A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The passing of the local Government Acts of 1888 "' and 1894"" were 

 the most important political events of the last part of the century. The 

 former, as is so well known, created the county councils, which now transact 

 most of the county business. The latter defined the constitution of parish 

 meetings, and parish councils, and their powers and duties, and appointed 

 urban or rural district councils to take over the work of the urban sanitary 

 authorities, whose chairman was ex officio a justice of the peace for the 

 county.'*^ 



The year 1894 is also especially memorable as the date of Queen 

 Victoria's fourth visit to Lancashire. This was an unwonted distinction for 

 any county. The queen came on 21 May, 1894, to open the Manchester 

 Ship Canal,"^ and was received with the most outflowing enthusiasm by the 

 vast assembled population of the Lancashire metropolis. Her Majesty's 

 Diamond Jubilee, which was celebrated in 1897, was nowhere observed with 

 more genuine expressions of popular delight and affection than in all parts of 

 Lancashire, and it may be here appropriately mentioned that the queen's death 

 in January, 1901, was here, as elsewhere in her dominions, felt to be the 

 greatest calamity that could have befallen a nation who may justly be said to 

 have adored her. 



Shortly after his accession King Edward signified his good will to 

 Lancashire by graciously consenting to lay the foundations of the New 

 Liverpool Cathedral, open the New Ship Canal Dock at Manchester, and 

 unveil the Salford Memorial to the Lancashire heroes who had fallen in the 

 great Boer War of 1 899-1 902. The king, who was the guest of Lord 

 Derby at Knowsley, arrived in the county on 13 July, 1905, and received 

 an immense ovation from the Lancashire people, to whose hearts he is 

 especially recommended as a known lover of peace. His Majesty is reported 

 to have spoken of his reception and entertainment at Manchester as 

 ' magnificent.' 



In 1906 the Unionist Government resigned ofBce, and the Liberals 

 were returned all over the country by an overwhelming majority, but nowhere 

 more triumphantly so than in Lancashire, where out of fifty-eight seats the 

 Liberals won forty-two, as against fifteen Unionist and Conservative members. 

 Nothing, perhaps, contributed so much to this issue as the raising of the 

 old controversy of Free Trade versus Protection. As might have been 

 expected in Lancashire, where cheap food and cheap raw material are vital 

 necessities both of life and industry, the only answer to be expected from the 

 working man voter was the one they and their fathers before them had learnt 

 from those great apostles of Free Trade and untaxed foodstuffs. Peel, Bright, 

 and Cobden. 



This election especially demonstrated the enormous strides made by 

 democracy during the last generation, seeing that out of forty-two Liberal 

 members elected for the county, twelve were returned for Labour.**' Thus 

 Lancashire alone supplies little less than one-third of all the Labour candidates 



"' 51 & 52 Vic. cap. 41. "» 56 & 57 Vic. cap. 73. 



"" Ibid. sec. 22, pt. ii. *" See below, pp. 323-5. 



"' The Labour members are returned for the Clitheroe Division of North-East Lancashire, for the Gorton 

 and Westhoughton Divisions of South-East Lancashire, for the Ince and Newton Divisions of South-West 

 Lancashire, for Barrow in Fumess, for Blackburn, Bolton, North-East and South-West Manchester, Preston, 

 and St. Helens respectivelj'. 



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