Editing H. H. Asquith (section)

==Member of Parliament: 1886–1908==
===Queen's Counsel===
In June 1886, with the Liberal party split on the question of [[Irish Home Rule]], Gladstone called [[1886 United Kingdom general election|a general election]].{{sfn|Douglas|p=71}} There was a last-minute vacancy at [[East Fife (UK Parliament constituency)|East Fife]], where the sitting Liberal member, [[John Boyd Kinnear]], had been deselected by his local Liberal Association for voting against Irish Home Rule. [[Richard Haldane]], a close friend of Asquith's and also a struggling young barrister, had been Liberal MP for the nearby [[Haddingtonshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Haddingtonshire]] constituency since [[1885 United Kingdom general election|December 1885]]. He put Asquith's name forward as a replacement for Kinnear, and only ten days before polling Asquith was formally nominated in a vote of the local Liberals.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=38–40}} The Conservatives did not contest the seat, putting their support behind Kinnear, who stood against Asquith as a [[Liberal Unionist]]. Asquith was elected with 2,863 votes to Kinnear's 2,489.<ref>"The General Election", ''The Times'', 9 July 1886, p. 10; and "The Election", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 9 July 1886, p. 8.</ref>

The Liberals lost the 1886 election, and Asquith joined the House of Commons as an opposition backbencher. He waited until March 1887 to make his maiden speech, which opposed the Conservative administration's proposal to give special priority to an Irish Crimes Bill.{{sfn|Spender & Asquith|p=52}}{{sfn|Alderson|pp=37–38}} From the start of his parliamentary career Asquith impressed other MPs with his air of authority as well as his lucidity of expression.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=42–43}} For the remainder of this Parliament, which lasted until 1892, Asquith spoke occasionally but effectively, mostly on Irish matters.{{sfn|Alderson|p=44}}{{sfn|Jenkins|p=44}}

Asquith's legal practice was flourishing, and took up much of his time. In the late 1880s [[Anthony Hope]], who later gave up the bar to become a novelist, was his pupil. Asquith disliked arguing in front of a jury because of the repetitiveness and "platitudes" required, but excelled at arguing fine points of civil law before a judge or in front of courts of appeal.{{sfn|Spender & Asquith|p=48}} These cases, in which his clients were generally large businesses, were unspectacular but financially rewarding.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=47}}

[[File:Herbert Henry Asquith Vanity Fair 1 August 1891-cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|Asquith, caricatured by [[Leslie Ward|Spy]], in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 1891]]

From time to time Asquith appeared in high-profile criminal cases. In 1887 and 1888, he defended the radical Liberal MP, [[Cunninghame Graham]], who was charged with assaulting police officers when they attempted to break up [[Bloody Sunday (1887)|a demonstration]] in [[Trafalgar Square]].<ref>"The Riots in London", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 15 November 1887, p. 8.</ref> Graham was later convicted of the lesser charge of [[unlawful assembly]].<ref>"Central Criminal Court",   ''The Times'', 19 January 1888, p. 10.</ref> In what Jenkins calls "a less liberal cause", Asquith appeared for the prosecution in the trial of [[Henry Vizetelly]] for publishing "obscene libels"—the first English versions of [[Émile Zola|Zola]]'s novels ''[[Nana (novel)|Nana]]'', ''[[Pot-Bouille]]'' and ''[[La Terre]]'', which Asquith described in court as "the three most immoral books ever published".<ref>"Police", ''The Times'', 11 August 1888, p. 13; and "Central Criminal Court", ''The Times'', 1 November 1888, p. 13.</ref>

Asquith's law career received a great and unforeseen boost in 1889 when he was named junior counsel to [[Charles Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen|Sir Charles Russell]] at the [[Parnell Commission|Parnell Commission of Enquiry]]. The commission had been set up in the aftermath of damaging statements in ''The Times'', based on forged letters, that Irish MP [[Charles Stuart Parnell]] had expressed approval of Dublin's [[Phoenix Park killings]]. When the manager of ''The Times'', J. C. Macdonald, was called to give evidence Russell, feeling tired, surprised Asquith by asking him to conduct the cross-examination.{{sfn|Alderson|p=33}} Under Asquith's questioning, it became plain that in accepting the forgeries as genuine, without making any check, Macdonald had, in Jenkins's phrase, behaved "with a credulity which would have been childlike had it not been criminally negligent".{{sfn|Jenkins|p=49}} ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' reported that under Asquith's cross-examination, Macdonald "squirmed and wriggled through a dozen half-formed phrases in an attempt at explanation, and finished none".<ref>"Parnell Commission", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 20 February 1889, p. 5.</ref> The accusations against Parnell were shown to be false, ''The Times'' was obliged to make a full apology, and Asquith's reputation was assured.{{sfn|Popplewell|pp=24–25}}{{sfn|Alderson|pp=33–34}} Within a year he had gained advancement to the senior rank of the bar, [[Queen's Counsel]].{{sfn|Popplewell|p=25}}

Asquith appeared in two important cases in the early 1890s. He played an effective low-key role in the sensational [[Royal baccarat scandal|Tranby Croft libel]] trial (1891), helping to show that the plaintiff had not been libelled. He was on the losing side in ''[[Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co]]'' (1892), a landmark English contract law case that established that a company was obliged to meet its advertised pledges.{{sfn|Popplewell|pp=28–30}}<ref>"The Baccarat Case", ''The Times'', 2 June 1891, p. 11; and  "Queen's Bench Division", ''The Times'', 20 June 1892, p. 3.</ref>

===Widower and cabinet minister===
In September 1891, Helen Asquith died of [[typhoid fever]], following a few days' illness while the family were on holiday in Scotland.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=52}} Asquith bought a house in [[Surrey]], and hired nannies and other domestic staff. He sold the Hampstead property and took a flat in [[Mount Street]], [[Mayfair]], where he lived during the working week.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=56}}

[[File:Margot-Asquith-1890s.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Margot Asquith]] at about the time of her marriage]]

The [[1892 United Kingdom general election|general election of July 1892]] returned Gladstone and the Liberals to office, with intermittent support from the Irish Nationalist MPs. Asquith, who was then only 39 and had never served as a junior minister, accepted the post of [[Home Secretary]], a senior Cabinet position. The Conservatives and Liberal Unionists jointly outnumbered the Liberals in the Commons, which, together with a permanent Unionist majority in the House of Lords, restricted the government's capacity to put reforming measures in place. Asquith failed to secure a majority for a bill to [[Disestablishmentarianism|disestablish]] the [[Church in Wales]], and another to protect workers injured at work, but he built up a reputation as a capable and fair minister.<ref name=dnb/>

In 1893, Asquith responded to a request from Magistrates in the [[Wakefield]] area for reinforcements to police a mining strike. Asquith sent 400 Metropolitan policeman. After two civilians were killed in [[Featherstone]] when soldiers opened fire on a crowd, Asquith was subject to protests at public meetings for a period. He responded to a taunt, "Why did you murder the miners at Featherstone in '92?" by saying, "It was not '92, it was '93."<ref>{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Roy |date=2012 |title=Churchill: A Biography |location=UK |publisher=Pan Macmillan |page=199 |isbn=9780330476072}}</ref>

When Gladstone retired in March 1894, [[Queen Victoria]] chose the [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]], [[Lord Rosebery]], as the new prime minister. Asquith thought Rosebery preferable to the other possible candidate, the [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], [[Sir William Harcourt]], whom he deemed too anti-imperialist—one of the so-called "[[Little Englander#History|Little Englanders]]"—and too abrasive.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=72–73}} Asquith remained at the Home Office until the government fell in 1895.<ref name=dnb/>

Asquith had known [[Margot Tennant]] slightly since before his wife's death, and grew increasingly attached to her in his years as a widower. On 10 May 1894, they were married at [[St George's, Hanover Square]]. Asquith became a son in law of [[Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet]]. Margot was in many respects the opposite of Asquith's first wife, being outgoing, impulsive, extravagant and opinionated.<ref name=margodnb>Brock, Eleanor, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30482 "Asquith, Margaret Emma Alice (Margot), countess of Oxford and Asquith (1864–1945)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923023136/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30482;jsessionid=843AB0C22900FDDA8EBAFEE2A555F16A |date=23 September 2021 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2015 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> Despite the misgivings of many of Asquith's friends and colleagues the marriage proved to be a success. Margot got on, if sometimes stormily, with her step-children. She and Asquith had five children of their own, only two of whom survived infancy:<ref name=margodnb/> [[Anthony Asquith]] (9 November 1902 – 21 February 1968), and [[Elizabeth Asquith]] (26 February 1897 – 7 April 1945), who married Prince [[Antoine Bibesco]] on 30 April 1919.

====Out of office====
[[File:Campbell-bannerman-ILN-1899.jpg|thumb|[[Henry Campbell-Bannerman|Campbell-Bannerman]], Liberal leader from 1899]]

The [[1895 United Kingdom general election|general election of July 1895]] was disastrous for the Liberals, and the Conservatives under [[Lord Salisbury]] won a majority of 152. With no government post, Asquith divided his time between politics and the bar.{{efn|He was the first former cabinet minister to resume practice at the bar after leaving government office. All cabinet ministers were, and are, appointed as lifetime members of the [[Privy Council]], and there had been an uncodified feeling before 1895 that it was inappropriate for a Privy Councillor to appear as an advocate in court, submitting to the rulings of judges who, for the most part, ranked below him in the official order of precedence. See {{harvnb|Jenkins|pp=90–91}}.}} Jenkins comments that in this period Asquith earned a substantial, though not stellar, income and was never worse off and often much higher-paid than when in office.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=92}} Matthew writes that his income as a QC in the following years was around £5,000 to £10,000 per annum (around £500,000–£1,000,000 at 2015 prices).<ref name=dnb/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php |title=Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound |access-date=27 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331194822/https://measuringworth.com/ukcompare/result.php |archive-date=31 March 2016 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> According to Haldane, on returning to government in 1905 Asquith had to give up a £10,000 brief to act for the [[Abbas II of Egypt|Khedive of Egypt]].{{sfn|Bates|p=33}} Margot later claimed (in the 1920s, when they were short of money) that he could have made £50,000 per annum had he remained at the bar.{{sfn|Koss|pp=282–283}}

The Liberal Party, with a leadership—Harcourt in the Commons and Rosebery in the Lords—who detested each other, once again suffered factional divisions. Rosebery resigned in October 1896 and Harcourt followed him in December 1898.{{sfn|Hattersley|p=60}}{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=200, 105}} Asquith came under strong pressure to accept the nomination to take over as Liberal leader, but the post of Leader of the Opposition, though full-time, was then unpaid, and he could not afford to give up his income as a barrister. He and others prevailed on the former [[Secretary of State for War]], [[Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman]] to accept the post.{{sfn|Hattersley|p=65}}

During the [[Boer War]] of 1899–1902 Liberal opinion divided along pro-imperialist and "Little England" lines, with Campbell-Bannerman striving to maintain party unity. Asquith was less inclined than his leader and many in the party to censure the Conservative government for its conduct, though he regarded the war as an unnecessary distraction.<ref name=dnb/> [[Joseph Chamberlain]], a former Liberal minister, now an ally of the Conservatives, campaigned for [[protectionism|tariffs]] to shield British industry from cheaper foreign competition. Asquith's advocacy of traditional Liberal [[free trade]] policies helped to make Chamberlain's proposals the central question in British politics in the early years of the 20th century. In Matthew's view, "Asquith's forensic skills quickly exposed deficiencies and self-contradictions in Chamberlain's arguments."<ref name=dnb/> The question divided the Conservatives, while the Liberals were united under the banner of "free fooders" against those in the government who countenanced a tax on imported essentials.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=140}}

===Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1905–1908===
[[File:Asquith-as-Chancellor-1907.jpg|thumb|Asquith as [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], in the House of Commons]]

Salisbury's Conservative successor as prime minister, [[Arthur Balfour]], resigned in December 1905, but did not seek a dissolution of Parliament and a general election.{{efn|A biographer of Campbell-Bannerman, [[A. J. A. Morris]], suggests that Balfour was motivated in this unusual step by the vain hope that minority government would open up the many divisions within the Liberal party.<ref name=morris>[[Morris, A. J. A.]] [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32275 "Bannerman, Sir Henry Campbell- (1836–1908)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004053857/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32275 |date=4 October 2015 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2008. Retrieved 22 June 2015 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>}} [[King Edward VII]] invited Campbell-Bannerman to form a minority government. Asquith and his close political allies Haldane and [[Sir Edward Grey]] tried to pressure him into taking a peerage to become a figurehead prime minister in the House of Lords, giving the pro-empire wing of the party greater dominance in the House of Commons. Campbell-Bannerman called their bluff and refused to move.<ref name=morris/>{{sfn|Jenkins|p=155}} Asquith was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. He held the post for over two years, and introduced three budgets.{{sfn|Spender & Asquith|pp=172–173}}{{sfn|Jenkins|p=158}}

A month after taking office, Campbell-Bannerman called [[1906 United Kingdom general election|a general election]], in which the Liberals gained a landslide majority of 132.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=164}} However, Asquith's first budget, in 1906, was constrained by the annual income and expenditure plans he had inherited from his predecessor [[Austen Chamberlain]]. The only income for which Chamberlain had over-budgeted was the duty from sales of alcohol.{{efn|Jenkins, with a reference to Asquith's own reputation in that sphere, comments that Asquith did his personal best to reverse the downward trend in alcohol sales.}}{{sfn|Jenkins|p=161}} With a balanced budget, and a realistic assessment of future public expenditure, Asquith was able, in his second and third budgets, to lay the foundations for limited redistribution of wealth and welfare provisions for the poor. Blocked at first by Treasury officials from setting a variable rate of income tax with higher rates on those with high incomes, he set up a committee under [[Sir Charles Dilke]] which recommended not only variable income tax rates but also a [[supertax]] on incomes of more than £5,000 a year. Asquith also introduced a distinction between earned and unearned income, taxing the latter at a higher rate. He used the increased revenues to fund old-age pensions, the first time a British government had provided them. Reductions in selective taxes, such as that on sugar, were aimed at benefiting the poor.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=162–164}}

Asquith planned the 1908 budget, but by the time he presented it to the Commons he was no longer chancellor. Campbell-Bannerman's health had been failing for nearly a year. After a series of heart attacks, Campbell-Bannerman resigned on 3 April 1908, less than three weeks before his death.{{sfn|Hattersley|pp=132–136}} Asquith was universally accepted as the natural successor.{{sfn|Douglas|p=123}} King Edward, who was on holiday in [[Biarritz]], sent for Asquith, who took the boat train to France and [[Kissing hands|kissed hands]] as prime minister in the [[Hôtel du Palais]], Biarritz, on 8 April.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=179–180}}