1830-1850 Flashcards
Explain why there was a revival in the demand for parliamentary reform between 1829 and 1830?
- Strikes in the North of England
- Sudden slump in the economy
- Jeremy Bentham continued to advocate
-Death of King George the 4th - Passing of catholic Emancipation
Explain the pressure put on the government to pass the Great Reform Act?
-Birmingham political union formed and put pressure on the government by organising strikes and protests
-swing riots of 1830 scared the government into action
-1831 riots in Derby and Nottingham when the first bill was rejected, 12 people were killed
How did the Great Reform Act effect the franchise?
-property rate was lowered to £10 in borough constituencies
- county constituencies people had to hold a long lease of £10 and short of £50.
How did the Great Reform Act effect representation?
- 56 rotten boroughs were abolished
- 143 seats were made available for redistribution
65 given to counties, 65 given to boroughs without MPs, 8 to Scotland and 5 to Ireland
Name some arguments FOR the Great Reform Act
- electorate in Britain increased from 478,000 to 813,000
- rotten boroughs disappeared
- industrial towns were given MPs
- first step towards democracy
Name some arguments AGAINST the Great Reform Act
- Scotland, Wales and Ireland continued to be under represented
-length of parliament remained 7 years - no dramatic change to the membership of the HoC
What did the Swing Riots do?
Destroyed workhouses and teithe barns
What was the Merthyr rising?
large groups of men and women marched through the streets, broke into shops to reclaim what had been stolen from them and destroyed account books detailing their debts
What was the result of the Merthyr rising?
The execution of Richard Lewis
-The Truck Act was passed - paying workers in tokens became illegal
Unions were stamped out
What were the tolpuddle martyrs ?
Group of farm labourers from the village of Tolpuddle. Small group including George Loveless set up a secret union and swore an oath to keep it a secret.
Sentenced to 7 years transportation
Why were the Rebecca riots significant ?
display of public protest that the government gave in to.
sending soldiers to stop the riots didn’t work so they were forced to make the tolls fairer
What did the chartists do?
in 1839 Submitted a petition with 1/.3 million signatures on to the HoC
a second was submitted in 1842
What was the Humanitarian movement?
People from all walks of life who wanted to improve the working and living conditions of the working classes. William Wilberforce was one
Name some reform Acts passed in 1833
- Abolition of Slavery
- Factory Act
- First Grant for education
What was the Poor Law Amendment Act?
Based on Edwin Chadwick’s report. Extremely unpopular, took away outdoor relief, workhouses became the focus of discontent, only benefitted rate payers.
It was lucky that there were a few years of good harvests otherwise the death rate would have been much higher.
What was the Municipal Corporations Act 1835?
benefitted the rate payers and middle classes but not the poor:
- councillors now elected every three years
- mayor elected annually
- compulsory to pay for the police force
What were the problems of the Whig reforms from 1833-41?
- They still used repressive measures in incidents like the Tolpuddle Martyrs 1834, Chartists 1839, Rebecca Riots. So they didn’t really understand the real causes of poverty and unemployment
- Did little to ease suffering of working classes
- Reform came to a trickle after 1835 as Palmerston (PM) was against reform
- some laws made a start but did not go far enough or were not compulsory
What were Peel’s motives to repeal the Corn Laws?
- Corn Laws were against his free trade principles
- Pressure from the anti-corn law league
- fear that if the Corn laws weren’t repealed, there would be increased calls for further electoral reform
Was the repeal of the Corn Laws easy to put through parliament?
It took 5 months of fierce struggle with his opponents before the Act became law in June 1846.
- Ministers resented Peel’s high handed attitude towards the party
- many conservative MPs believed that the repeal of the Corn Laws was a betrayal of the Party’s commitment to protectionism
