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RD-DD1843 [2012-12-23 08:47:09 +0000 UTC]

Marvelous looking fellow, and SMART....TOO SMART PERHAPS. Was pretty effective between 1870s and 1900s as the ultimate spoiler. He was a rich manufacturers (interestingly enough, of "screws") and then a first rate Lord Mayor of Birmingham. He rose to become a leading figure in the Liberal Party in Parliament, and a major supporter of the Gladstone regime of 1880. He found time to romance the future Beatrice Webb (both shared an interest in reform), but married an American heiress and fathered son Austin, later another leading political figure. When his first wife died he went on to remarry and had a second son, Nevil. Ironically Nevil would achieve the one post Joe wanted but never could get.

Problem with Joe, for his smarts, he was too ambitious. He did not like Gladstone's support of Irish Home Rule, and led a walk of his protectionist followers to the Tory bench that helped shatter British political life in the 1880s. Rumor (no more than that, but strong) suggested he helped ruin the careers of his rival Sir Charles Dilke in the 1884-85 Crawford Divorce Scandal, and shattered Parnell's career first by helping the "Parnellism and Crime" farce, and then by giving assistance to Captain O'Shea (and a Tory job) for the O'Shea Divorce Scandal of 1890-91. He may have short circuited the career of another Liberal Party rival, Prime Minister Lord Roseberry in a similar way, but Roseberry was something of a dilatante anyway. Only one party ever confronted and confounded him - when Colonial Secretary he was aware of the plans for the Jameson Raid, and when it blew up Cecil Rhodes basically told Joe that if he went down with his friend Dr. Jameson (and Jameson got a really heavy sentence) a certain British political figure would go down too. Jameson got a year or so, and the chain of involvement "sort of " collapsed.

However Chamberlain really did try to help improve life for the British with reforms on government services and entitlements. His ideas of turning the vast empire into a self - sufficient trading block was not crazy in his era. He made real efforts in 1899 and 1901 to forge an Anglo-German Entente, but Holstein and the German Foreign Office demanded too much. Had he succeeded World War I might have been avoided. Then he was flustered when Robert, Lord Salisbury (who had kept him close but never with real trust) retired and left the Premiership to his nephew Arthur "Bob's his Uncle" Balfour. Probably a well thought out mistake but Chamberlain had to rein himself in. He could only do it for three years, and in 1905 he announced his group would no longer support the Tory leadership. It was an attempt to replace Balfour with himself. Instead, it allowed the Liberal to regain control of the Government with a thumping majority under Sir Henry Campbell Bannermann.

As the Liberals (except for a total of about four years) had not been in power since 1885 when he did the same thing to them, Chamberlain found himself leading a small block of followers, well-intentioned but tainted by their leader's selfishness. Ironically, in 1906 the group found themselves leaderless - Chamberlain suffered a crippling stroke. His group would drift back to the Tories relatively quickly (still being led by Balfour).

As for Joe, he would live until 1914, watching his two sons grow into leading political figures in the Conservative world. He did one ironic final act. He was asked advice by the son of an old Parliamentary friend (and rival) who had died prematurely aged. This young man was a Tory like his father, but found he could not share the views of Salisbury or Balfour, and wanted to "cross the aisle" and join the Liberals. Chamberlain advised young Winston Churchill to do exactly as he felt even if he was scorned by Tories or Liberals - to stick to his guns. Churchill did, and soon rose in the Liberal Party to ministry level. Later, in the 1920s, no longer feeling the Liberals could accomplish anything of value, Churchill recrossed over to the Tories. Stanley Baldwin would make him Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1924-1929, but in the National Government of the 1930s Baldwin (who distrusted Churchill as a rival) kept him from further Cabinet posts. But in 1940 Churchill would achieve the Premiership that eluded his friend and mentor Joe Chamberlain. Ironically he succeeded Joe's son Nevil, who (as I said earlier) also had achieved the post his father failed to get.

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