Victorian politics becoming modern Britain Key institutions Monarchy

Victorian politics: becoming modern Britain Key institutions: Monarchy (inherited) House of Lords (1º inherited) House of Commons (elected) Tories (Conservatives) Whigs (Liberals) Key concerns: 1820 s-40 s franchise/politics formalized 1850 s-80 s Reform Acts political party system 1890 s-1914 broaden suffrage ‘the Irish question’ constitutional crisis

(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

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 ….

Less respectable radicals: worker’s find their voice Luddites history artisans, not workers history of protest action breaking burning fighting a murder meaning fear demand for rights political Wages of hand-loom weavers Year Weekly pay 1800 27 s. 1815 15 s. 1820 8 s.

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

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

Burroughs Samples Borough Bramber Callington Dunwich East Looe Gatton Old Sarum Newtown Patron MPs Houses in Borough Voters in 1831 Duke of Rutland 2 35 20 Lord Clinton 2 225 42 Lord Huntingfield 2 44 32 John Buller 2 167 38 Sir Mark Wood 2 23 7 Earl of Caledon 2 3 11 Sir Fitzwilliam Barrington 2 14 23 Plympton Earle Earl of Mount Edgcumbe 2 182 Under 500 -1000 Over 1000 149 32 22 40

Electoral map in 1790 England 196 buroughs 2 members 5 buroughs 1 member 2 buroughs (London and Weymouth) 4 members 40 English counties 2 members 2 English universities 2 members MPs 392 5 8 80 4 Wales 5 Welsh buroughs 1 member 7 groups of buroughs 1 member 12 Welsh counties 1 5 7 12 Scots 15 burghs 27 counties 6 counties 15 27 3 1 member paired Total constituencies 314 Total MPS 558

And who would have that vote? In 1820: 516 000 of 21 000 (2. 5%) men property owners members Cof. E mostly English although others participate

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) 18 C ♀ 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

Swing Riots – not only urban issues There were 1, 976 trials in total. Of the men tried: Sentenced to death 252 Commuted to life transportation 233 Executed 19 Transported 505 Imprisoned 644 Fined 7 Whipped 1 Acquitted/bound over 800

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)

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)

Witham parish workhouse (2002), 1714 Birmingham workhouse (1860 s)‘archway of tears’

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

Kennington Common, 1848

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 O’Connell (1775 -1847) RC emancipation 1829; Tithe War, 1830 s; anti-Union 1840 s

an Gorta Mór (1845 -52) and UK Politics 1840 s Ireland: political hotbed, and economically unstable → too many families sustained on too small plots of land → tithing (by RC families) to Cof. I 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

Result → brought down Peel’s Conservatives; support to liberals → est. 1 million died; 1 million emigrated → London increasingly able, and willing to reach into every citizen’s life to enact change

Famine Memorial, Dublin - Rowan Gillespie

Political divisions harden (1850 s-80 s) Key Issues working class support Whigs Key figures William Gladstone (1809 -98) Home Rule form Ireland Liberals Tories evangelical cautious imperialist upper middle class support Union (Ireland with England) Conservatives Benjamin Disraeli (1804 -81) Anglican convert dandy, womanizer political outsider ardent imperialist ear of the Queen

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

And subsequently Further Liberal Reform: disestablishment of the Cof. E 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 (1870 s) 1880 s: franchise to rural heads of households 5. 6/36 mill election reform; redistribution of seats & 90% elected 1832: qualified women in local elections, and political volunteers

and into the 20 C • beginning of the end of the Liberal Party over Ireland joined by intellectual radicals, unions – part became Labour (1906) • South African War (1899 -1902) • Women’s Suffrage demands get radical had sharpened their teeth on abolition, radicalism, CDActs could not own property but moral strength 1918

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=w 8 KQmps-Sog Resulted in a liberal democracy like nowhere else