Britain Before Reform
England’s Population
• 1701: 5 million
• 1750: 5.8 million
• 1801: 8.67 million
• 1831: 13.3 million
Aristocracy and Gentry
• Not much change to 1815
• More mannered after
Public School
• Not private tutors, so public (with others)
• Not state supported
Aristocratic Roles
• Politics
• Business
• Idleness
• Military
• Church
Primogeniture
• Eldest son inherits everything
• Contractual tradition
• Result: fewer titled nobility
Middle Class
• Home-centered
• Women not to work
Laboring Classes
• Hand workers
• Artisans
• Agricultural workers
• Servants
Poverty natural
• Not degrading
• Poor relief ok
• Deserving vs. Undeserving poor
Poor Law
• Elizabethan
Government
• Mixed (one, many, few)
Sir William Blackstone
• 1723-1780• Blackstone’s
Commentaries
Who?
• Property owners
• Great landlords most influential
• Industrialization brings discontent
Parliament in 1815
• House of Lords– 360 members
• House of Commons– 658 members (489 English)– County and Borough members
Rotton Borough
Old Sarum
Local Government
• Counties and Boroughs
County
• Lord Lieutenant
• Justices of the Peace– Supervised roads– Licensed estates– regulated liquor– Set poor rates
Parishes
• 10,000 in England and Wales
• Vestry
Conclusion
• Britain unbureaucratic and uncentralized