19th Century England

1
19th Century England

• An Era of Reform

2
Civil Unrest Absent

• While most European nations faced civil unrest in
  the mid-19th century (Rev. of 1848), England
  solved her problems with reform efforts.

3
Why Reform?

• England was not without social problems, BUT
• English aristocrats accepted reform
• Industrialization had created a strong, wealthy
  middle class determined to gain corresponding
  political power
• Early reforms often dealt with matters of
  interest to the middle class
• Victorian compromise
• Workers were excluded from the political process
  and were often cruelly exploited.

4
Background

• Tory administration (Castlereagh) responsible for
  defeat of Napoleon
• Conservative policies favored the aristocrats and
  angered the common citizens.
• Serious economic problems due to huge military
  expenditures made during the wars and large-scale
  postwar industrial unemployment.

5
Corn Laws 1815

• English farmers faced disaster due to cheap,
  continental imported grains.
• Hurt the landed aristocracy (already threatened
  by the growing econ. clout of the middle class
  factory owners)
• The poor loved the cheap prices
• Tory Parliament passed the corn laws, putting an
  import tariff on foreign grains

6
Responses

• The poor rioted against the higher prices and the
  middle class formed the Anti-Corn Law League SO
• Coercion Acts of 1817
• suspended habeas corpus, providing for
  arbitrary arrest and punishment
• Drastically curtailed freedom of the press and
  public mass meetings

7
Peterloo Massacre 1819

• Public continued to protest
• Peaceful public meeting in Hyde Park broken up by
  the police
• 4 killed and hundreds wounded
• Public (poor and middle class) was outraged!!!

8
Six Acts 1819

• In response to public protest Parliament passed
  the 6 Acts.
• Revoked freedom of the press, speech and assembly
• Strengthened police powers and police brutality
  okd
• Flimsy arrests became the norm.

9
1820

• Cato Street Conspiracy
• Extremists plotted to blow up the entire British
  cabinet
• Elections of 1820
• Younger more liberal Tories and some Liberal reps
  won Parliamentary seats
• Even English aristocrats were frightened by the
  loss of their civil liberties
• This led to an era of reforms

10
Victorian Era (1837-1901)

• Queen V succeeded her uncle King William IV at
  age 18 and married her cousin, Prince Albert.
• Encouraged reforms
• Accepted by the aristocrats because together with
  the middle class, they all preserved their own
  interests at the expense of the poor
• Middle class controlled the House of Commons and
  the aristocracy controlled the army, House of
  Lords, and the Church of England

11
Great Reform Bill of 1832

• Annulled the Enclosure Acts
• No more new enclosures
• Redistricting
• No more rotten boroughs
• Suffrage for factory owners those paying large
  rents, as well as the traditional aristocratic
  voters
• Ended the era of squirearchy
• Major shift in political power

12
Reform Legislation

• Slave Act of 1833
• Factory Act of 1831 (Age 9)
• New Poor Law of 1834 (workhouses)
• Municipal Reform Law of 1835 (officials to reside
  in the city limits for at least 5 years prior to
  their election to the city councils)
• Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846
• Due to fear of revolution

13
Chartism

• Workers were astounded that all of these reforms
  failed to bring them prosperity and political
  power.
• Chartism became their solution
• Linked the solution of their economic plight to a
  program of political reform
• Petitioned Parliament to adopt the 6 points of
  their Great Charter

14
Chartism

• Demands included
• Universal Male Suffrage
• Secret ballot for voting
• Elimination of property qualifications for
  members of Parliament
• Salaries for MPs
• Annual elections for Parliament
• Redistricting to create equal electoral districts
• Demands were perceived as dangerously radical for
  their day

15
Failure of Chartism

• Chartism as a whole failed
• Supporters were split between those who favored
  violence and those that advocated peaceful
  tactics
• The return of prosperity and lower food prices
  coupled with slow but steady wage increases in
  the 1850s and 1860s robbed the movement of
  momentum

16
Lord Palmerston

• Dominant political power in England from 1850-65
• Variety of positions included Foreign Secretary,
  Home Secretary, and Prime Minister
• Preoccupied with colonial problems in China and
  India and British interests in the Am. Civil War
• Sepoy Rebellion
• 2nd Opium War
• Little Attention to domestic affairs

17
Realignment of British Political Parties

• Tired of Palmerstons blunders, the Whigs and
  Tories reorganized to defeat him.
• Tories became the Conservative Party
• Whigs became the Liberal Party

18
Reform Prime Ministers

• Palmerston died in 1865
• Disraeli (Tory) and Gladstone (Whig) alternated
  with one another, sharing power for most of the
  rest of the century
• Both were reformers

19
Gladstone (1809 1898)

• Budget Expert (orig. Chancellor of the Exchequer)
• Supported free trade and fiscal responsibility
• Supported Irish Home Rule
• Wanted extension of democratic principles to
  include a greater of the British population

20
Disraeli (1804 1881)

• Wanted an aggressive foreign policy
• Favored the expansion of the British Empire,
  particularly in Africa
• Supported the extension of the franchise to
  include the working class

21
Great Reform Bill of 1867

• Promoted by Disraeli
• Redistribution of Parliamentary seats to provide
  more equitable representation
• Extended the vote to include all adult male
  citizens who paid 10 pounds or more rent
  annually.
• Almost all men over 21 could now vote
• 1868 Liberal majority elected by new
  electoratelasted for next four terms.

22
Liberal Reforms

• Ballot Act of 1872 (secret ballot)
• Civil Services Reform Act of 1870 (civil service
  exams)
• Education Act of 1870 ( for schools all over
  England, even in poor areas)
• University Act of 1870 (no religious tests for
  admission)
• Representation of the People Act of 1884 (all
  males over 21 could vote redistricting created 1
  rep per 50,000 citizens

23
Disraelis Reforms

• Food and Drug Act (regulated sale and quality of
  food and drugs)
• Public Health Act (govt standards for sanitation)

24
Whos Left Out???

• Women!!! Particularly after the 1867 great
  reform bill.