Abstract
The chapter consists of a discussion of the politicisation of the agenda in the Oxford and Cambridge Unions’ public debates roughly between the reform acts in 1832 and 1867. As well as relating the setting of political agenda to the classical rhetorical tradition of inventio, Haapala contrasts the Union practices to the parliamentary setting of debating on both sides of an issue. The chapter also proposes that the Union public debates showed the use of certain rhetorical commonplaces, or topoi, which are named as principle, expediency, character and vote of confidence. Finally, Haapala offers a typology of political agenda setting in the Unions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Primary Sources
Cambridge Union Society [CUS] laws [1824–1870]. Laws of the Union Society. Cambridge: Cambridge Union Society.
Cambridge Union Society [CUS] minute book [1823–1874]. Minute Book [vols 1–14]. Cambridge: Cambridge Union Society.
Oxford Union Society [OUS] minute book [1831–1869]. Minute Book [vols I–X]. Oxford: Oxford Union Society.
Oxford Union Society [OUS] rules [1837–1867]. Rules and Regulations. Oxford: Oxford Union Society.
The Speculative Society of Edinburgh 1905. The History of the Speculative Society, 1764–1904. Edinburgh: Constables. http://archive.org/details/historyofspecula00specuoft
Transactions of the Oxford Union Debating Society: 1823–1825. Copy of the original text. Oxford: Oxforshire Records Office.
Secondary Literature
Aristotle 1984. On Sophistical Refutations. Translated by W. A. Pickard–Cambridge. In: The Complete Works of Aristotle. Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 278–314. http://tinyurl.com/hw3ot4w
Bagehot, Walter 2001 (1867). The English Constitution. (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought). Edited by Paul Smith, 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Briggs, Asa 1984 (1959). The Age of Improvement, 1783–1867. London: Longman.
Campion, Gilbert [Lord] 1958 (1929). An Introduction to the Procedure of the House of Commons. London: Macmillan.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1942. De partitione oratoria. Translated by H. Rackham. London: Heinemann.
Collini, Stefan 1985. The Idea of ‘Character’ in Victorian Political Thought. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 35, 29–50.
Collini, Stefan 2006 (1991). Public Moralists: Political Thought and Intellectual Life in Britain, 1850–1930. Oxford: Clarendon.
Collini, Stefan, Donald Winch and John Burrow 1987 (1983). That Noble Science of Politics: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Intellectual History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fletcher, Walter Morley 1935. The University Pitt Club, 1835–1935. Completed by Charles Montague Fletcher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grainger, J. H. 1969. Character and Style in English Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gronbeck, Bruce 1982. Symbolic Dimensions of Parliamentary Procedure in the Late 18th-Century English Commons. Parliamentary Journal 23 (2), 42–55.
Hakewill, William 1659. Modus Tenendi Parliamentum, or, The Old Manner of Holding Parliaments in England Extracted Out of Our Ancient Records: With Certain Municipal Rights and Customes of this Commonwealth of England. Together with, the Priviledges of Parliament: And the Manner How Lawes are There Enacted by Passing of Bills. Collected Many Years Past Out of the Journal of the House of Commons. London: John Benson.
Halévy, Elie. 1955. The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism. Translated by Mary Morris, with a Preface by A. D. Lindsay, Master of Balliol College, Oxford. Boston: The Beacon Press.
Hatsell, John 1818 (1781). Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons; Under Separate Titles, with Observations. Vol. 2: Relating to members, speaker, etc. London: Hansards, 4th edition. https://archive.org/details/precedentsofproc02hats
Hawkins, Angus 1989. ‘Parliamentary Government’ and Victorian Political Parties, c. 1830–c. 1880. The English Historical Review 104 (412), 638–669.
Ledger-Lomas, Michael 2004. The Character of Pitt the Younger and Party Politics, 1830–1860. The Historical Journal 47 (3), 641–661.
Lejeune, Anthony 1984 (1979). The Gentlemen’s Clubs of London. Photographs by Malcolm Lewis. London: Parkgate Books.
Mack, Peter 2002. Elizabethan Rhetoric: Theory and Practice. (Ideas in Context, vol. 63). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Martin, Ged 2000. The Cambridge Union and Ireland, 1815–1914. Edinburgh: Ann Barry. http://www.gedmartin.net/index.php/published-work-mainmenu-11/146-the-cambridge-union-and-ireland-1815-1914
May, Thomas Erskine 1844. A Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament. London: Charles Knight. http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23427007M/A_Treatise_Upon_the_Law_Privileges_Proceedings_and_Usage_of_Parliament
McCarthy, Justin 1903. British Political Portraits. New York: Outlook. https://archive.org/details/britishpolitical00mccauoft
Morstein-Marx, Robert 2004. Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ostrogorski, Moisei 1964. Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties. Volume I: England. Edited and abridged by Seymour Martin Lipset. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.
Palgrave, Reginald F. D. 1878 (1869). The Chairman’s Handbook. Suggestions and Rules for the Conduct of Chairmen of Public and Other Meetings, Drawn from the Procedure and Practice of Parliament, 3rd and revised edition. London: Knight. https://archive.org/details/chairmanshandbo01palggoog
Palonen, Kari 2008. Speaking Pro et Contra: The Rhetorical Intelligibility of Parliamentary Politics and the Political Intelligibility of Parliamentary Rhetoric. In: Suvi Soininen and Tapani Turkka (eds) The Parliamentary Style of Politics. Helsinki: The Finnish Political Science Association, 82–105.
Parry, Jonathan 2006. The Politics of Patriotism: English Liberalism, National Identity and Europe, 1830–1886. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peltonen, Markku 2013. Rhetoric, Politics and Popularity in Pre-Revolutionary England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Phelps, Barry 1983. Power and the Party: A History of the Carlton Club, 1832–1982. Foreword by Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher, MP. The Carlton Lecture, 1982 by Rt. Hon. Harold Macmillan. London: Macmillan.
Redlich, Josef 1908. The Procedure of the House of Commons: A Study of its History and Present Form, Vols. 1–2. Translated from German by A. Ernest Steinthal, with an introduction by Sir Courtenay Ilbert, Clerk of the House of Commons. London: A. Constable.
Reid, Christopher 2012. Imprison’d Wranglers. The Rhetorical Culture of the House of Commons, 1760–1800. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Reid, Loren 1953. Gladstone’s Essay on Public Speaking [1838]. The Quarterly Journal of Speech 39 (3), 265–272.
Skinner, Quentin 1996. Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, Jonathan and Christopher Stray 2001. Introduction. In: Jonathan Smith and Christopher Stray (eds) Teaching and Learning in Nineteenth-Century Cambridge. (History of the University of Cambridge Texts and Studies 4). Woodbridge: Boydell, 1–4.
Turner, Frank M. 1981. The Greek Heritage in Victorian Britain. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Woodbridge, George 1978. The Reform Club, 1836–1978: A History from the Club’s Records. With a foreword by Maurice Ashley, C.B.E. New York: Clearwater.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Haapala, T. (2016). The Politics of Agenda in the Union Debates. In: Political Rhetoric in the Oxford and Cambridge Unions, 1830–1870. Studies in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-35128-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-35128-5_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-35127-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-35128-5
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)