Repression, reform and economy during the Liverpool govt Flashcards
Which minister guided CE through the commons
Peel
Who were the high tories
Also referred to as the ultra tories. Arose in the 1820s, reactionary and anti reform, particularly with regard to parliamentary reform and CE
Describe Huskisson
Gained the confidence of Pitt, who nurtured his beliefs in a system of free trade. Appointed president of the board of trade in 1823, Liverpool sought his advice on matters of finance, commerce and trade. Pushed for amendment of the corn laws
Describe Canning
As foreign sec (1807-9) he was irritated by the overlap of his role with war secretary Lord Castlereagh, who decisions he considered inept. Appointed foreign sec again in 1822. PM for 5 months in 1827
Hilton
It was once customary to divide Liverpool’s administration into two halves. The first consisted of the prolonged cabinet reshuffle of 1821-3, a period of disorder in the country and robust official repression; the second a liberal awakening in which Peel amended the criminal law, William Huskisson and Robinson freed up the economy and Canning asserted British interests abroad. No longer an acceptable view. There was actually continuity and many of the new policy decisions preceded the reshuffle. The ministers promoted in 1821-3 had held influential positions before they took up front line cabinet posts and that two of the ministers most associated with the earlier period (Sidmouth and Vansittart) continued to serve in cabinet following their demotion from office. No great discontinuity between the two phases of Liverpool’s govt
Brock
The change that took place in 1822 was very marked. With the return of prosperity there was a change in the tone of govt, within a few years the suspicion of revolution had vanished and the broad outline of Victorian Britain had been sketched by a govt that had some claim to be called the first of the great improving ministries of the 19th century and one of the mainsprings of later political thought and action. Parliament was still unreformed, Catholics were still hampered by restrictive legislation, but in economic policy the govt was gaining the approval of thinking men and had gained the admiration of posterity. This period may be called liberal toryism, because the high tories accused the govt of liberalism, which was then a suspect and dangerous thing
Describe the decline in political patronage at this time
Pitt had become reducing sinecures as a money saving device after 1783 and the process continued so that appointments to key administrative posts were related to duties and not to influence. Liverpool got rid of approximately 1800 sinecure offices between 1815-22. The decline in patronage led to a decline in royal influence and stimulated the development of party politics
Political difficulties
Liverpool faced several political difficulties and had to apply his skills as a mediator to bring together the strongly differing views and personalities among his ministers, and to make a constant effort to overcome whig opposition in the commons. The few govt ministers who sat in the commons were out matched in debating skills by a group of forceful and articulate radicals and whigs which made it difficult to hold a commons majority; Liverpool was caught between the declining system of patronage and a new disciplined party machinery. Fortunately the opposition lacked unity and leadership
The opposition made much of the Queen Caroline affair in 1820, but failed to unseat Liverpool. The popularity of the monarchy was low due to the extravagence of moral laxity of the Prince Regent. He dragged down the govt through a scandalous attempt to divorce his wife, and then Liverpool had to deal with his unsavoury attempt to exclude her from the throne after his 1820 coronation. This tarnished Liverpool’s reputation, increased govt unpopularity and roused popular demonstrations for Caroline, creating a serious threat to constitutional stability
The new look tories
Between 1821-3 there was a new look to his cabinet and a new mood began to emerge. The govt had survived the various challenges of the post war economic slump and deep social unrest against the odds and was strengthened by self reliance rather than royal favour. Completely won over several opposition groups, including the influential Grenville whigs. The Duke of Wellington, the hero of Waterloo, came into cabinet, as well as younger promising talent like Peel and Huskisson. The govt reinvented itself and moved away from its reactionary tendencies towards reform, but no single new appointment brought a break with earlier policies. It may have followed a different direction in economic policy and in its approach to social problems, but when Peel became home sec the pattern of reform in criminal law was already set according to Briggs and when Robinson became chancellor the govt was already moving towards a change in fiscal policy and a reduction in indirect taxes. Brock is the main proponent of the idea of radical change and liberal toryism
Key chronology of the Liverpool govt
1816 - Repeal of income tax
1819 - Truck Act
1819 - Relief Acts and Toleration Act
1819 - Factory Act
1819 - Return to BoE cash payments
1824 - penal code reform
1825 - amending act
Non corn law legislation
Wide range of legislation introduced during this period. Traditionally characterised as repressive until the 1821-3 reshuffle and then reformist
In 1816 income tax was abolished as a result of pressure from some MPs, who successfully convinced the govt it was a special war time measure and had no place in peacetime. Resulted in the govt raising indirect taxes, such as candles, beer, sugar and salt, impacting the lower orders. The poor reduced to supplementing their diet by poaching, but in 1816 the govt tightened up the already severe penalties for breaking the game laws
In 1817 the habeus corpus was suspended after a worrying mob attack on the prince regent’s coach
In 1819 a series of tough repressive measures known collectively as the six acts were passed to deal with the exceptionally high amount of unrest, which led to demonstrations at St Peter’s Fields in Manchester. These outlawed unofficial military training, seditious meetings, seditious libel; introduced stamp duties on newspapers to put them out of the reach of the most of the working class; gave magisstrates special powers to search homes for weapons; and sped up the judicial process in the courts. The authorities aimed to silence public opinion and the six acts were introduced to safeguard the position and authority of the ruling classes
There were other measures in the early years of the Liverpool govt that sent out a different message. There were Relief Acts for dissenters and a Toleration Act for Unitarians that permitted greater religious freedoms; the Poor Employment Act made money available for local corporations to develop public works
The Truck Act attempted to end the underhand tactic of employers paying wages in kind to factory workers
In 1819 a Factory Act was introduced to intervene in working conditions. Legislated against the employment of children under 9 in cotton factories and restricted working hours to 12 a day for young people. Important early step in state intervention and caused resentment among factory owners
Repeal of the Combination Acts
Number of important pieces of legislation after 1822. In 1824 the Combination Acts were repealed after pressure from the skilled artisan class led by Francis Place, a leading radical journeyman. Trade was expanding and unemployment had fallen and Place’s arguement to the govt commission was that by allowing TUs legal status, members would reject violence and work towards greater productivity and thereby their own prosperity. Ironically, the short boom between 1822-4 led to a rise in living costs, followed by recession, creating hardship again. There was a subsequent burst of strike action and the govt pulled back on their reforming position and passed an amending act in 1825, which put obstacles in the way of further strikes by making it illegal to molest or obstruct other workers
As Home Sec Peel recodified English criminaal law with the aim to simplify and consolidate the existing system. This including removing from the statute book minor offences that carried the death penalty, such as pick pocketing. Gaols act attempted to regularise and standardise the provision of gaols across the country. There were some important advances in the treatment of convicted women. A classification and separation of prisoners was introduced and female prisoners were to be looked after by female wardens. The reforms introduced a degree of humanity, but also a greater degree of efficiency. The result was to secure more convictions for lesser crimes
Hilton on the corn laws
Although it had its origins in pressure from landed interest, it was taken over by ministers as official policy and reflected their concerns about subsistence. Defying widespread popular protests, parliament enacted that no foreign corn could be imported until the domestic price reached 80 shillings a quarter. Opponents objected that wheat would never fall below 80 shillings again, but on closer inspection the law was much less of a capitulation to the landed interest than it appears at first sight. Wheat from British overseas territory was to be admissable at 67 shillings. The 80 shilling cut off point for foreign wheat was much below the price of previous years (107) shillings in 1808-13) and much less than the agriculturalists were demanding. It was clear that the govt was trying not to maintain the price permanently, but merely to avoid sucha sudden fall from bloated wartime levels as would lead to capital being withdrawn from agriculture
Changing attitudes to CE
By 1821, Liverpool could sense a change in attitude here and informed George IV that ‘there is an increasing spirit in favour of Catholics’. Briggs say Liverpool believed the ‘catholic question was correlated with general interest in improvement and reform’. In spite of Liverpool’s insight, a CE bill was defeated in the lords in 1825, as Liverpool failed to get consensus from his party despite the fact that his cabinet supported it
Attitudes to repression and reform
Part of the Liverpool govts reputation rested on repressive legislation that it adopted early on in the ministry, in response to the unprecedented social unrest that erupted in the wake of the napoleonic wars. Could be argued that they were responding to the long legacy of fear of the French Revolution and the multiplicity of post war problems they faced. The passing of the corn law brought more economic hardship for the majority but the govt’s economic policy seemed to be organised to suit the interests of the landowning political class rather than ordinary people. If the mob was restive because they had no work or their wage was too low to feed their family it seemed sufficient to the ruling elite to repress rather than deal with the primary causes. Disorderly or criminal conduct could be swiftly dealt with through the application of a brutal penal code that too often transported minor offenders to the other side of the world for life. In a letter Peel wrote in Mar 1820 to a political friend he asked ‘do youn not think there is a feeling in favour of some undefined change in the mode of governing the country’ This can be seen as a reference to the attitude developing in the 19th century that it was the duty of parliament to pass reforms to improve the lives of the less fortunate. Radicals and reformers both inside and outside parliament became involved in leading campaigns to press for some measures of social and political reform
However, Liverpool’s govt is not generally categorised as a reforming one. Did not address the two major reform issues of CE or parliamentary reform, although there was a little headway on both. In 1819, Grampound, the worst of the rotten boroughs, lost both its seats, which were reassigned to the county of Yorkshire, which had a pop of 20,000, but not to an unrepresented industrial city like Manchester. Hardly a precusor to reform
Peel was motivated more by a sense of responsibility and fair mindedness rather than enthusiasm for social reform with his penal code reform, an attitude typical of the Liverpool govt. This pragmatism was also present in the repeal of the combination acts, which had the support of new president of the board of trade Huskisson, and was an indication of willingness tto put faith in the skulled artisan class, who contributed to the country’s industrial prosperity. Overall, the administration was conservative in any approach to reform
