Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
The Earl of Shaftesbury (1801 – 1885)
Richard Turnbull, September 2013
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
‘the various Inspectors of general industries who
had seen the principle enforced desired to see it
applied through the length and breadth of the
land………’
(Earl of Shaftesbury, House of Lords, 6th March 1883, Payment
of Wages in Public Houses (Prohibition) Bill)
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
A Victorian public house
Coster, barrow and donkey
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
Themes
• Birth and background
• Shaftesbury and Parliament: social reform
• Shaftesbury and the voluntary mission
societies
• Motives
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
“Anna Maria Millis, the old Housekeeper, to
whom, under God, I owe the first thoughts of
Piety and the first actions of Prayer.”
Shaftesbury Manuscripts, 1865
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
Shaftesbury and Parliament
• Factory Reform
• Industrial reform and employment
• Public health
• Lunacy reform
• Foreign affairs
• Education
• Protestantism and church issues
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
‘….some of the evils of so hideous a nature, they
will not admit of delay – they must be instantly
removed – evils that are both disgusting and
intolerable – disgusting they would be in a
heathen country, and perfectly intolerable they
are in one that professes to call itself Christian.’
Lord Ashley, House of Commons, 1842
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
‘he dared not direct her to the Saviour as the
bread of life, until he had first saved her from
starving, by furnishing her with the bread that
perisheth.’
LCM Magazine, February 1845
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
“if you wish to win working men, you must
enlist for that service a vast body of the
working men themselves.”
Shaftesbury, Church Pastoral Aid Society, Abstract, 1873
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
‘My experience of their value dates back over half a
century. In all the operations in which I have been
engaged, these men were my companions and fellowlabourers, and I derive unbounded assistance from
them in the matter of Ragged Schools, Common
Lodging-houses, Special Services, and in every effort
for the improvement of Society….In all difficulties of
research, our first resource was to the City
Missionaries, because we knew their inquiry would be
zealous and immediate, and their report ample and
trustworthy.’
(Shaftesbury, 1881)
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
‘removing every ragged, destitute child from
our streets, and to the placing of that child in
the path of industry and virtue.’
Ragged School Union, Second Annual Report, 1846
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
‘I am now looking, not to the great end, but to the
interval. I know, my friends, how great and glorious
that end will be; but while I find so many persons
looking to no end, and others rejoicing in that great
end, and thinking nothing about the interval. I confess
that my own sympathies and fears dwell much with
what must take place before that great
consummation.’
Shaftesbury, CPAS, Abstract, 1876.
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
“The time is coming when matters will not be measured by
the talent, or the ability, or by fine clothes, or by power to
speak, or by being on platforms, or by listening to those
upon platforms; but the time is coming when matters will
be measured by those who have the truest faith, the
deepest love, and the most sincere acts of obedience to
their Lord and Saviour, and most devoted and strong
imitation of his blessed example.”
Shaftesbury, RSU Magazine, April 1867
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
‘on what authority of Scripture…he asked most
solemnly, did they rest their right to subject
God’s creatures to such unspeakable
sufferings.’
Shaftesbury, House of Lords, 15 July, 1879
Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics and CCLA
Lord Shaftesbury: responsibility and the welfare of humanity
Principles
• Bringing together the legislative and voluntary
principles
• Belief in locality
• Personal relationships at the heart of responsibility
• Relief of poverty not for government alone
• Christian faith motivates many to social concern