STRUTT, Edward (1801-1880), of St. Helen’s House, Derby, Derbyshire; Kingston Hall, Nottinghamshire; 17 Cork Street , Middlesex

Strutt, grandson of the famous cotton spinner Jebediah Strutt, had first been elected to Derby as a reformer in 1830. His political inclinations stemmed from his intellectual upbringing and family background and through his Cambridge connections he came into contact with the leading figures of the liberal intelligentsia, including Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Another factor in the formation of Strutt’s politics was his family who were Unitarian cotton manufacturers and part of the Whig-Liberal clique which controlled Derby politics before 1832.1HP, Commons, vii. 312-15. Strutt favoured political reform, free trade, education and economy, and was generally against the intervention of the state in industry.

Electorally, Strutt benefited from his family’s position in Derby and the traditional alliance between Derby Liberals and the Devonshire interest. However, he was forced to become more responsive and accountable as local Conservatism grew in strength and local Liberals and Dissenters became more assertive. Throughout the 1830s he diligently presented petitions in favour of Radical and religious reforms.2Hansard, 11 Mar. 1834, vol. 22, c.1; 29 Apr. 1834, vol. 23, c.202; 27 May 1834, vol. 23, c.1361. He was unseated on petition in March 1848 when the committee found evidence of bribery by his supporters, but made clear that Strutt himself was innocent. The Times complained of the injustice that someone who represented his constituency ‘with great fidelity and credit for eighteen years’ could lose his seat in this way.3Times, 18 Apr. 1848. Strutt successfully found a vacancy at Arundel in July 1851, three months after being defeated at Coventry. He transferred to Nottingham, with which he had stronger connections, at the 1852 general election, and he represented the constituency until his enoblement in 1856.

An infrequent contributor to debate whose interventions were always short, Strutt was capable of speaking with lucidity and intensity on subjects about which he was passionate. He was strongly in favour of the abolition of the newspaper stamp duty, arguing that it would improve ‘the moral condition of the people’ as education would become more ‘widely diffused’.4Hansard, 14 June 1832, vol. 13, c.643. He was part of the deputation which lobbied the Premier Melbourne on the issue in 1836 and Strutt voted for its abolition in 1855.5Frederick Knight Hunt, The Fourth Estate, (1850), p.80; Morning Chro., 14 May 1855. He condemned the Corn Laws, saying in May 1840 that ‘To protect one class was to increase the burdens of other classes.’6Hansard, 26 May 1840, vol. 54, c.588. A long-standing supporter of free trade, Strutt usually expressed his commitment through presenting petitions and Commons votes, rather than fiery speeches or publications.7Hansard, 6 Mar. 1834, vol. 21, col. 1191; 15 Feb. 1839, vol. 45, c.445; Times, 18 Feb. 1842; 9 Apr. 1842; 15 June 1843; 18 May 1846. He did, however, second Villiers’ annual motion for repeal in 1839 and 1840.8Hansard, 19 Feb. 1839, vol. 45, cc.633-37; 26 May 1840, vol. 54, cc.587-92;

Unsurprisingly, given his antecedents and philosophical outlook, Strutt was resistant to factory legislation, although he was careful to point out on the platform that he supported protection for children.9Derby Mercury, 12 Dec. 1832. In particular, Strutt resisted attempts to extend the remit of the Factory Acts to the lace and silk sectors, important industries in Derbyshire.10PP 1841 Session 1 (56), Report from the Select Committee on the Act for the Regulation of Mills and Factories, IX, 562; Hansard, 22 Mar. 1844, vol. 73, cc.1375-76; 20 May 1846, vol. 86, cc.928-29 Evidently, Strutt’s time on Lord Ashley’s committee on the Act for the Regulation of Mills and Factories in 1840 and 1841 did little to change his opinions on the issue.

It was in committee that Strutt did much of his work. A reliable attendee who made few interjections, he served committees dealing with education, banking, and from 1845, that on Railway Bills, where Strutt’s interests increasingly lay. On his return to Parliament, Strutt resumed his membership of the successor inquiry on Railway Bills, which he chaired in the 1854-55 and 1856 sessions.

His expertise in this area led to Strutt’s appointment to the government as Chief Commissioner of Railways in 1846. In 1847, he made a two-hour speech in favour of a Railways Bill, announcing only at the end that it was being withdrawn, much to the consternation of MPs and others.11Hansard, 21 June 1847, vol. 93, cc.761-86; Times, 22 June 1847. The Bill was dropped due to a lack of government time and the hostility of the railway interest. Strutt resigned from his position on his unseating in 1848, but returned to government as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in December 1852. He resigned again in June 1854, to make room for a reshuffle engineered by Lord John Russell.12Greville Memoirs, 8 vols., (London: Longmans, 1888), vii. 165; Times, 10 June 1854. Public and press misunderstandings led to a statement in the Commons, Strutt stating that he had resigned willingly and without condition from an office which he felt was not occupying his energy and time to the optimum benefit to the country.13Hansard, 19 June 1854, vol. 134, cc.335-39.

In 1856, the Times claimed that Strutt’s elevation to the Lords ‘marks the surrender of feudalism to industry’.14Times, 2 Aug. 1856. This was hyperbole, not least because Strutt had no involvement in the day to day running of the family firm, in which he was a sleeping partner. It would be more accurate to say that Strutt represented a confluence between two important strands of early Victorian reformism: philosophic radicalism and provincial Liberalism with its strong links to Dissent and manufacturing. An ineffective minister and hesitant speaker, his views appear to have changed little over the course of his political career, and he was still voting for the ballot in the 1850s.15Times, 1 Apr. 1852; Morning Chro., 22 May 1856. Although he lived until 1880, he rarely spoke in the Lords. Strutt was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry, who served as Liberal MP for East Derbyshire, 1868-74 and Berwick in 1880, and the title survives today.