The General Election of 1841

1
The General Election of 1841

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2
A Turning Point

• The 1841 election was a major triumph for Peel.
  It produced a victory for the Conservatives by
  more than seventy seats (a majority of 76) and
  was also the first time in British electoral
  history that a party with a theoretical
  parliamentary majority had been replaced by
  another with a majority.

3
1841 The Result
4
Why?

• Why did the Conservatives win?

5
Conservatism

• Peel is credited with the Conservative victory in
  1841. Without his leadership many contemporaries
  and later historians believed that the Tories
  could have been assigned to permanent opposition.
  
• He skilfully exploited middle class reaction
  against the Whigs and in his hundred-day ministry
  of 1834-5 gained support and respect for his
  administrative ability and statesmanship.
• He managed to distance himself from the
  ultra-Toryism of the early period and in the
  Tamworth Manifesto offered a new conservative
  vision of politics that accepted the
  constitutional settlement of 1832 and promised to
  support reform of proven abuses.

6
Division Amongst the Whigs

• There were, however, other pressures at work over
  which Peel had little or no control. 
• First, the Whigs were far from being dominant
  after the 1832 General election. Forty MPs who
  has supported the Reform Act moved to the
  Conservative benches between 1832 and 1837.
  Several Whigs defected/resigned over the Whig
  reform of the church in Ireland.
• The relationship between the Whigs and the
  Radicals was fragile and it was Conservative
  votes that permitted Melbourne to resist radical
  pressures.
• Tory propaganda, especially in the late 1830s,
  stressed the Whigs inability to control the
  radicals wilder excesses.

7
Frequent General Elections

• The unexpected frequency of general elections
  during the 1830s also aided the Conservative
  cause.
• Peel used William IVs invitation to form a
  government in late 1834 to request the
  dissolution of Parliament giving the Tories an
  opportunity to regroup.
• A further election was called on the death of
  William IV in 1837. A new monarch must have a new
  Parliament.
• These gave those voters, concerned that the
  Whigs wished to push reform further and threaten
  their position as property-holders, the
  opportunity of voting Tory

8
Conservative Organisation

• The emergence of Conservative Party organisation
  also played an important part in reviving Tory
  fortunes.
• The Reform Act required voters to register and
  this provided opportunities for local supporters
  to organise and consolidate their partys voting
  strength. Peel recognised the need for party
  organisation but was, at least initially,
  ambivalent in his attitude. He was suspicious of
  extra-parliamentary pressure and this meant that
  his relations with many local Tory organisations
  were not particularly close.
• By 1837 Peel was urging his supporters to
  Register, register, register but others laid
  the foundations particularly the party agent
  Francis Bonham. The Conservatives won in 1841
  because they were a much better organised
  national party than the Whigs.

9
Election Issues

• Many landowners were alarmed by the reform of the
  Church of England in the 1830s such as the
  Marriage Act 1836 and feared further concessions.
  
• More importantly, the landed classes closed ranks
  in defence of the Corn Laws that they considered
  essential to maintaining the prosperity of arable
  farmers, especially in southern England. Most
  conservative MPs were forced to give pledges to
  defend the Corn Laws during the election campaign
  and the party won 157 country seats compared to
  only 22 seats secured by the Whigs.
• The Conservatives also did well in the smaller
  boroughs in which landed influence was
  significant but poorly in industrial areas and in
  urban constituencies with an electorate over
  2,000.
• It is clear that, despite Peels energies and the
  new Conservatism, among many social groups the
  party remained pre-Tamworth in outlook and
  spirit.
• Many voters were frightened by radical Chartism
  and the apparent weakness of the Whigs to deal
  with it

10
Short Term Economic and Political Difficulties
for the Whigs

• The government went into national deficit because
  of a slump in trade.
• A series of bad harvests coincided with a slump
  in foreign trade led to unemployment and hunger
• Opposition to the Poor Law merged with the rise
  of physical force Chartism and the Conservatives
  were able to accuse the Whigs of failing to keep
  order as well as failing to manage the nations
  budget.