Sir Edward Baines (28 May 1800 – 2 March 1890), also known as Edward Baines Jr, was a
nonconformist English newspaper editor and Member of Parliament (MP), and ancestor of author
Jilly Cooper
Dame Jilly Cooper, (born Jill Sallitt; 21 February 1937) is an English author. She began her career as a journalist and wrote numerous works of non-fiction before writing several romance novels, the first of which appeared in 1975. Cooper is ...
.
Biography
Edward Baines, of St Ann's Hill,
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
, was the second son (and biographer) of
Edward Baines (1774–1848), proprietor of the ''
Leeds Mercury
The ''Leeds Mercury'' was a newspaper published in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was published from 1718 to 1755 and again from 1767. Initially it consisted of 12 pages and cost three halfpennies. In 1794 it had a circulation of about 3,00 ...
'' and MP for Leeds in the 1830s, and his wife Charlotte Talbot. His elder brother,
Matthew Talbot Baines, was also a politician.
Edward Baines junior was educated at a Leeds private school and then at a
dissenting academy – the Leaf Square grammar school at Pendleton, near Manchester,
[ (the obituary in the ''Leeds Mercury'' is unreliable: for example his views on the educational clauses of the 1843 Factory Bill are "remembered with advantages" to the extent that it is specifically denied that he ever held them.)] alongside his lifelong friend
John Peele Clapham
John Peele Clapham (7 July 1801–19 November 1875), from Leeds, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, was a Magistrate (England and Wales), justice of the peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire, and treasurer for the county courts of Yorkshire.
Al ...
. From 1815 he worked as a journalist on the ''Leeds Mercury'' (in which capacity he was an eye-witness of the
Peterloo massacre
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Eighteen people died and 400–700 were injured when the cavalry of the Yeomen charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who ...
), becoming a junior editor c 1820 and a partner in the business in 1827. He became sole editor when his father was elected to Parliament in 1834, and, after his father's death in 1848, proprietor of the ''Leeds Mercury''. He served as
Liberal MP for
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
from 1859 to 1874. He was knighted in 1880.
A political Liberal, he supported the
Reform Act 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the Reform Act 1832, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. 4. c. 45), enacted by the Whig government of Pri ...
(
2 & 3 Will. 4. c. 45) and the
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 76) (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the British Whig Party, Whig government of Charles ...
; he was an advocate of repeal of the
corn laws
The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. The la ...
and of
the separation of church and state. He was an opponent of the
factory reform movement and responsible for the ''Mercury''s rejection of
Richard Oastler's letters to it on the subject. A staunch
Dissenter
A dissenter (from the Latin , 'to disagree') is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Dissent may include political opposition to decrees, ideas or doctrines and it may include opposition to those things or the fiat of ...
, he opposed state-sponsored education (because it was unthinkable that education should be purely secular, but also unconscionable that the state should have any involvement with religious instruction).
In 1843 he wrote in the ''Mercury'' that education was something individuals could do for themselves "under the guidance of natural instinct and self-interest, infinitely better than Government could do for them".
Hence "''All Government interference to'' COMPEL ''Education is wrong''" and had unacceptable implications: "If Government has a right to compel Education, it has right to ''compel'' RELIGION !"
He withdrew his opposition in the 1860s, when he reluctantly conceded the inadequacy of efforts for the voluntary provision of education. In the 1860s he repeatedly introduced bills to widen the franchise; all were defeated.
Baines helped to found the
Leeds Literary and Philosophical Society. He was also a prominent advocate of working-class adult education, founding Yorkshire
Mechanics' Institutes
Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts (especially in the Australian colonies), were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult ed ...
in imitation of
George Birkbeck's London mechanics' institute. Contributions of his on the cotton industry to his father's History of Lancashire were praised by reviewers; at their suggestion his ''History of the Cotton Manufacture'' was published separately with much additional material (1835). He celebrated the natural position and the political advantages of English commerce and manufacturing districts, and especially of the English navy which "held the sovereignty of the ocean, and under its protection the commerce of this country extended beyond all former bounds, and established a firm connexion between the manufacturers of Lancashire and their customers in the most distant lands."
Baines also wrote a number of more polemical works; e.g. criticisms of
Owenism
Owenism is the utopian socialist philosophy of 19th-century social reformer Robert Owen and his followers and successors, who are known as Owenites. Owenism aimed for radical reform of society and is considered a forerunner of the cooperative ...
. In 1840 he attended the
World's Anti-Slavery Convention where he was captured in a group painting.
[The Anti-Slavery Society Convention]
, 1840, Benjamin Robert Haydon
Benjamin Robert Haydon (; 26 January 178622 June 1846) was a British painter who specialised in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and portraits. His commercial success was damaged by his often tactle ...
, accessed April 2009
He married Martha Blackburn in 1829.
Baines died on 2 March 1890 in Leeds, and was interred in the family vault at
Woodhouse Cemetery.
Works
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See also
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Charles Reed, educationalist and MP, married Edward Baines's sister Margaret
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Edward Crossley, of Halifax, carpet-manufacturer, astronomer and MP, married Edward Baines's third daughter, Jane Eleanor
References
Sources
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External links
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Sir Edward Bainesby
Janet Douglas (historian) (c2008)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baines, Edward
1800 births
1890 deaths
Church of England disestablishment
Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Politicians from Leeds
English newspaper editors
English male journalists
UK MPs 1859–1865
UK MPs 1865–1868
UK MPs 1868–1874
19th-century British journalists