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Politics and Feminism in “Outcast London”: George Lansbury and Jane Cobden's Campaign for the First London County Council

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Jonathan Schneer
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Extract

This article examines Jane Cobden's campaign for the London County Council (L.C.C.) in 1888–89 and its controversial aftermath. Cobden's effort, a pioneering political venture of British feminism, illuminates late-Victorian concepts of gender. It provides at once an anticipation of, and a distinct contrast to, the militant suffragism of the Edwardian era. In addition, it suggests new ways of thinking about the connection between women's-suffragist and labor politics. Perhaps because the campaign was a comparatively obscure incident when measured against the broad sweep of British political history, however, no scholar has done much more than sketch its bare outline. Hopefully, the fuller depiction provided below will accord it the treatment it really deserves.

This article approaches the subject from a tangent, however. Cobden's campaign was a significant if little-known episode not only in the history of British suffragism but also in the life of a man who went on to play a major role in British politics long after the first county council elections had been forgotten. This was George Lansbury, Cobden's political agent during 1888–89 and secretary of the Bow and Bromley Radical and Liberal Federation. Lansbury eventually became one of the main architects of the socialist movement in East London and a chief male supporter of the militant suffragettes during the Edwardian era (in 1912 he temporarily lost his seat in the House of Commons and went to prison on their behalf). He also became a founder and editor of the quintessential “rebel” newspaper, the Daily Herald (which was designated Labour's official organ after Lansbury left it in 1922), a pacifist opponent of World War I, and, from 1931 to 1935, leader of the Labour party itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , January 1991 , pp. 63 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1991

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References

1 The most complete account is to be found in Hollis, Patricia, Ladies Elect (London, 1987)Google Scholar.

2 For more on this important figure, see Schneer, Jonathan, George Lansbury (Manchester, 1991)Google Scholar.

3 See Pall Mall Gazette, November 19, 1888, for a more detailed account of the meeting.

4 Ibid.

5 Rover, Constance, Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain, 1866–1914 (London, 1967), pp. 102–43Google Scholar.

6 A little-known footnote: Lansbury opposed the socialist Besant in this contest, working instead for the Liberal candidate, the Reverend J. F. Porter. See Social Democrat, January, 1900, p. 5Google Scholar.

7 The quotation comes from a flyer Lansbury composed in February 1886 to publicize the conference. George Lansbury Collection, vol. 1, British Library of Political and Economic Science.

8 For information about the Bow and Bromley Radical and Liberal Association, see the Liberal Year Book (London, 1886–1888) for 1886Google Scholar.

9 George Lansbury to Jane Cobden, July 1, 1890, Jane Cobden Unwin Collection, Bristol University Library.

10 Lansbury to Cobden, December 9, 1888, Cobden Unwin Collection.

11 Lansbury to Cobden, undated, but obviously mid-January 1889, Cobden Unwin Collection.

12 For more on London politics during this era, see Thompson, Paul, Socialists, Liberals and Labour: The Struggle for London, 1885–1914 (London, 1967)Google Scholar; Davis, John, Reforming London (Oxford, 1988)Google Scholar; Feldman, David and Jones, Gareth Stedman, eds., Metropolis London: Histories and Representations since 1800 (London, 1989)Google Scholar.

13 Lansbury to Cobden, December 14, 1888, Cobden Unwin Collection.

14 Star, December 29, 1888.

15 Pall Mall Gazette, January 25, 1889.

16 Ibid.

17 East London Observer, January 6, 1889.

18 Lansbury to Cobden, December 21, 1888, Cobden Unwin Collection.

19 Lansbury to Cobden, December 20, 1888, Cobden Unwin Collection.

20 Pall Mall Gazette, January 24, 1889.

21 The Times, May 15, 1889.

22 Lansbury to Cobden, January 31, 1889, Cobden Unwin Collection.

23 The Times, May 20, 1889.

24 Lansbury to Cobden, May 21, 1889, Cobden Unwin Collection.

25 Lansbury to Cobden, August 17, 1889, Cobden Unwin Collection. Despite all efforts, I have been unable to discover what bass dressers actually did.

26 Lansbury to Cobden, October 25, 1889, Cobden Unwin Collection.

27 Lansbury to Cobden, January 7, 1890, Cobden Unwin Collection.

28 See Pall Mall Gazette, March 5 and March 10, 1890.

29 Lansbury to Cobden, March 14, 1890, Cobden Unwin Collection.

30 Lansbury to Cobden, April 20, 1890, Cobden Unwin Collection.

31 Lansbury to “Miss Browne,” February 28, 1890, Cobden Unwin Collection.

32 Lansbury to Cobden, April 28, 1890, Cobden Unwin Collection.

33 Ibid.

34 The Times, April 17, 1891.

35 See Reiss, Erna, Rights and Duties of Englishwomen (Manchester, 1934), p. 206Google Scholar.

36 Pall Mail Gazette, June 1, 1891.

37 Lansbury to Cobden, June 2, 1891, Cobden Unwin Collection.

38 Votes for Women, April 25, 1913.

39 Lansbury to Marion Coates Hansen, October 31, 1912, Lansbury Collection, vol. 28.

40 Pall Mall Gazette, June 1, 1891.

41 Justice, September 2, 1893.

42 Labour World, March 7, 1891.

43 Daily Herald, October 2, 1920.

44 Lansbury to Cobden, July 1, 1890, Cobden Unwin Collection.

45 Justice, May 14, 1892.

46 See Justice for October 21 and October 28, 1893.

47 Lansbury to Cobden, June 2, 1891, Cobden Unwin Collection.