Growth of Parliamentary Democracy Flashcards
What were voting stations like in 1780?
No secret ballots and voting took place on a platform (Hustings) with a carnival atmosphere
How long did elections take to complete in 1780?
Several weeks up to 2 months
What was ‘treating’?
Where candidates would pay for their supporters food, drink and accommodation during the election
Who were ‘lambs’?
Armed thugs who intimidated voters and used ‘cooping’ which was the kidnapping of rival supporters
% of people who could vote?
5%
Why could so few people vote?
Franchise was based upon property
How many men could vote out of what population in 1831?
400 000 out of a 13.89 million population
How many MPs did Manchester have for its population?
0 MPs for a population of 182 000
How many MPs did Dunwich have for its population?
2 MPs for a population of 240
What % of the population can now vote in Britain?
70%
How many constituencies of equal size are there in Britain now?
650
Why did the unreformed political system continue at this time?
-Many involved in corruption and bribery benefitted through money and wine
-Kept wealth and power in the upper classes -consistency
-Candidates easily elected and they were uncontested
-Most uneducated so never understood politics
What was the political system at the time nicknamed as?
Old Corruption
How much did you have to earn to be able to elected as an MP?
Dependent on occupying a freehold piece of land whose rental value was 40 shillings per year
What were rotten boroughs?
Ancient constituencies so depopulated that MPs were selected and elected by a small number of people
Example of a rotten borough?
Old Sarum
What were pocket boroughs?
Wealthy landowners owned all the land and buildings which allowed occupiers to vote. Landowners nominated candidates and bribed voters
What were scot and lot boroughs?
All men who paid local taxes like the poor rate could vote
Example of a scot and lot?
Preston, Lancashire
What was a potwalloper borough?
Men qualified to vote if they occupied a house which a large enough fireplace to boil a pot
Example of a potwalloper?
Taunton, Somerset
What was a corporation borough?
Only members of the local town council could vote
% of corporation boroughs with fewer than 50 voters?
90%
What were freeman boroughs?
All men who had acquired the title of ‘freeman’ through apprenticeships in a craft guild qualified to vote
How many boroughs had fewer than how many voters but still had 2 MPs?
50 boroughs had less than 40 voters
What was Lancashire’s population and how many MPs by 1831?
1.3 million people
14 MPs
What was Cornwall’s population and how many MPs by 1831?
300 000 people
42 MPs
Fraction of elections uncontested?
2/3
When was the French revolution?
1789
What was the name of Edmund Burke’s book? When was it published?
‘Reflections on the Revolutions in France’
1790
What did Burke argue?
Moderate reform could lead to violent revolution
Who wrote a book in response to Burke? What was it called? What year?
Thomas Paine
The Rights of Man
1791
What did Paine argue?
Rejected the idea that societies develop organically from their past and stated that each age has the right to establish a new political system
-Questioned the monarchy, nobility and established church
How many copies of ‘The Rights of Man’ sold by what year?
200 000 copies
1793
When was Paine charged with treason? What happened? Why?
1792
Fled to France
Seen as too radical even for the radical societies
What increased allowing the spread of political ideas?
Newspapers
How many newspapers did London have by the 1780s?
13 daily and 10 tri-weekly
How many newspapers outside of London?
50 provincial newspapers
Who proposed to disenfranchise how many of the worst boroughs and redistribute there seats to larger counties?
William Pitt
36 of the worst boroughs
How many votes was Pitt defeated by for his reform to redistribute seats?
74
Who set up the Yorkshire Association? When was it formed?
Reverend Christopher Wyvill
1780
Who set up the Society for Constitutional Information? When?
Major John Cartwright
1780
Where did these 2 societies gain membership from?
Respectable classes - merchants, professionals and gentry
Who made a name for himself for asserting the rights of voters to chose MPs?
John Wilkes
What did Wilkes encourage which was controversial and when?
Universal male suffrage
1776
What did the Society for Constitutional Information support?
-Universal suffrage and annual parliaments
-Aimed to educate people about the need for reform through distributing pamphlets
Cost to join The Society for Constitutional Information?
1-5 guineas a year to join
How many pennies in a guinea?
252 pennies
What did the Yorkshire Association support?
-Forum through which country gentlemen could petition parliament against corruption and call for greater accountability for government actions
-Supported moderate reform
When was the Roman Catholic Relief Bill?
1778
What event occurred as a result of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill? When?
Gordon Riots
1780
Open display of religious intolerance
When was the RC Relief Bill due to be extended, and to where?
1779
Scotland
Which group protested to the expansion of the bill?
George Gordon’s Protestant Association
When did Lord Liverpool hold the position of PM?
1812-27
When was there repression and economic reform under Lord Liverpool?
1815-22 = repression
1822-27 - economic reform
Who formed the London Corresponding Society? When?
Thomas Hardy
1792
How many supposed members in the LCS by early 1790s? What was it closer to?
5000 supposedly
More likely 1000
Cost to join LCS? Who was it open to?
Penny a week
Open to all
Who mostly made up membership in the LCS?
Artisans, tradesmen, booksellers, printer and authors
When and where did an open demonstration occur under the LCS? How many attended?
October 1795
Copenhagen Fields
100 000 people
Who did the LCS distance themselves from?
Paine and any violence
When was the Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information set up?
1791
How many signatures did the SSCI gain for male suffrage? When?
10 000 signatures
May 1792
Who were the government losing support from and why?
Middle class industrialists
Didn’t have the vote and workers were challenging government industrial centres
Name 4 industrial centres in Britain?
Manchester, Stockport, Bolton and Leeds
How much was a bushel of corn under the 1815 Corn Law?
10 shillings
When was Income Tax abolished?
1816
What did the government do in response to ending income tax?
Increased indirect tax such as beer, tea and sugar
How much did indirect tax rise by, between which years?
From £16-17 million in the 1790s to £50-60 million after 1816
When did Napoleon blockade Britain and America declare war?
1806 = Napoleon
1812 = War with America
How much did national debt increase by?
£238 million to £902 million
How many soldiers returned home after the American war?
400 000 soldiers
How many ironworkers lost their jobs after the war as they were no longer needed?
7000 workers
How much did poor relief increase by between 1775-1817?
£2 million to £8 million
% of Britons aged under 15 and in industrial towns by 1821?
48%
Who republished the leading article of ‘Weekly Political Register’? How much and when?
November 1816
William Cobbett
2d pamphlet
Who set up the Hampden Clubs?
Major John Cartwright
How many miles and towns did Cartwright travel, in how many days? How many signatures did he gain from how many petitions?
900 miles in 29 days to 34 towns
130 000 signatures for 430 petitions
How many Hampden clubs and Union Societies by 1824?
150
What term was given to William Pitt’s counter to the terror taking place in France, to crush radicals?
‘Reign of Terror’
What was set up in 1793 to infiltrate radical societies?
Alien Section and Secret Service
Which prominent radical wanted an elected assembly in Edinburgh? What was it called and what happened to them?
Thomas Muir
National Convention
Charged with sedition and sentenced to 14 years transportation
Which Reverend was sentenced for encouraging people to read what?
Reverend Thomas Palmer
Encouraged reading of ‘The Rights of Man’
7 years transportation
When and what was suspended allowing political prisoners to be held indefinitely?
Habeas Corpus
1794
What two acts were passed in December 1795?
Treasonable and Seditious Practices Act
What did the ‘Two Acts’ do?
Broadened law of treason and Seditious Meetings Act, which banned meetings of over 50 people
What conservative publications were printed in the 1790s to support government actions?
The Oracle, The Sun and the True Briton
What was the APLP?
Association for Preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers
When was the APLP set up and by whom?
1792
John Reeves
How many branches of the APLP?
2000 nationwide
How many members in the APLP by when?
450 000 members by 1804
What cost for a quarter of a tonne of grain under the Corn Law?
80 shillings
By how much of a majority was Income Tax abolished by?
37 votes
When were the Game Laws introduced?
1816
How many years transportation for poaching against a landowner under the Game Law?
7 years
When was Habeas Corpus again suspended? How long did this last?
1817
Lasted 1 year
When were the Six Acts?
1819
What was the Seditious Meetings Prevention Act?
Imposed restrictions on public meetings
What was the Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act?
Allowed searches for and seizing of blasphemous and seditious publications
What was the Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act?
Introduced a 4d duty on newspapers to make them more expensive
When were the Spa Field Riots?
1816-17
How many at the first spa field meeting?
20 000
What happened at the second spa field meeting?
200 of 2000 marched to the Tower of London, looted a gun shop and were dispersed
What happened at the third spa field meeting?
Crowd attacked Prince Regent’s coach at the opening of Parliament
When was the Cato Street Conspiracy? Who led them?
February 1820
Led by Arthur Thistlewood
What was the aim of the Cato street conspiracy?
Assassinate Lord Liverpool’s cabinet as they had dinner at Lord Harrowby’s house in Grosvenor Square, London
Who was the spy who prevented the assassinations? What happened to the conspirators?
George Edwards
Conspirators arrested and executed 3 months after - 5 transported
When was the Peterloo Massacre?
August 1819
How many gathered to listen to whom at the St. Peter’s Field?
60 000 to listen to Henry Hunt
How many were killed and wounded by yeomanry in the Peterloo Massacre?
11 killed
400-600 wounded
How much did British GNP and manufacturing increase by between 1821-29?
16.8% = GNP
25% = manufacturing
Who led the free press campaign? Outcome?
Richard Carlile
Failed to gain mass support and his pamphlets were defiant
Who and when set up the Birmingham Political Union?
Thomas Attwood
1830
Aim of BPU?
Middle class suffrage = all workers would benefit if Parliament included middle class MPs
How many were attracted to BPU rallies?
100 000
What was the NUWC?
National Union of the Working Class
How many NUWC unions across Britain? What fraction in the North and in the Midlands?
100 unions
1/3 in the North and 1/3 in the Midlands
Where did the NUWC instigate violence in 1831 and why?
Bristol and Nottingham
After House of Lords rejected the Second Reform Bill
When was there a depression in the cotton trade in the north-west? What was the result of this?
1825-6
20 mills attacked and 1000 looms smashed
7 machine breakers killed at Chadderton
Spread to Manchester, Skipton and Bradford
What pro-union journal developed which attacked capitalism?
Hodgkin’s Trades Newspaper
What pro-union journal developed which called for political reform?
Doherty’s Voice of the People
When did Duke Wellington become PM? What happened to the government?
1828
Split the party into opposing factions
Which faction did Wellington alienate and why?
Liberal ‘Canningite’
Refused to consider redistribution of parliamentary seats
What act did Wellington support which angered the protestant ‘Ultras’? What did the act allow?
Catholic Emancipation Act 1829
Allowed Catholics to be MPs
How many Tory MPs voted against the Catholic Emancipation Act?
173
When did a general election occur after the death o King George IV?
June 1830
Which Whig leader united the Tory Canningites and Tory Ultras? When?
Lord Grey
November 1830
When was the first Reform Bill? Who introduced it?
March 1831
Lord John Russel
How many rotten boroughs were to be redistributed to the North by the first reform bill?
100
What was the cost of property qualification for voting rights under the first reform bill?
£10
What were the votes for and against the first reform bill?
302 to 301 in favour
When was the second reform bill?
July 1831
When was the new election which gave Grey how large a majority to introduce the second reform bill?
Election in April 1831
Gave Grey a majority of 130
By how many votes did the second reform bill pass by?
136
By how many votes was the second reform bill rejected by in the House of Lords?
41 votes
What was the result of the second reform bill being rejected?
Riots in October 1831
Which Ultra Tory home was burnt down in the riots of 1831?
Nottingham Castle home to the Duke of Newcastle
Which town was controlled by rioters for 3 days?
Bristol
How many rioters were killed and injured when the town was restored to order?
12 rioters killed
Over 100 injured
When was the third reform bill?
December 1831
What was the Whig majority when the third reform bill was passed?
162
How many Lords were in the way to prevent the third reform bill?
9
How many Whig seats did Grey ask William IV to create in the House of Lords?
50
When did Grey resign and why?
May 1832
William IV refused to pass on adding new seats to the House of Lords
Who replaced Grey and why did he return as PM?
Wellington which triggered the ‘Days of May’ - lack of support
Grey returned and William IV agreed to create new seats
When was the Great Reform introduced?
June 1832
Who drew up a plan to withdraw money from banks to cause a banking crisis in the ‘Days of May’?
Francis Place
How many from the BPU at a rally in the Days of May?
200 000
How many boroughs disenfranchised under the Great Reform Act?
56
How many new boroughs created and seats to English counties?
42 new boroughs
62 news seats
How long was polling limited to?
2 days
By how much did the electorate size grow?
From 366 000 to 650 000 (18% of male pop.)
How much did the % of contested seats increase by before and after 1832?
From 30% to 50%
What changes were seen under the Great Reform Act?
-Imbalance between rural and urban voters was redressed through the changes
-Increased political involvement by the middle class
-Development of permanent party organisations who helped register voters
-Party discipline increased which meant more politicians voted as their party wanted
-Limited role of the monarch
-Hope to reformers of further change
What continued after the Great Reform Act?
-Control was still in the hands of the elite
-Whig’s motivated to gain support of middle classes but avoid revolution - moderate change
-Too expensive to stand
-Huge discrepancies in the size of constituencies
-South still over-represented
Few middle class joined Parliament
-Still only 2 parties
-Power of House of Lords and King to veto remained
What annual income was needed to stand as an MP?
£600
Voting was still public up to when?
1872
How many boroughs had fewer than 500 electorates?
73
How many boroughs had fewer than 300 electorates?
31
How many in Leeds qualified to vote out of how large a population due to the £10 rule?
Only 5000 out of 125 000
How many middle class individuals served in cabinets from 1830-66?
Only 14 of 103 individuals
What did the people’s Charter demand?
-Universal suffrage for all men over 21
-Secret ballot
-Annual Parliaments
Abolitions of property qualifications
-Payments to MPs
Constituencies of equal size
What movements developed in response to the failure of Whig reform Acts?
Anti-poor law and 10hr movements
In which towns did Poor Law Guardians have to be protected by local cavalry ?
Huddersfield and Bradford
Where were police constables attacked?
Todmorden
Who was the Northern Star established by and when? Purpose?
Feargus O’Connor in 1837 in Leeds
Campaign for the end of the Poor Law
Who drew up the People’s Charter and when?
London Working Men’s Association (LWMA)
1837
Aim of LWMA?
Push for more radical reforms because so many felt alienated due to property qualifications for voting
Who were the Tolpuddle Martyrs?
6 leaders of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers
When did the Tolpuddle Martyrs set up their union? Why?
1833
Fight wage cuts
What happened to the Tolpuddle Martyrs?
Sentenced to 7 years deportation to Australia
How many marched to London to protest against the Tolpuddle Martyrs sentence? When?
30 000 radicals
April 1834
Where was Chartist support the strongest?
Cheshire, Lancashire, West Riding of Yorkshire
How many handloom workers unemployed in 1840?
400 000
How many vendors arrested for printing anti-governmental newspapers from 1830-36?
700
How many signatures collected for a petition on the People’s Charter by the BPU? When by?
1.2 million signatures
By May 1839
By how much did Parliament reject the petition on the People’s Charter in 1839?
235 votes to 46
How many troops did the government send North to keep peace following the rejected petition?
6000
When was there a major economic recession?
1841-42
How many signatures in a second Chartist petition in April 1842?
3.3 million
By how much did Parliament reject the second Chartist petition?
287 votes to 49
Whose MP was Feargus O’Connor by what year?
Nottingham
1847
Where was a Chartist open air rally in April 1848?
Kennington Common, London
How many Chartist signatures were real and the rest faked in the third petition?
5.7 million signatures
Only 2 million were real
How many special constables were created and soldiers used to maintain peace in London after the third petition?
150 000 new special constables
8000 soldiers
When was the Newport Rising?
3-4th November 1839
What happened in the Newport Rising?
Armed ironworkers and miners marched to the Westgate Hotel in Newport believing Chartist prisoners were being held there
How many Chartists were killed and wounded when soldiers opened fire?
20 killed
50 wounded
Which leaders in the Newport Rising were transported?
John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Lloyd Jones
Which two leaders were imprisoned?
Lovett and O’Connor
How many workers went on strike across which areas removing plugs from boilers?
500 000 workers
Staffordshire, Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire
How many counties affected by the Plug Riots by September 1842?
15 English and Welsh
8 Scottish
How many Chartists in the Plug Riots were arrested?
1000
When and where was the National Charter Association formed?
Manchester
July 1840
How many NCA branches and members by April 1842?
401 branches
50 000 members
How many members in the NCA by the end of 1842?
70 000
Why did the NCA fail?
-Lack of money meant lack of resources
Concerned by physical force of Chartist’s like O’Connor
When was the Chartist Cooperative Land Society set up?
1845
How much were shares in rental land under O’Connor’s land plan? How large were the land plots? What was annual rent?
Shares were 3d per week
Land plots of 4 acres
Annual rent £1 5s
How much payment from how many subscribers did the land plan receive? How many actually got land plots?
£100 000 from 70 000 subscribers
Only 250 people received allotments
Example of a land plan settlement which survived?
Charterville, Oxfordshire
Who founded the anti-corn law league? When?
Richard Cobden
1839
When was the National Reform Union set up?
1864
Aim of the National Reform Union?
Extend franchise to all male ratepayers, distribute seats equally and have a secret ballot
Which liberal minded member of the National Reform Union was elected as MP, when, and for where?
Samuel Morley
1865
Nottingham
When was the Reform League set up?
1864
Aim of the Reform League?
More radical than Reform Union and wanted universal male suffrage and a secret ballot
Relied on demonstrations
When were the Hyde Park riots? Who led them?
23rd July 1866
John Bedform Leno
Who declared the Hyde Park riots illegal? How many still attended? Where was the next meeting?
Conservative home secretary Walpole
200 000 attended
Trafalgar Square the next day
Why did the Reform League increase in support?
No violence and all rallies ended peacefully
Seen to be using respectable methods to pressurise government
When was the Chiswick meeting (Reform League)?
When was the Islington meeting (Reform League)?
December 1866
February 1867
Who expressed the view that the working class should have the vote, and when?
Gladstone
1864
Who and when introduced a reform bill into the Commons and divided the Liberal party? Who led the ‘No’ voting and what were they known as?
Gladstone in March 1866
Robert Lowe - defeated the bill - led the Adullamites
Who later introduced a reform bill in March 1867, but only had the future success of which party in mind?
Disraeli
Conservative party
When was the Municipal Corporations Act? What did it do?
1835
Town council members of MPs now elected by all local male ratepayers - no longer self-elected - modernised political system
What event allowed the issue of reform to be pushed?
Lord Palmerston (Liberals) rejected calls for reform in 1859 and was replaced with Earl Russel when Palmerstone died in 1865, who was more moderate
Allowed Russel to work with Gladstone to push the issue of reform
When was the second reform Act?
1867
How many seats taken from boroughs with fewer than 10 000 people? How many disenfranchised?
45 seats
7 disenfranchised
How many seats went to counties? How many to new boroughs? How many existing boroughs gained an extra seat? Where was one seat reserved for?
25 to counties
20 to new boroughs
6 existing gained a seat
University of London had 1 reserved
How many new voters were added to the franchise following the 1867 Reform Act?
1 million
Doubled the electorate
Who became PM in 1868?
Gladstone
What campaign did Gladstone go on to increase support of the working class towards his policies and the new reform act?
Midlothian campaign
How many voters in Britain after the 1867 Reform Act?
2.46 million
Fraction of the male population able to vote after 1867 Reform Act?
1/3
% of workers discriminated against due to policy of occupancy for a least 1 year?
30%
What system allowed those who owned property in both a borough and county to vote twice?
Plural voting
Under Gladstone’s liberal bill introduced in 1866 what were the qualifications to vote in boroughs and counties to be reduced to? How many new voters would this bring?
To £7 a year in boroughs = 200 000 skilled worker votes
From £50 to £14 in counties = 170 000 more voters
Which 3 cabinet members resigned from the Conservatives due to protest against Disraeli’s reform bill, seeing it as too radical?
Cranbourne, Peel and Carnarvon
Who was John Bright?
MP of Birmingham
Raised the question o reform to Lord Palmerston in 1859
Role of John Bright in Anti-Corn Law League?
Helped found it as he was a moderniser
What did John Bright begin in 1858?
Series of public speeches aimed to promote the issue of reform
