political influence. The freeman electorate was large, and as elections approached, unregistered voters pressed the Bench for their franchise. Some attempt was made by the corporation to restrict this. The paying of polling money was almost inevitable, especially in the later eighteenth century, and wise candidates also contributed to local charities, clubs and racing plates. Members of Parliament kept the town fully informed of national political issues especially up to about 1710. From then until the late 1760's the members seem less assiduous in their correspondence, and also in their performance in the Commons. Between 1766 and 1820 the Rockingham Fitzwilliam interest returned many personal nominees, and the quality of many of the members rose. These Whig magnates did not, however, have a monopoly at Hull. Wilberforce stood as an independent and later several government, or perhaps Tory candidates, were returned. Closely contested and expensive elections were common after 1796. Threats from Jacobites and American privateers, with the possibility of a French invasion, caused local political squabbles, but the French danger may have helped prevent the spread of revolutionary societies and Radicalism was really born in Hull in 1818 with the Political Protestants. However it played some part in turning Hull Whig/Liberal opinion against Liverpool's Tory government. The 1830's, with the campaign for the Reform and Municipal Corporation Acts, led to a crystallisation of local political parties which culminated in the defeat of the Tory corporation in the municipal election of 1835. The activities of the radical Acland added to the political strife, but he overplayed his hand. The stability created by conflict in the 1680's was transformed by conflict in the 1830's. The intervening years thus have some unity.