tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53483224521767298002024-03-05T09:26:50.038+00:00Britain in an Age of Revolution (1789-1848)British politics and society in an age of turbulence. Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-91082894818035439692019-11-23T10:22:00.000+00:002019-11-23T10:22:30.097+00:00The repeal of the Corn Laws<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOiE2WRJTRqoC3cbYGk1BUTPyiyXF_B6fesK3-9z_PClwuTZmJINR6vxTyc5B4fYgm7sPwnWsg4o0WQDJq_qfCxn24sm7upMu6JbWqIYDCv70fW5L4jFi2z2pVndLWzrFUrgndQfVg85hQ/s1600/Sir_Robert_Peel%252C_2nd_Bt_by_Henry_William_Pickersgill-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOiE2WRJTRqoC3cbYGk1BUTPyiyXF_B6fesK3-9z_PClwuTZmJINR6vxTyc5B4fYgm7sPwnWsg4o0WQDJq_qfCxn24sm7upMu6JbWqIYDCv70fW5L4jFi2z2pVndLWzrFUrgndQfVg85hQ/s200/Sir_Robert_Peel%252C_2nd_Bt_by_Henry_William_Pickersgill-detail.jpg" width="143" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sir Robert Peel,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">by W. H. Pickersgill</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">saviour and destroyer of his party.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Public domain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Peel's triumph? </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The 1840s should have been a triumphant decade for Peel. He had reformed his party after its defeat of 1832 and won the election of 1841.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There was however, a lurking problem.</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Conservative vote was overwhelmingly agricultural and deeply committed to agricultural protection.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Peel himself was increasingly in favour of free trade on ideological grounds and his conversion exposed a fault-line in the Tory party. Were they agrarian traditionalists or believers in the free market? Throughout the decade, his government's budgets saw a steady reduction in duties, and disgruntled backbenchers came to believe that the Corn Laws would be next.</span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Irish famine</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is usually believed that it was the Irish famine that converted Peel to free trade, but it is now clear that this simply provided him with an excuse. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There are posts on this distressing and still controversial subject <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)">here</a> and <a href="http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/introduction.htm">here</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdC0ZVwkm3iVYzTjbQBXSgX98fr9DUvt5JqITEwewVg_OZMLvODrP_zzrMd3jF0o5-75w4GNWBpBBITvFqjqLekn-OaMT96kYwUdUq4MDOczJ1uW45jviD4WDhrNE90p2B61Ze9HxN_dU/s1600/Skibbereen_by_James_Mahony%252C_1847.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdC0ZVwkm3iVYzTjbQBXSgX98fr9DUvt5JqITEwewVg_OZMLvODrP_zzrMd3jF0o5-75w4GNWBpBBITvFqjqLekn-OaMT96kYwUdUq4MDOczJ1uW45jviD4WDhrNE90p2B61Ze9HxN_dU/s200/Skibbereen_by_James_Mahony%252C_1847.jpg" width="144" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Scene at Skibbereen, Cork, 1847</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">By the autumn of 1845, with the Europe-wide failure of the potato crop, </span><span style="font-size: large;"> Ireland was facing the greatest social and humanitarian crisis in its history. </span><span style="font-size: large;">On 15 October, Peel wrote to the Lord Lieutenant that the only practical remedy was </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">the removal of all impediments to the import of all kinds of human food - that is the total and absolute repeal for ever of all duties on all articles of subsistence.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">But this was not the real issue. Cheaper bread was not the answer to the immediate problem; the Irish could not afford to buy <i>any bread</i>. The only thing that could save them was food relief on a massive scale. The Corn Laws were therefore an irrelevancy.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The repeal of the Corn Laws</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">This is one of the most dramatic stories in British political history.</span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In October 1845, Peel held a series of emergency cabinet meetings. On 6 November he tried to persuade the Cabinet to suspend the Corn Laws by <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/orders-in-council/">Order in Council </a>and to summon Parliament to reform the existing laws, but only three ministers backed him. The Conservative party was already in a fractious state and this was the last straw.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 22 November <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Russell,_1st_Earl_Russell">Lord John Russell </a>the Liberal leader, announced that he had been converted to total repeal. He put himself at the head of the national movement and made repeal a party issue. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 5 December, finding he had no support in his party, Peel resigned, much to the regret of the Queen and Prince Albert. But the Whigs were a minority in both Houses and internally divided. After eleven days Russell told the Queen he could not form a government. On 20 December Peel returned to power with a reconstructed cabinet. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSygLd7qn0Es0LRAo9UI5Rq0iyp4J4QwgMLJXpLSQ5YBk1YRFrImTe_PQ6iGaF8BvQWX2zbMiZJEnJj3SrvnDjVBKQVAD_xG1_pJ4ONOLzofj2G5F8GUSmSqrhBzm-GhbKa1ZMkTEZPxE/s1600-h/Young_disraeli.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304854793753997778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSygLd7qn0Es0LRAo9UI5Rq0iyp4J4QwgMLJXpLSQ5YBk1YRFrImTe_PQ6iGaF8BvQWX2zbMiZJEnJj3SrvnDjVBKQVAD_xG1_pJ4ONOLzofj2G5F8GUSmSqrhBzm-GhbKa1ZMkTEZPxE/s200/Young_disraeli.jpg" style="float: left; height: 194px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 156px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Benjamin Disraeli, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Peel's nemesis,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">by Francis Grant</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Public domain.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 21 December the backbencher, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli">Benjamin Disraeli</a> wrote to his friend Lord John Manners: </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Peel is so vain that he wants to figure in history as the settler of all the great questions, but a parliamentary constitution is not favourable to such ambitions; things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools; especially men without imagination or any inspiring qualities, or who rather offer you duplicity instead of inspiration.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Disraeli was prepared to destroy a Conservative government, if by doing so he could bring down Peel.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 27 January 1846 Peel unfolded his plans to the Commons, with Prince Albert looking on (something that aroused considerable criticism), in a three and a half hour speech. Repeal of the Corn Laws was wrapped up in a general reduction of duties on a large range of articles, many of them foodstuffs like sugar, cheese, butter and dried fish. On corn he proposed simply a progressive lowering of duties until February 1849 when they would cease entirely. The speech was cheered by the opposition but was received in silence by his party.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The attack was launched by Disraeli, to the accompaniment of Conservative cheers and laughter; </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">What other excuses has he, for even his mouldy potatoes have failed him.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Outside Parliament, there was an immediate storm. There were resignations from the royal household and the lower ranks of the administration. Protectionist meetings were held all over England. Enormous pressure was put on Conservative MPs in counties and small rural boroughs from gentry, parsons and farmers. The two protectionist leaders in the Commons, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_George_Bentinck">Lord George Bentinck</a> and Disraeli, concentrated on Peel’s flagrant disregard of party claims and party loyalty. The attacks became increasingly personal.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 9 February, the debate began in Parliament. It went on for 32 nights (12 parliamentary nights) and was extraordinarily bitter. In his peroration on 16 February, Peel spoke of the famine: the calamities of ‘a suffering people’ had been </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">aggravated by the laws of man restricting in the hour of scarcity the supply of food. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">On the second reading on 27 February 231 Conservatives voted against the government, 112 for (and about forty of these were office-holders). Prince Albert wrote:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘This does not look like strong government’.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 15 May in the debate on the third reading, Disraeli attacked Peel in a viciously brilliant speech that lasted three hours. He accused Peel of stealing the ideas of (Disraeli’s phrase) ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Liberalism">the Manchester school</a>’:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">His life has been a great appropriation clause. He is a burglar of others’ intellects ... there is no statesmen who has committed political petty larceny on so large a scale.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">When Peel rose to wind up the debate, he had to struggle to get a hearing. Personal jeers almost reduced him to tears. But he had one effective jibe: </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The smallest of all the penalties which I anticipated were the continued venomous attacks of the Member for Shrewsbury [i.e. Disraeli].</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Bill passed the third reading by 98 votes, in spite of Conservative opposition. The Chief Whip told Peel that only 117 members (less than a third of the party) supported him. It had an easier passage through the Lords because Russell told the dissident Whigs that he would resign from the leadership if they voted against the bill. Wellington piloted it through the Lords, arguing that they could not isolate themselves from the Commons and the Crown, and on 28 May it was passed by 47 votes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The resignation of Peel</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, it was clear that the ministry could not survive for long. The Conservative protectionists began plotting revenge, and the issue they chose was the proposed Irish Coercion Bill. On 8 June Bentinck attacked Peel as a prime minister who was </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">supported by none but his forty paid <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissaries">janissaries </a>and some seventy other renegades … it is now time that atonement should be made to the betrayed constituencies of the empire.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 26 June Peel was defeated by 73 votes on the Irish Coercion Bill a few hours after the Corn Bill passed its final reading in the Lords. He was brought down by a coalition of Whigs, Radicals, Irish, and 74 Conservatives. </span><span style="font-size: large;">On 29 June he resigned. His last speech as Prime Minister (28 June) contained two remarkable statements. The first was the tribute to Cobden as the real author of repeal even though he had previously attacked him and had always loathed the tactics of the League.</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The name which ought to be associated with the success of these measures is the name of one who, acting I believe from pure and disinterested motives, has, with untiring energy, made appeals to our reason and has enforced those appeals with an eloquence the more to be admired because it was unaffected and unadorned: the name which ought to be chiefly associated with these measures, is the name of RICHARD COBDEN.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Predictably, this enraged the already furious Conservative Protectionists. It might also have been factually wrong because, according to some historians, Peel’s decision to abolish the Corn Laws had almost nothing to do with the League. The second statement was his famous peroration:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">In relinquishing power, I shall leave a name severely censured I fear by many who, on public grounds deeply regret the severance of party ties … I shall surrender power severely censured also, by others who, from no interested motive, adhere to the principle of protection. … I shall leave a name execrated by every monopolist … but it may be that I shall leave a name sometimes remembered with expressions of good will in the abodes of those whose lot it is to labour, and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow, when they shall recruit their exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because it is no longer leavened by the sense of injustice.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The diarist, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Greville_(diarist)">Charles Greville</a>, dismissed the speech as </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">claptrap about cheap bread.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Both statements reflected Peel’s belief in the ethical imperative for free trade derived from views concerning the operation of providence as revealed above all in the contemporary situation in Ireland. This also accounts for his willingness for martyrdom and the quasi-religious exaltation with which his supporters followed him into the wilderness.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><b>The significance of repeal</b></span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Corn Laws were repealed not because of the Irish famine but because Peel no longer believed in them, and had ceased to believe in them since 1842. This is in marked contrast to his change of policy over Catholic Emancipation, which had been a matter of concession rather than conviction. Peel believed that free trade was a moral imperative. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The repeal led to a formal split in the Conservative party, the loss of five consecutive general elections and virtual exclusion from power for almost thirty years. (They had only two periods of minority government in 20 years.) The 1850s and 1860s were periods of Liberal dominance. In wrecking Peel’s career, Bentinck and Disraeli came very near to wrecking their party too.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Peel’s fall showed the significance of party – in future all prime ministers would have to carry their parties with them if they wished to carry out legislation. Disraeli said in the debates: ‘Maintain the line of demarcation between parties, for it is only by maintaining the independence of parties that you can maintain the integrity of public men and the power and influence of Parliament.’</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The story of British agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was one of relative decline at a time when the industrial and service sectors were growing in importance. The repeal was a powerful defeat for the agricultural interest – landowners as a body were now less able to determine the political agenda. </span></li>
</ol>
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<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Peel: afterlife</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Peel stayed in politics. He was friends with Prince Albert, and government members often asked his advice. His anomalous position made it difficult for a two-party system to emerge. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelite">‘Peelites’</a> included nearly all the office-holders and men of ministerial calibre. Among them was William Ewart Gladstone. All that now united the Conservatives was the issue of protection. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> In 1850 Disraeli said that protection was not only dead but damned. So had it all been for nothing?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In June 1850 he died from internal injuries sustained after being thrown from his horse. He left behind him a divided legacy: was he the zealot who recklessly destroyed his party, or was he the wise statesman who put country before party?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi76MUNspyCQBI2kEvvoQEidJ0UKs2RxdRBsFt7li4OFpwStPYPhcB7OC-KmlwfsIf85ynlTZo5v5wQ_A5TUyt2xNmp_J9EDudPrEzsT0tI3hlbmTgM-QSQLbW_dkXpAmBF85zDljOqq8/s1600/Screenshot+2019-11-23+at+10.19.12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="355" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi76MUNspyCQBI2kEvvoQEidJ0UKs2RxdRBsFt7li4OFpwStPYPhcB7OC-KmlwfsIf85ynlTZo5v5wQ_A5TUyt2xNmp_J9EDudPrEzsT0tI3hlbmTgM-QSQLbW_dkXpAmBF85zDljOqq8/s200/Screenshot+2019-11-23+at+10.19.12.png" width="134" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Statue of Sir Robert Peel on the<br />esplanade of Piccadilly, Manchester.<br />A Tory Prime Minister<br />celebrated in the heartland of<br />Manchester Liberalism.</td></tr>
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Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-54554646873996002232019-11-23T09:55:00.001+00:002019-11-23T09:55:40.860+00:001840s radicalism (2): the Anti-Corn Law League<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaB15EPTbrmyj6OH8V14nZBVrsifNZAaBkZzklfZrzSb6DCv7uT9RuFA76LfP1mPBe4cnZEbq-DUdWHdl6A7qYUhpyNA6J44gXWyaXV13uhD6nO0J0XBheyS2Tslo4vMw8iMoF8yQF3yD0/s1600/1846_-_Anti-Corn_Law_League_Meeting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaB15EPTbrmyj6OH8V14nZBVrsifNZAaBkZzklfZrzSb6DCv7uT9RuFA76LfP1mPBe4cnZEbq-DUdWHdl6A7qYUhpyNA6J44gXWyaXV13uhD6nO0J0XBheyS2Tslo4vMw8iMoF8yQF3yD0/s200/1846_-_Anti-Corn_Law_League_Meeting.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">A meeting of the Anti-Corn Law League<br />in London, 1846</span></td></tr>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/cornlaws/acll.htm">This movement</a> achieved a more important place in national life than any previous radical body. Unlike the Chartists, it represented the interests of an urban middle class. Unlike them, too it was well funded and had precise and limited objectives. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="http://www2.blogger.com/://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Laws">Corn Laws</a> were a generic term for a whole system of legislative protection of agriculture. In 1815 there was a prohibition on the import of foreign agricultural products until the price at home reached a high figure (80s a quarter in the case of wheat). In 1828 this absolute prohibition was replaced by a sliding scale of import duties. This legislation was not solely dictated by class interests – there was also the desire to be independent in time of war.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However there was a strong body of opinion opposed to legislative protection for agriculture. In 1830, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Elliott">Ebenezer Elliott</a>, the Sheffield-based ‘Bard of Free Trade’ published his <i><a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/cornlaws/clrhymes.htm">Corn Law Rhymes</a></i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At first this opposition was local and sporadic, but the situation changed in the depression of the late ‘30s when food prices rose. Elliott declared: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was born ‘of empty pockets in a respectable neighbourhood’. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Manufacturing free traders could argue that the Corn Laws had damaging effects throughout the economy: British workmen would agitate for higher wages, which would be spent on food rather than on manufactured goods. The only beneficiaries would be the aristocracy. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the late 1830s the topic of the Corn Laws moved to the top of the agenda, because, with the onset of an acute manufacturing depression, the cause attracted support in the country. It was brought annually before the Commons by Charles Villiers, Radical MP for Wolverhampton. But the Whig government refused to support him. Melbourne was against any more radical change and declared ‘before God’ that to leave the whole agricultural interest without protection was </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">the wildest and maddest scheme that has ever entered into the mind of man to conceive. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a></blockquote>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The beginnings of the League</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The League was founded on 20 March 1839. It</span><span style="font-size: large;"> provided the rallying point for Radicals, as behind its arguments lay a great deal of class hostility. The Corn Laws were the visible legislative symbol of the predominance of the landed interest, represented by the Tories. The fundamental target of the League was political: the control of the aristocracy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Factors supporting the League</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Free trade was the prevailing </span><span style="font-size: large;">trend of economic thought. Those who supported protection were behind the times. The League was also well financed, much of the money coming from</span><span style="font-size: large;"> the factory owners. Protestant Nonconformists saw it as a stick with which to beat the Church of England, which was seen as beholden to the landed interest. It was supported in the areas of greatest population growth, most notably</span><span style="font-size: large;"> Manchester, whose population rose from 40,000 in the 1780s, to 70,000 in 1801 and 142,000 in 1831.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Support for the League was strongly idealistic. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Humanitarians were attracted by the plea for cheap bread. The leaders of the League were all sincere Christians. Protectionists were forced into being the party of high prices at a time of great economic distress. There was also an international component. Its leader, Richard Cobden saw free trade as </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">a means, and, I believe the only human means of effecting universal and permanent peace. … Free trade, by perfecting the intercourse and securing the dependence of countries one upon another must inevitably snatch the power from the governments to plunge the people into wars.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">(So did Prince Albert!)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The League's problems</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">For all the League's rhetoric, the fundamental argument was flawed. Britain was a net importer of grain, mostly from northern Germany and Poland. From the 1830s there was a <i>genera</i>l European harvest failure. There was no cheap corn ‘out there’ that was only being kept from the people by an unjust law. When the Corn Laws were abolished wheat prices were not markedly affected.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At a time when, in spite of the Reform Act, the landed interest remained dominant in Parliament, Repeal did not seem to be practical politics. To Cobden's frustration, the electorate remained obstinately deferential. In the Manchester by-election of 1840 the seat was filled by Milner Gilson, a Suffolk landowner. Cobden wrote: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">What wonder we are scorned by the landed aristocracy when we take such pains to show our contempt for ourselves? We save our enemies the trouble of tramping on us by very industriously kicking our own backsides.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1843 Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote to an Edinburgh Leaguer: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">People who know anything of the way in which this country is really governed know that there is in fact a certain small class of men who have a veto on all public measures which they agree to oppose. … The Corn Laws will not be repealed until a ministry takes the matter up.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He was to be proved right.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The organisation of the League</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The formal control rested in a council of the large subscribers. Each subscription of £50 carried one vote. The League organised lecture tours. It had a paper, 'The Anti-Corn Law Circular' – everyone who contributed a pound to the League received it free. Other copies were given away. The paper made a loss, but this was thought worth the price.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">To a greater degree than in Chartism, women were involved in the movement. Richard Cobden wrote: </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">We have obtained the co-operation of the ladies; we have resorted to tea parties.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">At Anti-Corn Law League bazaars customers could buy free trade handkerchiefs, breadplates, teapots and pin cushions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In January 1840 a temporary wooden building was opened in Manchester (built by 100 men in 11 days). Tw hundred delegates were represented, and 77 towns. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Richard Cobden</span></h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjOC0iX10ey7ALDUJWqg15cBah4sRVp4mKKuQtUj9BfuFJrgpuvay3tW0yg56EixCalrBBXmkTDVs6Sv9kOI6gsSNubgyaHYeQHASINnvbKdeyGl-yzHdEfPcNFghWOnTP_Lbbd-Sh19A/s1600/Richard_Cobden.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="189" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjOC0iX10ey7ALDUJWqg15cBah4sRVp4mKKuQtUj9BfuFJrgpuvay3tW0yg56EixCalrBBXmkTDVs6Sv9kOI6gsSNubgyaHYeQHASINnvbKdeyGl-yzHdEfPcNFghWOnTP_Lbbd-Sh19A/s200/Richard_Cobden.gif" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Cobden<br />
Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cobden">Cobden</a> was the acknowledged leader. Born in 1804 at Midhurst, the son of a small farmer, he became a clerk in a London warehouse. In 1828 he set up in business on borrowed capital. He became one of Manchester’s first aldermen. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He was single-minded in his attack on aristocracy and deference. When he entered parliament, he was a fiercely confrontational debater and was loathed by the Tory backbenchers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The election of 1841</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The election of 1841 was largely fought on free trade issues. Melbourne's Whigs campaigned on a platform of lower tariffs (though not repeal), but the electorate were not convinced, and Peel’s Conservatives swept back to power with an overall majority of 367/291 and a lead in England of almost 100, winning more than 85 percent of the county seats. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> The League captured Walsall and both the Manchester seats, and Cobden was returned for Stockport. But some prize northern seats went to the Tories, including Bradford, Leeds, and Warrington. The borough patrons were still influential!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">John Bright</span></h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP1oGX8cf2-lHqstSG5KD8H0HqbXx2sqNVgd-7BHTLx2VXTNwFO8GbkLbTJPJ2hepH9SYIc4MqN4PSEMVzoHzUUvnmxV2rEFuEhMYLoZZ33uqThDZUnUyONwWuuNC-IH_XRm38y10cJHQ/s1600-h/John_Bright_-_Project_Gutenberg_13103.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298144108140469346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP1oGX8cf2-lHqstSG5KD8H0HqbXx2sqNVgd-7BHTLx2VXTNwFO8GbkLbTJPJ2hepH9SYIc4MqN4PSEMVzoHzUUvnmxV2rEFuEhMYLoZZ33uqThDZUnUyONwWuuNC-IH_XRm38y10cJHQ/s200/John_Bright_-_Project_Gutenberg_13103.jpg" style="float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 148px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Bright<br />
Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the late spring of 1841 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bright">Bright</a> emerged as Cobden’s most able lieutenant. Unlike Cobden he was a northerner. Born in 1811 he was the son of a Rochdale textile manufacturer, and entered his father’s business after leaving school. He was a prominent Quaker. His enemies accused him of being headstrong and impetuous and setting class against class. Friends and supporters saw him as a prophet and one of the great orators of the day. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In 1843 he was returned in a by-election as MP for Rochdale.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The advance of the League</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1841-2, when harvest were bad and unemployment widespread the League made remarkable advances both in propaganda and organisation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">No public building in Manchester was big enough to hold League meetings. In January 1843 the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Trade_Hall">Free Trade Hall </a>was built on the site of the Peterloo Massacre and was capable of holding 7,000 to 8,000 people. A gigantic Anti-Corn Law Banquet was held to celebrate the event. The present Free Trade Hall was opened in 1856. By this time the League had a centralised fund of £50,000. By 1844 this had doubled. <i>The Economist</i> was founded in the same year to spread the doctrine of free trade.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1843, the League moved its offices to London – a tactical decision. The move had great psychological importance as it helped to win over the London press, who had previously been dismissive of the ‘Cant and Cotton men’.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Anti-League</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1843 a Central Agricultural Protection Society – soon known as the Anti-League, was formed, its president the Ultra-Tory duke of Richmond and its vice-president the Tory Duke of Buckingham. It successfully rallied the farmers by painting the League’s lecturers as clever outsiders hostile not only to landlords but to rural society in general. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However it is too simple to posit a simple urban/rural, Anglican/Dissenter, radical/Tory split. The urban vote was split on the question of protection, with Tory manufacturers prepared to take the party line. The Manchester Guardian opposed the League.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Conclusion</span></h4>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The League was the most sophisticated pressure group yet seen in Britain. Yet how successful was it? The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846, not because of League pressure, but because Peel no longer believed in them. Was it pressure from the League that brought about his change of mind or were other factors in play?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The main significance of the League was social and political. The aristocracy were criticised as never before – on economic, social, political, and moral grounds.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">In the long run, the League may have harmed British agriculture.</span></li>
</ol>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-73763593463920203682019-11-17T07:04:00.000+00:002019-11-18T07:06:50.980+00:001840s radicalism (1): the Chartists<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5alQNRadInSEBnKewS8MBDBXKAsXC4FKqJlOfZ3E3I4xJ2m4uSeyVGqAqEmgaUhGyq8aXCl2_qqoGyLAreFsYxYDQy7ZFK2QV9-qmRjqSs6L-VVHsGSuIabqVaXZzIKVBOjx-5KTBQzU/s1600/800px-Chartist_meeting_on_Kennington_Common_by_William_Edward_Kilburn_1848_-_restoration1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="799" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5alQNRadInSEBnKewS8MBDBXKAsXC4FKqJlOfZ3E3I4xJ2m4uSeyVGqAqEmgaUhGyq8aXCl2_qqoGyLAreFsYxYDQy7ZFK2QV9-qmRjqSs6L-VVHsGSuIabqVaXZzIKVBOjx-5KTBQzU/s200/800px-Chartist_meeting_on_Kennington_Common_by_William_Edward_Kilburn_1848_-_restoration1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
Chartist meeting on 10 April 1848 at Kennington Common,</div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
by William Edward Kilburn, restored version.</div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
An early daguerreotype.</div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
Public domain </div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There are some useful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartism">web sites </a>on <a href="http://www.victorianweb.org/history/hist3.html">Chartism</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1839 Thomas Carlyle’s pamphlet <span style="font-style: italic;">Chartism</span> stated that there was</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">a feeling very generally exists that the condition and disposition of the working classes is rather ominous at present; that something ought to be said and something ought to be done, in regard to it.</span></blockquote>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The origins of Chartism</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chartist movement was the first radical <i>working-class</i> (as opposed to artisan) movement in Britain. It had an ancestry going back </span><span style="font-size: large;">to the 1770s, which was reinforced by the French Revolution and the subsequent wars with France. In the post-war period radical agitation once more became a powerful force. In April 1831 the </span><span style="font-size: large;">National Union of the Working Classes was founded in April 1831 by the Cornish cabinet-maker, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lovett">William Lovett</a>, to campaign for manhood suffrage</span><span style="font-size: large;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Working-class radicals were literate and politically aware. One of their most successful campaigns was the</span><span style="font-size: large;"> 'war of the unstamped'. From July 1831 the radical printer, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hetherington">Henry Hetherington</a> published </span><span style="font-size: large;">the </span><span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Poor Man’s Guardian</span><span style="font-size: large;">, in defiance of the Stamp Act that kept the prices of newspapers beyond the reach of many working people. He was joined by a young Irish lawyer, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bronterre_O%27Brien">James Bronterre O'Brien</a>, who </span><span style="font-size: large;">edited the paper and rapidly established himself as the foremost theorist of working-class radicalism. In 1835 the stamp was reduced to 1d - an improvement, but still too expensive for working-class pockets. The battle over the stamp led to the setting up of a network of organizations and a chain of command that could be revived when the occasion required it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The working classes (in the early nineteenth-century they were always referred to in the plural) were the creation of the </span><span style="font-size: large;">Industrial Revolution, and they bore the full brunt of the economic and social problems it created. The heartland of Chartism was not London but industrial Lancashire and Yorkshire.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Working-class radicals were angered by what they saw as the</span><span style="font-size: large;"> ‘great Whig betrayal’. If anything, the 1832 Reform Act reduced the number of working-class voters by replacing the old varied borough franchises with the £10 household franchise. Leading politicians, like the Whig Lord John Russell and the Tory Sir Robert Peel, both declared that the Reform Act was a final settlement - there was to be no revision. Along with this feeling of betrayal went resentment at the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In June 1836, </span><span style="font-size: large;">William Lovett, founded the 'London Working Men’s Association for benefiting ... the useful classes’. He became the secretary and the subscription was one shilling a month. Only persons of good moral character were permitted to join! The Association represented the common radical belief - that social evils were due to bad legislation and were curable by parliamentary reform. In the same year that it was founded, the LWMA published Bronterre O'Brien's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Rotten House of Commons, being an exposition of the present state of the Franchise.</span> </span><br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Knaves will tell you that it is because you have no property that you are unrepresented. I tell you on the contrary, it is because you are unrepresented that you have no property. Your poverty is the result not the cause of your being unrepresented.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The People's Charter</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The idea of a people’s ‘Charter’ was rooted in the myth of Magna Carta which was held to have been a statement of popular rights against the arbitrary authority of the king. It also referred to abolition of slavery and the granting of the charter of freedom to the slaves. The People’s Charter was published on 8 May 1838, primarily the work of William Lovett and the radical tailor, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Place">Francis Place</a>. It contained the Six Points that were to define the Chartist movement:</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">manhood suffrage</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">annual parliaments</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the ballot</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">payment of MPs</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">equal electoral districts</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the abolition of property qualifications for parliament</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Six Points were formally adopted at a great rally in Birmingham on 6 August, 1838. Similar meetings were held throughout the country. The movement had a newspaper, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Northern Star</span> (founded 1837), published in Leeds and edited by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feargus_O%27Connor">Feargus O’Connor</a>. By the end of 1838 the <span style="font-style: italic;">Northern Star</span> (priced 4½d) was selling 50,000 copies a week.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Chartist culture</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Religion played an important role in the culture of the Chartists. A number of their leaders were Methodists or had been reared in Methodist homes. Meetings were held in Methodist chapels and Chartist crowds were addressed by Methodist ministers. The movement had hymns such as ‘The Charter springs from Zion’s hill’ and <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/246/256.html">'The Chartist's Song</a>'. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is a good short article on Chartism in the November 2013 edition of <i>History Today</i>. The following quotation highlights its cultural importance.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Though its demands hinged upon universal male suffrage, the Charter attracted the support of hundreds of thousands of men and women. Chartism became for a time the structure within which a majority of industrial workers pursued their political and cultural activities. The new-born child of Chartist parents might be received into the movement at a ceremony presided over by one of its leaders and possibly given his name. They might attend a Chartist Sunday School, while parents might immerse themselves in the political and social life of the local branch of the National Charter Association: the father in an affiliated trades union and the mother in a Female Charter Association. In many towns she could shop at a Chartist co-operative store and her husband support Chartist candidates in local elections…The family's main source of national news would be a Chartist weekly paper, probably the Leeds-based <i>Northern Star</i>.</span></blockquote>
<div>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Female Chartists</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chartism also attracted women. In April 1839 Elizabeth Neesom, the wife of a radical tailor, founded the London Female Democratic Association. The Association pledged itself to supporting the struggle for the Charter and to opposing the 'child-murdering' and 'atrocious' new Poor Law. She argued that the main obstacle to women's full participation in the public sphere was 'apathy and timidity' and she urged women assert their right to rule themselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, mainstream Chartism took little interest in women's rights. If anything, they </span><span style="font-size: large;">were embarrassed by the issue of female suffrage and were worried at the thought that women might steal men’s jobs.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> It seems as if the women themselves were primarily interested in protecting men's jobs and in organising their own homes on middle-class lines. (Elizabeth Neesom and her husband later became preoccupied with vegetarianism.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The National Convention</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 4 February 1839 about fifty delegates assembled in London for the National Convention of the Industrious Classes (calling itself the People’s Parliament). By far the largest contingent represented the industrial North. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Deep divisions emerged among the delegates, and it became apparent that they were united on the Charter but little else. Some speakers advocated violence or wore the red cap of liberty. The rest urged moderation. The Chartist movement never resolved the dilemma of whether to rely on ‘moral force ‘or to contemplate physical force. And it had no strategy about what to do next if Parliament rejected the Petition.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 7 May the National Petition was ready to be presented: it was three miles long and contained 1,280,000 signatures. On 14</span><span style="font-size: large;"> June the Petition was </span><a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/chartists/case-study/the-right-to-vote/the-chartists-and-birmingham/1839-petition/"><span style="font-size: large;">presented to the Commons</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> by the Birmingham MP, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Attwood_(economist)">Thomas Attwood</a>. However, on 12 July his motion that the House should go into committee to consider it was voted down 235/46. Following this, there were <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/chartists/case-study/the-right-to-vote/the-chartists-and-birmingham/the-bull-ring-riots/1839-bull-ring-riots-1/">riots in Birmingham</a> that were <a href="https://www.chartistcollins.com/bull-ring-riots-1839.html">put down by the police</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Newport Rising</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">A confused period now followed, with much talk of fighting. Speakers, newspapers and handbills called on the people to procure arms and be ready to march when the signal was given. There is evidence of pikes being manufactured and small stores of arms accumulated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On the night of 3/4 November some 7,000 colliers and ironworkers, led by the draper and former magistrate, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frost_(Chartist)">John Frost</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephaniah_Williams">Zephaniah Williams</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jones_(Chartist)">William Jones</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Rising">led an armed march on Newport</a>, in a <a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/chartism/newport.htm">monster demonstration</a> against the arrest of Henry Vincent, a popular Chartist leader in Wales and the West. But the march was mismanaged, the authorities knew about it in advance, and the attack did not take place until after daybreak. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA7zwXkLbsY1f8HSiXKFnSUW_jGkeDuohfBCoJh8b9CbaGBEZRLWWfaD1KbqmTZHozxWXM24SaEjuydeE-FDT6N7adTIrDfkbSiu0_cIqVgvCK7Bcdu5i6ICr1a-9Ckt3ULVmnCXd7aEc/s1600/Westgate_Hotel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA7zwXkLbsY1f8HSiXKFnSUW_jGkeDuohfBCoJh8b9CbaGBEZRLWWfaD1KbqmTZHozxWXM24SaEjuydeE-FDT6N7adTIrDfkbSiu0_cIqVgvCK7Bcdu5i6ICr1a-9Ckt3ULVmnCXd7aEc/s200/Westgate_Hotel.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chartists were fired on by a company of the 45th Foot. Twenty-four people were killed or died from their injuries (more than twice the death toll at Peterloo), making it the most serious armed rebellion of the nineteenth century. A hundred and twenty-five were arrested and twenty-one were charged with high treason. Frost and the other leaders were sentenced to death. However as a result of a series of meetings and demonstrations throughout the country, the death sentences were commuted to transportation for life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Newport rising has been the subject of some historical controversy.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> Whereas the march to Peterloo had been peaceful, this was probably part of a wider plan of insurrection. If so, it was the last to occur on the British mainland.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">After the Newport rising the attitude of the government hardened. Police powers were reinforced and more troops sent in. Between June 1839 and June 1840 at least 543 Chartists were detained.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The second phase of Chartism</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In spite of the failure of the early years Chartism did not die. New leaders and new forms of organisation appeared to continue the struggle. Feargus O'Connor toured the country addressing public meetings. Through sheer force of personality and through the influence of the <i>Northern Star</i>, he displaced Lovett from the leadership of the movement.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chartist militancy was helped by the economic climate. 1842 was the worst year of the century, with the new Poor Law unable to cope. Twenty per cent of the population of Leeds were on poor relief. In Paisley, 17,000 people were said to be dying of slow starvation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 2 May 1842 <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/chartists/case-study/the-right-to-vote/the-chartists-and-birmingham/1842-and-1848-chartist-petitions/">a second Chartist petition</a>, six miles long, was presented to the Commons with what were claimed to be 3.3m. signatures. The House voted 287/49 not to consider it. Thomas Babington Macaulay said that universal suffrage would be </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">fatal for the purposes for which government exists</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">and </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">utterly incompatible with the existence of civilization.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The summer of 1842 saw a wave of strikes sweep the industrial districts. In Lancashire and Yorkshire gangs of workless men went about armed with sticks and iron bars demanding relief. There were attacks on shops and clashes with the police and yeomanry - though it is not clear how far any of this was associated with Chartism. In the summer there was a general strike in the Potteries - the Plug Plot (so-called because the strikers pulled out the boiler plugs). Many of the local leaders have been identified as Chartists. But with an improved harvest, some of the greatest misery eased, and Chartist agitation died down.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">'The condition of England question</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, this did not mean that the issues that had created Chartism could be ignored. A series of novelists were engaging with what Thomas Carlyle called 'the condition of England question'. In 1848 Elizabeth Gaskell published <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Barton">Mary Barton</a></i>. Three years earlier, Benjamin Disraeli's <i><a href="http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/disraeli/diniejko3.html">Sybil</a></i> had argued had noted the existence of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws … THE RICH AND THE POOR.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The third phase of Chartism</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">1847 was a general election year and the Chartists turned once more to politics. Feargus O’Connor, elected for Nottingham, became the first and last pure Chartist MP. The Revolutions of 1848 were watched closely by the leading Chartists, and Chartist orators once more addressed large and enthusiastic crowds in mass meetings. On the evening of 6 March after a meeting in Trafalgar Square a crowd marched to Buckingham Palace smashing lamps and windows on the way. Similar disturbances occurred in Glasgow and Manchester.</span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chartist Convention planned a peaceful rally on Kennington Common on 10 April, to be followed by a procession to present the Petition to the Commons. Public opinion in London was now very tense and property owners feared that the revolutions now convulsing Europe were about to spread to Britain. Appeals to the middle classes produced 10,000 special constables (one of them Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the future Napoleon III).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 10 April crowds assembled behind banners and marched to Kennington where they were addressed by O’Connor. He claimed implausibly that 5,700,000 signatures had been appended to the Petition. (However, the actual figure, of about two million was very impressive.) The petition was loaded into three cabs and taken to Parliament, but only fifteen MPs voted for it to be considered. By 2 pm the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, was able to inform the Queen (who was at Osborne) that the crisis was safely over. Faced with 4,000 police and 85,000 volunteer special constables the demonstrators dispersed. Chartist disturbances continued in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Bradford, but essentially the </span><span style="font-size: large;">movement was finished, having proved powerless against the forces of the state. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Chartism: a summary</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chartism was an important stage in the political education of the working classes. It presented itself as a class movement with two enemies: the tax-consuming rich and the perfidious middle classes who had betrayed them over parliamentary reform and the new Poor Law.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chartism had its distinctive culture, one imbued with Christian ethics. Many Chartists were also Sunday school teachers, temperance workers or members of benefit clubs. There were Chartist hymns, sermons, libraries, discussion groups, choirs and sports teams.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chartism saw radical leadership move north to the major centres of productive industry. Its heartland was industrial Lancashire and Cheshire, among outworkers, especially weavers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chartism was a mass movement only in times of depression. Peaks of activity coincided with troughs in the economy. However, Chartism could not be reduced to the simple assertion, made by one of its leaders, that it was ‘a knife and fork question, a bread and cheese question’. Not all its active centres were in depressed areas.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chartists were divided between the advocates of 'moral force' and those prepared to use physical violence. But fundamentally, the fiery oratory of physical force Chartists such as Feargus O'Connor failed.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> His mob oratory suggested a revolutionary potential that did not exist.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There is a sense in which Chartism never went away. Chartist ideals survived into the second half of the century. Chartism gave its adherents a cultural identity and a strong sense that things would improve for working people. By 1918 all but one of the Six Points had been achieved.</span>Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-88780543773801217322019-11-09T09:57:00.001+00:002019-11-09T09:59:22.136+00:00Politics after the Reform Act<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIt3TIO31R1-TY-xb8WlJjHOosfYkpQTQivscGaK4x3UIJkTsFhZVlWHE1TvxgKdLJ9w5eap9MEtAHVB4iDmklNBHcMksZHVcGUs3TLZR5BTgtpLyItk97diPj81TC5y-Spidyj4Zdj-8/s1600/430px-Sir_Robert_Peel%252C_2nd_Bt_by_Henry_William_Pickersgill-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="430" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIt3TIO31R1-TY-xb8WlJjHOosfYkpQTQivscGaK4x3UIJkTsFhZVlWHE1TvxgKdLJ9w5eap9MEtAHVB4iDmklNBHcMksZHVcGUs3TLZR5BTgtpLyItk97diPj81TC5y-Spidyj4Zdj-8/s200/430px-Sir_Robert_Peel%252C_2nd_Bt_by_Henry_William_Pickersgill-detail.jpg" width="143" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sir Robert Peel, the up-and-coming<br />
politician of the 1830s<br />
by William Henry Pickersgill,<br />
Public domain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><i>Plus ça change?</i></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The enfranchisement of the great industrial centres was clearly a hugely important potential change brought about by the Reform Act, but the Act did not transform politics. In particular, the aristocracy continued to play a dominant role, and did so until the growth of mass politics at the end of the century. Most Victorian prime ministers were aristocrats and sat in the Lords rather than the Commons.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Whigs and Reform</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Whig record on reform was mixed. On the one hand, they <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833">abolished slavery in 1833</a> and passed the first Factory Act in the same year. But in 1834 they passed the Poor Law Amendment Act, which forced paupers into workhouses. In 1835 they brought in a radical reform of local government through the Municipal Corporations Act.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Factory Act, 1833</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The chief advocates for factory reform had been Tory paternalists rather than Whigs. Orthodox Whigs did not believe that the government should interfere with market forces, but Tories like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Thomas_Sadler">Michael Thomas Sadler</a> believed that the government had a duty to the poor. When he failed to win the newly-created seat of Leeds in the 1832 election, the leadership of the reform movement passed to his fellow Evangelical Tory, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Ashley-Cooper,_7th_Earl_of_Shaftesbury">Lord Ashley</a>, the heir to the earldom of Shaftesbury.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1833 a Royal Commission was set up to investigate conditions in factories.</span><span style="font-size: large;">The Commission heard harrowing case-studies from hundreds of witnesses.</span><span style="font-size: large;">The eventual Report came down on the side of the economic arguments of the manufacturers, but it accepted that children needed protection from those masters who overworked them. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The result was the 1833 <a href="http://www.victorianweb.org/history/factact.html">Factory Act</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Act was only a partial victory for Ashley and Sadler and it applied only to textile factories. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Factory children were declared to be ‘rapidly increasing’, and it was agreed that (unlike adult men) they were not free agents. </span><span style="font-size: large;">A case for some state intervention was advanced while the general inadvisability of the state’s interfering with conditions of work was upheld. The terms of the Act were:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The employment of children under nine was prohibited except in silk factories;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Children aged from nine to 12 were to work a maximum of nine hours a day and no more than 48 hours a week;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Youths from 13 to 18 to work a maximum of 12 hours a day and no more than 69 hours a week;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Children from nine to 11 (later raised to 13) were to have two hours of compulsory education every day.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In practice the Act was widely evaded. Little schooling was done in the factories and fines were low and often evaded. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Age regulations were also evaded, often with active parental connivance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Nevertheless, the very operation of the Act brought abuses to light. The state was changing and enlarging its responsibilities. But though children, and later women, were given legal protection, the laws did not apply to adult men, who were assumed to be free agents.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Poor Law Amendment Act</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">From 1601 poor relief had been the responsibility of the parish. During the wars with France some had been offering outdoor (i.e. non-institutional) relief to those in paid employment when they could not make ends meet. This was a radical extension of the Elizabethan Poor Law.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">By the 1820s this was under attack. It was argued that the allowances merely encouraged large families and took away the incentive for individual endeavour. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Utilitarian reformers of the 1820s argued for a radical remodelling of the poor law that abolished ‘outdoor relief'. Instead the</span><span style="font-size: large;"> able-bodied poor should be kept in workhouses in conditions ‘less eligible’ than those which might be enjoyed by the most wretched independent labourer. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This could only be achieved by a new administrative structure that introduced a wholly novel centralisation into the British state.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In February 1832 parliament agreed to the establishment of a Royal Commission to enquire into the poor law and suggest changes. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The Commission saw what it wanted to see and the evidence supported the case it had always wanted to make. Its recommendations were:</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">To reduce poor-rate expenditure by forbidding outdoor relief for the able-bodied.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The destitute would keep themselves alive by seeking relief within the workhouse, where they would receive food and shelter but their lives would be ‘less eligible’ than those of the lowest independent labourers. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Parishes would come together and form Unions for this purpose. The ratepayers would elect Poor Law Guardians in each Union in order to reduce the excessive powers of landowners. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">A central board was to be set up in Somerset House, with power to appoint assistant commissioners and to frame and enforce regulations.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">These recommendations were embedded in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Law_Amendment_Act_1834">Act of 1834</a>. It took time to implement its provisions, but inexorably new 'Union' workhouses were built, much larger than those existing before 1834. Conditions in them were harsh, and though, after some terrible scandals, some of the worst abuses were corrected, the poor hated and feared the new 'Bastilles'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWv9sFJvV1sUAKIPXONSW9vKJWGmvq_Cvu_C7G9VPZOq3QeQMc_03G0D6xS0MxhOnuo2rD8bb25XXwzPbWHjTQ-alc-9K1eX88DHvArdKjvQ_xp4qQ72nZAILMC2wqZhsXTbeyfGe_0pA/s1600/Sampson_Kempthorne_workhouse_design_for_300_paupers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="800" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWv9sFJvV1sUAKIPXONSW9vKJWGmvq_Cvu_C7G9VPZOq3QeQMc_03G0D6xS0MxhOnuo2rD8bb25XXwzPbWHjTQ-alc-9K1eX88DHvArdKjvQ_xp4qQ72nZAILMC2wqZhsXTbeyfGe_0pA/s200/Sampson_Kempthorne_workhouse_design_for_300_paupers.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A design for a Poor Law 'Bastille', 1835<br />
a workhouse designed to house 300 paupers,<br />
making it very much larger than any<br />
eighteenth-century workhouse.<br />
Public domain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Peel's 'Hundred Days'</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Whigs came unstuck over Ireland, where they faced the twin problems of a Coercion Bill and their proposal to cut the number of Irish dioceses, a policy that outraged Anglican feeling.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">When Grey found himself the victim of Lord John Russell’s plotting, he resigned and was replaced by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lamb,_2nd_Viscount_Melbourne">Lord Melbourne</a>, a languid aristocrat with a scandalous past.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In November 1834 William IV dismissed Melbourne – the last time a monarch dismissed a prime minister. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Peel, hastily recalled from Italy, accepted office, and in</span><span style="font-size: large;"> December he called an election. During the campaign he issued an address to his constituents, the <a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/politics/tam2.htm">Tamworth Manifesto</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The manifesto was recognised at the time as an important constitutional innovation, the first time a prime minister had come out with a full political programme. It </span><span style="font-size: large;">was addressed not merely to Peel’s constituents but to </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">that great and intelligent class of society … which is far less interested in the contentions of party, than in the maintenance of order and the course of good government.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He accepted the Reform Act as a ‘final and irrevocable settlement of a great constitutional question’ and declared himself in favour not of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> following every popular whim, promising instant redress of every alleged abuse, abandoning respect for ancient rights and prescriptive authority, </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">but of ‘a careful review of institutions, both civil and ecclesiastical’ and ‘the correction of proved abuses and the redress of real grievances’.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He promised reform in order to conserve the essentials of the constitution and to give the Tories, increasingly calling themselves Conservatives, a broader basis of support. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The election was fought in January 1835. The Tories increased their numbers from 175 to 273, though that still left them in a minority of 112. Their morale was greatly boosted and they were able to hold onto power for a few more months. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Lichfield House Compact</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Whigs were seriously demoralised by the loss of seats. In February 1835 leaders of the Whig, radical, and Irish opposition groups met at Lichfield House in St James’s Square to concert their forces. In April, they were able to use the parliamentary majority they had created to get rid of Peel in April, but the Liberals, as the Whigs were increasingly called, remained an uneasy alliance of aristocratic Whigs, radicals and Daniel O'Connell's Irish.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Peel: the man of the moment?</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Peel was out of office, but he was clearly the leading politician of his day, with his ‘betrayal’ over Catholic emancipation apparently forgiven. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He was refreshing his party by gathering around him a group of young men such as William Ewart Gladstone. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He was patient. Rather than try to bring the Whigs down, he waited for them to disintegrate.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1838 he told his followers at a great Conservative party banquet at Merchant Taylors Hall: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">You are supported by the clergy, the magistracy, the yeomanry, and the gentry of the country, as well as by the great proportion of the trading community.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, this was too optimistic. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Though Conservative strength grew very substantially between 1835 and 1841, far more of this support came from rural and small-town England than from the industrial North or the rest of the country. It still represented what was known as 'the landed interest'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Municipal Corporations Act (1835)</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Whigs were in decline but they had one last, and very significant, achievement. With the Municipal Corporations Act</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">178 'closed' boroughs were replaced by bodies of councillors elected by ratepayers and with power to levy rates. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Councillors were elected on householder or ratepayer suffrage, which was considerably more generous than the £10 occupier qualification for parliamentary elections. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">A third of the councillors had to be elected annually. </span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">New rulers, old problems</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 brought about another election. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The Conservatives came within 30 seats of their opponents and with a majority of English seats. After this election, Whig dependence on Irish votes was total and this made it even easier for the Conservatives to claim to be the patriotic party of England. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The new poor law was also proving an electoral liability. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Mainstream Whigs were becoming increasingly alarmed that they were being associated with radicalism. To counter this, in 1837 Lord John Russell declared that the Great Reform Act had settled the question of parliamentary representation once and for all. After this, h</span><span style="font-size: large;">e was given the nickname ‘Finality Jack’. Radical disillusionment with the Whigs deepened.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Melbourne’s great consolation in the dying days of his premiership was his avuncular relationship with the young queen, whom he had turned into an ardent Whig. This reached a peak of intensity in May 1839 when he decided to resign after the government’s majority fell to five. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The Prime Minister advised the queen to send for the man she saw as ‘that nasty wretch, Peel’.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, Victoria refused to sacrifice her Whig ladies of the bedchamber to permit the appointment of some Tory sympathisers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Peel refused to take office under these circumstances and Melbourne agreed to resume office and save the queen from a constitutional crisis with which she would not be able to cope.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But his handling of the 'Bedchamber Crisis' laid him open to the accusation that he had clung to office on the petticoats of the monarch.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1841 Melbourne lost a vote of confidence and the Whigs were defeated in the general election. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The issue that emerged during the campaign was that of the Corn Laws. The Whigs had promised their supporters that they would consider the existing levels of protection for corn.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Whigs had frittered away their victory of 1832, though the Factory Act, the abolition of slavery and the Municipal Corporations Act were significant achievements.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Conclusion: the ticking time bomb?</span></span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The 1830s had been a decade of turbulence and innovation. Peel seemed to offer the Conservatives as a party of stability and calm. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">However the question of agricultural protection was to be a ticking time bomb under the new administration.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The election was Peel’s moment of triumph. But had he been elected on false pretences?</span></li>
</ol>
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Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-81227496586987348332019-11-03T10:03:00.002+00:002019-11-04T08:10:27.242+00:00The Great Reform Act (1832)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj66EZt7YQbOnagJp54vDxSgp03PKvILU6EMTqObgxBJfOt8e1uuC9eXsc72g639itXW1I1OeNrYoN5zTn8AXwp_Zc63WXbJFvoSn_LJJvAfgwvMncWkXwyqf1lf5MX_6IqjV__LgKBy2_L/s1600/House_of_Commons_Microcosm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj66EZt7YQbOnagJp54vDxSgp03PKvILU6EMTqObgxBJfOt8e1uuC9eXsc72g639itXW1I1OeNrYoN5zTn8AXwp_Zc63WXbJFvoSn_LJJvAfgwvMncWkXwyqf1lf5MX_6IqjV__LgKBy2_L/s200/House_of_Commons_Microcosm.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The House of Commons (engraving 1808)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You can listen <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00flwh9">here</a> to a discussion of the Reform Act on Melvyn Bragg's 'In Our Time' programme. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This especially indebted to the following:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Edward Evans, </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-style: italic;">The Forging of the Modern State</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, 3rd edn. (Longman, 2001)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Antonia Fraser, <i>Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832 </i>(W&N, 2013)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Boyd Hilton, </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-style: italic;">A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People?</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (Oxford, 2006)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Edward Pearce, <i>Reform! The Fight for the 1832 Reform Act</i> (Pimlico, 2004)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The pressure for reform</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After Catholic emancipation the demand for parliamentary reform, which had been growing since the 1790s became irresistible, among many sections of the middle and working classes. Influential provincial journals like the <span style="font-style: italic;">Manchester Guardian</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Leeds Mercury</span> were joined in their advocacy of reform by sections of the former Tory press like the <span style="font-style: italic;">Nottingham Journal</span>. In Birmingham, a city of small-scale units of production, <a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CHattwood.htm">Thomas Attwood</a> founded a ‘General Political Union between the Lower and Middle Classes of the People’ in December 1829. Its main platform - the ‘Brummagen remedy’ - was currency reform - the provision of readier credit and bigger domestic markets for small masters. To the alarm of the king political unions sprang up all over the country, attracting huge crowds to political rallies. The Whig peer Lord Holland feared that: <br />
<blockquote>
‘If the great mass of the middle classes are bent upon that method of enforcing their views, there is not in the nature of society any real force that can prevent them.’</blockquote>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-weight: bold;">The fall of Wellington’s government</span><br />The Tories under the Duke of Wellington won the general election of July 1830 - but only just - and then they shot themselves in the foot. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">On 2 November 1830, the duke, made a disastrous speech in the Lords in which he argued that the state of representation could not be improved, and that the system of electoral representation commanded the ‘entire confidence’ of the nation’. He believed that his uncompromising stand would encourage the forces of Toryism to rally around him, but he had failed to appreciate the depth of the reform movement in the country. </span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">On 15 November the government was defeated on a minor financial motion. Wellington resigned. and on 16 November William IV asked the Whig leader, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grey,_2nd_Earl_Grey">Charles, 2nd Earl Grey</a> to </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">form a government. The Whigs has been out of power since 1807, and this was now their moment. There was certainly going to be a major change, as the new government was committed to (modest) parliamentary reform.</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtILapnSOvNWnQ7Zlwt5B7uV9FFRiQf1I3ZDbN-_21624JfHuenSCHpYAPcrMbX9THVVMyqaJSY0saMyiDYfX-18ECYFXVdNFtW-zLBlEaym8I3ybYCjJHZ1g-bOBXDJGqYyM6b-wGrWA/s1600/Grey2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtILapnSOvNWnQ7Zlwt5B7uV9FFRiQf1I3ZDbN-_21624JfHuenSCHpYAPcrMbX9THVVMyqaJSY0saMyiDYfX-18ECYFXVdNFtW-zLBlEaym8I3ybYCjJHZ1g-bOBXDJGqYyM6b-wGrWA/s1600/Grey2.jpg" width="156" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Charles, 2nd Earl Grey</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Prime Minister 1830-4</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Public Domain</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On 30 December the diarist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Greville_(diarist)">Charles Greville</a> wrote:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">‘I never remember times like these, nor read of such – the terror and the lively expectation which prevail and the way in which people’s minds are turned backwards and forwards, from France to Ireland then range excursively to Poland or Piedmont, and fix again on the burnings, riots and executions here.’</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He was referring to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Revolution">July Revolution in France</a>, continuing unrest in Ireland and Italy, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_Uprising">Polish revolt against Russia</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_Riots">Swing Riots</a> in Britain. These were troubled times.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The bill introduced</span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">O</span>n 1 March 1831 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Russell,_1st_Earl_Russell">Lord John Russell</a> introduced his Reform Bill to Commons. It contained three cardinal principles: </span></span><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">the disenfranchisement of rotten boroughs, </span><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">the enfranchisement of new towns and areas of growing population (eight new London seats and seats for Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham), and </span><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">a common £10 household franchise for the boroughs.</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Peel, who favoured reform, but a much more cautious one, was outraged by Russell's proposals.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Let us never be tempted to resign the well-tempered freedom which we enjoy, in the ridiculous pursuit of the wild liberty which France has established.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Once again, as with Catholic Emancipation, he had positioned himself against a reforming measure.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On 23 March the bill passed the Commons by a majority of one (302/301). This was nothing like sufficient to take up the the Lords. It would have to be put to the country.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The election of 1831</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The general election of April was, in effect, a referendum on the bill - something unprecedented in British history. It showed an irresistible momentum for reform as many Tories lost their seats. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Of the thirty-four English county members who had voted against Russell’s proposals only six retained their seats. Almost all the 'popular' constituencies (those with large electorates) returned reformers. Virtually the only Tories who were returned were those for closed boroughs. Wellington became an object of hatred and abuse for sections of the public, and on two occasions the windows of his London residence, Apsley House, were stoned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There were those who believed that Russell's proposals did not go far enough. In April 1831 a National Union of the Working Classes was forged in London, agitating for complete male suffrage. The size of political rallies in 1830 and 1831 suggests that working-class support for democracy was growing. But the Reform Bill, as it stood, had nothing in it for them. The Whigs had raised expectations they would not be able to fulfil.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Lords reject the bill</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 24 June Russell introduced a revised reform bill. On 22 September it was sent up to the Lords. On 8 October after five days debate the Lords rejected the bill by forty-one votes (199/158). Twenty-one of the bishops voted against it; if they had voted for it, it would have passed by a majority of one.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Riots and disturbances</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the country at large, the Lords’ rejection provoked immediate and prolonged opposition. As many as 150,000 people are estimated to have attended monster meetings of the Birmingham Political Union. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There were a series of violent incidents in the country, mos</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">t notably </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_riots" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">riots in Bristol</a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and Nottingham</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2SK9yTGIVFD1LFO5xWgbSCrAKw3FebHX4lH5y0dYhBEc3h2lg9mG2VEx7Y933n5cMqG0d4WJKnWgPzK1iqyEfNupJI2PIStkNOUwjbJHXLcClX1sH8Jv_Mk2bMqObezrFbNeelIBDa8/s1600/Bristol_Riots_of_1831.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2SK9yTGIVFD1LFO5xWgbSCrAKw3FebHX4lH5y0dYhBEc3h2lg9mG2VEx7Y933n5cMqG0d4WJKnWgPzK1iqyEfNupJI2PIStkNOUwjbJHXLcClX1sH8Jv_Mk2bMqObezrFbNeelIBDa8/s1600/Bristol_Riots_of_1831.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The Bristol Riots, October 1831</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Public Domain</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Lords reject the bill - again</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 12 December: Russell introduced his bill for the third time - with a few concessions to win over peers worried about the risk of civil war. He saved some condemned constituencies, abandoned proposals to increase the size of the Commons, and allowed resident freemen to keep their votes. This was carried on the second reading by a majority of 162.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 13 April 1832 the Lords passed the second reading of the bill by a majority of nine (184/175). Then on 7 May during the committee stage, the Lords passed what the government saw as a wrecking amendment. On 9 May Grey and the cabinet resigned over William IV’s refusal to create enough peers to get the bill through. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The 'Days of May'</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">This set off the crisis known as the ‘Days of May'. Mass demonstrations were held in the country - Birmingham, Manchester, London. In Birmingham Thomas Attwood hinted at armed insurrection. On 12 May the radical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Place">Francis Place</a> suggested a run on the banks: ‘To stop the duke [of Wellington], go for gold’. This slogan was posted up on London walls within twenty-four hours.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The king tried to cobble together another Wellington administration, but Peel, remembering his difficulties over Catholic emancipation, refused to take office. He now believed that reform was inevitable but that he was not the man to bring it about. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The king therefore had to send for Grey again. On 18 May William reluctantly agreed to the creation of Whig peers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The bill passed</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">This frightened the Lords into passing the bill, with only twenty-two voting against it. On 7 June it received the royal assent. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The news was greeted by banquets, illuminations and ringing of church bells. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In the subsequent general election, the Whigs won 483 seats, the Tories only 175.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Act_1832">provisions of the act </a>were modest. It disenfranchised the more notorious pocket boroughs and created new parliamentary constituencies, notably Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and Birmingham. The right to vote in the counties was extended beyond the 40 shilling freeholders to other forms of land tenure. In the boroughs there was a uniform franchise of £10 householders. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The total electorate increased by 50 per cent. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In England and Wales 217,000 voters were added to the electorate of 435,000 (out of a population of Great Britain of 13.4m). About one Englishman in five, one Scotsman in eight and one Irishman in twenty now had the vote. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There are two views about the Reform Act.</span><br />
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<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was the 'great Whig betrayal' that increased the proportion of adult males enfranchised in England and Wales by a mere five per cent, and left the working classes still without a vote, even though they had been among the foremost campaigners for reform.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Though a very modest reform it showed that the British constitution could be changed. Other reforms were bound to follow.</span></li>
</ol>
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<br />Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-87162291397782490492019-11-03T09:25:00.003+00:002019-11-03T09:26:16.534+00:00Before 1832: the unreformed Parliament<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM-6hWfx290FdsLnd_dC0OVrQ0b_SNAxXQ2jLIOhk-eDA6lv0g-4zUXSBL-rhl94h_P0G_CkY0_YALtAwdWw3ZfdwB1VnklN-S6ZPXXu0jWSkSyPWU61_RWWVMl8kRxrGNKlOSzOB2pen6/s1600/William_Pitt_addressing_the_House_of_Commons_on_the_outbreak_of_war_with_Austria_%2528by_Karl_Anton_Hickel%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM-6hWfx290FdsLnd_dC0OVrQ0b_SNAxXQ2jLIOhk-eDA6lv0g-4zUXSBL-rhl94h_P0G_CkY0_YALtAwdWw3ZfdwB1VnklN-S6ZPXXu0jWSkSyPWU61_RWWVMl8kRxrGNKlOSzOB2pen6/s200/William_Pitt_addressing_the_House_of_Commons_on_the_outbreak_of_war_with_Austria_%2528by_Karl_Anton_Hickel%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karl Anton Hickel<br />
<i>William Pitt the Younger addressing the <br />House of Commons</i><br />
<i> on the outbreak of war with France </i>(1793) <br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Wikimedia Commons</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">All the issues raised in this post can be followed up in the <a href="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/">History of Parliament online</a>, which is an exhaustive survey of MPs and constituencies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">1832 saw the first of the great nineteenth-century reforms of Parliament. It is open to debate how thorough-going this reform was to be. It replaced a complicated, centuries-old parliamentary system that by the beginning of the nineteenth century was no longer fit for purpose.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Pre-reform Britain was not a democracy, and the political elites reacted in horror at the very word, which to them meant mob rule. Power rested with the landed elites who controlled Parliament and local government, and a substantial proportion of MPs never faced an election. Between 1784 and 1831, fewer than a third of all elections were contested.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The monarch retained considerable prerogative powers, but by the early nineteenth century, this was changing. George IV's reluctant acceptance of Catholic Emancipation showed that the king was losing his power to veto legislation.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It has been estimated that only one in six of the population had the right to vote, though the many anomalies in the system meant that on some constituencies working men possessed the franchise. But however small the electorate, public opinion could not be ignored. The press was (largely) free and the judiciary was independent. The building-blocks of democracy had been put in place and far more people were politically engaged than were registered to vote. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Party, in the modern sense of the word, was re-emerging in the early nineteenth century, though political alliances were still fluid. The terms 'Whig' and 'Tory' should be used with mental quotation marks around them.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The House of Commons consisted of 558 Members elected by 314 constituencies. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The 245 English constituencies (forty counties, 203 boroughs, two universities) returned 489 Members; the twenty-four Welsh constituencies and forty-five Scottish constituencies returned one Member each. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In 1801 the addition of 100 Irish Members elected by sixty-six constituencies made an Imperial Parliament of 658 Members</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Most of the members of Parliament were landowners, elected either on the county forty-shilling franchise (the possession of freehold property valued for the land tax at forty shillings per annum) or on one of the varied borough franchises. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There were six types of borough franchise</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Freeman: vote given to freemen of the town or city</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Burgage: franchise attached to property in the borough</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Corporation: vote confined to members of the corporation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Scot and lot: voters who paid the poor rate</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Household or ‘potwalloper’: all inhabitant male householders not receiving alms or poor relief.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Freeholder: right of voting lay with the freeholders</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: large;">The size of the constituencies varied hugely. Yorkshire, with 20,000 voters, had the largest electorate, Lyme Regis, one of the smallest boroughs, had an electorate of 200. Old Sarum had seven voters, Dunwich had fewer than forty. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3gKV96wC0E4EF9q64AzoXWROUf5z_6LCbmk0eg4kjYVjwFaLjSLvIzfacK_70gxuEbVXUDuh8cLEmHmjcSJqmOvACuWCtl3h7newo68ItofpFTjCfS1qcdI4punszEiivAw3Fk3eXb6Y/s1600/IMG_0242.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3gKV96wC0E4EF9q64AzoXWROUf5z_6LCbmk0eg4kjYVjwFaLjSLvIzfacK_70gxuEbVXUDuh8cLEmHmjcSJqmOvACuWCtl3h7newo68ItofpFTjCfS1qcdI4punszEiivAw3Fk3eXb6Y/s200/IMG_0242.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Old Sarum: the constituency with</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">seven voters.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">My photograph</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">By contrast the rapidly growing centres of industrialisation - Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham - had no MPs. Cornwall was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_rotten_and_pocket_boroughs">grossly overrepresented</a>, sending forty-four members to Westminster - only one more MP than the whole of Scotland. Lancashire sent just fourteen.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Voters wrote their names in poll books, which were subsequently published. Poll books trace their origins to a 1696 act of Parliament designed to curb disputed election results and fraud. </span><span style="font-size: large;">They continued to be used for various elections until the secret ballot was introduced in 1872. Many poll books are now online. <a href="http://www.electoralregisters.org.uk/pollbooks.htm">This site</a> explains their nature and gives many links.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMp2JHpB8kUqf9eKC6vA-dSnP15WRH8hmijflmBZT6HHyYXgDqD45S1Ee04xVEg64KhPFSWAElJ8sbgJxHUCxP97EfrRhQGqSn5l-Iy7pruV1jmzkiTvtcLmOdM9_CIu9-T-RmuicShP9Z/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-01-09+at+20.58.39.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMp2JHpB8kUqf9eKC6vA-dSnP15WRH8hmijflmBZT6HHyYXgDqD45S1Ee04xVEg64KhPFSWAElJ8sbgJxHUCxP97EfrRhQGqSn5l-Iy7pruV1jmzkiTvtcLmOdM9_CIu9-T-RmuicShP9Z/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-01-09+at+20.58.39.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Poll book for Newcastle for the general</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">election of 1780</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Public domain</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">By 1830 the unreformed parliamentary system was coming under considerable strain. The population was rising and its distribution changing dramatically. It was becoming better educated and more critical of the anomalies in the structure of politics. The largely peaceful struggle over Catholic Emancipation was about to pave the way for further changes.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-74061019030902112922019-10-25T09:13:00.000+00:002019-10-25T09:13:15.049+00:00The 1820s (2): Daniel O'Connell and Catholic Emancipation<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /></span></h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6vfSlGACFthMWDt85TOx_D13K-ZZYyLklTJswYg9hXEiQw5AtU0mF9-5Pns3Oedp6WcSZQCXrZS5ZPibA8bYJe-nhHzAK52fAp-6HX95LgaINxLrvt6fj_iGufLk2c93HDVZXeiC4isg/s1600/Daniel_O%2527Connell.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="487" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6vfSlGACFthMWDt85TOx_D13K-ZZYyLklTJswYg9hXEiQw5AtU0mF9-5Pns3Oedp6WcSZQCXrZS5ZPibA8bYJe-nhHzAK52fAp-6HX95LgaINxLrvt6fj_iGufLk2c93HDVZXeiC4isg/s200/Daniel_O%2527Connell.png" width="161" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
Daniel O'Connell</div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
by Bernard Mulrenin</div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
National Portrait Gallery</div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
Public domain</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Catholic question</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">This question was a running sore in the politics of the late teens and early 1820s. It involved a range of important problems:</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the royal prerogative</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the nature of civil rights</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the place of religion in the constitution</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the government of Ireland.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">On 9 May 1817 the Commons debated a motion to open up all government posts to Catholics, except for that of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Robert Peel, at that time the Chief Secretary for Ireland, was the main speaker on the Protestant side. He argued that Catholics owed allegiance to a foreign power and that he was not prepared to allow the pope to be a 'fourth estate of the realm'. Thanks in part to his eloquence, the motion was defeated 221/245. ‘Orange’ Peel was now the head of the Protestant party and as a reward he was offered the seat of Oxford University, the most Anglican in the country. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A further attempt was defeated in 1819. However in 1821 , the Commons had given a small but decisive majority for a bill by the Dublin University MP, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Plunket,_1st_Baron_Plunket">William Plunket</a>, to relieve Catholic disabilities. The Lords threw it out.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">While the Commons might be moving towards Emancipation, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom">George IV</a> was deeply hostile, backtracking on his days as a Foxite Whig. When he became king he told Castlereagh (a supporter of Emancipation) that ‘once I take that oath I am for ever a Protestant King, a Protestant upholder, a Protestant adherent’. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-AesqVqRX_cVbHhqkyyHVY6Cf1sKMhFs1Xu7tUZcDXHThGoJr5Pc4LDScqJjlscBeIUb7QgZ3qpWUuRFpR7zBnh98zg2iXFPNAh50a3lGkxfaqh01MuIdPWYEjXzDIBhPCG2oz6naB1A/s1600/400px-thumbnail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-AesqVqRX_cVbHhqkyyHVY6Cf1sKMhFs1Xu7tUZcDXHThGoJr5Pc4LDScqJjlscBeIUb7QgZ3qpWUuRFpR7zBnh98zg2iXFPNAh50a3lGkxfaqh01MuIdPWYEjXzDIBhPCG2oz6naB1A/s200/400px-thumbnail.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George IV in 1821, no longer glamorous.<br />
He had abandoned his earlier<br />
support for Catholic Emancipation</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But the balance of opinion in the cabinet was shifting. When Sir Francis Burdett's bill passed its third reading by twenty-one votes in May 1825, the cabinet nearly fell apart. Peel offered to resign, but he was told that his resignation would bring Lord Liverpool's government down. Ministers were saved when the Lords rejected the bill, but for </span><span style="font-size: large;">how long could the Lords be allowed to frustrate the wishes of the Commons?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There would have been less of a problem if the question had been confined to England where Catholics were a tiny minority, socially isolated and politically passive. Both Peel and Liverpool supported moves to enfranchise them. But the question involved Ireland and the nature of its relationship with Britain.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Catholic Association</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The position of Irish Catholics was especially anomalous. In 1793 Pitt's government had given the Catholic Irish forty- shilling freeholders. But they could only vote for Protestants.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1823, the Catholic barrister, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_O%27Connell">Daniel O'Connell</a>, </span><span style="font-size: large;">set up the Catholic Association. The Association campaigned for Catholic emancipation and also for reform of the Church of Ireland, for tenants' rights, and economic development. It was funded by ‘the Catholic rent’, membership dues of one penny per month. The subscription was highly successful, and the Association raised a large sum of money in its first year.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The County Clare election</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In January 1828 the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington">Duke of Wellington</a> became prime minister, with Peel his Home Secretary. In an effort to reconstruct his cabinet, he appointed a new President of the Board of Trade, the landowner, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Vesey-FitzGerald,_2nd_Baron_FitzGerald_and_Vesey">William Vesey Fitzgerald</a>, who represented Co. Clare. By a parliamentary convention not finally abandoned until 1926 his taking office meant that he had to submit himself to his constituents for re-election. Since he was a popular landlord, a supporter of Catholic emancipation and on close terms with the hierarchy for whom he had negotiated a special <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynooth_Grant">Maynooth gran</a>t, there seemed little danger of his defeat. In the by-election he was <a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/ireland/clare.htm">challenged by O'Connell</a>, who</span><span style="font-size: large;">, as a Roman Catholic could legally stand for election but could not take his seat. This presented the government with a huge dilemma. If Catholic emancipation were refused, it would provoke disorder in Ireland; but, if granted it would tear the Tory party in two and provoke outrage throughout mainland Britain.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In July 1828, in a carnival (though drink-free!) atmosphere, O’Connell <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1828_Clare_by-election">won the election</a> by an overwhelming majority (2,057/982). The Catholic voters were following their priests rather than their landlords. It was now clear that the Catholic Association was set to achieve similar victories in other Irish counties at the next general election, putting Britain’s ability to maintain order in Ireland in grave doubt. Fitzgerald wrote to Peel: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The organisation exhibited is so complete and so formidable that no man can contemplate without alarm what is to follow in this wretched country. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The election showed that the Irish landowners were losing political power to the priests.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Catholic Relief Act</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">With the threat of rebellion mounting in Ireland Peel told Wellington that the government faced a choice of evils. During the summer and autumn, while the government seemed paralysed, the Catholic Association continued to hold meetings for the peasantry, organized in semi-military fashion with banners, music, green sashes and cockades. In Ulster the response was to multiply the formation of <a href="http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/Media,4154,en.pdf">Brunswick clubs</a>, financed by small subscriptions in imitation of the Catholic rent and led by prominent members of the gentry and aristocracy. On 24 October, rival crowds faced each other at a mass meeting on Penenden Heath, near Maidstone. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 16 November, Wellington told the King,</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘No-one can answer for the consequences of delay’.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The essential point as far as the duke was concerned, was not to resist emancipation at all costs, but to ensure that there were adequate provisions to safeguard the interests of the Irish Protestants. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> In January 1829 Peel told crossed his personal Rubicon when he told Wellington that he would be prepared to stay in office even if Catholic Emancipation became law. The whole cabinet was now unblocked, and on 5 February Wellington and Peel announced their support, to the dismay of many of their followers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In February Peel resigned his seat at Oxford University and offered himself for re-election. He was defeated (755/609) by the Ultra Tory, Sir Robert Inglis and had to take instead a pocket borough offered him by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manasseh_Masseh_Lopes">a wealthy Jewish borough-monger</a>. It was a great personal humiliation for him. The former ‘Orange Peel’ was now branded as a turncoat, and he never fully regained the trust of the Tories; the damage to his reputation was permanent. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 4 March the king wrote to Wellington that </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">as I find the country would be left without an administration, I have decided <i>to yield my opinion</i> [my italics] that that which is considered by the Cabinet to be for the immediate interest of the Country.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">This was an important moment in the history of the monarchy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 5 March Peel, now back in Parliament, introduced the bill to the Commons in a speech of four and a half hours’ length: </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">I will hope for the best. … But if these expectations are to be disappointed, if unhappily civil strife and contention shall survive the restoration of political privilege; if there be something inherent in the spirit of the Roman Catholic religion which disdains equality and will be satisfied with nothing but ascendancy; still I am content to run the hazard of the change.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">142 members voted against it. It passed the Lords on 10 April and received the reluctant royal assent on 13 April. The <a href="http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?activeTextDocId=1030241">Act</a> admitted Catholics to all offices except those of Lord Lieutenant and Lord Chancellor. Catholic were still excluded from the throne, and as an anti-democratic safeguard, the Irish freehold qualification was raised from 40s to £10.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To the end the Protestant party fought a passionate rearguard action. They saw themselves as fighting to prevent the overthrow of the 1688 settlement. They were quite right to regard this as a hugely significant change. It was a great shock to many Protestant Tories that the iron duke should ‘betray’ the country in this way. The dowager duchess of Richmond filled her drawing room with stuffed rats; George IV complained that</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘everything was so revolutionary ... and the peers and the aristocracy were giving way to it’. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">At one point in the debates Lord Winchilsea charged Wellington with having previously supported the foundation of King's College London, the Anglican response to University College London, as a cloak for his dark design of introducing 'popery' into every department of the state. Wellington promptly issued a challenge and the two men fought a duel in Battersea Fields on 21 March (neither was wounded). The press turned on Wellington. Petitions were sent to Parliament and mass meetings held throughout the country. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The first Catholic to take his seat in Parliament was the Earl of Surrey, heir of the duke of Norfolk, elected for the family pocket borough of Horsham. (The government refused to make the Act retrospective, so O’Connell had to fight his seat again. This time he was elected unopposed.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The opponents of Catholic emancipation were quite right to say that it marked a fundamental change in the constitution. Many of them never forgave Wellington and Peel for betraying the principles of the Glorious Revolution. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Paradoxically, Catholic emancipation could only have been carried by an unreformed Parliament. A Parliament more alive to public opinion would not have been able to pass it.</span></li>
</ol>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-67393227632417955502019-10-25T08:36:00.003+00:002019-10-25T08:36:56.872+00:00The 1820s (1): the coming of reform<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgklOW92Y0QK4vjEYZPX9M15mjL8n62Vf-KlzGVnm1p3Mrdssq66tWIQ9_-_SkDMn4IRaBuVSfTP6M9E2aqatgq6h0HVZXyKX2sY6e5w7-ZCrlq_wVoyrBOSqFs8iUUP0ztpmyGlT3TxhFE/s1600/360px-Sir_Robert_Peel%252C_2nd_Bt_by_Henry_William_Pickersgill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgklOW92Y0QK4vjEYZPX9M15mjL8n62Vf-KlzGVnm1p3Mrdssq66tWIQ9_-_SkDMn4IRaBuVSfTP6M9E2aqatgq6h0HVZXyKX2sY6e5w7-ZCrlq_wVoyrBOSqFs8iUUP0ztpmyGlT3TxhFE/s200/360px-Sir_Robert_Peel%252C_2nd_Bt_by_Henry_William_Pickersgill.jpg" width="120" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sir Robert Peel<br />Home Secretary from 1822</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">by Sir Henry William Pickersgill</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Public domain</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Liberal Toryism?</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lord Liverpool’s administration has traditionally been divided into two unequal periods:</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">a reactionary phase 1812-1820 symbolised by Sidmouth and the Six Acts</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">a shorter ‘liberal’ phase associated with the ‘second-wave’ ministers: William Huskisson, Frederick Robinson, Robert Peel.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This is now seen as an over-simplification. But there can be little doubt that the nation was changing. In March </span><span style="font-size: large;">1820 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peel">Robert Peel</a> wrote </span><span style="font-size: large;">to a friend:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘Do you not think that there is a feeling becoming daily more general and more confirmed in favour of some undefined change in the mode of governing the country?’ </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Whig politician, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Brougham,_1st_Baron_Brougham_and_Vaux">Henry Brougham,</a> said </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘the schoolmaster had been abroad in the land’.</span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3knJiWk2LR7GZm_jtg4P1etzzj93GwrW4ZHvUSCJRI24pZ_6koeAICj4M0Td05AvKY8f3Yca8Qg6Lfiu8FMQk37b8gwOPwuSupAQBlyXpcsxstksbIqpKStslIg1MYpeMcjtk3cwNaE/s1600-h/Manchester_Mechanics_Institute_(1825).jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264005808855540802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3knJiWk2LR7GZm_jtg4P1etzzj93GwrW4ZHvUSCJRI24pZ_6koeAICj4M0Td05AvKY8f3Yca8Qg6Lfiu8FMQk37b8gwOPwuSupAQBlyXpcsxstksbIqpKStslIg1MYpeMcjtk3cwNaE/s200/Manchester_Mechanics_Institute_(1825).jpg" style="float: right; height: 136px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Manchester Mechanics' Institute,<br />
founded 1825</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanics_Institutes">Mechanics Institute</a> movement, the brainchild of two Glasgow professors, John Anderson and <a href="http://www.infed.org/walking/wa-birb.htm">George Birkbeck</a> spread education among working men. Henry Brougham’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Practical </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Observations upon the Education of the People</span> sold 50,000 copies in a few weeks and quickly went through twenty editions. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (founded by Brougham in 1826) provided them with cheap information. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Free trade</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The government was inexorably, if inconsistently, moving towards a policy of free trade. As far back as 1812, Lord Liverpool had said,</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘the less commerce and manufactures were meddled with the more likely they were to prosper’.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 26 May 1820 he delivered a speech extolling the virtues of free trade and in 1824-5 Frederick Robinson, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, lowered excise duties on a wide range of consumer goods.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The liberalisation of the economy threw into stark relief the anomaly of the Corn Laws, but the power of the landed interest was such that it could not be attacked frontally. The first important modification of the Corn Laws did not occur until 1828 - this was a clumsy sliding-scale of duties which tapered to nominal rates when wheat prices reached 73s – the sum agreed on was a compromise.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Home Office reforms</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1822 Sir Robert Peel replaced the reactionary Sidmouth as Home secretary and was 'a symbolic ditching of the past' (Boyd Hilton, <i>A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People?</i> Oxford, 2006, p. 379). His reforms have been seen as setting the tone for ‘Liberal Toryism’, but they were for the most part uncontroversial, resulting from a parliamentary committee of enquiry set up in 1819 under pressure from the Whig reformer Sir James Mackintosh.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1823 the number of capital statutes which lingered anachronistically on the statute book was reduced, not because the government had become more soft-hearted but because they were ineffectual. The Gaols Act of 1823 ordered local magistrates to make regular prison inspections and to report to the Home Office. This laid the foundations for a more positive and humane approach to penal policy but it was not a departure - it was based on the efforts of the Mackintosh committee. Another Act of 1823 abolished the religious penalties for suicide by repealing the custom of profane burial, though this law had not been applied for decades. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">1824 saw the <a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/l-pool/combacts.htm">repeal of the Combination Acts</a>. This was not really an act in favour of trade unions - it was inspired by the belief that the Combination Acts had not worked and that if only combinations were made legal, they would diminish in numbers. But instead, in the boom conditions, new trade unions grew. In 1825 a new Combination Act limited the ability of unions to strike and imposed severe penalties for intimidation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Metropolitan Police</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Metropolitan Police Act of June 1829 set up <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Police_Act_1829">a new police organisation</a> under the immediate supervision of two magistrates. The area under their jurisdiction extended from Brentford to Greenwich. The City was left to its own authorities. The new magistrates, subject to the confirmation of the Home Secretary, were given wide powers of recruitment, training and discipline.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The first Metropolitan Police patrols went on to the streets on 29th September 1829 three months after the Metropolitan Police Act after much planning and other work performed by the first joint Commissioners. Colonel Sir Charles Rowan brought military experience to bear and took responsibility for much of the early leadership of the Force until 1850. The Force was initially based at Scotland Yard and 5 watch houses, with a plan to extend to comprise 17 Districts, each with 165 men.</span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Act was passed because the capital was felt to be a special case. However many parliamentarians opposed the reforms as ‘unEnglish’ and criticized the uniformed police as a military body (‘gendarmes’). Those who acquiesced in the appearance on London’s streets of blue-uniformed and truncheon ‘Peelers’ would have been mortified if they had known that they were the advance guard of a professional police force within 30 years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlfQzOO2aieAM3-vK8RYkcMlrQzl7676RPxWzQ_gG6XgPFA6YUwTHj5-lLf-rP2fHrWf0E-aA4Ud7ofh-l-zku2nk3pTyGCJLodGj2ewIGRehIYs3enP13Gd3H9dCQbac1KbTGmNYRcu1/s1600/Peeler1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlfQzOO2aieAM3-vK8RYkcMlrQzl7676RPxWzQ_gG6XgPFA6YUwTHj5-lLf-rP2fHrWf0E-aA4Ud7ofh-l-zku2nk3pTyGCJLodGj2ewIGRehIYs3enP13Gd3H9dCQbac1KbTGmNYRcu1/s200/Peeler1.jpg" width="155" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An 1850s 'Peeler'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is no easy narrative of progress, and it is doubtful whether the metropolitan police provided overnight a new level of efficiency.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Reforms and anomalies</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Overall, it is fair to describe the policy of the government post 1822 as enlightened conservatism. They wanted to end discontent and amend abuses, but also to preserve the main features of the eighteenth-century constitution. This holding operation was becoming less and less feasible.</span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The government’s reforms highlighted the anomalies remaining in the system. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The two major anomalies were the unreformed political system and the system of religious discrimination, existing from the time of Charles II, by which only Anglicans were permitted to hold </span><span style="font-size: large;">public office. How long could this discrimination hold?</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #073763;"> </span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, 1828</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">These <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Act">Acts</a>, debarring non-Anglicans from public office, were now more symbolic than real; in the past ten years there had been three dissenting Lord Mayors of London. But the fact that they were on the statute book was a grievance to a Nonconformist community that was growing in power and influence. A mass of petitions were sent up from the dissenting congregations. Only twenty-eight petitions were registered against the repeal of the Acts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In February the Whig politician, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Russell,_1st_Earl_Russell">Lord John Russell </a>carried a motion for repeal. Although the Duke of Wellington's government opposed the bill, it had no automatic majority to resist it. Peel, as Home Secretary, took charge of the bill, and in consultation with the bishops devised a substitute for the old sacramental test in the form of a compulsory declaration for those chosen for corporation offices not to injure the established church. The Anglican monopoly had been undermined, and the ease with which the act was passed shows how society had changed. Russell was gratified - and prescient:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘It is really a gratifying thing to force the enemy to give up his first line that none but Churchmen are worthy to serve the State, and I think we shall soon make him give up the second, that none but Protestants are. Peel is a very pretty hand at hauling down his colours.’(quoted Hilton, p. 383)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">But it was far more controversial to end the discrimination against Catholics. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
</h3>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-36524369727082778852019-10-11T19:19:00.002+00:002019-10-13T08:21:21.415+00:00The Peterloo Massacre<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRvK6E5-BntCiFLr6qPlYj7UMazkdNV4aGEkRqQ692609MiXTwmqGFrUErmCnxhG07kSlWgzVHfI-sGaUFZ-yyNbGBmuno79htlZvQ_MikO5FFhQU6-km86fH81eg6IGYjoo0fSexBMa8/s1600-h/Peterloo_Massacre.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" height="137" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258123747407560066" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRvK6E5-BntCiFLr6qPlYj7UMazkdNV4aGEkRqQ692609MiXTwmqGFrUErmCnxhG07kSlWgzVHfI-sGaUFZ-yyNbGBmuno79htlZvQ_MikO5FFhQU6-km86fH81eg6IGYjoo0fSexBMa8/s200/Peterloo_Massacre.png" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" width="200" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This post owes a great deal to Robert Poole's brilliant article, '"By the Law or the Sword": Peterloo Revisited', <span style="font-style: italic;">History,</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">91</span> (2006): 254-276. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre">Wikipedia article</a> on Peterloo is also extremely good and takes account of modern research including Poole's article. There is a more recent study of the background to Peterloo in <a href="https://thehistoryofparliament.wordpress.com/2019/07/09/political-protest-in-the-age-of-peterloo/">this blog</a> from the History of Parliament website. See also the account <a href="https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-peterloo-massacre">here</a>, which gives special prominence to the female reformers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is an i<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9l7#play">nteresting discussion</a> of Peterloo in Melvyn Bragg's 'In Our Time' programme on Radio 4. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1819 radical reformers made serious attempts to stage a series of mass demonstrations.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In January there was a parliamentary reform meeting of about 10,000 at St Peter’s Fields in Manchester at which Henry Hunt was the principal speaker. Banners bearing the mottoes ‘Rights of Man’, ‘Universal Suffrage’ and ‘No Corn Laws’ were displayed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The authorities were deeply alarmed. On 2 March, following reports that radical leaders were arming themselves with pikes, Henry Hobhouse, the permanent under secretary at the Home Office, wrote to the Oldham magistrates that the evidence confirmed the Home Secretary, Sidmouth’s, opinion that </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘your Country will not be tranquillized, until Blood shall have been shed either by the Law or the Sword.’ (Quoted Poole, 265). </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">In June there were a series of meetings in the industrial districts of Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Midlands and the west of Scotland. These peaceful meetings pounded the same theme: the sufferings of the people were due to the inadequacies and extravagance of government, and the remedy lay in annual parliaments and manhood suffrage.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In June and July, there were mass meetings at Stockport (where the cap of liberty was displayed), Oldham, Leeds, Birmingham, London and Manchester. At Birmingham on 12 July the crowd elected by a show of hands the radical baronet Sir Charles Wolseley as </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘legislative attorney and representative of Birmingham’.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Note: Birmingham did not have any MPs in this period. The crowd's action was seen by the government as a direct challenge to parliament. On 30 July a royal proclamation against seditious meetings proclaimed that this was a ‘gross violation of the law’.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A similar meeting was planned for Manchester, </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘to consider the propriety of adopting the most LEGAL and EFFECTUAL means of obtaining a REFORM in the Commons House of Parliament’. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The wording seems to show that the reformers were anxious to distance themselves from illegality. Nevertheless the local magistrates issued warnings against it. The Manchester Radical Union decided to postpone the meeting until 16 August. They would not elect a representative but would be addressed by Hunt.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Historians sympathetic to the Manchester magistrates stress that they had a genuine dilemma. The meeting itself was not illegal, but the crowd numbered at least 50,000, though the fact that it included many women and children is one indication among many that its intentions were peaceful. The demonstrators faced an inadequate peacekeeping machinery. There was no regular police force. The forces available were the special constables and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_and_Salford_Yeomanry">Manchester and Salford Yeomanry</a>. In reserve and out of sight were 6 troops of the 15th Hussars; nearly whole of the 31st regiment; several companies of the 8th; a troop of Horse Artillery.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRZS_YGwqux8nV01IC6OgS7ASk2EcqE0keuniCJYtC5HRfqwCH6Naec2ky7PLQD9ZOARfU1fFuZ23vVhs5aB80Y_d5e1VpyO9aM2crT7R6hapzvFdN5svfy5j8VAR_p7BgO6Wb-IFMpMI/s1600-h/Map_of_Peterloo_Massacre.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258124227973653490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRZS_YGwqux8nV01IC6OgS7ASk2EcqE0keuniCJYtC5HRfqwCH6Naec2ky7PLQD9ZOARfU1fFuZ23vVhs5aB80Y_d5e1VpyO9aM2crT7R6hapzvFdN5svfy5j8VAR_p7BgO6Wb-IFMpMI/s200/Map_of_Peterloo_Massacre.png" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A map of St Peter's Field <br />
and surrounding area<br />
on 16 August 1819.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The magistrates decided to arrest Hunt on the hustings before he could speak. It was a grave mistake to decide to use the Yeomanry. They were a raw volunteer group, hastily formed after the Blanketeers’ March, and consisted almost exclusively of cheesemongers, ironmongers and newly enriched manufacturers. They had no expertise in crowd control. As Hunt was arrested and bustled away, the Yeomanry found themselves hemmed in. They panicked and started to hack about them. The Hussars were then called in. The crowd began to flee in panic, and were trampled or beaten down with the flat of swords, or sabres and slashed by the troops. Conservative estimates suggest that four hundred were wounded (a quarter of them women and children, nearly half by sabre wounds). Two women and nine men were killed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/14/several-lives-lost-note-reveals-early-details-of-peterloo-massacre">Here</a> is the first account of the massacre. It was written by a magistrate and contains the admission 'several lives lost'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The event was promptly named the 'Peterloo Massacre' and though it was mild by continental standards, it was shocking in the British context. Cruikshank's caricature (below) shows one strand of British opinion. The text reads: </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">'Down with 'em! Chop em down my brave boys: give them no quarter they want to take our Beef & Pudding from us! ---- & remember the more you kill the less poor rates you'll have to pay so go at it Lads show your courage & your Loyalty.'</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0c6FTqAhn9Khhue1EyZGUz2nq4jr5TORzeMeWjcrbst_545W3Ilweb-2OdZM8NX9QQ01xycgj_USJlRHgJmvvbq8PqULHf1Z65RXlQ1j_8EpAvsHwrIyeZixA27MV-6izeMBjY9IQksg/s1600-h/The_Massacre_of_Peterloo.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" height="130" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258129364074545746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0c6FTqAhn9Khhue1EyZGUz2nq4jr5TORzeMeWjcrbst_545W3Ilweb-2OdZM8NX9QQ01xycgj_USJlRHgJmvvbq8PqULHf1Z65RXlQ1j_8EpAvsHwrIyeZixA27MV-6izeMBjY9IQksg/s200/The_Massacre_of_Peterloo.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" width="200" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLyCLZOKCNu_leVxhSDKJGDBjNbpe5E6qJ27tWh5udLpzzHZ3A3YzwCty5TQvk54UITI1cjlf4QXuyOtnpgvfgNbvvY1mVOXtejNqbbGDB_Z1FGHUEw-yAx3oKPgRSkHi1ewdLdCK4gQA/s1600-h/1819_poster.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258128380347359250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLyCLZOKCNu_leVxhSDKJGDBjNbpe5E6qJ27tWh5udLpzzHZ3A3YzwCty5TQvk54UITI1cjlf4QXuyOtnpgvfgNbvvY1mVOXtejNqbbGDB_Z1FGHUEw-yAx3oKPgRSkHi1ewdLdCK4gQA/s200/1819_poster.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a>However, many thought the actions of the Hussars were justified and some local authorities, such as those of Salford, moved swiftly against radicalism.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Though the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, in private thought that the magistrates had been ‘injudicious’, the government felt it had no alternative but to support them. They congratulated them for </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘their prompt, decisive and efficient measures for the preservation of the public peace’.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, the event was widely reported in the press (this was the first time journalists ‘covered’ an event at which they were present), and protest meetings were held around the country. After some hesitation the Whigs took up Peterloo as a political issue and addressed protest meetings - there were nine of these in October and November. This made it a party matter, with the Whigs using it to broaden their basis of support. The Prince Regent condemned their demand for a public enquiry.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is Shelley's response in his poem <a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/distress/masque.htm"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Masque of Anarchy</span></a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Six Acts</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Parliament met in November. The alarms were over except in Scotland, but because the issue had become a party matter, the government felt that it had to address the issue. A series of emergency laws, t<a href="https://thehistoryofparliament.wordpress.com/2019/08/16/protest-against-the-six-acts/">he Six Acts,</a> were passed in spite of the opposition of most of the Whigs. </span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Training Prevention Act A measure which made any person attending a gathering for the purpose of training or drilling liable to arrest. People found guilty of this offence could be transported for seven years.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Seizure of Arms Act A measure that gave power to local magistrates to search any property or person for arms.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Seditious Meetings Prevention Act A measure which prohibited the holding of public meetings of more than fifty people without the consent of a sheriff or magistrate.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Misdemeanours Act A measure that attempted to reduce the delay in the administration of justice.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act A measure which provided much stronger punishments, including banishment for publications judged to be blasphemous or seditious.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act A measure which subjected certain radical publications which had previously avoided stamp duty by publishing opinion and not news, to such duty. </span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hunt and Bamford were tried at York and found guilty of 'intending to incute disaffection and hatred of king and constitution' - but <span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>of riot. Hunt was sentenced to 30 months’ harsh imprisonment in Ilchester Gaol. Bamford was treated more leniently. Sir Francis Burdett, was fined £2000 for comparing the Regent to James II and sentenced to three months imprisonment.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Robert Poole sums up Peterloo thus: </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">'Whatever the causes of Peterloo, it was not a battle but a massacre, limited and inefficient by historical standards perhaps, but most decidedly a massacre in spirit.'</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Cato Street Conspiracy</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">After his acquittal after the Spa Fields, Arthur Thistlewood was imprisoned without trial in February 1818 for disturbing the peace</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jxORtKv11F6IaKNbo0cJZHRpp2k4xGtH_tT2PwMiGJybkQ8Ih3mrcAtNXdz-h5aZB6N8hhj-SBk3USIqlGr51FxMArPOaIXXMNbwQDUiPSXGUdnJz4QPHD1IreAyd4-Mu3isdwxlbU0/s1600-h/104px-ArthurThistlewood.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259174955617582514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jxORtKv11F6IaKNbo0cJZHRpp2k4xGtH_tT2PwMiGJybkQ8Ih3mrcAtNXdz-h5aZB6N8hhj-SBk3USIqlGr51FxMArPOaIXXMNbwQDUiPSXGUdnJz4QPHD1IreAyd4-Mu3isdwxlbU0/s400/104px-ArthurThistlewood.gif" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" /></a></span><span style="font-size: large;">(he had demanded satisfaction of the Home Secretary; to keep him out of the way, Sidmouth paid the costs of his imprisonment out of his own pocket). He came out after a year and joined a London conspiratorial group. At meetings held in the loft at Cato Street he </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Street_Conspiracy"><span style="font-size: large;">planned to assassinate the cabinet</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> as it sat to dinner in February 1820 at the home of Lord Harrowby, the President of the Council (the heads of Sidmouth and Castlereagh were to be put on pikes and paraded through city and a provisional government was to be proclaimed). However, an agent provocateur, George Edwards, had already informed the authorities. Thistlewood and four co-conspirators were hanged at Newgate.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsk-hFuZbtug9nHRmy7xBpaLQwjEKYSw4s72VlqsdD4ic946B2FIQvKdYVQFVus42be83GRafDDUsi8g-hQt2zYz5J-P4CMFBIrc3wtLuJErea7AedBv0oB260s2FkA0jyKiCFrBjeIavV/s1600/Catostconspirators.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsk-hFuZbtug9nHRmy7xBpaLQwjEKYSw4s72VlqsdD4ic946B2FIQvKdYVQFVus42be83GRafDDUsi8g-hQt2zYz5J-P4CMFBIrc3wtLuJErea7AedBv0oB260s2FkA0jyKiCFrBjeIavV/s200/Catostconspirators.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The arrest of the Cato Street conspirators</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Though the Cato Street conspiracy was amateurish, it showed that the established order was in some danger. As Wellington informed his cabinet colleagues in 1819 a reduced and scattered army of now only 65,000 home-based men could not effectively control a concentrated rebellious outbreak. The behaviour of the crowds at the executions of the conspirators did not seem to bode well. After Peterloo, Manchester was patrolled by troops.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The most dangerous moment the government faced was not the Cato Street conspiracy but the <a href="https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/periods/hanoverians/queen-caroline-affair-1820">Queen Caroline affai</a>r.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Conclusion: the significance of Peterloo</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">It can be argued that, apart from arousing outrage, Peterloo did not change much. It was to be another thirteen years before Parliament was reformed, and it was a reform that left the mass of working-class people disenfranchised.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, the historian, Boyd Hilton has argued </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">this was the last time ministers felt they could rely on symbols and propaganda to retain control. It was the last time that the right to free speech and assembly was challenged with such contumely. By highlighting the creaky state of authority in industrial boom towns like Manchester, Peterloo stimulated a rethink on how best to maintain law and order. <i>A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People,</i> 2006, p. 252</span></blockquote>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-27112909734595550932019-10-11T19:07:00.003+00:002019-10-11T19:07:55.882+00:00Waterloo to Peterloo<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large;">Problems of the peace</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The radical, <a href="http://www.cottontimes.co.uk/bamfordo.htm">Samuel Bamford</a> wrote: </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">While the laurels were yet cool on the brows of our victorious soldiers ... the elements of convulsion were at work among the masses of our labouring population.</span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8cjjdzWKyaE6ecPWtd5GWBKzwkbzzO8a3r5BWw0cIJa189XvmxAmuKYEAts5ilnBOmIRvGRSYCDt9PIJtW6RJn9PxpWjB6CE6ZG5bLKCkLhQdNJKvBes8Zkuu7sHl-PsXY9MV0bvPmw/s1600/Samuel_Bamford.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="262" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8cjjdzWKyaE6ecPWtd5GWBKzwkbzzO8a3r5BWw0cIJa189XvmxAmuKYEAts5ilnBOmIRvGRSYCDt9PIJtW6RJn9PxpWjB6CE6ZG5bLKCkLhQdNJKvBes8Zkuu7sHl-PsXY9MV0bvPmw/s200/Samuel_Bamford.png" width="188" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Bamford in his respectable old age<br />Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The immediate post-war years, 1815-21, saw unemployment and high bread prices coincide with renewed political discontent.</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Adjustments had to be made in line with reduced demand for products associated with the war effort: provisions, timber, clothing, iron, leather, canvas, rope.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">During the wars the armed forces of Britain had been increased to 400,000 men (with as many again in the reserves) compared with about 60,000 in 1791. Rapid demobilisation put nearly a third of a million ex-servicemen on the already glutted labour market. This depressed wage levels, added to unemployment, increased the burden of local taxation and ensured that the discontented would be led by those with military experience.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Added to this came the strains of technological redundancy. The number of shearing frames in Yorkshire had increased in the past decade from under a hundred to over 1,400 and in October 1817, 3,625 croppers petitioned Parliament for help. In Lancashire the number of handloom weavers continued to rise while their wages continued to fall.</span></li>
</ol>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Corn Law</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Even before Napoleon’s final defeat, the government of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jenkinson,_2nd_Earl_of_Liverpool">Lord Liverpool</a> had bowed to massive agricultural pressure. In 1813 an abundant harvest sent prices tumbling. Peace in 1814 brought foreign grain imports with the promise of more to come. The government came under strong pressure from the landed interest , which argued that a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Laws">Corn Law</a> was justified in the interests of national security and domestic stability:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Britain might once again need to maximise the domestic supply of foodstuffs to counteract the effects of blockade.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Agriculture was the largest single employer of labour and was already subject to rural depopulation.</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: large;">In February 1815 a parliament overwhelmingly dominated by the landed interest passed a law allowing the free importation of foreign corn only when the price of home-grown corn had reached the price of 80s. a quarter. This decision -together with a run of bad harvests - helped ensure that the average price of corn was higher in the years 1810-19 than at any other time during the whole of the nineteenth century.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Opponents argued that the Corn Law was a piece of selfish class legislation.</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">It caused unnecessary suffering for the already hard-pressed urban working classes by artificially raising the price of bread simply in order to maintain the artificially high profits of the landed interest, who comprised the country’s lawmakers.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">It damaged industry to the extent that it made the manufacturers’ wage bills unnecessarily high and hindered international trade.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">It taught gave the radicals a popular cause. </span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: large;">In March 1815 there were Corn Bill riots. London crowds both petitioned and demonstrated against the new law. Politicians’ windows were broken and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was burned in effigy. Special constables were enrolled, over a thousand infantry and cavalry were stationed in the capital, and the Life Guards charged the London crowd with drawn sabres.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Worse was to follow. In 1816 Britain faced the triple blows of a bad harvest, trade depression and a glutted labour market. As wheat prices rose to 100s a quarter at the end of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer">a freak year </a>throughout Europe many of Britain’s biggest iron works were at a standstill. Decline in demand for iron meant diminished demand for coal. Onto an unstable labour market was disgorged a demobilised army of about 300,000 soldiers and sailors. Many failed to find civilian work. They returned to their home parishes to push poor rate expenditure to unprecedented levels. Those who found work forced down wages in a now sated labour market. The whole situation was tailor-made for a resurgence of radicalism.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The abolition of income tax</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The proposal to renew income tax came before the Commons as part of the 1815 budget. It was rejected by a majority of 37. There was no doubt of the government’s need for money: army of occupation in France; allied subsidies; the defence needs of the 17 colonies acquired during the war: the unprecedented national debt; the need to pay war pensions. By 1815 income tax accounted for 20 per cent of government revenue.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But the campaign against income tax, taken up enthusiastically by the newspapers, was directed not at its amount but at its ‘unEnglish’ inquisitorial character, justified only by the emergency of war. The decision to abolish it left a huge hole in the government finances and forced ministers into a ruinous policy of borrowing. It postponed the return to the gold standard (paper currency backed by bullion) and ultimately led to additional taxation on articles of general consumption. As with the Corn Laws, this bore down disproportionately on the poor.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Ely riots, 1816</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1816 economic distress was widespread - domestic weavers in Lancashire, iron workers in South Wales. At Birmingham nearly 20% of the population were receiving war relief. There was more machine breaking in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire - though these disturbances finally died down in 1817 when 7 rioters were executed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But the most severe riots were rural rather than industrial. April-<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ZZ7ILPy9wsTOv6UWSqvb0nz3CKJ4_gGhYCnwn1Iup5S-3Lod5MtN8y3kIqKrFsxzq4n7HSjT-zAAVNRBkJ5dMtpFxlejx9jYzZiqnxC3wr78jSQs2US06OtqAfjjddtLwpvfzYj-uCDG/s1600/396px-Proclamtion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ZZ7ILPy9wsTOv6UWSqvb0nz3CKJ4_gGhYCnwn1Iup5S-3Lod5MtN8y3kIqKrFsxzq4n7HSjT-zAAVNRBkJ5dMtpFxlejx9jYzZiqnxC3wr78jSQs2US06OtqAfjjddtLwpvfzYj-uCDG/s200/396px-Proclamtion.jpg" width="131" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The magistrates attempted<br />
to forestall the riot by<br />
addressing<br />
grievances.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
May 1816 there were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely_and_Littleport_riots_of_1816">food riots in the fenland towns of Ely and Littleport</a> under the slogan ‘Bread or Blood’. Ricks were burned and threshing and other agricultural machinery was destroyed. One of the rioters was killed during the suppression of the disorders and 24 were sentenced to death. 19 of these were subsequently commuted for imprisonment and transportation, but five were executed. The prosecution had alleged a conspiracy but the keeper of the Bury St Edmunds Gaol where they were held believed that the causes lay in ‘the great dissatisfaction ... and the want of employ’. His analysis was supported by a report from the Board of Agriculture in 1816 which said </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">‘The state of the labouring poor is very deplorable and rises entirely from want of employment, which they are willing to seek, but the farmer cannot furnish’. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">But the government’s response was to stiffen the game laws: the penalty for poaching was increased from one month’s hard labour to seven years’ transportation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Fear of revolution</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Ely riots and the disorders that followed showed different degrees of illegality and violence. Some of the participants were amateur revolutionaries, but riot and disorder were also the traditional response to distress. It was not always easy for the authorities to make this distinction. To counter the perceived threat of revolution, the Home Office used informers and agents provocateurs, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Oliver">Oliver the Spy</a> (aka William Oliver: W. J. Richards), who offered his services to the government in March 1817. In the absence of police forces it was perhaps inevitable that such people should have been used. But they presented partial and inaccurate accounts to government and may have acted as <i>agents provocateurs</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Not all of the propertied classes shared the government’s view. As the notice to the Ely rioters showed, magistrates were often sympathetic to the people’s grievances and saw protestors as ‘deluded’ rather than wickedly conspiratorial.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The radicals</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The ending of the war re-invigorated the demand for parliamentary reform. The political radicals traced their intellectual descent from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine">Thomas Paine</a> and other eighteenth- century writers. The war had been a difficult time for radicals because they were suspected of disloyalty. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cobbett">William Cobbett</a> had been imprisoned for two years in 1809 for a seditious libel in his <a href="https://www.bartleby.com/221/0212.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Political Register</span> </a>in which he had condemned the use of German mercenary troops to flog mutinous militiamen.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1812 at the age of 72 the veteran <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cartwright_(political_reformer)">Major John Cartwright</a> embarked on the first of three tours of the Midlands and the North. His promptings led directly from 1816 towards the establishment of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampden_Clubs">Hampden Clubs</a>. These provincial clubs were plebeian in composition and democratic in tendency, and were particularly numerous in the weaving villages of South Lancashire. By 1817 there were about 150 of these clubs in Lancashire alone. One, the Middleton club, is credited with directing the societies firmly towards manhood suffrage rather than the household or taxpayer franchises favoured by many middle-class reformers. The northern manufacturing districts were now setting the pace of reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Members of the Hampden clubs paid small subscriptions and took in radical periodicals like the</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">Political Register</span>. The aim </span><span style="font-size: large;">of the Register was for readers to understand</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘the true cause of their sufferings - misgovernment’.</span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPiYvXvdwJwkESAFdc8Lm2Pys-tK9ykA4xgoD31xQ58XEHYFDp_Z1pNs7-l_fuK7GdKy1Jv55oNKBLepE7lYH-ITCQwopYavCdCnWLAPrWQ1lTjpU7NwA0bXC60ywwwybmxJM8YyNm0u0/s1600/458px-William_Cobbett.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="458" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPiYvXvdwJwkESAFdc8Lm2Pys-tK9ykA4xgoD31xQ58XEHYFDp_Z1pNs7-l_fuK7GdKy1Jv55oNKBLepE7lYH-ITCQwopYavCdCnWLAPrWQ1lTjpU7NwA0bXC60ywwwybmxJM8YyNm0u0/s200/458px-William_Cobbett.jpeg" width="152" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Cobbett, campaigning journalist<br />National Portrait Gallery<br />Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In November 1816 Cobbett began publishing reprints of his articles in the form of twopenny </span><span style="font-size: large;">pamphlets designed for a wider public, </span><span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Twopenny Trash</span><span style="font-size: large;">. Within a month he increased its sale from between 1,000-2,000 to 40,000-50,000. Samuel Bamford said that the Register was read on nearly every cottage hearth in the manufacturing districts. Cobbett can be seen as a ‘Tory radical’ - in many ways his views were highly traditional. He knew little of the industrial areas and his prescription for their problems - a return to an old-fashioned peasantry was reactionary. However he came round to the belief that Old Corruption (‘the Thing’) could only be halted if parliament was reformed and all men given the vote. It was he more than anyone else, who helped turn the thoughts of the discontented working classes to parliamentary reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Spa Fields riot, 1816</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Some radicals, such as the <a href="http://spartacus-educational.com/PRspencean.htm">Spencean Philanthropists</a>, can be seen as extremist, prepared to resort to violence or conspiracy. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In November and December 1816 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spa_Fields_riots">two meetings at Spa Fields in Islington</a> were addressed by the radical o</span><span style="font-size: large;">rator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hunt_%28politician%29">Henry Hunt</a>, a Wiltshire </span><span style="font-size: large;">farmer. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxYmxqC5n-Xbq12gT-VcOC_9bh6aCY3UwG7C0Go8McbfdmFmwnZLrbXB19aEYmk6VovphxI6z6LtDK5Lk9USuW_xeftb2b0UGXqJ_SKczkN2dJ4imd3zKeC6KXilxaYhIqPvZMqCGEhm_/s1600/Henry_Hunt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxYmxqC5n-Xbq12gT-VcOC_9bh6aCY3UwG7C0Go8McbfdmFmwnZLrbXB19aEYmk6VovphxI6z6LtDK5Lk9USuW_xeftb2b0UGXqJ_SKczkN2dJ4imd3zKeC6KXilxaYhIqPvZMqCGEhm_/s200/Henry_Hunt.jpg" width="152" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry Hunt,<br />
National Portrait Gallery<br />
Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He appeared with the revolutionary insignia of a pike and a tricolour flag and addressed the meeting wearing the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygian_cap">cap of liberty</a>. The main purpose was to organise petitions to present to the Prince Regent Regent. But on the morning before the second meeting (2 December) a crowd of about 5,000 led by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Thistlewood">Arthur Thistlewood</a> went off to plunder gunsmiths’ shops and attack the Tower.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 28 January 1817, a projectile, supposedly a bullet, broke a window in the Regent’s coach on his way to open Parliament. On 8 February Thistlewood and his co-conspirators were arrested and committed to the Tower on the charge of high treason. They were acquitted, largely because of the discrediting of a spy’s evidence in court.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Repression</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In response <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus">Habeas Corpus </a>was suspended on 4 March. According to Samuel Bamford, </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘Personal liberty not being now secure from one hour to another, many of the leading reformers were induced to quit their homes, and seek concealment where they could obtain it.’</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Cobbett fled to America, where he stayed until 1819, returning with the bones of Thomas Paine.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 14 March the Seditious Meetings Act was revived. This provided for</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the compulsory licensing of rooms used for public meetings</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the prohibition of federations of societies of over 50 people</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the dissolution of the Spencean societies</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the suspension of habeas corpus for persons arrested on charges of treason</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the death penalty for inciting the armed forces to mutiny</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Whig opposition put up only a token protest. Parliament was genuinely alarmed. However the effects of the legislation were less draconian than might be imagined. Only forty-four people were arrested. One died in prison but the rest were eventually released. Though it could not compare to the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, it was a time of considerable stress and hardship for the radicals.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 27 March, in reaction to publications like the <span style="font-style: italic;">Political Register</span> and T. J. Wooler’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Black Dwarf</span>, the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, issued a round robin to the lords lieutenant of the counties, instructing them to inform the magistrates within their jurisdiction that they had the power and the duty to prevent the circulation of ‘blasphemous and seditious pamphlets and writings’.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The March of the Blanketeers</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Manchester was the place where class antagonism was sharpest. In Birmingham small masters worked alongside skilled artisans, but in Manchester, workshops were large and impersonal. There were social barriers between cotton lords and workers, and the handloom weavers were being forced out of work.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 10 March 1817 a planned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanketeers">mass procession of men carrying blankets</a> to keep them warm on the journey, started out from St Peter’s Fields Manchester. The aim was to reach London to petition the Regent for parliamentary reform. Before they set out the Riot Act was read and two of the leaders were arrested at Stockport by the local yeomanry - only a small party got as far as Macclesfield. (The prisoners were judged harmless and released without trial.) The intentions of the marchers were peaceful, but they were also angry and powerless, and might have posed a serious threat if they had been allowed to march on London.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Pentrich Rising</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">This was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentrich_rising">a genuine conspiracy</a>, infiltrated by Oliver, involving ex-Luddites. On the night of 8 June 1817 about 400 stockingers, ironworkers and labourers from the Derbyshire villages of Pentrich, Ripley and Alfreton gathered for action under the belief that a general rising of working people was to take place the next day. Their ‘captain’ was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Brandreth">Jeremiah Brandreth,</a> a framework knitter. The plan was to attack the barracks at Nottingham seize the town before taking boats down the Trent to Newark with the eventual aim of reaching London where the forces promised by Oliver would overthrow the government. Eight miles short of Nottingham, most of the company fled at the sight of the cavalry and yeomanry. Over 80 arrests were made during the next few weeks. Thirty-five men were tried for high treason. Brandreth and two others were sentenced to death and another eleven men were transported for life. But not all the evidence was presented in court in order to protect Oliver. Nevertheless on the scaffold Brandreth blamed his death on Oliver and Sidmouth, a claim investigated by the <span style="font-style: italic;">Leeds Mercury</span>.</span><br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWq7iDSdhycwthQ17gtmmyfrpGFUjy1twYBMuEyZ_xhHGXO308_lyoI0MCHM9B4BRXlAtHDM2IRXlNOhzIbG7aziVL-WBCpK3gk6iLbB_j3PW9yp3PBUt6u0vut9O1p7X61tLUqcqteAOI/s1600/brandreth-medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWq7iDSdhycwthQ17gtmmyfrpGFUjy1twYBMuEyZ_xhHGXO308_lyoI0MCHM9B4BRXlAtHDM2IRXlNOhzIbG7aziVL-WBCpK3gk6iLbB_j3PW9yp3PBUt6u0vut9O1p7X61tLUqcqteAOI/s200/brandreth-medium.jpg" width="90" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The execution of Jeremiah Brandreth,<br />
'the Nottingham captain'<br />
Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Radical publications</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sidmouth’s circular, and a rather feeble propaganda campaign, did not stop the emergence of radical publications. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In December 1817 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hone">William Hone</a> was found not guilty of blasphemous libel by sympathetic London jurymen and released to the cheers of the crowd. </span><span style="font-size: large;">His illustrat</span><span style="font-size: large;">ed <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-political-house-that-jack-built-a-radical-political-satire-by-william-hone-and-george-cruikshank">Political House that Jack Built</a></span>, publishe</span><span style="font-size: large;">d in 1819 was to caricature the entire system. The government were unable to control a press which relentlessly propounded the message that the distress of the people was caused by corruption in high places.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />This was the situation in 1819 when the nation was shaken by the Peterloo Massacre.</span>Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-82413187491383280522019-10-05T08:19:00.001+00:002019-10-05T08:19:07.622+00:00Radicalism and the end of the war<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Whigs, Tories and radicals</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The death first of Pitt and then of Fox in 1806 helped transformed politics. The ‘friends of Mr Pitt’ formed an embryonic Tory party. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The ‘friends of Mr Fox’ grouped round <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grey,_2nd_Earl_Grey">Charles, 2nd Earl Grey</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Whigs agreed on two issues: the need to reduce the power of the Crown and the need to settle the Catholic question. </span><span style="font-size: large;">But they were embarrassed by radical elements within the party, who mounted frequent criticisms of the government’s war policy. </span><span style="font-size: large;">There were also radicals outside the party, such as the radical baronet, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Burdett">Sir Francis Burdett</a>, and the journalist, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cobbett">William Cobbett</a>. They demanded a radical reform of taxation and manhood suffrage. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">From 1810 onwards, although the Tories were firmly in power, the country itself was becoming more unsettled. </span><span style="font-size: large;">1811 and 1812 were crisis years: a time of economic hardship, disillusionment at the Regent’s failure to dismiss his Tory ministers, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812">war with the United States</a>. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In May 1812 the prime minister, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Perceval">Spencer Perceval</a>, was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This is the background to the Luddite disturbances.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Luddism</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWDjLLzyWATKpoemmFMFV6wYVAPLQRfU94oOdV7scbzchdPP5VZry7ajpSXu9kPvz-HVHuOW6foRELXtamIj2EH72EuiAaLysOhnbOedmz68taBR3OBj91NUQFl8W_C3idCz__7qwopno/s1600-h/luddites.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" height="191" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252919669405288194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWDjLLzyWATKpoemmFMFV6wYVAPLQRfU94oOdV7scbzchdPP5VZry7ajpSXu9kPvz-HVHuOW6foRELXtamIj2EH72EuiAaLysOhnbOedmz68taBR3OBj91NUQFl8W_C3idCz__7qwopno/s200/luddites.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The word <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite">Luddite</a> has entered the vocabulary to denote an attitude of stubborn resistance to change an innovation. But the original Luddites were not ignorant, indiscriminate despoilers. They were skilled men who attacked specific targets. Nor was machine-breaking a new phenomenon. Spinning jennies, water-frames and carding engines were all attacked in Lancashire in the 1770s. Gig mills and shearing frames were attacked at the same time by ‘croppers’ or ‘shearmen’ (who raised and cut level the nap of woollen cloth) in the west of England. (In 1804 French weavers attacked the Jacquard loom in Lyons.)</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Luddite movement can be said to have begun in 1811 when the first anonymous threatening letter bearing the pseudonym of 'Ned Ludd' was received by a Nottinghamshire employer. The <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCMeeBS5zA7QY6-tA-7G1_4MtpR1T37mga-AtqvyiNt4zVdf6zXEack8Uxt5ZPr_TyrutetZmNFGFJGlxH8yNHBktB7IIIcOlsE073lhmd8FSOKKsKiZzWcKrY6ltMoogrxc3mbKRTfw4/s1600-h/Luddite.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252920076416249922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCMeeBS5zA7QY6-tA-7G1_4MtpR1T37mga-AtqvyiNt4zVdf6zXEack8Uxt5ZPr_TyrutetZmNFGFJGlxH8yNHBktB7IIIcOlsE073lhmd8FSOKKsKiZzWcKrY6ltMoogrxc3mbKRTfw4/s200/Luddite.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a>Nottingham Review referred for the first time to the framework knitters who had destroyed stocking frames since March 1811 as Luddites. The origins of the term in East Midlands folklore are obscure, but it has been claimed that the term derived from a Leicestershire youth named Ludlam, who had angrily smashed the needles of his stocking frame some years earlier. Variations of the pseudonym during the period 1811 to 1816 included Captain Ned Ludd, General Ludd, King Ludd and even Lady Ludd.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Luddism has been seen an indigenous working-class movement that developed independently of the leaders of popular radicalism. In each area the issues were different, but all concerned threats to the status and living standards of artisans, owing partly to an overstocking of the labour market and partly to the introduction of machines of manufacturing techniques which devalued their skills. They did not speak spoke not for the whole working class but for the skilled workers trying to maintain differentials.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There was little scope for legal protest. The Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800 had banned ‘combinations’ of workers on pain of imprisonment. However, the Acts were not very effectual, as the the war offered opportunity for many craft workers to put pressure on their employers and force up wages. But not all workers had this type of bargaining power. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">1. The East Midlands</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Luddite disturbances began and lasted longest in the hosiery and lace trades of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, trades which relied heavily on exports. The framework knitting trades had been hard hit by the closure of the American market to British goods. But there were also older grievances concerning the production of cheap ‘cut-up’ stockings by unskilled labour on wide <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocking_frame">stocking-frames</a> which threatened the respectability of their trade and increased the threat of dilution. They also fought against wage-cuts in a shrinking market.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">From November 1811 to February 1812 groups of well-disciplined masked men smashed the sixty frames in Arnold, belonging to the hosiers who refused to comply with their demands. In November the attacks spread into Derbyshire and Leicestershire. The attacks ceased early in 1812 probably because the men were partly successful in forcing hosiers to comply with their demands for better wages. But by this time about 1,000 lace and stocking frames had been destroyed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile a bill to make frame-breaking a capital offence was making steady progress through <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjVAP8NMuN3p7TJoIP6rxt1d503iyyHYqzuUTst1gkxk6WCMtgFCKtZN5FIdmBW5QA4VdLS43NT2ADwNgl1T-NBkU_-j9o_q9A0ieJJ90RRSp0nwp9Sn_3ZvFx1FC0cTt17HLdAnKSyyQ/s1600-h/luddites+poster.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252920484922020322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjVAP8NMuN3p7TJoIP6rxt1d503iyyHYqzuUTst1gkxk6WCMtgFCKtZN5FIdmBW5QA4VdLS43NT2ADwNgl1T-NBkU_-j9o_q9A0ieJJ90RRSp0nwp9Sn_3ZvFx1FC0cTt17HLdAnKSyyQ/s200/luddites+poster.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" /></a>parliament. It became law in February in spite of a powerful speech by Lord Byron. 2,000 troops and special constables were sent into the area - the largest ever sent to quell a local grievance.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">2. The West Riding</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">By January 1812 the machine-breaking had spread to Yorkshire. The Yorkshire protest had a much more violent tone. Here croppers resisted the introduction of shearing frames and gig mills by manufacturers anxious to make long-term economies and to break the monopoly of woollen cloth finishing exercised by the 5,000 highly skilled outworkers. By no means all manufacturers could afford the new machines and the targets were therefore easily selected.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Croppers trimmed or shaved the woollen cloth after it had been woven and fulled. The skills of these men, after several years’ apprenticeship, lay in neatly cutting off the nap of the cloth, using giant shears that weighed up to 60lb. It was known that in cropping or dressing a piece of cloth, they could double the value of the material. They were highly paid - they could earn up to 25 shillings a week - and could have savings of up to £100. They were the aristocrats of the labour market with a reputation for independence.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjvOHl3vW6Oy0C1Qn0OBkx6TB_i8sVVbt1fYQ6tUrdC8Tskn1nWuPQ5ZO_iPwxa4zrTDxX7MGtnVFY01rTf3kq5kUNt1z3sXoa_OEOsropkARHYDlPXUzOp0pGEmsgC9jmWkTlJ-oJIU/s1600-h/gig+mill.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252921596597883906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjvOHl3vW6Oy0C1Qn0OBkx6TB_i8sVVbt1fYQ6tUrdC8Tskn1nWuPQ5ZO_iPwxa4zrTDxX7MGtnVFY01rTf3kq5kUNt1z3sXoa_OEOsropkARHYDlPXUzOp0pGEmsgC9jmWkTlJ-oJIU/s200/gig+mill.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a>The gig mill (left) had been banned by legislation dating from the time of Edward VI. It was quite a simple invention - instead of the nap being raised by hand, the cloth was passed between cylinders set with teazles.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The shearing frame (right) was a device by which shears set in a frame <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghER4hyLUu88cwgVYKN0RYjNxyGoLQa7LMgZFY6_y7fE3iRW5Nt2L4LR7F4OGxIhFYbFvGfdL-VWcTFxd7AIdQwElWfEty1t1L99lwuOvP3gxI9FglnDXaQgUByT8fpgSIyfpzwHajCcg/s1600-h/TexCropP.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252923259568468898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghER4hyLUu88cwgVYKN0RYjNxyGoLQa7LMgZFY6_y7fE3iRW5Nt2L4LR7F4OGxIhFYbFvGfdL-VWcTFxd7AIdQwElWfEty1t1L99lwuOvP3gxI9FglnDXaQgUByT8fpgSIyfpzwHajCcg/s200/TexCropP.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" /></a>could be passed over the surface of the cloth. An unskilled man and a boy could do in a day what it took a skilled cropper a week to do.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">January 1812 Forster’s cloth mill in Wakefield was destroyed in an arson attack. Following this groups of between thirty and fifty men organised in companies and equipped with muskets, pistols, pikes, hammers and hatchets were involved in a spate of daring late-night raids on small workshops around Huddersfield, resulting in the destruction of forty shearing frames and three gig mills.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBvKTdxK09MizAhW0NpDJBTWJmdSWKO2efPyhucQM799r5PAnRFg8rgLBrxQ622p2xfqpI79HlelXGYzica6pENYzM-NyMM-OqH0rPmzNCzFV00drLeLLiEwxX7IbQbQSflKzOde55cM/s1600-h/HorsfallMurderBensonTrials.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252923741574828002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBvKTdxK09MizAhW0NpDJBTWJmdSWKO2efPyhucQM799r5PAnRFg8rgLBrxQ622p2xfqpI79HlelXGYzica6pENYzM-NyMM-OqH0rPmzNCzFV00drLeLLiEwxX7IbQbQSflKzOde55cM/s200/HorsfallMurderBensonTrials.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The murder of William Horsfall,<br />
27 April 1812.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In April, there were large-scale attacks on mills at Horbury near Wakefield and on William Cartwright’s mill at Rawfolds near Cleckheaton. (Cartwright is the origin of Gerard Moore in Charlotte Brontë's <span style="font-style: italic;">Shirley</span>.) The failure of the second attack left two Luddites mortally wounded. This marked a turning point in the history of Yorkshire Luddism, which entered a more violent phase when William Horsfall, a Huddersfield manufacturer notorious for his opposition to the Luddites was murdered on 27 April.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">3. Lancashire</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lancashire Luddism is more difficult to disentangle, as it was mixed confusingly with food rioting and political action.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the spring of 1812 power looms were attacked by handloom weavers but the number of these expensive and unreliable machines was not large until the 1820s and the threat was much less immediate than to the croppers. Another aspect of Lancashire Luddism can be seen in the attack on Burton’s power-weaving factory at Middleton, when colliers from Hollingwood who had assembled in the Oldham market place and forced the sale of food at ‘traditional’ prices, then took themselves off to the factory. Here they were fired on and five rioters were killed. The next day the manufacturer’s house was burned to the ground.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The end of Luddism</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In January 1813 a special judicial commission sat at York castle. Twenty-four men were found guilty, some for the murder of Horsfall, some for administering illegal oaths, some for smashing machines. Seventeen were executed, three in one session, fourteen in another, hanged from two beams. The crowds were sombre and silent. The rest were transported for seven years. Luddism was broken. New machines were introduced. The number of skilled croppers in the Leeds area dropped from 1700 to barely a handful in 5 years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The meaning of Luddism</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">If Luddism is seen as simply an economic phenomenon then it was a failure. The decline of the framework knitters, handloom weavers and croppers was inevitable. These skilled workers were being priced out of the market and their place was taken by women and unskilled men.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is no doubt that there was local support for the Luddites. In the summer and autumn of 1812, 12,000 soldiers were in the disturbed areas, but they still remained hidden. The local landed gentry, who disliked the manufacturers, were often sympathetic.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Was Luddism a vital stage in the emergence of working-class consciousness as E. P. Thompson argued: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Luddism must be seen as arising at the crisis-point in the abrogation of paternalist legislation, and in the imposition of the political economy of laissez faire upon, and against the will and conscience of, the working people. (<i>The Making of the English Working Class</i>, p. 594)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Was it an alternative political tradition? An organised conspiracy against industrial capitalism? Or was it a purely industrial dispute?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is very difficult to obtain evidence of conspiracy. By definition conspiracies are secret, and the reports of spies and agents provocateurs. Luddites were not typical working men and the movement did not outlast the economic crisis which brought it to life. As conditions improved in 1813 it faded away (though there was a brief reappearance in the East Midlands in 1814).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The end of the war</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Napoleon was now beginning to lose power in Europe. He had been seriously weakened by the Moscow campaign and the British toe-hold in the Peninsula.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1813 the British government began to fashion a system of alliances against Napoleon that became the Sixth Coalition.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1813 saw two great allied victories: Wellington's victory at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vitoria">Vitoria</a> in June and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leipzig">Leipzig</a> in October. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The key figure in the diplomacy of this period was the Foreign Secretary, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stewart,_Viscount_Castlereagh">Viscount Castlereagh</a>. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He continued Pitt’s strategy of trying to create a stable Europe in which France would eventually play a major part.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The war ended in two stages. In March 1814 Napoleon was defeated and abdicated. He was exiled to Elba and the Bourbon dynasty was restored. However, i</span><span style="font-size: large;">n March 1815 he escaped from Elba and landed in the south of France. </span><span style="font-size: large;">His Hundred Days was ended by the allied victory at Waterloo.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Conclusion</span></span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">With the defeat of Napoleon Britain emerged the victor after a war of twenty-two years. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The census of 1811 had revealed a population of 17. 8 million and this population was rising rapidly, presenting the nation with both challenges and opportunities. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Britain was the only industrialised nation, and was the greatest power the world had ever seen.</span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<br />Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-50439861607826019962019-10-05T08:08:00.000+00:002019-10-05T08:09:35.057+00:00From Trafalgar to the Peninsular War<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Treaty of Amiens</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Pitt’s resignation came at a time when the nation was war-weary. Taxation was high, prices were rising and there was no immediate hope of military success. It was a crucial point in the war when Napoleon seemed to have Europe within his grasp, and Britain was without allies. The demand for peace was irresistible. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 1 October 1801 the peace preliminaries were signed and accepted by Parliament with comparatively little opposition. In a Commons speech Pitt strongly endorsed the peace. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Amiens">The Treaty of Amiens </a>was signed on 27 March 1802. The terms were not advantageous to Britain, who finally acknowledged French hegemony in Europe, and took no account of recent British victories. Britain handed back the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch and Trinidad to Spain. It recognised French dominance of northern Italy. However, the treaty’s popularity was confirmed by a comfortable win for Addington’s government in the general election of 1802.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSLrGslEHZfvut7pH0tzKss-HWeqSvWl1GmQyosX1etJa2R6_kyMp10-TQOvaEIU1VH2SBESXYJCv_dCltsKU39BnhBpES-ibvEjd6jOOA62Lc7u27FMJJJA6OnCcwpihfXue7wu3cDec/s1600/430px-Gillray_-_The_First_Kiss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="430" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSLrGslEHZfvut7pH0tzKss-HWeqSvWl1GmQyosX1etJa2R6_kyMp10-TQOvaEIU1VH2SBESXYJCv_dCltsKU39BnhBpES-ibvEjd6jOOA62Lc7u27FMJJJA6OnCcwpihfXue7wu3cDec/s200/430px-Gillray_-_The_First_Kiss.jpg" width="143" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Gillray, <i>The First Kiss</i><br />
Library of Congress<br />
Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the interval of peace, there was a spate of British visitors to France, including Fox, who travelled to France in the autumn of 1802 with Mrs Armistead. On 2 November he finally met First Consul Bonaparte, and was deeply disillusioned to learn that he was a dictator! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Addington did not believe that the peace was permanent. He did not withdraw troops from the West Indies and made only moderate cuts to the army and navy. Meanwhile the French invaded and occupied Switzerland. By the spring of 1803 Britain’s defences were sufficiently good for Addington to take the initiative, declare war on 18 May and take Bonaparte by surprise. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The second phase of the war and the re-alignment of politics</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The second phase of the French wars entailed far greater sacrifices for the British people than the first. Subsidies to allies were much larger, taxation was higher. Nearly two thirds of government expenditure went directly on the army and navy. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Napoleon was now planning the invasion of England, and in 1804 Spain joined the war on the side of France. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Addington’s hold on power was increasingly precarious, while the Opposition was reforming. Pitt’s cousin, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grenville,_1st_Baron_Grenville">Lord Grenville</a>, disgusted with Pitt’s stand on Catholic Emancipation, formed an alliance with Fox. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In May, Addington resigned and Pitt was returned as prime minister. Addington had not been as bad a prime minister as many had feared. He had done better than Pitt in providing a fiscal underpinning for the war. His property tax (a shilling in the pound on all incomes over £150 pa) had adopted the principle of deduction at source. Nevertheless he was seen as an uninspiring leader at a time of national danger.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, Pitt was a shadow of the prime minister he had once been. His government was weak. He was confronted with an an Opposition that was now back in business - and and he faced an invasion threat.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The invasion threat</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In M</span><span style="font-size: large;">ay 1804 Bonaparte confirmed his position as dictator by his elevation as Emperor (he was crowned in Notre Dame on 2 December 1804). In the summer of 1804 more than 80,000 Frenchmen were assembled at and around Boulogne in preparation of invasion. As a response the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Military_Canal">Royal Military Canal</a> was constructed in haste to provide a water obstacle to seal off the Dungeness Peninsula and Romney Marsh. The sluice gates were protected by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martello_tower">Martello towers</a>. A total of 73 of these circular towers were built by the end of 1806 - by which time they were no longer needed.</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDaiaP4duXkQ-ZJRZQNfvJZdMGrHOXiVkvUxtwJPMCA_gt8WqeX5lTR2ZGfH0o-C9wNP2q6bxH4uuPoyFbzzEOBOPG8ry6vsS785DBUzL_bH6Ap00052-_RppF4aI7A0QZ_-eGDEZ4jDc/s1600/800px-Caricature_gillray_plumpudding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="800" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDaiaP4duXkQ-ZJRZQNfvJZdMGrHOXiVkvUxtwJPMCA_gt8WqeX5lTR2ZGfH0o-C9wNP2q6bxH4uuPoyFbzzEOBOPG8ry6vsS785DBUzL_bH6Ap00052-_RppF4aI7A0QZ_-eGDEZ4jDc/s200/800px-Caricature_gillray_plumpudding.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Gillray, <i>The Plum Pudding in Danger</i><br />
published in February 1805 when it<br />
was briefly believed that Pitt and<br />
Napoleon would reach an agreement.<br />
Public domain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Napoleon’s invasion plan depended on his gaining temporary command of the Channel, which, he believed, would give him sufficient time to land an army of 350,000 in eastern Kent, which would then go on to occupy London and end the war. For this he needed </span><span style="font-size: large;">a concentrated break-out of the French fleets at Toulon and Brest, which would give the slip to the British navy, then in the Mediterranean, and make for the West Indies, picking up on the way Spanish squadrons from Cartagena and Cadiz. These would be pursued by the British fleet. When the British navy was safely in the West Indies, the Combined (Franco-Spanish) Fleet was to double back, destroy the British near Ushant, off Brittany, and take control of the Channel while it was crossed by the invading army.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, part of the scheme was foiled from the outset. The British blockade prevented Admiral Ganteaume from leaving Brest. In March <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Charles_Villeneuve">Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve</a> broke out of Toulon under cover of bad weather, picked up the Spanish Cadiz squadron under Don Carlos Gravina and the Combined Fleet then sailed across the Atlantic. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Muej55eIk5alW6qoSkBHg8fnJS7EvrAZPkrnmwC1ar3-TDg6_GFgve3QZlNr18RrGYxFMtch3T1bKkrP_1ZV9L8Zbbd_dNbL5LT9rG7fD_foXjSfR4MbX9PDzVLiOSi1o8fYEtfoYaI/s1600/Amiraldevilleneuve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="222" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Muej55eIk5alW6qoSkBHg8fnJS7EvrAZPkrnmwC1ar3-TDg6_GFgve3QZlNr18RrGYxFMtch3T1bKkrP_1ZV9L8Zbbd_dNbL5LT9rG7fD_foXjSfR4MbX9PDzVLiOSi1o8fYEtfoYaI/s200/Amiraldevilleneuve.jpg" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Admiral Villeneuve, the unfortunate<br />
French commander.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This left Nelson with an agonizing decision. Where had Villeneuve gone? His hunch was that he was planning an attack on Jamaica. But suppose he was wrong and the Channel fleet was lost?</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘If they are not gone to the West Indies, I shall be blamed. To be burned in effigy or Westminster Abbey is my destiny.’</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 7 May Nelson passed Gibraltar. In 24 days he crossed the Atlantic (it had taken Villeneuve 34 days). On his arrival he found Villeneuve had sailed back to Europe. His despatches, sent by fast frigate, warning of Villeneuve’s probable return, were in London almost a fortnight before the French fleet arrived back in European waters. The element of surprise had been lost and the British forces were ranging against him to the northward. On 22 July <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Calder">Admiral Calder</a> fought an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cape_Finisterre_%281805%29">indecisive battle off Cape Finisterre</a>. The Combined Fleet made port in Cadiz on 21 August, and after this, the invasion scare was effectively over. </span><span style="font-size: large;">On 15 September Calder sailed from Portsmouth, with instructions</span><span style="font-size: large;"> to cover Gibraltar, Cape St Vincent and Cadiz. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Napoleon's priorities had now shifted. He was once again at war with Austria, who then entered a coalition with Britain (paid for by the British taxpayer). He withdrew his troops from Boulogne and headed for the Danube. </span><span style="font-size: large;">On 7 O<span id="goog_1669329174"></span><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1669329175"></span>ctober the Austrian general Mack was defeated at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ulm">Ulm</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Trafalgar</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 20 October, reluctantly obeying orders from Napoleon Villeneuve sailed out of Cadiz in order to join the fleet off Naples for a minor engagement. Historians are still debating about why Napoleon gave his unfortunate admiral such a crazy order. On the following day the Combined Fleet was <a href="http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk/battle-of-trafalgar.html">defeated at Trafalgar</a>, an astonishing achievement for Nelson. His </span><span style="font-size: large;">controversial tactic was to sail </span><span style="font-size: large;">head-on into the French fleet and take the inevitable punishment until he could get near enough to inflict huge damage on the enemy. It was a tactic that </span><span style="font-size: large;">relied on an extraordinary degree of skill and professionalism.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB5HnswOFld8SOvcMzIowEh0GHKk8AGJjdHF4pQBuvhZiILIHnORXVZiaNKWWJmpJunUaxYTI2V_RzzTVOmZ4NSUCeQouYCiKpDk-S4XyvnTaVDwCUE4JH_PEjXKInVwXqatN619xSSxQ/s1600/Battle_of_Trafalgar_Poster_1805.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="325" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB5HnswOFld8SOvcMzIowEh0GHKk8AGJjdHF4pQBuvhZiILIHnORXVZiaNKWWJmpJunUaxYTI2V_RzzTVOmZ4NSUCeQouYCiKpDk-S4XyvnTaVDwCUE4JH_PEjXKInVwXqatN619xSSxQ/s200/Battle_of_Trafalgar_Poster_1805.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The death of Nelson was obviously a serious blow, but <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuthbert_Collingwood,_1st_Baron_Collingwood">Admiral Collingwood</a>, </span><span style="font-size: large;">who succeeded him as commander of the fleet, kept the French fleet in a state of psychological subservience after 1805.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 5 November news of Nelson’s death reached London. Later in the month, Pitt delivered his speech at the Lord Mayor’s banquet. To the Lord Mayor’s toast to the ‘saviour of Europe’ he replied, </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.'</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 9 January 1806 Nelson was given a state funeral of great magnificence – far more than that afforded to any monarch. He had become the national icon.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Austerlitz and the death of Pitt</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In spite of its iconic significance, Trafalgar was not a knock-out blow for Napoleon. From September, his first priority had been to destroy the Austrian army and, following his victory at Ulm, he defeated a combined Russian and Austrian army at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Austerlitz">Austerlitz</a>, his greatest victory. He was almost at the height of his power. On 6 December the thousand-year Holy Roman Empire was ended. The Third Coalition was over. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The British people were now faced with an enemy whose ambitions seemed limitless, and there seemed little alternative to prolonged resistance. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Pitt recognised that the news was a disaster for Britain. He said, ‘Roll up the map. It will not be wanted these ten years’. He had been unwell, and he died on 23 January 1806, leaving debts of £40,000. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He was buried at Westminster Abbey on 22 February.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Ministry of All the Talents</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">With the death of Pitt, politics entered a new phase. George III was forced to abandon his hostility to the Whigs. He offered the premiership to Lord Grenville, now an ally of the Whigs, who formed </span><span style="font-size: large;">a Whig-dominated Ministry of All the Talents, with Fox as Foreign Secretary. Addington, now Lord Sidmouth, was Home Secretary.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Following Austerlitz, Napoleon defeated the Prussians at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jena%E2%80%93Auerstedt">Jena-Auerstedt</a> in October 1806. Berlin was occupied and the Grand Army pushed into Poland. France was dominant from the Baltic to the Mediterranean coast. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fox had come into government with two aims: to secure peace with France and to end the slave trade. However, a</span><span style="font-size: large;">s Foreign Secretary, he was a failure – he misread France’s intentions, realising too late that Napoleon was not interested in peace. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He died on 14 October 1806. The slave trade was abolished the following March - his greatest (though posthumous) achievement.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On the same day that abolition received the royal assent (25 March the Talents ministry resigned when the king blocked a bill to allow Roman Catholics to hold commissions in the armed forces.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">By the end of March 1807 the ‘friends of Mr Pitt’ were back in a ministry led by the Duke of Portland. This government has retrospectively been seen as Tory.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Economic warfare</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, Napoleon had embarked on a strategy of economic warfare known as the ‘Continental System’. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The Berlin decree of November 1806 closed all ports under French control to vessels from Britain and her colonies. In January 1807 Grenville’s government replied with the Orders in Council, which confined Europe's trade to neutral shipping and forced all vessels to proceed via British ports.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fearing that Napoleon was about to bring Denmark into the Continental System, the Royal Navy launched a pre-emptive bombardment of Copenhagen from 16 August to 5 September 1807 – an episode that was widely seen as immoral.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The British blockade damaged France far more than the continental system damaged Britain, and British entrepreneurs began to open up South America to British goods. New markets were found in the Cape of Good Hope and India. </span><span style="font-size: large;">However, the manufacturing areas were hit, and the manufacturers of the north and Midlands looked to the Whigs to mount a parliamentary assault on the Orders in Council. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Peninsular War</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Portland’s government was determined to follow up the shelling of Copenhagen and the Orders in Council by landing an expeditionary force in Europe. The opportunity was provided by Napoleon himself. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In March 1808 he took advantage of a crisis in Spain to occupy Madrid and impose his brother Joseph as king of Spain. This gave France the potential to annexe the huge Spanish Empire. But the French occupation inspired a popular nationalist advance in May, which gave</span><span style="font-size: large;"> Britain her opportunity. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX9Lqo-5BMCpa7jiQJOOju4HbXDt9qmHy8kbHSGDInbOy6C8hyphenhyphenHsSCOZwX8vjE9LK5FXHfdVHpIHhXFfnGSbFgh6wRGsgDiABM6j1uO1UrWuQXRaU7y-J63PM0zLFyZmuDY6Miir1AHro/s1600/776px-El_Tres_de_Mayo%252C_by_Francisco_de_Goya%252C_from_Prado_thin_black_margin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="776" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX9Lqo-5BMCpa7jiQJOOju4HbXDt9qmHy8kbHSGDInbOy6C8hyphenhyphenHsSCOZwX8vjE9LK5FXHfdVHpIHhXFfnGSbFgh6wRGsgDiABM6j1uO1UrWuQXRaU7y-J63PM0zLFyZmuDY6Miir1AHro/s200/776px-El_Tres_de_Mayo%252C_by_Francisco_de_Goya%252C_from_Prado_thin_black_margin.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Francisco Goya, <i>The Third of May 1808</i><br />
Museum of the Prado, Madrid<br />
Public domain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In July a British expeditionary force of 9,000 men under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington">Sir Arthur Wellesley</a> (created Viscount Wellington in 1809 and Duke of Wellington in 1814) landed in Portugal and defeated the French at Vimeiro. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The British then controversially retreated from the Peninsula, but in April 1809 Wellington returned. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peninsular_War">Peninsular War</a> had begun. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeLMx1mSF5aCjmRZSsSf7AY36_OP5WfHW1msw7fJej502wAtKOGd0YoYl6io4z6y9CdO7IHnGE78rm7hms7YlA72bJ7DppW9dYPH7ht87UWLwktY7IQQ0QkPriwJ5M1cAtuFu7zFXrxU/s1600/Sir_Arthur_Wellesley%252C_1st_Duke_of_Wellington.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="439" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeLMx1mSF5aCjmRZSsSf7AY36_OP5WfHW1msw7fJej502wAtKOGd0YoYl6io4z6y9CdO7IHnGE78rm7hms7YlA72bJ7DppW9dYPH7ht87UWLwktY7IQQ0QkPriwJ5M1cAtuFu7zFXrxU/s200/Sir_Arthur_Wellesley%252C_1st_Duke_of_Wellington.png" width="146" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington<br />
by Sir Thomas Lawrence<br />
Public domain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Wellington, commanded an army of 60,000 British troops, reinforced by the Spanish and Portuguese armies and guerrilla brigades. A French army was now tied down in Spain. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The cost to the British taxpayer was £18 million.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h2>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">In 1805/6 Britain experienced the highs and lows of the war: Nelson’s victory and death, and the death of Pitt.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">With Pitt’s death, politics refocussed and a revived Tory party began to emerge.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Britain entered a period of economic warfare that caused considerable hardship.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Spanish crisis enabled a British army to land in Europe once again.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-10293438495595375112019-09-26T13:54:00.000+00:002019-09-27T15:17:40.833+00:00Ireland 1798: 'the Year of the French'<span style="font-size: large;">This post owes a great deal to R.R.Foster's classic <span style="font-style: italic;">Modern Ireland, 1600-1972</span> (Penguin, 1988) and to Marianne Elliott's <i>Wolfe Tone. Prophet of Irish Independence</i> (Yale, 1989).<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-weight: bold;">The Protestant Ascendancy</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1800 the population of Ireland comprised: </span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> Roman Catholic Irish (3.1 million) </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> Protestant Anglo-Irish (450,000)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"> Presbyterians (900,000).</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The eighteenth century was the period of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland_1691%E2%80%931801">Protestant Ascendancy</a>, buttressed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_Laws">harsh penal laws</a>. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The mouthpiece of the Protestant ascendancy was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_Ireland">Irish Parliament in Dublin</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6f53juVhpVhZrAx_sAuh6aQ1_FqZqfvT0zVjATWDMl19ocRj0L6q9fxcqcPqnGxHtKor1Iyj3uDyd0ll6phXgaiENGHKGcmyKFccSXO-w0jvfznkcFoWcHIWc0Cgg-60BoQaCcwicYjg/s1600/Screenshot+2019-08-13+at+17.15.55.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="612" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6f53juVhpVhZrAx_sAuh6aQ1_FqZqfvT0zVjATWDMl19ocRj0L6q9fxcqcPqnGxHtKor1Iyj3uDyd0ll6phXgaiENGHKGcmyKFccSXO-w0jvfznkcFoWcHIWc0Cgg-60BoQaCcwicYjg/s200/Screenshot+2019-08-13+at+17.15.55.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Parliament House, Dublin<br />
Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The British government was represented by the Lord Lieutenant. The parliament was dominated by the Anglo-Irish, an exclusive group that monopolised political power and saw themselves as both English and Irish. Deprived of a political role, with land-owning made increasingly difficult, the Catholic gentry tended to go into trade. The largest grievance of the population as a whole was the poverty of the rural labourers (except in Ulster where there was a flourishing linen industry). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The Ulster Presbyterians had fewer grievances than Catholics, but until 1780 they were excluded from corporations, and though not legally barred from Parliament, only a few members were ever elected.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the later eighteenth century the harshness of the penal laws was toned down. Catholic chapels were built and the land tenure laws were liberalised. It was relatively easy to soften the penal laws - harder to resolve Ireland's underlying </span><span style="font-size: large;">economic problems.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Volunteer Movement</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">One issue that united most Irish people was a desire for greater independence from Westminster. This case was taken up in the Irish Parliament by two MPs, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Grattan">Henry Grattan</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Flood">Henry Flood</a>. During the American War many Ulster Presbyterians enthusiastically took up the cause of the colonists; like them, they were angered by the taxation policy of the Westminster Parliament. In </span><span style="font-size: large;">1778, with French entry into the war, the Volunteer Movement began in Ulster and spread over the whole country. It was not a militia under government control but a national volunteer army, and exclusively Protestant. In 1779 the Volunteers paraded in Dublin with a decorated brass cannon with the placard: ‘Free trade - or else’. In response the British Parliament passed acts removing the restrictions on Irish trade and allowing Presbyterians to take up local appointments.
In February 1782 a convention in Dungannon, addressed </span><span style="font-size: large;">by Grattan and Flood, called for independence for the Irish Parliament. A new constitution was granted by the reluctant <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Watson-Wentworth,_2nd_Marquess_of_Rockingham">Rockingham governmen</a>t, giving more rights for Catholics and greater legislative independence for the Irish Parliament.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The period of <a href="http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/events/dates/grattan.shtm">‘Grattan's Parliament’</a> was the greatest period of independence Ireland ever knew under British rule. It was a fitting end to the eighteenth century and coincided with an upsurge in national pride - the setting up of the Bank of Ireland, the continuing transformation of Dublin into a showcase Georgian city. But it was a very partial independence. Catholics were still not allowed to vote or to stand for Parliament and the liberalising measures only served to emphasize their disabilities. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-weight: bold;">The United Irishmen</span></span></h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_CHlF86NMFVH9YV5hMN1atueTNbwkmWDbVfAOCDq0WjwmCV1pVYkr6qWJQdy9mYA_FY1ZMZrQnjqdzDwd4lc726v6uwkcUzJs8V7ShupxrwL1P-yIutH9FwV42KzcPIi-eTOXs6woVMY/s1600-h/WolfeTone.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5161320549983029618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_CHlF86NMFVH9YV5hMN1atueTNbwkmWDbVfAOCDq0WjwmCV1pVYkr6qWJQdy9mYA_FY1ZMZrQnjqdzDwd4lc726v6uwkcUzJs8V7ShupxrwL1P-yIutH9FwV42KzcPIi-eTOXs6woVMY/s200/WolfeTone.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theobald Wolfe Tone<br />
Public domain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The French Revolution had a profound effect on Ireland. In the 1790s the Volunteer movement revived, but support was now concentrated among shopkeepers and skilled urban workers - exactly the same classes as the corresponding societies in England and Scotland. In 1790-1, the Catholic Committee, a movement of members of the Irish Catholic middle class, began to campaign for the abolition of the penal laws.
On 18 October 1791 the Belfast <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_the_United_Irishmen">Society of United Irishmen </a>was founded. Among the founders was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobald_Wolfe_Tone">Theobald Wolfe Tone (</a>1763-98), a young Protestant lawyer from Dublin. For Tone radical political reform and nationalist identity went hand in hand, with no place for sectarian divisions. The first resolutions of the United Irishmen asserted</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">That the weight of English influence in the Government in this country is so great, as to require a cordial union, among ALL THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND. ... No reform is practicable, efficacious, or just, which does not include Irishmen or every religious persuasion.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">In his posthumously published autobiography, written in 1796, Tone described his aim as</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">To subvert the tyranny of our execrable Government, to break the connexion with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country - these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions and to substitute the common name of Irishmen in the place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">His biographer, Marianne Elliott describes this as 'the most quoted passage of Irish history'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The United Irishmen sought to forge a new political alliance between the middle-class politically-aware Presbyterians of Belfast and Dublin and the rural Catholic majority, though these two groups - the one non-sectarian, the other devoutly religious - were largely incompatible. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pitt and Ireland</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The outbreak of war with France caused republicans like Wolfe Tone, <a href="http://www.irishdemocrat.co.uk/features/tandy/">Napper Tandy</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Emmet">Robert Emmet</a> to pin their hopes on a French invasion to coincide with a home-grown rebellion. This made the United Irishmen a potentially subversive body. One of their leaders, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Edward_FitzGerald">Lord Edward Fitzgerald,</a> first cousin of Charles James Fox, had corresponded with the English radical, Thomas Paine in 1792. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTECNrGM4hpmkMnZPhTJhenBrz0CQhMbi3fofvmnS0_abaH7crroWv3zXvfz0Mq0DcLC8r2TwxFYJHzGTscuGDNEEsyWQZARoXkwVPhM6VMta2TlpN6h35UizoavQzpRRDQY21vU9irsk/s1600/484px-LordEdwardFitzgerald.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="484" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTECNrGM4hpmkMnZPhTJhenBrz0CQhMbi3fofvmnS0_abaH7crroWv3zXvfz0Mq0DcLC8r2TwxFYJHzGTscuGDNEEsyWQZARoXkwVPhM6VMta2TlpN6h35UizoavQzpRRDQY21vU9irsk/s200/484px-LordEdwardFitzgerald.jpg" width="161" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lord Edward Fitzgerald<br />
aristocratic revolutionary<br />
Public domain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Both the French and the British knew that the weakest link in Britain's defences was going to be Ireland. In 1784 the Duke of Rutland, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, had told Pitt,</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘Ireland is too great to be unconnected with us, and too near to be dependent on a foreign state, and too little to be independent.’</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">In order to conciliate the Catholic majority, Pitt introduced a Catholic Relief Bill in 1793 which gave Catholics the vote on the same terms as Protestants, permitted them to bear arms, and allowed them to occupy most civil and military posts. There was now only one major disability facing Catholics: exclusion from membership of Parliament. These measured did not tilt the balance of power significantly, but in 1798 one promising young Catholic lawyer was called to the Irish bar: <a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRoconnell.htm">Daniel O'Connell.</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With war and the threat of revolution, Pitt came to the reluctant conclusion that he had to strengthen the grip of the Protestant ascendancy.
In 1795 following his coalition with the Portland Whigs in the previous summer, he sent the Portland-ite Earl Fitzwilliam to Ireland as Chief Secretary. Fitzwilliam rapidly went native: without any authority from Westminster he promised full Catholic emancipation (the right of Catholics to take their seats in Parliament). As a result he was recalled and replaced, and his dismissal ended hopes of legitimate reform in Ireland. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In disgust, Tone left for America and then headed for France to seek French aid, arriving there in February 1796. He took the <i>nom de guerre</i> of <i>citoyen Smith</i> in a vain attempt to elude Pitt's spies, and entered into negotiations with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazare_Carnot">Lazare Carnot</a>, one of the Directors who governed France at this time. In a memorandum produced for French agents he described Ireland as </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘a conquered and oppressed and insulted country’ </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">where </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘the name of England and her power is universally odious.'</span></blockquote>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Sectarian tensions</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Even while Fitzwilliam was trying to implement his reforms, sectarian passions were rife in parts of Ireland as Catholic ‘Defenders’ clashed frequently with Protestant <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peep_O%27Day_Boys">‘Peep O’ Day Boys’</a> who sought to terrorise Catholics and frighten them off their land. Both sides employed secret oaths, maimed cattle, terrorised juries and murdered those who infringed their codes. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> After some particularly vicious fighting in 1795, which reached its climax in September in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Diamond">Battle of the Diamond</a> (a piece of ground near Armagh) the Peep O’ Day Boys formed an Orange Society. The initial oath reflected a highly conditional loyalism: ‘To support the King and his heirs as long as he or they support the Protestant Ascendancy’.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subversion</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ireland was now a vital part of French strategy. On 16 December 1796, an expedition of a forty-three ship fleet and 15,000 men under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazare_Hoche">General Lazare Hoche</a>, accompanied by Wolfe Tone, was beaten back by storms, but it was clear that the French would try again. The British government could not relax, and </span><span style="font-size: large;">the number of troops in Ireland increased to 65,000, though they had to be scattered over the whole country. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> In Ulster</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Lake,_1st_Viscount_Lake">General Gerard Lake</a> r</span><span style="font-size: large;">uled with extreme harshness, carrying out martial law, free quarterings, house burnings and floggings on the flimsiest of suspicions. The United Irishmen then turned to desperate action: they would have to rebel, with or without French aid and in preparation they forged pikes and concealed guns and ammunition.
Links between Irish exiles in Paris and Britain with subversive forces in Ireland were maintained by a Catholic priest,</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Patriot-Priest-Reverend-Coigly-Narratives/dp/1859181422">James Coigly</a>, who </span><span style="font-size: large;">was arrested along with two members of the London Corresponding Society as he prepared to cross from Margate to France in 1798. He was tried in May and executed on 12 June 1798. Following Coigly’s arrest, virtually all the leading members of the United Irishmen in Britain and the LCS were arrested and, following a new suspension of Habeas Corpus, were kept in prison until 1801. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-weight: bold;">1798</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The rising of 1798 has been described by Roy Foster as </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘probably the most concentrated episode of violence in Irish history’.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"> The rising was finally fixed for 23 May with Edward Fitzgerald commander in chief. However on 19 May he was betrayed by a government spy, arrested and fatally wounded as he was captured. He died on 4 June. The Catholic Church promptly dissociated itself from the rebellion. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> Meanwhile Dublin and the adjacent counties rose on 24-25 May. On 30 May the rebels captured Wexford town. The Dublin outbreak was controlled in a week but Wexford, an area of poor Catholic/Protestant relations, with a higher than average proportion of Protestant settlers, saw ferocious fighting.
The insurgents took Enniscorthy and attempted to spread out the rebellion into Wicklow, but failed. The campaign was marked by horrific atrocities on both sides. The United Irishmen set up a camp on Vinegar Hill outside the town and on an old windmill there set up a green flag. A hundred Protestant prisoners were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scullabogue_Barn_Massacre">massacred in a barn at Scullabogue.</a> The main part of the rebellion ended with the rout of the insurgents on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vinegar_Hill">Vinegar Hill </a>and the capture of Wexford on 21 June. One of those rounded up and executed was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Murphy_(priest)">Father John Murphy,</a> who was hanged; his body was burned in a tar barrel and his head was set on a pike.
By this stage the rebellion seemed to have become a straightforward Catholic-Protestant conflict. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> On 21 August the French <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Humbert">General Jean Humbert</a> landed at Killala Bay in County Mayo with a force of 900 men. He defeated a numerically superior English force under General Lake at Castlebar (‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Castlebar">the races of Castlebar’</a>) on 23 August and set up a provisional government in Connaught. He recruited and armed many thousands of Irish peasants and was halfway on the road to Dublin when he was surrounded at Ballinamuck by two numerically superior armies of English and loyal Irish under the newly appointed commander-in-chief, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Cornwallis,_1st_Marquess_Cornwallis">Lord Cornwallis</a>. He surrendered on 8 September. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 6 September another French fleet of one flagship, eight frigates and 3000 men sailed from Brest, with Tone on board. Unaware that the English knew of their movements the fleet headed for Lough Swilly in Co Donegal, where they found eight British frigates waiting for them. At the end of a five hour battle on 12 October the French commander surrendered and Tone was captured. He claimed that he was a French officer and at his court martial he appeared in French uniform. In spite of this, on 10 November he was sentenced to be hanged – an indignity he had not anticipated. On 12 November he cut his throat with a penknife and died seven days later on the 19th.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The deaths of Fitzgerald and Tone (and of Robert Emmet in 1803) established a potent Irish martyrology. Look at W.B. Yeats's poem, <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57309/september-1913">September 1913</a></span>. </span><span style="font-size: large;">For the first time the idea of an independent Irish republic had been planted. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The legal mopping-up operation continued until 1801. Courts martial tended to punish the leaders harshly but to give amnesties to the followers. Many were transported to Australia, exiled to the United States or made to serve in regiments in the unhealthy West Indies. Roy Foster estimates the death-toll on both sides from various causes as 30,000 - a figure comparable to the deaths in the Reign of Terror.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Aftermath: the Act of Union and the resignation of Pitt</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The events of 1798 confirmed Pitt’s opinion that the Dublin parliament could not provide the order necessary for British as well as Irish security. He was convinced that it was essential to find a political solution; as it was, far too much of Britain’s increasingly stretched resources were put into the defence of her back door when they could be deployed more effectively in Europe, North Africa or the Caribbean. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He believed that the political solution was the union of the British and Irish parliaments and he argued the case in a Commons speech on 31 January 1799. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He bribed the Dublin parliament into surrendering its authority.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">In July 1800 the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Union_1800">Act of Union</a>, creating a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland received the royal assent and c</span><span style="font-size: large;">ame into operation on 1 January 1801. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Thirteen new Irish peers were created and 100 seats in the Irish Lower House were transferred to Westminster, adding to the </span><span style="font-size: large;">existing 558 in the British House of Commons. Twenty-eight peers and four bishops were added to the Lords. The system of government and administration for Ireland was largely retained, with a Chief Secretary appointed by the Crown, acting as chief executive. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For the Chief Secretary of Ireland, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stewart,_Viscount_Castlereagh">Viscount Castlereagh</a>, the Act was a disappointment, as it did nothing to resolve Catholic grievances. Here, </span><span style="font-size: large;">the great obstacle was the king. </span><span style="font-size: large;">At a levée on 28 January 1801 George III announced that he would look on anyone who voted for Catholic Emancipation as ‘personally indisposed’ towards him. In February Pitt resigned and the king appointed the Speaker of the House, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Addington,_1st_Viscount_Sidmouth">Henry Addington</a> as prime minister. His father had been the Pitt family doctor - something that seemed astonishing in such a hierarchical society. The politician, George Canning expressed the general astonishment when he wrote: ‘Pitt is to Addington/As London is to Paddington’.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Conclusion</span></span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The events of 1798 exposed the fragility of Britain's hold on Ireland - something the French were very ready to exploit.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The revolt convinced Pitt of the need to unite the London and Dublin parliaments and to create a new political entity, the United Kingdom.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The question of Catholic Emancipation now rose to the top of the political agenda and would remain so until Catholics were allowed to be admitted as MPs.</span></li>
</ol>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-49150580894346474522019-09-20T19:33:00.000+00:002019-09-21T21:05:08.456+00:00A nation at war: poverty, politics, finance<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnIs_0Blqr5uLJwDkQpgUgEz7S-cspqgzw8LR0Ui_Ew2EQQp1iwMcn9QJPe1ccsYLYUn06dby0fYYQvy6R73y3A0xjmpcqmw4y5bZNUCUo8Ns8WyHzRx6Xd3ZdWFlG9E8WjFOU3_oeP0/s1600/Screenshot+2019-08-11+at+14.51.53.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnIs_0Blqr5uLJwDkQpgUgEz7S-cspqgzw8LR0Ui_Ew2EQQp1iwMcn9QJPe1ccsYLYUn06dby0fYYQvy6R73y3A0xjmpcqmw4y5bZNUCUo8Ns8WyHzRx6Xd3ZdWFlG9E8WjFOU3_oeP0/s320/Screenshot+2019-08-11+at+14.51.53.png" width="172" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hannah More's Cheap Repository Tract,<br />
'The Riot',<br />
published in 1795</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Wartime hardship</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The summer of 1794 was one of prolonged drought and intense heat, and the result was a disappointing though not a disastrous harvest. This was followed by a severe winter, creating a grain shortage in early 1795. The spring saw rapid price rises. Shortages intensified in the summer, with garrison and naval towns suffering particularly. Bread rioters set fire to mills, sometimes they attacked those whom they believed to be hoarders or selling short measure; at other times they tried to prevent grain from leaving an area. At other times they commandeered goods and sold them at what they regarded as a fair price. This was not thuggery, but what the historian, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._P._Thompson">E. P. Thompson</a>, described as '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_economy">moral economy</a>': a traditionalist attempt to rectify what were seen as injustices in the pricing and sale of goods.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Women were prominent in these riots. They felt so strongly because they were trying to feed their families under difficult conditions. They also benefited from the law which regarded married women as acting under the direction of their husbands - could they therefore be punished as independent agents?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Solutions to poverty?</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The newspapers recommended recipes such as rice or potato bread. The rich were urged to stew their meat rather than roast it. The royal family tried to give a lead by reducing its consumption of white bread and eating more brown bread. The poor were urged to cook rice puddings - but the problem was that they did not have the ovens to cook them. They were also encouraged to eat potatoes rather than bread, but proved resistant. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The imposition of excise duty on hair powder (with a £20 fine for those caught breaking the law) was designed to lessen the use of flour. Legislation forbade the use of wheat in distilling and in making starch. It is not clear that anyone starved to death during the shortage - but it must have had a devastating effect on health. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One solution to rural poverty was found by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speenhamland_system">the magistrates of Speenhamland in Berkshire</a> in May 1795. This provided variable amounts of relief according to the size of a labourers’ family and the prevailing price of bread. It was bitterly attacked by political economists as encouraging large families and encouraging farmers to pay the lowest possible wage. It was also criticised for failing to discriminate between the idle and the industrious worker. However the system was quite widely adopted in the southern counties.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Pitt's 'Reign of Terror'</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Pitt’s government was fearful of a home-grown revolutionary insurrection and in the mid-1790s, the state increased its powers of coercion. </span><span style="font-size: large;">On 23 May 1794 Pitt succeeded in getting the suspension of Habeas Corpus through Parliament in the face of fierce Whig opposition.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1793 and 1794 a series of trials for sedition took place in Scotland, presided over by the infamous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McQueen,_Lord_Braxfield">Lord Braxfield</a>. The defendants were transported to Australia. However, in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1794_Treason_Trials">English treason trials of 1794</a>, the juries returned ‘Not Guilty’ verdicts.The difference between the English and Scottish trials reflects the different legal systems. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Although Fox asked shrewd questions about the purpose of the war and though his attacks on government repression were arguably ‘right’ he did not gain politically. His refusal to support the war split his party. In the summer of 1794 the Duke of Portland, the nominal party leader, entered into a coalition with Pitt, bringing with him his fellow conservative Whigs. Pitt was politically stronger than ever, and the Foxites reduced to irrelevance. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In December 1795 the government brought in the acts known colloquially as the Gagging Acts. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason_Act_1795">Treasonable Practices Act</a> forbade the expression of views calculated to bring king or government into contempt.The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seditious_Meetings_Act_1795">Seditious Meetings Act</a> forbade assemblies of more than 50 persons without prior notice and gave the magistrates power to disperse the onlookers if seditious observations were being made.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Finance</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The weakness of the British army, and of the mercenaries hired by the government, was shown in the unsuccessful campaigns in Flanders in 1793 and 1794. Pitt’s strategy was to seek victory through continental coalitions, paid for by loans, and therefore by the British taxpayer. This put unprecedented strains on the economy and the existing system of taxation. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>The suspension of cash payments:</b></span> News that French troops were ashore in Wales in February 1797 led to a run on the county banks. Combined with loans to foreign powers, this led to a shortage of gold. On 28 February the Bank of England suspended cash payments. In March an Order in Council allowed the Bank to issue notes without the need or promise to back them up with gold. The Bank and the county banks could issue notes under £5, and the first £1 and £2 notes began to emerge. Some banks failed under the stress. It was an important psychological change when people were forced into accepting a paper currency. By 1803 a Scottish banker said it was an ‘agreeable surprise’ to see how quickly the country had accepted paper money.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">The assessed taxes:</span></b> In the eighteenth century, the main direct tax was the land tax. It was supplemented by the ‘assessed taxes’ – a range of taxes on items such as windows, carriages and male servants, designed to tap the income of the rich – and by excise duties. Collection was delegated to commissioners drawn from the ranks of local taxpayers, which contributed to a high level of consent.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Income tax: </span></b>The outbreak of war placed strains on the fiscal constitution and exposed the inadequacy of existing taxes. From 1792-8 the national debt increased by about 80 per cent. In his budget speech of 3 December 1798 Pitt outlined his proposal to phase out the land tax and replace the assessed taxes with a new tax which no longer fell upon expenditure but upon incomes and in theory at least allowed the yield to rise in line with the income of the country. The tax involved:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">A general tax of 2/- in the £ on all incomes of £200 or more.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Incomes under £60 pa were exempt. Those with incomes between £60 and £200 were to pay on a graduated scale. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Individuals were to draw up their own assessments and swear an oath as to their accuracy. If they did not do this, Crown commissioners, sworn to confidentiality, would assess them.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The tax was deeply controversial, described by the Morning Chronicle as ‘a daring innovation. In the ensuing debates it was described as ‘a confiscation of property'. </span><span style="font-size: large;">But the bill became law within five weeks. It commanded patriotic war-time assent – and it was to be temporary! </span><span style="font-size: large;">Overall, it was collected with reasonable efficiency.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">As a war-time prime minister, Pitt presided over unprecedented change.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">More people were involved in the war than ever before, either as civilians or members of the armed forces.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The radicals came under increasing threat.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The country was forced to accept a paper currency and a new tax – income tax. The first census was undertaken in 1801.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-49051271522240281112019-09-13T10:39:00.000+00:002019-09-13T10:39:55.760+00:00Pitt the Younger<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgerH6C02hVYfAEPB3lrxdw_Tji02k0uvtIbRE1oyfZ7MiKx9kE8d8ZN1ZSA4fYY_CfNDwUvuHowe3D18jMK-FY9zslEzWWfA2h2btFm1Si_eefkLd5I2fU_eFa-aro1U7-CSzaDVu_AGI/s1600/William_Pitt_the_Younger_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="362" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgerH6C02hVYfAEPB3lrxdw_Tji02k0uvtIbRE1oyfZ7MiKx9kE8d8ZN1ZSA4fYY_CfNDwUvuHowe3D18jMK-FY9zslEzWWfA2h2btFm1Si_eefkLd5I2fU_eFa-aro1U7-CSzaDVu_AGI/s200/William_Pitt_the_Younger_2.jpg" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Pitt the Younger,<br />
by Thomas Gainsborough<br />
Burrell Collection, Glasgow<br />
Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The 'schoolboy prime minister'</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pitt_the_Younger">William Pitt</a> was born in 1759, the fourth child and second son of William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham. His early talents clearly destined him for political life. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge. His father died in 1778, encumbered with debts, leaving his younger son with lifelong money problems. In January 1781 he entered Parliament for Sir James Lowther’s pocket borough of Appleby, where he attached himself to the followers of the Earl of Shelburne. In July 1782, at the age of 23, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Earl of Shelburne’s short-lived government, but he resigned in March 1783 on the formation of the Fox-North coalition. In December 1783, the king dismissed the coalition and Pitt became prime minister. There was much mockery of the 'schoolboy prime minister' and many observers believed that his administration could not last. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, in the general election of the following year, he was returned with a majority of 120, having gained about seventy seats. He was thus that </span><span style="font-size: large;">rare eighteenth-century creature – a prime minister returned to power in a landslide election victory. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Political principles</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Pitt was always to insist that he was not a party man and his description of himself as an ‘independent Whig’ was simply an assertion of his support for the principles of the Glorious Revolution. It was only retrospectively that he was seen as a Tory.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Free trade:</b> Influenced by the ideas of Adam Smith, he signed a modest free-trade treaty with France in 1786. Until destroyed by war, the treaty allowed French wines to enter Britain at preferential rates while the French market was open to British manufactured goods in a general tariff reduction. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Through the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nootka_Crisis">Nootka Sound dispute with Spain </a>in 1789–90, he secured British whaling interests in the Pacific Ocean and opportunities also for trade with Asia.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Finance:</b> </span><span style="font-size: large;">As Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Pitt showed a great mastery of detail and administrative expertise. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Having inherited a country that had spent huge sums on the unsuccessful war with America, he made it a priority to restore the nation’s finances. </span><span style="font-size: large;">By the device of a sinking fund, he set aside annual sums from government stock to pay off debts, funded mainly by taxes on luxuries and customary forms of assessment such as the excise. These taxes allowed him to collect the £1 million a year needed to cover the annual surplus of expenditure over ordinary revenue. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">He was a formidable and self-confident debater. From 1784 to 1788 he was in easy command of Parliament, but this did not mean that he got his own way all the time - a shown by his failure in 1785 to achieve a very modest measure of parliamentary reform. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Pitt and the Whigs</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">He was helped by the weaknesses of the Opposition, led by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_James_Fox">Charles James Fox</a>, an equally skilled debater but a more unreliable character. Though Pitt had the support of George III, the Prince of Wales was Fox’s eager partisan and therefore his enemy. The <a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/constitu/regency.htm">Regency Crisis</a>, the period of the king's temporary madness, was a potential moment of danger for Pitt, but it was averted when the king recovered.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig6654sfBfSftIYPd8IReJ0xNa-bSUu0Tej2-VXuFwIlB1yMSo3bUlPqSxmB4BYmgN9ZX2DtfxNRVC2bPKtkHqvzqvFVlG2ctgQAl_lxPGgx6OVF3mr7NGPhfogfrU0w5btnKS0xaYQSE/s1600/Charles_James_Fox00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="528" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig6654sfBfSftIYPd8IReJ0xNa-bSUu0Tej2-VXuFwIlB1yMSo3bUlPqSxmB4BYmgN9ZX2DtfxNRVC2bPKtkHqvzqvFVlG2ctgQAl_lxPGgx6OVF3mr7NGPhfogfrU0w5btnKS0xaYQSE/s200/Charles_James_Fox00.jpg" width="176" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles James Fox, by Reynolds<br />
Public domain.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The years of acclaim</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The early years of his premiership have been described by Pitt’s biographer John Ehrman as the ‘Years of Acclaim’. The overwhelming picture was one of cool competence. He was respected as a Prime Minister, though he was only loved by his own closest circle. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">From the instant that Pitt entered the doorway... he advanced up the floor with a quick and firm step, his head erect and thrown back, looking neither to the right nor to the left, nor favouring with a nod or a glance any of the individuals seated on either side, among whom many who possessed five thousand pounds a year would have been gratified even by so slight a mark of attention. <i>Memoirs of Sir Nathaniel Wraxall</i>, vol. 3, p. 217.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">After eight years, he was at the height of his powers. His budget speech of February 1792 reviewed with satisfaction a period of successful management, stable finances, and buoyancy and growth in British trade.This, he argued, justified an immediate cut in taxation of about £0.25 million. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He could not have been more wrong!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The French Revolution and the coming of war</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The French Revolution, beginning in 1789, opened up an ideological debate in Britain. Fox was an enthusiastic supporter, but Pitt stood aloof. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He believed it was an internal French matter and that as long as the French were squabbling among themselves, Britain was safe. Hence the budget cuts of February 1792, when h</span><span style="font-size: large;">e told the Commons that </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">unquestionably there never was a time in the history of this country when, from the situation in Europe, we might more reasonably expect fifteen years of peace, than we may at the present moment.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But in April of that year France declared war on Austria and Prussia. In July a Prussian army crossed into France. In August Louis XVI was deposed. In response, Pitt withdrew the British ambassador from France, but was still determined not to interfere.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">On 6 November the French <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jemappes">defeated the Austrians at Jemappes</a> and proclaimed free navigation of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheldt">River Scheldt</a>, the river linking Antwerp with the coast. They proceeded to over-run the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium), and on 14 November <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fran%C3%A7ois_Dumouriez">General Dumouriez </a>captured Brussels. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Pitt now believed that fundamental British interests were at stake - the restricted navigation of the Scheldt had been guaranteed by the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1788. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The Foreign Secretary, Pitt's cousin, Lord Grenville informed the French ambassador Chauvelin that Britain </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">will never see with indifference that France shall make herself directly or indirectly sovereign of the Low Countries or the general arbitress of the rights and liberties of Europe. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 21 January 1793 Louis XVI was executed. On 24 January the French ambassador was expelled. On 1 February 1793 the French Convention declared war on Britain, forestalling the inevitable British declaration. The war was to last for twenty-two years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Conclusion</span></span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Pitt had come to power at a time of political crisis. He governed competently, winning respect rather than love, and leaving his political opponents floundering.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">His great aim had been to restore the nation’s finances and he was well on the way to achieving this.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">He was then reluctantly drawn into a war with France. This would be a difficult war to win, and he was also faced with the problem of home-grown insurgency.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-57081445440153032082019-09-09T08:58:00.000+00:002019-09-09T08:58:02.906+00:00A nation at war: the military dimension<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgonU7UnNU3d3wN8XBWd4X07YQHJ_mEQs9V_99zcRC-PjX5Lf_tYrsbMYXS8bXY4bXJmaswCr4keznIY8bS6eCHeI0yUubFy5XRtRwkF5s1agoEdlAOhrby1vWn14A1-AhNTPKBB8KeyEo/s1600/312px-Derbyshire_Militia_ca_1780-retouche.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="312" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgonU7UnNU3d3wN8XBWd4X07YQHJ_mEQs9V_99zcRC-PjX5Lf_tYrsbMYXS8bXY4bXJmaswCr4keznIY8bS6eCHeI0yUubFy5XRtRwkF5s1agoEdlAOhrby1vWn14A1-AhNTPKBB8KeyEo/s200/312px-Derbyshire_Militia_ca_1780-retouche.jpeg" width="103" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A soldier in the<br />
Derbyshire Militia, 1780</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />The long war</span></span></h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolutionary_Wars">Revolutionary Wars,</a> which became the Napoleonic Wars after 1799, turned out to be the greatest and most costly conflict Britain had ever fought. Pitt saw it as a war against an expansionist France that was breaking treaties and destroying the peace of Europe, and also as a war against home-grown subversion. Most believed that the war would be short. In fact, it lasted for twenty-three years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>During this long war, Britain was France’s most consistent enemy. It was a war described by Napoleon as the war of the elephant and the whale: France could not defeat Britain at sea, but the British could only defeat the French on land by coalition-building, an expensive and frequently unreliable strategy. It took six coalitions to bring about the final defeat of France. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Britain entered the war from a position of weakness. Pitt had rehabilitated the national finances partly at the expense of military expenditure. In particular, the army was too small – 15,000 men in the British Isles with perhaps twice as many again deployed to India and the West Indies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-weight: bold;">Pitt as war leader</span></span></h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">This raises the question: was Pitt a good war-time Prime Minister? Arguably not. Britain entered the war unprepared and undermanned. The strategy was ill thought out, and Fox was right to pick out the confusion of war aims. Furthermore, Pitt's financial measures rested on his mistaken assumption that the war would be short. He underestimated French fighting capability and France’s sense of patriotic identity. However, he has acquired a reputation as a great war-time leader because Britain was not defeated and because his allies after his death praised him as ‘t<a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/pms/pilot.htm">he pilot who weathered the storm</a>’.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Britain’s attempt to defeat revolutionary France in the 1790s rested on three strategic pillars: </span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">supporting the European allies with cash and troops; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">using the navy to pick off French colonies, especially in the Caribbean; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">offering practical aid to opponents of the Revolution within France.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1 and 2 had been the policy followed by Pitt’s father in the Seven Years' War. However, the new war refused to follow this pattern - in the short term at least.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The armed forces</span></h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">The danger of a massive French invasion was so great and so protracted that the government was compelled to call Britons for the defence of the nation. The result was an unprecedented mobilisation on a scale that would not be attempted again until the First World War.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Army</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">There were three ways in which men could serve in the army. </span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">As regular soldiers. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">In the county militias. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">In the volunteer regiments formed to counter the threat of a French invasion. </span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The part-time and voluntary forces had reached almost half a million men by 1804. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The number of men serving in the regular army rose from 40,000 in 1789 to a quarter of a million in 1814. This was out of a population assessed at 15.7 million in 1801, the year of the first census.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Regular soldiers</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Traditionally Britain, like other European nations, had fought its wars with the aid of mercenaries, mainly Germans, and supplemented with artisans and labourers who enlisted voluntarily in the armed forces, and with men seized by press gangs against their will. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Recruitment was chaotic, as different recruiting parties competed with each other. Faced with this chaos, the government authorized the formation of 100 independent companies each of 100 men. The cost of recruiting fell to the individual who raised the company, but it guaranteed him a commissioned rank relative to the numbers he raised. If he couldn’t find a regiment to receive him he went on half pay and could draw army pension for life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When married men joined the army, their families often had to resort to the parish. In Sunderland in September 1793 the overseers of the poor of Sunderland estimated that the poor rate would treble. The war, therefore, exacerbated the problem of poverty.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Most of the recruits came from the unemployed - also from apprentices who wished for adventure (though this was forbidden, and several young men came before the quarter-sessions for enlisting while apprenticed). Many enlisted while drunk.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When the army had difficulties in recruiting, it resorted to crimps, civilians who were tasked with persuading men to join the army. They lacked the legal powers of the naval press gangs and had to persuade rather than force men to join. The employment of crimps led to great hostility, as they were seen as kidnappers. In 1794 there were <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0020859000004004">anti-crimp riots in London</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The militia</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The only civil defence force in operation was the militia. This had been remodelled in 1757 when Parliament ordered that every English and Welsh county was to supply a given quota of men between the ages of 18 and 45 and pay them out of the rates. 32,000 men ‘all of them good Protestants’ were to be chosen by ballot and subjected to martial law in time of active service; during peacetime they were to be dispatched for a month’s military training every year under the voluntary leadership of the gentry.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The system was unpopular and inefficient, with the burden of militia service falling overwhelmingly on the illiterate poor. The lords lieutenant, who were in charge of the militia, appointed poorly-paid clerks to carry out the organisation. Detailed administrative work (for example, assessing which parishes were deficient in quotas) was not carried out.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Magistrates had to swear in the militiamen. They and the mayors and constables had to organise transport and tented camps and to allocate billets in local inns. Reimbursement for innkeepers was often insufficient, and innkeepers often petitioned for barracks.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Parliament authorized a weekly allowance for a wife and each lawful child under 10 of a militiaman (if they did not follow the regiment). This came from the rates and was much resented by ratepayers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There were numerous exceptions - men under 5ft 4 inches, peers, army and militia officers, members of the English universities, Anglican and Dissenting clergy, articled clerks, seamen, apprentices, Thames watermen. A balloted man could avoid service by paying a £10 fine or by finding a substitute. The newspapers advertised agencies that could find substitutes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Unsurprisingly, county quotas were rarely met, and attempts had to be made to adjust them to the changing balance of population. In 1796 the proportion of eligible men serving in the militia in the heavily agricultural counties of Dorset, Bedfordshire and Montgomeryshire was more than one in 10, but was far less in the more industrialised counties, which had experienced rapid population growth: only one in 30 for Yorkshire or one in 25 for Lancashire, were eligible.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The government responded with the Supplementary Militia Act (1796) which demanded a further 60,000 militiamen from England and another 4,400 from Wales, taking care to ensure that the quotas were more equal. In 1797 the militia was extended to Scotland for the first time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">These two acts brought up the total strength of the militia to about 100,000. From this time onwards the militia became an accepted part of British life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPx1_i2RG3GP65Tyy3igHXCAmgKF0CU9JXfxp-_kQox29PIGOUopA51kcKnSYuLm_RhtMQj1n0yj8YRt2Js5Xscviwq2Tnj_iX6d14ikniWgrlWBn1PNf_un26bq0WwzNhMByL3UR87kE/s1600/Screenshot+2019-09-08+at+16.11.17.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="238" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPx1_i2RG3GP65Tyy3igHXCAmgKF0CU9JXfxp-_kQox29PIGOUopA51kcKnSYuLm_RhtMQj1n0yj8YRt2Js5Xscviwq2Tnj_iX6d14ikniWgrlWBn1PNf_un26bq0WwzNhMByL3UR87kE/s200/Screenshot+2019-09-08+at+16.11.17.png" width="179" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adrian Lukis, who played the<br />
militiaman George Wickham in<br />
the BBC adaptation of <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Volunteers</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In addition, ‘gentlemen’ were encouraged to found their own private volunteer corps of infantry or cavalry. No state subsidies were given to these early volunteers; the government wanted respectable men with a stake in the country - the leaders to be gentry and professions, the men to be tradesmen and farmers. Very often these forces were more remarkable for their elaborate uniforms than their efficiency. It seems that the only labouring men who showed enthusiasm to volunteer were those living in the coastal counties, who felt they had most to lose from a French invasion. It was only when there was a <i>nation-wide</i> fear of invasion that the poor identified in a significant way with the fate of the nation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Volunteers enlisted from a variety of motives. Unemployment was a powerful factor. In addition, those who volunteered were usually exempt from the militia ballot, and militia training was much tougher than volunteer training. Part-time volunteer service offered companionship in the company of friends; it also offered tradesmen and shopkeepers the opportunity to tout for custom. In the Bristol volunteers, one sixth of the 848 men who joined it earned their everyday livings in the food and drinks trade, and a further 80 were shoemakers and haberdashers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The Navy</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The role of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Navy">Royal Navy</a> was crucial. Because the British maintained their maritime supremacy, they were able to ferry troops to the theatres of war. Most importantly, they maintained (and increased) their global commercial empire, and with it the financial resources to build up coalitions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In contrast to the Army, the Navy was a sophisticated and effective fighting force and was the largest item in the national budget. In 1793 it had 54 battleships in commission and another 39 ready. It was directed by the Board of Admiralty, which was composed of civilian and naval members, headed by the First Lord, an</span><span style="font-size: large;">d and was responsible for the overall allocation of resources, the movements of fleets and ships, commissions and promotions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Before individuals could be given command of ships they had to be judged competent to do so. Unlike the Army, promotion in the Navy depended on merit. Before Nelson could be made second lieutenant in 1777 he was examined by three assembled captains – though one of them was his uncle, so connections counted as well!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The press gang</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The government entered the war with a depleted navy of 15,000 men. At first it hoped it would be able to man the navy with volunteers. On 1 December 1792 a royal proclamation offered bounties to volunteers: £3 to an able seaman, £2 to an ordinary seaman between the ages of 25 and 50 and £1 to a landsman between 20 and 35. Several men accepted, but many were reluctant to volunteer. In anticipation of this reluctance, regulating offices were established in the major ports and press warrants prepared ready for issue. The warrants were issued in February 1793 and gangs combed the ports looking for seamen.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Contrary to popular belief the actions of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressment">press gangs </a>were limited by law. There were many exemptions: all persons under 18 years of age and over 55; seamen with less than two years seagoing experience; apprentices with less than three years’ experience. Generally in the early stages of the war, only seamen were likely to be impressed - reluctant landsmen were a liability. Seamen were easy to spot - they dressed and walked distinctively. But impressment led to a shortage of merchant seamen, and in April 1793 Parliament passed an act allowing British merchant ships to have ¾ of the crew foreign nationals. This left British seamen vulnerable to the press gang when they arrived back on land. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There were two kinds of gangs on shore.</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">(a) those run by land-based recruiting officers from recruiting houses</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(b) those sent ashore from warships for a quick raid to boost numbers.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Men seized by the press-gang were offered the option of volunteering so they could take up the bounty.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OBgl4_H2UNIC1KxKn7xFBwLriBpXrQBMCUfm_Pz2JpI9RphMXTveTUNgNFKPMSObGA2CRBQVfn2XiBBA_oIq5AjJ-jtSijEF7gORiiA_ZcSVmDE3z9rWtQiF1avKSVWDm6Y-G4G2HAQ/s1600/lossy-page1-746px-%2527The_Neglected_Tar%2527-_a_press_gang_seizing_a_seaman_%2528caricature%2529_RMG_PU4772.tiff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="746" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OBgl4_H2UNIC1KxKn7xFBwLriBpXrQBMCUfm_Pz2JpI9RphMXTveTUNgNFKPMSObGA2CRBQVfn2XiBBA_oIq5AjJ-jtSijEF7gORiiA_ZcSVmDE3z9rWtQiF1avKSVWDm6Y-G4G2HAQ/s200/lossy-page1-746px-%2527The_Neglected_Tar%2527-_a_press_gang_seizing_a_seaman_%2528caricature%2529_RMG_PU4772.tiff.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'The Neglected Tar', <i>c.</i> 1800<br />
An impressed sailor is forced<br />
to abandon his grieving family.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Regulating officers were called Yellow Admirals, meaning </span><span style="font-size: large;">admirals without flagships of their own. Some of these were corrupt and disreputable, but not all of them. (Captain Peter Rothe (Tyne and Wear) released 22 of the 60 men seized, acknowledging that they were ships’ carpenters or apprentices and therefore exempt.) The regulating officer had to live in the district, and it was in his own interests to establish a rapport with the inhabitants. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was very different with the gangs sent from men of war. In October 1792 a frigate captain ignored the advice of the regulating officer and landed a press gang in Liverpool. During the fracas, one of the midshipmen killed the master of a merchant ship. The population destroyed two recruiting houses, and the local authorities made no move against them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1796 a quota system was introduced, which enlisted into the fleet reluctant young men not from seafaring backgrounds, such as urban artisans. This is undoubtedly one of the factors behind the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spithead_and_Nore_mutinies">1797 mutinies</a>. But in spite of problems, Pitt’s government managed to increase the naval personnel to 133,000 by 1801. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlxPqTB0o78MJdaPXXCv8BoJ-5wsbs6-z_jr0crjl5ymBZbOLYXz4y31HFzrh8fRjz1DhewfMGTteRanPUm7StLfRN3ua_P6CyebpOaPxgIJRwI7sacOFcL71ikMOGDMsDLojDeXMEtH0/s1600/Richard_Parker_about_to_be_hanged.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="608" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlxPqTB0o78MJdaPXXCv8BoJ-5wsbs6-z_jr0crjl5ymBZbOLYXz4y31HFzrh8fRjz1DhewfMGTteRanPUm7StLfRN3ua_P6CyebpOaPxgIJRwI7sacOFcL71ikMOGDMsDLojDeXMEtH0/s200/Richard_Parker_about_to_be_hanged.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The execution of the naval mutineer,<br />Richard Parker, 30 June 1797.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">An armed people?</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The government was keenly aware of the threat of domestic disorder, but by the winter of 1797 as fears of a French invasion grew, it moved to enlist plebeian support. There was a frantic search for exact numbers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1798 the Defence of the Realm Act demanded from each county details of the number of able-bodied men in each parish. A further survey was done in 1803. In 1800 Parliament ordered <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census_Act_1800">the first census</a>. For the first time since Domesday Book, the state was attempting to compile precise information on its people.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The government took a political risk in creating a nation under arms, though it had no choice. </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘A nation where formal political power was concentrated in the hands of the propertied few, and where perhaps only one adult male in 50 had the vote, had no alternative but to look to the mass of its inhabitants to win its wars and preserve its independence.’ Linda Colley, <span style="font-style: italic;">Britons: Forging the Nation </span>(1992), p. 318.</span></blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348322452176729800.post-10552854254526411872019-07-15T08:38:00.002+00:002019-07-15T08:38:25.022+00:00Suggested reading<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">These are some of the books that relate to this theme. Emsley and White are out of print, but they are well worth a read if you come across them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Linda Colley, <i>Britons. Forging the Nation</i> (1992)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Clive Emsley, <i>British Society and the French Wars 1793-1815 </i>(1979)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Antonia Fraser, <i>Perilous Question. The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832</i> (2013)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">William Hague, <i>William Pitt the Younger</i> (2004)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Edward Royle, <i>Revolutionary Britannia? Reflections on the threat of revolution in Britain, 1789-1848</i> (2002)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jenny Uglow, <i>In These Times. Living Through Britain’s Napoleonic Wars </i>(2014)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">R. H. White, <i>Waterloo to Peterloo</i> (1957)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There are a couple of very useful websites</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/">History of Parliament</a> (very comprehensive, the result of years of work.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.victorianweb.org/">Victorian web</a> (has been going a long time. Its layout now looks old-fashioned, but it remains an invaluable resource.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The same applies to <a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/">History Home,</a> another very useful website, with an especial focus on the age of Sir Robert Peel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<br />
<br />Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com