Editing Joseph Chamberlain (section)

=== Calls for reform ===
Chamberlain became involved in Liberal politics, influenced by the strong radical and liberal traditions among Birmingham shoemakers and the long tradition of social action in [[Chamberlain's Unitarian church]].<ref name="chamberlainhoc">Tristram Hunt ''Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson pp 232–265, 2004</ref> There was pressure to redistribute parliamentary seats to cities and to enfranchise a greater proportion of urban men. In 1866, [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Earl Russell]]'s [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] administration submitted a Reform Bill to create 400,000 new voters, but the bill was opposed by the "[[Adullamite]]" Liberals for disrupting the social order, and criticised by Radicals for not conceding the secret ballot or household suffrage. The bill was defeated and the government fell. Chamberlain was one of the 250,000, including the mayor, who marched for Reform in Birmingham on 27 August 1866; he recalled that "men poured into the hall, black as they were from the factories...the people were packed together like herrings" to listen to a speech by [[John Bright]]. [[Lord Derby]]'s [[Third Derby–Disraeli ministry|minority Conservative administration]] passed a [[Second Reform Act 1867|Reform Act in 1867]], nearly doubling the electorate from 1,430,000 to 2,470,000.

The Liberal Party won the [[1868 United Kingdom general election|1868 election]]. Chamberlain was active in the election campaign, praising Bright and [[George Dixon (MP)|George Dixon]], a Birmingham MP. Chamberlain was also influential in the local campaign in support of the [[Irish Church Act 1869|Irish Disestablishment]] bill. In the autumn of 1869, a deputation headed by [[William Harris (Birmingham Liberal)|William Harris]] invited him to stand for the [[Birmingham City Council|Town Council]]; and in November he was elected to represent St. Paul's Ward.{{sfn|Garvin|Amery|1932|p=100|loc=vol. 1}}

Chamberlain and [[Jesse Collings]] had been among the founders of the Birmingham Education League in 1867, which noted that of about 4.25 million children of school age, 2 million children, mostly in urban areas, did not attend school, with a further 1 million in uninspected schools. The government's aid to [[Church of England]] schools offended [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformist]] opinion. Chamberlain favoured free, secular, compulsory education, stating that "it is as much the duty of the State to see that the children are educated as to see that they are fed", and attributing the success of the US and [[Prussia]] to public education. The Birmingham Education League evolved into the [[National Education League]], which held its first Conference in Birmingham in 1869 and proposed a school system funded by local [[Rates (tax)|rates]] and government grants, managed by local authorities subject to government inspection. By 1870, the League had more than one hundred branches, mostly in cities and peopled largely by men of trades unions and working men's organisations.

[[William Edward Forster]], vice-president of the Committee of Council on Education, proposed an [[Elementary Education Act 1870|Elementary Education Bill]] in January 1870.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Walter H. G. |last=Armytage |title=The 1870 education act |journal=British Journal of Educational Studies |volume=18 |issue=2 |year=1970 |pages=121–33 |doi=10.1080/00071005.1970.9973277 }}</ref> Nonconformists opposed the proposal to fund church schools as part of the national educational system through the rates. The NEL was angered by the absence of school commissions or of free, compulsory education. Chamberlain arranged for a delegation of 400 branch members and 46 MPs to visit the prime minister [[William Ewart Gladstone]] at [[10 Downing Street]] on 9 March 1870, the first time the two men had met. Chamberlain impressed the Prime Minister with his lucid speech, and during the bill's second reading Gladstone agreed to make amendments that removed church schools from rate-payer control and granted them funding. Liberal MPs, exasperated at the compromises in the legislation, voted against the government, and the bill passed the House of Commons with support from the Conservatives. Chamberlain campaigned against the Act, and especially Clause 25, which gave [[School board (England & Wales)|school boards]] of England and Wales the power to pay the fees of poor children at voluntary schools, theoretically allowing them to fund church schools. The Education League stood in several by-elections against Liberal candidates who refused to support the repeal of Clause 25. In 1873, a Liberal majority was elected to the Birmingham School Board, with Chamberlain as chairman. Eventually, a compromise was reached with the church component of the school board agreeing to make payments from rate-payer's money only to schools associated with industrial education.{{sfn|Marsh|1994|pp=34–55}}

Chamberlain espoused enfranchisement of rural workers and a lower cost of land. In an article written for the ''Fortnightly Review'', he coined the slogan of the "Four F's: Free Church, Free Schools, Free Land and Free Labour". In another article, "The Liberal Party and its Leaders", Chamberlain criticised Gladstone's leadership and advocated a more Radical direction for the party.