Walter Hume Long, 1st Viscount Long, (13 July 1854 – 26 September 1924), was a British Unionist politician. In a political career spanning over 40 years, he held office as President of the Board of Agriculture, President of the Local Government Board, Chief Secretary for Ireland, Secretary of State for the Colonies and First Lord of the Admiralty. He is also remembered for his links with Irish Unionism, and served as Leader of the Irish Unionist Party in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1910.
Background and education Long was born at Bath, the eldest son of Richard Penruddocke Long and his wife Charlotte Anna, daughter of William Wentworth FitzWilliam Dick (originally Hume). The 1st Baron Gisborough was Walter's younger brother. On his father's side he was descended from an old family of Wiltshire gentry, and on his mother's side from Anglo-Irish gentry in County Wicklow. When young, Walter lived at Dolforgan Hall, Montgomeryshire, a property owned by his grandfather. While living there, his father inherited the Rood Ashton estate.
Long went to Hilperton school, Amesbury, where he was harshly disciplined by Edwin Meyrick. At Harrow Walter was popular, proving a sporty captain of cricket. During Walter's studies at Christ Church, Oxford his father had a mental breakdown and died, two years later, in February 1875. Walter took over management of the family properties upon his father's death, whilst his mother moved into a house in Oxford. It was a stressful time, during which he was frequently summoned by his mother, and his younger brother also accumulated debts.
Long continued to box, ride, and hunt, as well as play college cricket. Afternoons spent with the Bicester, Heythrops, and South Oxfordshire hunts were matched by the university Drag Hunt. His proficiency was reflected in the early offer to become Master of the Vale of White Horse Hunt, which he turned down. His agent H. Medlicott despaired at the danger to the family fortune, urging him to cut his relations loose, but he raised a new £30,000 mortgage on lands, which Medlicott complained he would have to sell.
Long served as an officer in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, and was promoted Major in 1890, becoming Lieutenant-Colonel in command from 1898 to 1906.
Political career, 1880–1911 Long was determined on a career in politics, campaigning at Marlborough in a traditional Liberal seat in 1879. After Sir George Jenkinson agreed to resign in North Wiltshire, he was adopted by 'half a dozen country gentlemen'.Sir C. Petrie, "Walter Long and His Times" (London 1936), pp. 31–2. At the 1880 general election, Long was elected to parliament as a Conservative for the seat, which he held until 1885. A supporter of Lord Beaconsfield, the British Empire, Church of England and state, he was against extending education, but favoured bible teachings in schools. He won the two-member North Wiltshire seat by more than 2000 votes. At the time Beaconsfield died on 19 April 1881, he was making a record of his days in the Commons: "I rose somewhere about 8.30 and as a new member was duly called". The Liberal government was in trouble over Egypt and the Bradlaugh incident; and the Conservatives were internally divided. He hunted for the Beaufort Hounds. I selected as my time, midnight until, if necessary, eight in the morning. I used to leave London at 5.30 in the morning, providing the House was up, take the train down to Chippenham, have my hunt, and get back to London by train leaving Chippenham about 7.30 … I was at the House at midnight and I would stay there till it rose.Walter Long, "Memories" (London 1923), pp. 80–83. He made his first speech on 26 July 1880 during the third reading of the Compensation for Disturbances (Ireland) bill.
With North Wiltshire abolished, Long won his Devizes seat with a reduced majority of 95 votes at the November 1885 general election. There was considerable anger at the Conservatives 'Fair Trade policy' for workers. He believed English people had little understanding of Ireland or the minority in Ireland that Home Rule would not protect, and that Gladstone's Home Rule policy would lead to the dismemberment of the empire. The home rule policy was defeated, Long was returned with an increased majority of 1726 votes in July 1886. Aged thirty-two, Long was asked to become a junior minister to Charles Ritchie at the Local Government Board, in Salisbury's government. They had noticed his unswerving support from the backbenches. He was approachable and had a no-nonsense manner, an excellent memory: logical and crisp. He was both mature and responsible for a young MP. The very strong connections he had with the agricultural community assisted local government in his area. He entered government for the first time in 1886 in Lord Salisbury's second administration as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, serving under Charles Ritchie, and became one of the architects of the Local Government Act 1888, which established elected county councils. Long dealt with Poor Law reform in the county areas, slum reforms, reform of the London County Council, and better housing for the working-classes. He was deputed to make speeches backing the government position on the LCC bill, although he was not responsible for its draft or passage. Ritchie was to deal with the towns in Local Government Act 1888, but was ill for the period, and Long had "a sound grasp its details and essentials."
On 6 Feb 1887, he made an important speech in the "Plan of Campaign" from which unionism there seemed to encourage landlordism. However behind the law for tenant compensation, Long knew lay a deeper demand for independence. He continued to be worried by the Liberals' policy of Home Rule, supporting the Irish Unionists who opposed it.The Times, 4 and 6 June 1892.
He could not square the retention of Irish MPs at Westminster under the scheme for the second home rule bill. Irish MPs could control English, Scottish, and Welsh affairs, so he argued. The issue was central to the general election of 1892. Long had returned from Canada on a tour speaking on the federal system there. He reiterated the claim that Ulster Unionists would never accept the bill but Liberals argued that the Conservatives would raise bread prices, and lower wages if returned, "the labourers are ignorant lot and swallowed it whole", he decried. Long was defeated by 138 votes, losing his seat. In July 1892, Liverpool West Derby became vacant and Long defeated the Liberal candidate by 1357 votes at the by-election of 1893. Knowing his grasp of parliamentary procedure, Arthur Balfour hired him to be a strategist in opposition. The Liberals appointed Long to the Royal Commission on Agriculture, meeting at Trowbridge on 18 January 1893.
Long continued in connections with Ireland throughout his career. He did not wish to sever legislative ties of Union with Ireland; but only to offer "an extension of the privileges of local government to the Irish people". Home Rule was thrown out by the Lords on 8 September 1893, by 419 votes to 41. In June 1895, the Liberals were resoundingly defeated in the Lords, and the following month Salisbury was returned for another ministry.
After the Conservative defeat in 1892, Ritchie's retirement made Long the chief opposition spokesman on local government, and when the Tories returned to power in 1895, he entered the cabinet as President of the Board of Agriculture. In this role he was notable for his efforts to prevent the spread of rabies. The creation of the Board of Agriculture had brought a boost to Long's career in 1889 but opposition rose up strongly, when the Dog Muzzlers act, prompted the Laymen's League in Liverpool to contest the Church Discipline bill. Long became increasingly unpopular in his constituency accused of being "irascible and scheming", and was advised to change seats. However, this did not prevent in 1895 admittance to the Privy Council. The bourgeois Navy League in Liverpool could not wait to get rid of him but his powerful friends, like the "somnolent" Duke of Devonshire gave large donations to the Anti-Socialist Union – and this would be disastrous to the Union, for it would immediately alienate every snob and mediocrity ..." Yet Long was thick-skinned and seemed impervious to the insults, for he remained remarkably successful at the polls.Claude Lowther to R. C. Blumenfeld, 7 September 1909, Bluemenfeld MSS.; Coetzee & Coetzee, 'The Radical Right before 1914', Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 21 (1986), p. 519.
At the 'Khaki election' of November 1900, Long won Bristol South. With the ministerial shuffle in 1900, he became President of the Local Government Board (Long would return to that position in 1915). Never an insider, Long worked closely with constituents on local issues showing "sensitivity to the wider needs of society". His capacity for hard work revealed that he was also stubborn, short-tempered, with a choleric temperament; a stickler for the letter of the law. He was frequently plagued by ill-health: neuralgia, arthritis, susceptible to colds and flu; a waspish character, he was not charismatic, nor was he analytic or probing, like his mentor Arthur Balfour.
In 1903, Long took a leading role as a spokesman for the protectionist wing of the party, advocating tariff reform and imperial preference alongside Joseph Chamberlain and his son Austen Chamberlain, which brought him into conflict with Charles Ritchie, Michael Hicks-Beach and others on the free-trade wing."The Great Fiscal Problem", The Evening Post, 11 June 1903.
Long was a moderate within the protectionist ranks and became a go-between for the protectionists and free-traders, increasing his prominence and popularity within the party. Perhaps his most significant achievement on the board was the unification of the London water-supply boards into the Metropolitan Water Board.
Chief Secretary for Ireland Long was offered the position of First Lord of the Admiralty in Lord Selborne's place, as the latter was appointed to the Governor-Generalship of South Africa but he refused the promotion, advising the appointment of Lord Cawdor. Long really wanted to remain at Local Government, but when George Wyndham resigned as Chief Secretary for Ireland, Balfour was faced with a crisis. Wyndham resigned on 5 March 1905, over what became known as the "Wyndham-MacDonnell Imbroglio". Sir Antony MacDonnell was a successful Indian civil servant appointed by Wyndham as Permanent Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on the strict understanding that the permanent post made MacDonnell's role a non-political position. MacDonnell was a Catholic from County Mayo, whose appointment left unionists wondering if they had been betrayed by London. Nevertheless, having competently implemented the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903, MacDonnell came to be seen as a force for moderation. Wyndham was occupied in London with cabinet duties and so appreciated the implied need for permanent governance.
Balfour had already considered Long for the post in January 1905, and to that end consulted both Edward Carson and John Atkinson, under pressure from Horace Plunkett and Gerald Balfour to continue the policy of moderate reform. Due to his Irish connections (both his wife and his mother were Irish), Balfour hoped that Long might be more acceptable to Irish Unionists than his predecessor. Long was reluctant to accept the offer, being frustrated and angered by Lord Dunraven's proposals and MacDonnell's initiatives, which he regarded as anti-Unionist. However, Long was determined to bring Unionism back from the brink of extinction in Ireland.