Making Aristocracy Work The Peerage and the Political System in Britain 1884-1914

by Adonis, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780198203896
• ISBN10: 0198203896
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-07-29
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

Making Aristocracy Work explores the political role and activities of the peerage, both inside and outside Parliament, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Adonis examines the House of Lords and its practices during this period, and offers a new interpretation of the constitutional crisis of 1909-1911. He reassesses the strengths and weaknesses of the Lords, questioning its effectiveness as a revising chamber, but at the same time clearly demonstrating the way it functioned in terms of constitutional tradition. He also examines the non-parliamentary activities of the peerage: their roles in local government and the civil service, and their part in the governing of the empire.

Author Biography

Andrew Adonis is a former Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Abbreviations
Introduction: Peers, Power, and the Constitution	p. 1
The House of Lords
Parties, Organization and Leadership	p. 17
The House of Lords as a Second Chamber	p. 50
Private Bills and Public Interests	p. 84
Party Politics and Public Policy
Salisbury's House	p. 111
The Lords and Edwardian Liberalism	p. 136
A Governing Elite
Governing the Realm	p. 165
Governing the Empire	p. 210
The Will to Rule	p. 240
Making Aristocracy Work	p. 274
Appendix: The 4th Earl of Carnarvon and his dispositions in the 1880s	p. 281
Bibliography	p. 289
Index	p. 305
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