Victorian politics: becoming modern Britain Key institutions:Key
concerns: 1820s-40s Monarchy(inherited) franchise/politics
formalized House of Lords (1 inherited)1850s-80s Reform Acts House
of Commons (elected) political party system Tories (Conservatives)
1890s-1914 Whigs (Liberals) broaden suffrage the Irish question
constitutional crisis Slide 2 (Re) ordering Society civil society
is that domain in which public activities of a collective and
individual kind may be freely enacted growing power of central
government creates the structure within which citizens act, to
create civil society Slide 3 Roots of arguments for change what
spelled success? Continental radicalism (not) Labour radicals (ish)
Political challenge Political philosophers Whig challenge yes, but
needed a model for change respectable, outside politics . Slide 4
Less respectable radicals: workers find their voice Luddites
historyartisans, not workers history of protest actionbreaking
burning fighting a murder meaningfear demand for rights political
Wages of hand-loom weavers YearWeekly pay 180027s. 181515s. 18208s.
Slide 5 The Peterloo Massacre: 16 August 1819 circumstances in
place influential leaders:Henry Hunt William Cobbett Tories
disallowed meetings Manchester 200 000+ citizens no MP 50-60 000
people 11 killed and 50-400 wounded Slide 6 The Queen Caroline
Question Caroline of Brunswick, the injured Queen of England Why
did anyone care? fuel for radicals and Whigs signifier of social
inequity that favoured of morally devoid upper classes marker for
moral reformers as new citizenship ideal new era of change, with
broad, shifting coalitions working for it Slide 7 Burroughs Samples
Borough PatronMPsHouses in Borough Voters in 1831 BramberDuke of
Rutland 23520 CallingtonLord Clinton 222542 DunwichLord
Huntingfield24432 East LooeJohn Buller 216738 GattonSir Mark Wood
2237 Old SarumEarl of Caledon 2311 NewtownSir Fitzwilliam
Barrington 21423 Plympton Earle Earl of Mount Edgcumbe 218240 Under
500149 500-100032 Over 100022 Slide 8 Electoral map in 1790
EnglandMPs 196 buroughs 2 members 392 5 buroughs 1 member5 2
buroughs (London and Weymouth) 4 members8 40 English counties 2
members80 2 English universities 2 members4 Wales 5 Welsh buroughs
1 member5 7 groups of buroughs 1 member7 12 Welsh counties112 Scots
15 burghs1 member15 27 counties1 member27 6 counties paired3 Total
constituencies 314Total MPS 558 Slide 9 And who would have that
vote? In 1820:516 000 of 21 000 000 (2.5%) men property owners
members CofE mostly English although others participate Slide 10
Respectable Radicals m.c. ideals placing women at home dominant she
carried out her duties as mistress of a small family with piety,
patience, frugality and industry Challenged by a) 18C philosophers:
i.e. bluestockings see also: nerd Mary Wollstonecraft Hannah More
b) activists: abolition education for girls imperial feminism CD
Acts age of consent universal suffrage help others how civilized
are we? Slide 11 Swing Riots not only urban issues There were 1,976
trials in total. Of the men tried: Sentenced to death252Executed19
Commuted to life transportation233Transported505 Imprisoned644
Fined7 Whipped1 Acquitted/bound over800 Slide 12 What does radical
change look like? Repeal of Test and Corporations Acts (1828)
qualified non-Conformists gained the right to formal politics i.e.
Joseph Storrs Fry, Quaker, (Bristol, 1767-1835) Catholic
Emancipation Act (1829) most public offices opened to Catholics
Reform Act (1832) Parliamentary reform Regularized franchise rights
granted more middle class men voting rights (increased to 7%
adults) Slide 13 A Failure of an Act? political corruption remained
Social reform needed empire slavery ended (1830) Factory Acts
(1833) Poor Law (1834) govt. replaced parishes removed wage
subsidies abolished outdoor relief created Poor Houses Repeal of
the Corn Laws (1846) Slide 14 Witham parish workhouse (2002), 1714
Birmingham workhouse (1860s)archway of tears Slide 15 Chartist
Movement Gains limited:not universal lower middle classes and upper
working classes betrayed MALE specifically the People's Charter of
1838 universal suffrage for men over 21 equal-sized electoral
districts voting by secret ballot an end to the need for a property
qualification for Parliament a salary for Members of Parliament
annual election of Parliament Slide 16 Kennington Common, 1848
Slide 17 Repeal of the Corn Laws and Ireland Debate over the Corn
Laws central to Parliamentary debates and the development of Party
politics for three decades 1805 duty on imported grain; protection
of landowners 1815 upheld at end of Napoleonic Wars seen as keeping
food costs high for urban population Irish question also split
politics also debates over Ireland: Daniel OConnell (1775-1847) RC
emancipation 1829; Tithe War, 1830s; anti-Union 1840s Slide 18 an
Gorta Mr (1845-52) and UK Politics 1840s Ireland:political hotbed,
and economically unstable too many families sustained on too small
plots of land tithing (by RC families) to CofI enforced by militia
When a virus hit the potato crop, famine resulted parliament in
London asked to rescind Corn Laws to allow cheaper grain crops
[corn] to reach Ireland . long debate Slide 19 Result brought down
Peels Conservatives; support to liberals est. 1 million died; 1
million emigrated London increasingly able, and willing to reach
into every citizens life to enact change Slide 20 Famine Memorial,
Dublin - Rowan Gillespie Slide 21 Political divisions harden
(1850s-80s) Key IssuesKey figures Whigs working class
supportWilliam Gladstone (1809-98) Home Rule form
Irelandevangelical Liberals cautious imperialist Tories upper
middle class supportBenjamin Disraeli (1804-81) Union (Ireland with
England)Anglican convert Conservatives dandy, womanizer political
outsider ardent imperialist ear of the Queen Slide 22 Second Reform
Act (1867) Representation of the People Act replaced Liberal
proposal voted down 1866 gained w.c. support for Conservatives
married artisans, respectable w.c., male heads of households
(lodging worth 10) 2.5 million or 1/3 male adults many fewer in
Ireland No women Slide 23 And subsequently Further Liberal Reform:
disestablishment of the CofE in Ireland (1868) Irish Land Act
(1870) Education Act Civil Service Act Military Acts (1871)
religious tests ended Oxford and Cambridge (1871) trade unions,
secret ballot, reformed judiciary (1870s) 1880s: franchise to rural
heads of households 5.6/36mill election reform; redistribution of
seats & 90% elected 1832: qualified women in local elections,
and political volunteers Slide 24 and into the 20C beginning of the
end of the Liberal Party over Ireland joined by intellectual
radicals, unions part became Labour (1906) South African War
(1899-1902) Womens Suffrage demands get radical had sharpened their
teeth on abolition, radicalism, CDActs could not own property but
moral strength 1918 Slide 25 Conclusion Only a collusion of forces
was enough to enact change in Britain: moderate whigs in parliament
their bourgeoisie supporters respectable evangelical reformers
labour and political radical
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KQmps-Sog Resulted in a liberal
democracy like nowhere else
