The House | How Philosopher John Stuart Mill Spent His Time In The House Of Commons

John Stuart Mill (Stephen Burrows/Alamy)

4 min read21 May

It is a warning that many candidates may have longed to give but thought better of delivering. When John Stuart Mill stood for election as MP for the City Of Westminster in July 1865 he said he “could not undertake to give any… time and labour to… local interests”.

He also refused to canvass, believing that candidates ought to personally finance their campaigns. 

In addition to insisting that he wasn’t going to champion any constituency causes, Mill also said he would, as an MP, advocate for votes for women.

At the time, this was risible: Mill was widely mocked by cartoonists, who often portrayed him wearing women’s clothes. No wonder, then, that a contemporary said, “the Almighty himself would have no chance of being elected on such a programme”.

But elected he was, possibly to his own dismay. Later, he described his success as when “my tranquil and retired existence as a writer of books was… exchanged for the less congenial occupation of member of the House of Commons”.

He was an early celebrity candidate – Mill was already a household name at the time of his election. His A System of Logic was a bestseller in 1843, followed by Principles of Political Economy (1848). The essay for which he is still most famous, On Liberty (written with his wife, Harriet Taylor) was published in 1859, shortly followed by his seminal work on ethics, Utilitarianism (1861) and treatise on democracy, Considerations on Representative Government (1861).

Mill was elected in febrile political times, dominated by the question of extending the vote to all men. There were four prime ministers during Mill’s three-year term in Parliament (two Liberal, two Conservative). Whoever was in power, Mill was often critical of government policy and legislation. 

He made his maiden speech in February 1866 – on preventing cattle disease – using his economic knowledge to critique the fairness and workability of government plans for compensating landowners who owned infected livestock. In other speeches, he drew on his extensive knowledge of philosophy, history and the new subject of ‘social science’ to advocate for proportional representation; electoral reform; a London county council; enforcing a ban on smoking in trains; tighter laws on bankruptcy; changes to Britain’s extradition laws to protect political refugees; investment and reform in the Irish economy; and reform of the Poor Law. He also surprised some Liberal friends by speaking in favour of capital punishment and supporting government seizure of enemy goods in neutral ships.

Mill’s activity caused a deal of public dislike, and he received a lot of abuse through the post, including frequent death threats

Advertisement

Mill stood as a “working man’s” candidate within the Liberal Party – signalling his support for universal personhood suffrage – but acknowledged that his politics were more “advanced” than most contemporary Liberals. Not least, his support really was for “universal” suffrage (including women). He spoke on this issue many times, and presented a significant petition to Parliament (co-organised with his step-daughter, Helen Taylor). Along with this radical support for women’s votes, he advocated their equal access to education and work, and equal property rights.

Beyond this, Mill described his personal politics as “under the general designation of socialist”, and courted controversy while an MP through vehement support for freedom of speech, ardent opposition to the suspension of Habeas Corpus, and leadership of the attempted prosecution of governor Edward John Eyre for his violent suppression of the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica. He supported the interests of working people within Parliament, endeavouring to secure working people’s inclusion in a commission into trade unions, arguing in favour of changing Sabbatarian regulations to allow working people to attend lectures on Sundays and seek education for themselves, and sending money to defray the campaign expenses of working-class candidates. He even got into trouble with the deputy serjeant-at-arms for allowing members of the Reform Society (advocating for “manhood” suffrage) to form a “deputation” to MPs in the House of Commons tea room.

Mill’s activity caused a deal of public dislike, and he received a lot of abuse through the post, including frequent death threats. Despite this, he stood again for election in 1868, but was defeated by William Henry Smith (the WH Smith of railway/airport bookselling fame). Mill returned to writing on philosophical topics, spending most of his time in Avignon, where his wife was buried, and where he too was interred after his death in 1873. 

Helen McCabe is professor of Political Theory at the University of Nottingham. She is currently working in the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology as the thematic research lead for Arts and Humanities