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Vote: | Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities - because it is the quality which guarantees all others. |
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Vote: | In politics, there is no use looking beyond the next fortnight. |
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Vote: | Learn to think impartially. |
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Vote: | London is the clearing-house of the world. |
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Vote: | The day of small nations has long passed away. The day of Empires has come. |
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Vote: | We are not downhearted, but we cannot understand what is happening to our neighbors. |
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Vote: | You cannot teach old dogs new tricks. |
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Biography
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Joseph Chamberlain (July 8, 1836 - July 3, 1914) was a British politician. In his early years he was a radically minded Liberal, a campaigner for educational reform and became President of the Board of Trade. Later he re-emerged in alliance with the Conservatives, as an imperialist and protectionist, serving as Colonial Secretary. He was the father of Austen Chamberlain and Neville Chamberlain.
Biography Chamberlain was born in London to a successful shoemaker and manufacturer also named Joseph (1796–1874). He was educated at University College School (from 1850-52). At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to the shoemaking business, and at 18 was sent to Birmingham to join his uncle's screwmaking business, Nettlefolds (later part of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds), in which his father had invested. In partnership with Joseph Nettlefold, Chamberlain was to help the screwmaking firm, soon known as Nettlefold and Chamberlain, to become a commercial success, and by 1874 when Chamberlain retired from the firm, the company was exporting its products to the United States, Europe, India, Japan, Canada and Australia. There were strong radical and liberal traditions among shoemakers, in his adopted home city of Birmingham, while the Unitarian church of which he was a member had a tradition of social action. It was not surprising that he became involved in Liberal politics. In 1867 he founded the Birmingham Education League (later the National Education League) and campaigned for free public education independent of the Church of England. He also turned the Birmingham Liberal Federation into an election-winning caucus.
In 1873 he became mayor of Birmingham, in which capacity he promoted many civic improvements, leaving the town (as it then was) "parked, paved, assized, marketed, gas & watered and improved". He was instrumental in the building of the Council House and the Victoria Law Courts in the newly- created Corporation Street and in bringing fresh water from the Elan Valley in Wales.
He resigned the mayorship when elected as one of Birmingham's MPs in 1876, and swiftly rose through the parliamentary ranks, becoming President of the Board of Trade in the government of William Gladstone in 1880.
In the run-up to the 1885 general election a series of articles was published in the Fortnightly Review, written by some of Chamberlain's associates under his close direction. Chamberlain wrote the preface for the collected volume, called the Radical Programme. It called for land reform, more direct taxation, free public education, the disestablishment of the Church, universal male suffrage, and more protection for trade unions. This became the basis of the "unauthorised programme" which Chamberlain put forward during the election campaign.
The Liberals won the election, but fell just short of an overall majority against the Conservatives and the Irish Nationalists led by Parnell. Gladstone offered the Irish a Home Rule deal, which Chamberlain opposed as a matter of principle. He believed that Ireland had no more right to independence than London did. He resigned from the Liberal government and helped to found the Liberal Unionist party along with Lord Hartington (later the 8th Duke of Devonshire) and other members of the Whig faction. Unlike the Whigs he did not immediately enter the Unionist government, even though he already had kindred spirits in the Conservative Party such as Lord Randolph Churchill. He probably hoped that Gladstone would soon retire, allowing him to return to the Liberal party as leader, but Gladstone remained as leader much longer than he expected, foiling this ambition and pushing him towards the Conservatives.
In 1895 he became Colonial Secretary in the Conservative and Unionist government of Lord Salisbury. He showed himself to be a keen imperialist, and as a key proponent of the Boer War he became the leading Unionist figure in the "khaki election" of 1900, which was also known as "Joe's Election" because of Chamberlain's prominence and popularity. After a tour of South Africa, he resigned in 1903 to lead a campaign for tariff reform, supporting a protectionist system of "Imperial Preference" in which tariffs would be levied against imports from outside the British Empire. The divided Unionists were trounced in the 1906 general election, and due to the decline in the number of Free Trade Conservatives in the House of Commons compared with those advocating Tariff Reform, Chamberlain was a favourite to take over the leadership of the Unionists. However, in July 1906 he suffered a seriously debilitating stroke and never took an active part in politics again. He died on July 3 1914 and is buried at Key Hill Cemetery in Birmingham.
...(more on Wikipedia)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Joseph Chamberlain".
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