Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists: The Cowper-Temples and High Politics in Victorian England (review)

James Gregory has selected a fascinating, if little-known, couple for this biographical study, which connects the lives of William and Georgina Cowper-Temple with a panorama of Victorian personalities, events, issues, and fads. Neither of the Cowper-Temples would seem to merit a lengthy biographical study based on their individual accomplishments, but Gregory makes a compelling case that the couple's interests and connections justify further study. William, son of an earl, nephew of Lord Melbourne, and stepson of Lord Palmerston, became a well-known political figure—at least according to his contemporaries—more as a result of his aristocratic connections than his abilities. He never served in a cabinet post, and his major contribution as an MP was the Cowper-Temple Amendment to the 1870 Education Bill, which helped resolve the problem of religious instruction at Board Schools; but he was active in national and local liberal politics from the 1830s to the 1880s. Gregory analyzes William's work as an MP and junior minister and questions the general view that he was a mediocrity who contributed little to Victorian political life, pointing in particular to his work on the Board of Trade and Board of Public Works. Georgina, also from an aristocratic family, was William's second wife; she involved herself in a variety of reform movements, including the Ladies Sanitary Association and the anti-vivisection campaign, and served as friend and hostess to Victorian notables from John Ruskin to Josephine Butler.

The Cowper-Temples clearly inhabited a world of privilege and opportunity. Their wealth and position, particularly after William inherited the Broadlands estate from his stepfather, allowed the couple to serve as patrons to artists and writers and open their house to an astonishing array of visitors. As his title suggests, Gregory's biography focuses on the Cowper-Temples' lives as public figures, but the biography also provides insights about the lives of aristocratic families and the ways in which they balanced their wide array of interests. Gregory illuminates the Cowper-Temples' relations with their extended families, their informal adoption of a young French girl, and the impact of family tragedies and scandals, including speculations that William was actually the son not of Earl Cowper but of his mother's long-time lover, Palmerston.

The most intriguing and important aspect of Gregory's study involves the couple's eclectic religious interests. Both of the Cowper-Temples had evangelical leanings, but they also became involved in faith healing and spiritualism. Gregory documents their attempts to contact dead friends and spiritual advisors, which produced on one occasion an admonition to publish Melbourne's letters and speeches and on another advice on prayer from John the Evangelist. Also unusual were their ties to American religious figures, including the evangelist Dwight L. Moody and the Quaker reformer Robert Pearsall Smith. Toward the end of William's life, the couple sponsored conferences at the family estate that brought together continental Protestants and Catholics, British clergy and theologians, and other friends for religious dialogue.

Gregory's research into the lives of this generally forgotten couple is impressive. He has scoured not only the extensive Cowper-Temple papers but also the memoirs and correspondence of their many friends and relatives. He uses the popular and mainstream press to help analyze William's political contributions and contemporary reputation. As a result, he amasses amazing detail about the couple's day-to-day activities. He argues that the Cowper-Temples' frequent "gatherings of socialists, savants, seers and theologians seem at first glance mismatched, but were an attempt at social and cultural brokering or networking, a harmonization of views through hospitality and charm, the smoothing over of ideological divisions through friendships, and the creation of communities of sympathy across apparent intellectual or religious gulfs" (141). Gregory certainly provides extensive evidence of these connections, and as a result the biography could benefit cultural and...