A CANDIDATE AGAIN

‘Isaac and Gill, the Constitutional candidates for Nottingham. Old England for Ever.’ Thus read the handbills bearing a red, white and blue depiction of the Union Flag, distributed in Nottingham in the spring of 1880.

It was eight years since William Gill had stood for the Conservatives at Hackney. Now he was standing for the same party again, this time in the Midlands city of Nottingham. Writing from 1 Edinburgh Mansions, Victoria Street, London S.W. on 11th March 1880, he set out his standpoint on the issues of the day, such as the status of the Anglican church and home rule for Ireland:

I am a strenuous supporter of the Church of England, and of her union with the State, and am determined, should I have the honour of a seat in Parliament, to do my utmost to preserve our sacred institutions as we have received them from our forefathers.

A party, known as Home Rulers, have arisen in the State, and, veiled beneath the specious title of ‘inquiry,’ an insidious attempt has been made to entangle candidates for Parliamentary honours in a scheme for the dismemberment of that union which has been so favourable to the power and prosperity of these islands; and, although I would earnestly urge forward the redress of any proved grievance in Ireland, in which the action of modern legislation may have left unrelieved; yet I should always oppose to the utmost of my power the schemes of that party, whose ultimate object I believe to be the separation of Ireland from Great Britain.

He favoured a careful ‘extension of municipal institutions to the counties’ and a redistribution of parliamentary seats for more equitable representation of the growing urban areas. He held that ‘the protection of minorities is one of the chief duties of a Government.’ Turning to foreign policy, he praised the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli:

At the Congress of Berlin, by a masterstroke of policy largely due to the genius of Lord Beaconsfield [Disraeli], Austria was placed in a commanding position at Novi Bazar; thus has Russia been forced to relinquish the hopes of enthroning herself at the Byzantine Capital [Constantinople], and results, unequalled by those obtained at the conclusion of the Crimean War, have been gained without the loss of a single English life.

He included a reference to India:

By the prompt action of the Indian Government, the extensive military preparations of the late Amir of Afghanistan have been rendered ineffectual, and our Indian empire has been saved from the impending disaster of a war within its borders.

In an address the day before the election, Captain Gill stated, ‘I believe Gentlemen, that England is still the old England that it was in the days of the past, and I don’t believe in the decadence of the great Empire.’

But on polling day, 1st April, Gill and Isaac were defeated by a pair of Liberals. The Nottingham Daily Guardian considered that ‘the friends of Messrs. Isaac and Gill and of the cause they espoused have reason to reproach themselves with lack of energy at the commencement of the battle. They felt too secure, and whilst they slept the enemy had obtained an entrance to the fortress. The battle has been fought nobly since, but in this case it has been the first step which has cost us the representation of the town.’

This was the last time William Gill stood for Parliament. His confidence about the situation in Afghanistan was soon to prove misplaced and to lead to another intelligence mission.