CLIFFORD, JOHN (1836- )

This article appears in Volume V06, Page 508 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: CHR-CLI

CLIFFORD, JOHN (1836- ) , British Nonconformist minister and politician, son of a warp-machinist at Sawley, Derbyshire, was born on the 16th of October 1836. As a boy he worked in a lace factory, where he attracted the notice of the leaders of the Baptist community, who sent him to the academy at Leicester and the Baptist college at Nottingham to be educated for the - ministry. In 1858 he was called to Praed Street chapel, Paddington (London), and while officiating there he attended University College and pursued his education by working at the British Museum. He matriculated at London University (1859), and took its B.A. degree (1861), B.Sc. (1862), M.A. (1864), and LL.B. (1866), and in 1883 he was given the honorary degree of D.D. by Bates College, U.S.A., being known therefrom as Dr Clifford. This degree, from an American college of

minor

academic status, afterwards led to sarcastic allusions, but Dr Clifford had not courted it, and his London University achievements were evidence enough of his intellectual equipment. At Praed Street chapel he gradually obtained a
' The

original

ORIGINAL

writ of summons (1299) was addressed in Latin, Roberto domino de Clifford, i.e. Robert, lord of Clifford, and subsequently the barons styled themselves indifferently Lords Clifford or de Clifford, until in 1777 the 11th lord definitively adopted the latter form. The " De " henceforth became part of the name, having quite lost its earliest significance, and with unconscious tautology the barony is commonly referred to as that of De Clifford.
large following, and in 1877 Westbourne Park chapel was opened for him. As a preacher, writer, propagandist and ardent Liberal politician, he became a power in the Nonconformist

body

BODY

. He was president of the London Baptist Association in 1879, of the Baptist Union in 1888 and 1899, and of the National Council of Evangelical Churches in 1898. His

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

prominence in politics, however,

dates

DATES

from 1903 onwards in consequence of his advocacy of " passive resistance " to the Education Act of 1902. Into this

movement

MOVEMENT

he threw himself with militant ardour, his own goods being distrained upon, with those of numerous other Nonconformists, rather than that any contribution should be made by them in taxation for the purpose of an Education Act which in their

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

was calculated to support denominational religious teaching in the schools. The " passive resistance "

movement

MOVEMENT

, with Dr Clifford as its

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

leader, had a large share in the defeat of the Unionist government in January 1906, and his efforts were then directed to getting a new act passed which should be undenominational in character. The rejection of Mr Birrell's bill in 1906 by the

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Lords was accordingly accompanied by denunciations of that

body

BODY

from Dr Clifford and his followers; but as year by year went by, up to 1909, with nothing but failure on the part of the Liberal ministry to arrive at any solution of the education problem,failure due now not to the

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Lords but to the inherent difficulties of the subject (see EDUCATION),it became increasingly clear to the public generally that the easy denunciations of the act of 1902, which had played so large a part in the elections of 1906, were not so simple to carry into practice, and that a compromise in which the denominationalists would have their say would have to be the result. Meanwhile " passive resistance " lost its

interest

INTEREST

, though Dr Clifford and his followers continued to protest against their treatment.

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