PARLIAMENTARY REFORM KNOWLEDGE TEST Flashcards
How much did GB national debt rise to and from what after 1800??
£238mn to £902
When were the spa field riots, who led them and how many people attended??
1816, led by Henry Hunt with 20,000 people
When were the days of May and what happened??
1832, 200,000 people attracted and led by the BPU
What was the political group formed just before the days of may and how many people did it have??
BPU in 1829, amassed 100,000 people both middle and class working class
What society formed in 1792 and how many members did it peak at??
London corresponding society said to have peaked at 5000 members, cost a penny to join
What event was led by the LCS in October 1795??
Peaceful demonstration at Copenhagen field which attracted 100,000
How many boroughs had less than 40 people and yet returned how many MPs to parliament??
50 boroughs had less than 40 people and yet returned 2 MPs each
What were pocket boroughs and give an example of one
Pocket boroughs= where one wealthy inhabitant owns all the property and gives all inhabitants the right to vote, but bribes them. eg Appleby in Cumbria
What 4 new industrial cities were massively underrepresented and what was the population of Manchester??
manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield
Manchester had 400,000 people
What were rotten boroughs and give a common example of them??
Boroughs that were massively over represented due to the deterioration in population- Old Sarum
What were ‘lambs’ and what was ‘treating’
lambs- thugs used to intimidate voters
Treating- where MPs would pay for voters food and accommodation
How were seats redistributed in the first reform act (1832)
- 56 boroughs with less than 2000 people lost an MP and 30 completely disenfranchised
- 42 new borough constituencies set up, including 20 new two seat constituencies for cities like Birmingham and Manchester
How much did it cost to become an MP and how many middle class people were in the cabinet between 1830-66
£600 a year, 14 out of 106
How many MPs did the north and south have??
North- 120
south-370
What were property qualifications in the counties and boroughs after 1832??
Counties- rented land worth £50 or owned worth £10
Boroughs- owned worth £10
What did electorate sizes increase to in the 1832 act and then 1867 act??
1832- 366,000 to 650,000 now 18% of the population
1867- 2.46million now 1/3 of the adult male population
How did the whigs try to exclude the lower classes in the 1832 election??
Land owning qualification- made no attempt to hide this fact
What legislation prohibited 1/3 of the population voting even after 1867??
Occupation of residency clause of 1 year in a house
How were the seats reallocated after the 1867 reform act??
45 boroughs with less than 10,000 people lost an MP and a further 7 disenfranchised.
25 seats went to counties, 20 to boroughs, 6 gained an additional seat and 1 to the university of London
How many boroughs had fewer than 500 voters and how many fewer the 300??
73 had fewer than 500 and 31 fewer than 300
When were the NRU and NRL set up and what did they do??
Both set up in 1864, both wanted extended franchise to all males, a secret ballot, and the NRU wanted equal distribution of seats. They were middle class liberals, with the NRL being slightly more radical, however they were more popular, attracted many ex chartists and used non violent demonstrations that were widely successful and hard for the government to ignore
What prompted the Hyde park riots, when were they and what happened??
after first liberal bill failed, NRL held meeting in Hyde park 23rd July 1866, which was declared illegal and the police chained shut the entrances. Despite this, 200,000 people invaded the park by breaking through the gates; clearly a huge assembly of people asking for reform. Military support was requested
What did the failed 1st reform bill plan to do and who wanted to introduce it??
- Gladstone tried to introduce it in 1866
- Would bring land qualifications down to workers earning £7 in boroughs (200,000 more voters) and bring renting of £50 worth of land in counties down to £14 to include 170,000 more voters
What 2 positions of government did Disraeli hold in 1866 and how did he contribute to the second reform act??
Disraeli was chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the commons
- formed a minority government under earl of derby in 1866
- advertised moderate reform when they sense a mood for change
- advertised extending the franchise to urban voters to gain their votes from the liberals
How did better party politics in 1832 inspire Gladstone in 1868??
Gladstone saw the importance of working with his party and toured the country to give speeches to the masses, leading to the liberals win in 1868
Name and describe 3 acts/ changes made under Pitts reign of terror and when they were??
- Combination acts in 1799
- ‘two acts’ in december 1795 which banned public meetings of over 50 people who were discussing reform
- Licenses taken away from pubs who allowed such meetings
What was paine’s thesis on society??
Paine rejected the idea that societies develop organically from their past, and instead each age has the right to establish a new political system.
When was Paine charged with treason and how many copies of what book did he sell by 1793??
charged with treason in 1792 and fled to France, had sold 200,000 copies of his book ‘ the rights of man’ by 1793
When were the 3 chartist petitions and how many signatures did they each get?
1st- 1839 with 1.2million signatures
2nd- 1842 with 3.3million signatures
3rd- 1848- 5.7million signatures but 3.7million were said to be forged
Why and how did the first chartist petition fail??
bill rejected, chartists arrested and 6000 troops sent North to keep peace.
Why and how did the 2nd chartist petition fail?
parliament reject it by even more votes than the last one (287 votes to 49)
why and how did the 3rd chartist petition fail??
Chartists are banned for forging 3.7 out of 5.7 mil signatures, 8000 more soldiers sent out to stop them.
How did the chartists use of petitions lead to their failure??
They grew increasingly desperate with their use of petitions, began forging them by 1848, which only led to further government opposition eg 2nd bill rejected by even more than the first one. Made it harder for them to be taken seriously in the long term
When and where was the 1st use of violence by the chartists and what happened?
Newport rising 1839- thousands of miners storm hotel to rescue arrested chartists. Many leaders arrested and killed, worsening morale of chartists
How many chartists were injured and killed at Newport??
50 injured, 20 killed
When and where was the second use of violence by the chartists and what happened?
Plug riots 1842- following rejection of the second bill, 500,000 workers went on strike in Yorkshire, removing plugs from boilers to make them useless
How many people arrested after the plug riots and why was it controversial??
1000, the chartists didn’t actually lead the riot but were blamed and many arrested
How did the use of violence lead to the chartist failure??
The lower class background of the chartists meant they lacked the funding to protest effectively and turned to violence, therefore provoking further oppression from the government who weren’t prepared to meet their demands due to their violent nature.
What two chartist groups were set up in 1842 and how many members did they have?
NCA had 70,000 members and complete suffrage union who had over 50 branches
Why did the NCA fail??
Lower class demographic lacked the organisational ability and funding to campaign effectively, leaders were poorly paid and couldn’t gather resources.
why did the Complete suffrage league fail??
Collaborated with the anti corn league but failed when it realised that repealing the corn laws would lead to lower wages for chartists
Why did the political organisations of the chartists lead to its fail??
They had no strong supported aims and lacked the funding to campaign and change government attitudes, lower class demographic, no threat to the wealth land owning elite that were politicians
How many daily and tri weekly politicised papers did London have in the 1790s, and what effect did this have on lower class agitation
13 daily and 10 tri weekly, coincided with the growth of mass movements which increasingly politicised the lower classes, who made further demands for reform
What prominent member did the NRU have and what did he do??
Samuel Morley- a wool manufacturer from Nottingham who was voted as MP in 1865- believed in uplifting society through universal suffrage
How did the legacy of the 1832 reform act lead to the 1867 act??
-Whigs publicly excluding the lower classes from voting with the £10 land owning qualification
-chartists who responded to the lack of working class reform through radical violence and petitions
-continued over-representation of land owning elite v under-representation of lower and middle classes
ALTHOUGH NOT ITS GOAL, IT SERVED AS A STARTING POINT FOR FURTHER REFORM AND INCREASED PRESSURE ON GOVT FROM LOWER AND MIDDLE CLASSES
What was beneficial for politicians to do to gain support of middle class around 1866-1867
politicians like Disraeli realised he could advertise universal suffrage to the liberal middle class, who would in turn vote for the tories because they were the ones advertising reform
When did Napoleon blockade ports and how many soldiers returned home after the French wars?
1806-1812
400,000
How many people from what industry and where lost their jobs after the war?
7000 ironworkers from Shropshire
How much did indirect tax revenue increase between 1790 and 1816?
£50million
How did the tories change their approach to government after 1832??
- They looked to extend franchise very slightly, by introducing the land qualifications in the boroughs into the counties where they had lots of support from the landed gentry
- very moderate reform to include some more people and improve their support and benefit them
How did the tories rebrand themselves after 1832 and who led the next tory government?
Robert Peel led the newly named Conservatives after 1832, there was a new group of tories emerging who were more inclined to offer moderate reform
What did Russell do as early as 1852 and why did tories oppose it??
as early as 1852 Lord Russell, liberal lord Russell proposed reducing borough qualifications from £10 to £6, tories felt it was too lenient and inclusive of the lower classes and were worried it was too soon after 1832
how did the whigs rebrand themselves after 1832?
In response to the tories rebrand, they rebranded themselves as liberals because of the inclusion of more non aristocratic members of parliament, who they relied on after 1850, wanted to be the party to advertise more inclusive reform and attract tories who in turn would vote liberal
What 2 ‘revolutionary’ movements encouraged parliament to keep the pre reform system?
- French Revolution
- growth of unionism in new factories
How did the government respond to revolution?
- 2 acts (treason and seditious acts)
- 6 acts 1817-19
- combination acts
When were the 6 acts and what were some of the laws introduced??
Laws to suppress the radical activities in Britian
- newspaper and stamp duties increased the price of newspapers to stop spread of radical press
- seizure of arms act gave powers to search for weapons
- seditious meetings prevention act imposed restrictions on public meetings
What was radical press and who notoriously added to it?
- The emergence of increasingly politicised news read by the lower classes to encourage them to ask more questions regarding democracy etc
- From November 1816, William Cobbett began republishing his weekly political register to a large working class audience
What 3 reasons were there for the lack of reform up until 1820?
- fear of revolution
- benefits of pre reform system to government
- failed/ineffective rises in lower classes
Why did the government not want to reform parliament due to its benefits?
- The general consensus was that GB had been prosperous in its current political state so there was no need to change it
- the land owning elite knew that increased democracy would see a reduction in their power in the rural areas as power would shift towards the new industrial cities
When was the Cato street conspiracy, what happened and how did it add to lack of reform?
1820, attempt to assassinate lord Liverpool and trigger uprisings across the country, added to the earlier fears of revolution from the government
What examples of ineffective/violent challenges from the Lower classes were there?
- LCS
- cato street conspiracy
- Thomas paine
- Henry hunt/ spa field riots
