James Beal (1829–1891) was an English land agent and auctioneer, known as a London reformer. Over many years he was a prominent radical.[1]
Personal life
Beal was born in
Chelsea, London, and worked as an auctioneer and land agent.[2][3] His father was a tradesman, with a Yorkshire background. He initially worked as a solicitor's clerk, and then for an upholsterer.[4] With a successful career in business, he later had offices at 209
Piccadilly (1866), and 20
Regent Street. His side interests in radical politics led him into pamphleteering, and were diverse.[5][6][7]
Early activism
Through the Metropolitan Parliamentary Reform Association, Beal met
Francis Place and the Chartist carpenter George Huggett.[8] He took part in the campaign against the
taxes on knowledge.[7]
Beal became an active reformer in the 1850s, and was a prominent political figure in the
Westminster constituency from 1852.[1][9] His early efforts there were thwarted by the Liberal Registration Society, which successfully brought in
Sir John Villiers Shelley, 7th Baronet as candidate for Westminster, at the
1852 general election. With the bookseller Charles Westerton as ally, and local Chartist figures, Beal ran a vigorous and populist campaign for William Coningham, to no avail. Subsequently
Sir George DeLacy Evans held the seat, to 1865.[10]
Municipal reform
Charles Westerton, Beal's ally, was elected to the London
Metropolitan Board of Works in 1864.[10] That year, Beal brought up 14 charges against the Board of Works, which are mostly now not considered well-founded. His scatter-gun approach included accusations of improper behaviour aimed at three Members of Parliament:
Frederick Doulton,
Sir William Jackson, 1st Baronet and
Meaburn Staniland. Doulton was in the end tarnished by scandal in some opaque dealings, and resigned as MP.[11]
Beal himself belonged to the
select vestry of
St James, Westminster, at the period the local government body for the
civil parish. He became an advocate of the merging of London's vestries into
municipal boroughs, coextensive with parliamentary constituencies.[12] He invited
John Stuart Mill to become a parliamentary candidate, and chaired the Westminster Liberal Electoral Committee that promoted Mill's successful 1865 candidacy for Westminster.[13][14] The Metropolitan Municipal Association was founded by Beal in 1866, and Mill represented its views in parliament.[15] In 1867 Beal had assistance from
John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow in preparing bills.[16] In the meantime, the Tory
William Henry Smith made preparations that came to fruit in the
1868 general election, Beal later considering that the Liberals in Westminster had not engaged on the issues that mattered most to voters, the animation of election meetings ceasing after the days of the
Anti-Corn Law League.[17]
With
Charles Buxton, Beal opposed the dominant position of the
City of London Corporation in local government, under the slogan "the Juggernaut of Guildhall".[18]Joseph Firth Bottomley Firth in 1876 described him as "the father of Municipal Reform in London".[19] Bottomley Firth and
Sir Charles Dilke were Chelsea neighbours of Beal, and together took up municipal reform with him.[20] The Marxist
H. M. Hyndman in 1887 criticised the "middle-class standpoint" of this group, suggesting that Beal would be happy to have the
Duke of Westminster as Mayor of a Greater London.[21]
Beal ran utilities campaigns, intending to improve the consumers' lot in the supply of gas and water. He was active against the gas companies from 1857 to the passing of the
Metropolitan Gas Act 1860.[4] The outcome did not satisfy Beal, and in 1875 the Metropolitan Municipal Association sent a deputation to
Sir Charles Adderley,
President of the Board of Trade; further legislation was proposed. The gas companies played for time, but in 1876 three of the largest amalgamated.[27] For water, its quality from the health point of view, and the regularity of supply, were ongoing issues. The main debate at mid-century, however, was over who should run the system and at what cost.[28]
A clash on 10 April 1855, concerning an election for
churchwardens at
St Barnabas, Pimlico, led Beal into a court case on
ritualism, against Rev. Robert Liddell. Liddell was a
Tractarian advocate of music, in particular, to bring solemnity into the liturgy. A
consistorial court decision by
Stephen Lushington, on 5 December 1855, found in favour of Beal, with Charles Westerton, who were trying to limit ritual objects. The judgement was partially reversed on appeal.[29][30][31]
During the
1874 general election Beal himself was induced to come forward as a candidate for Westminster, on a thorough secular and egalitarian platform. He encountered the rival Liberal
Sir Thomas Buxton, 3rd Baronet, with views more orthodox for the party. In the end Beal withdrew.[32] In 1880 he supported
John Morley's candidature at Westminster, which was unsuccessful.[33]
Beal was a member of the City Guilds Reform Association.[24] In 1882 he gave evidence to the City of London Livery Companies Commission.[34] His interests in this area included the control of charity funds, with an eye on defraying the expenses of an educational system.[7] In 1875, he chaired a meeting for
Thomas Holloway, discussing what became
Royal Holloway College.[35] He acted for Holloway also on behalf of
Holloway Sanatorium.[36]
Later life
The Metropolitan Municipal Association did not in the longer term have a broad base of support, and in 1881 was absorbed into the
London Municipal Reform League.[37][38] In 1888 Beal was elected to the
London County Council, representing Fulham, and standing, as did Firth who was also successful, for the
Progressive Party.[1][39] He was one of the small minority who opposed
Lord Rosebery as chairman of the Provisional Council.[40] He himself became chairman of its water committee. There he brought London's water supply under municipal control, an ambition he had harboured for two decades.[41]
Works
A Few Words in Favor of the Liberty of the Press, and the Abolition of the Penny Stamp on Newspapers (1849)[4]