the cup had to be filled up ” with English rather than Irish legislation before the electorate could be appealed to with any hope of success; and Asquith, despite the fact that an Employers’ Liability Bill, 1 to which he had devoted great effort during the session, had been so mangled by the Lords that abandonment seemed the better course, fully agreed with the majority of the Cabinet. Gladstone was therefore forced to acquiesce, although the combined result of the Lords’ vote and his colleagues’ reaction to it was a fatal blow to his last political hopes. His premiership continued for another six months, but its purpose and authority came effectively to an end on September 8th, 1893.
1 It was designed to get rid of the last traces of the doctrine of common employment, by which a workman was inhibited from suing an employer for injury suffered as a result of the negligence of a fellow employee.
Asquith was occupied during part of that summer and autumn with a particularly nasty “ law and order ” incident. A protracted coal strike in the North of England led to sporadic rioting and some damage to property in parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The local magistrates asked for police reinforcements. Asquith transmitted their requests to other local police forces and also, in his capacity as head of the Metropolitan force, sent 400 London policemen to the area. This led to no improvement in the situation, and the magistrates began to send repeated requests to the Home Office for the use of troops. On September 3rd the Home Secretary sanctioned such an application, and a platoon of the Queen’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was present at Featherstone colliery, near Wakefield, four days later. Asquith’s own account of what then occurred is as follows:
A magistrate was present with the troops; he made no fewer than seven appeals to the crowd, who were armed with sticks and bludgeons, to discontinue the work of destruction, much valuable property being already ablaze; the Riot Act was read; a bayonet charge was unavailingly made; and as the defensive position held by the small detachment of soldiers (fewer than thirty men) was becoming untenable, and the complete destruction of the colliery was imminent, the magistrate gave orders to the commander to fire. Two men on the fringe of the crowd were unfortunately killed. e
The two Coroner’s juries which held inquests on the dead men came to different conclusions. The one thought that there had been sufficient reason for the troops to open fire, the other not. The incident was first raised in the House of Commons on September 20th, the day before the adjournment after the continuous sittings of the summer.
Asquith gave a firm reply insisting that the responsibility for the preservation of order lay with the local authorities and that it would have been wrong, with the less adequate information at his disposal, to have refused their requests. He did not attempt to judge between the conflicting verdicts of the two juries. For this purpose, and to investigate the whole matter, he set up a Special Commission composed of Bowen, Haldane, and Sir Albert Rollit, a Tory M.P. and solicitor. This Commission heard evidence at Wakefield and produced a report which was notable to the public for completely exonerating the magistrates, officers and troops, and to lawyers for formulating with great precision the respective duties of the civil and military authorities at times of public disorder.
This was not the end of the matter. Had Asquith not been so “ cassant ” he might have chosen a less intellectually distinguished but more politically appeasing Commission. But that was not the way his mind worked. He saw no harm in appointing his closest friend as the one “ left-wing ” member, or his old master as the chairman, because it did not occur to him that they could be other than impartial, and he did not see why it should occur to others either. It was an example
1 It was designed to get rid of the last traces of the doctrine of common employment, by which a workman was inhibited from suing an employer for injury suffered as a result of the negligence of a fellow employee.
Asquith was occupied during part of that summer and autumn with a particularly nasty “ law and order ” incident. A protracted coal strike in the North of England led to sporadic rioting and some damage to property in parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The local magistrates asked for police reinforcements. Asquith transmitted their requests to other local police forces and also, in his capacity as head of the Metropolitan force, sent 400 London policemen to the area. This led to no improvement in the situation, and the magistrates began to send repeated requests to the Home Office for the use of troops. On September 3rd the Home Secretary sanctioned such an application, and a platoon of the Queen’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was present at Featherstone colliery, near Wakefield, four days later. Asquith’s own account of what then occurred is as follows:
A magistrate was present with the troops; he made no fewer than seven appeals to the crowd, who were armed with sticks and bludgeons, to discontinue the work of destruction, much valuable property being already ablaze; the Riot Act was read; a bayonet charge was unavailingly made; and as the defensive position held by the small detachment of soldiers (fewer than thirty men) was becoming untenable, and the complete destruction of the colliery was imminent, the magistrate gave orders to the commander to fire. Two men on the fringe of the crowd were unfortunately killed. e
The two Coroner’s juries which held inquests on the dead men came to different conclusions. The one thought that there had been sufficient reason for the troops to open fire, the other not. The incident was first raised in the House of Commons on September 20th, the day before the adjournment after the continuous sittings of the summer.
Asquith gave a firm reply insisting that the responsibility for the preservation of order lay with the local authorities and that it would have been wrong, with the less adequate information at his disposal, to have refused their requests. He did not attempt to judge between the conflicting verdicts of the two juries. For this purpose, and to investigate the whole matter, he set up a Special Commission composed of Bowen, Haldane, and Sir Albert Rollit, a Tory M.P. and solicitor. This Commission heard evidence at Wakefield and produced a report which was notable to the public for completely exonerating the magistrates, officers and troops, and to lawyers for formulating with great precision the respective duties of the civil and military authorities at times of public disorder.
This was not the end of the matter. Had Asquith not been so “ cassant ” he might have chosen a less intellectually distinguished but more politically appeasing Commission. But that was not the way his mind worked. He saw no harm in appointing his closest friend as the one “ left-wing ” member, or his old master as the chairman, because it did not occur to him that they could be other than impartial, and he did not see why it should occur to others either. It was an example
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