The growth of Parliamentary reform

Question 1

What was the Cato Street conspiracy?

Answer 1

in February 1820, a group led by Arthur Thistlewood planned to assassinate Lord Liverpool’s cabinet as they gathered for dinner at Lord Harrowby’s house in Grosvenor Square, London. The aim was to trigger uprisings across the country. A government spy, George Edwards, knew of the plan from the outset and Thistlewood and his conspirators were arrested at Cato Street then executed three months later. Five involved were transported

Question 2

What did Britain’s GNP increase by between the years of 1821-29?

Answer 2

increased by 16.8% and manufacturing grew by 25%. Despite this, radicalism didn’t cease to exist

Question 3

Who led the campaign for free press?

Answer 3

Richard Carlile

Question 4

Why did Richard Carlile spend six years in prison?

Answer 4

he published the works of Thomas Paine following the Peterloo Massacre

Question 5

What was wrong with Carlile’s pamphlets?

Answer 5

They were defiant, against the government and were also theoretical and failed to gain the mass support he desired.

Question 6

What were the Swing riots?

Answer 6

• These were a series of agricultural disturbances which broke out in Kent in 1830 and spread across rural areas in the south and east of England.

Question 7

How many counties did the Swing Riots spread to?

Answer 7

Swing Riots spread to 20 counties and mostly involved machine breaking, arson, assaults on landlords, demands for higher wages and strikes.

Question 8

How many petitions were sent out between February and March 1830 demanding tax reductions in rural areas?

Answer 8

200

Question 9

How did the Government react to 200 petitions being sent out?

Answer 9

This concerned the government because the south and east had never been associated with radical activity (unlike the industrial north) they feared that paternalism (the hierarchical traditions) was breaking down

Question 10

In 1821, how many iron workers coal miners refused to disperse when the Riot Act was read and fought the yeomanry?

Answer 10

3000, two miners were killed, 7 yeomanry injured

Question 11

What happened in 1822?

Answer 11

a worsted power loom was destroyed in Shipley

Question 12

What happened between 1823-24 in Liverpool?

Answer 12

Scottish workers were brought in to replace striking rope makers and sawyers, two were killed and buildings set on fire

Question 13

What happened between the years of 1825-26?

Answer 13

1825-26: a depression in the cotton trade led to mass unemployment in the north-west 20 mills were attacked and 1000 looms smashed seven machine-breakers were killed at Chadderton. Disturbances spread to Manchester, Skipton, and Bradford

Question 14

What happened to several weavers in 1829?

Answer 14

several weavers were shot by soldiers who were guarding 16 men who had been placed in a lock up in Rochdale following the destruction of factory machinery four weaving shops in Manchester were attacked and over 150 looms smashed

Question 15

The most organised protests against government inaction and lack of reform was done by who?

Answer 15

Political unions

Question 16

When was the Birmingham Political Union set up, and by who?

Answer 16

set up in 1830 by Thomas Attwood as a general political union between the lower and middle classes

Question 17

How did the BPU maintain support?

Answer 17

• The BPU managed to maintain support because, in Birmingham, the smaller workshops meant employers and employees worked closely together

Question 18

What was the BPU’s main goal?

Answer 18

Their main aim was for the middle-class suffrage, the argument being that all workers would benefit if parliament included middle-class MPs

Question 19

How many People would attend BPU rallies?

Answer 19

The BPU regularly attracted 100,000 people at rallies and attracted 200,000 during the “Days of May

Question 20

What as the NUWC?

Answer 20

The National Union of Working class (NUWC) was an exclusively working-class union which was seen as more of a threat to the government that the BPU

Question 21

How many unions were there, and what fraction was the north, what fraction was the midlands?

Answer 21

There were just under 100 unions across the country with 1/3 of them in the north and 1/3 in the Midlands

Question 22

What did the NUwC do?

Answer 22

They instigated violence in Bristol and Nottingham after the House of Lords rejected the Second Reform Bill in 1831.
They were also important during the “Day of May” in 1832

Question 23

What did the combination acts do?

Answer 23

legalise unions

Question 24

How did trade unions help in the short term?

Answer 24

alarmed the governments

Question 25

What did pro-union journals do?

Answer 25

Pro-union journals developed including Hodgkin’s Trades Newspaper which attacked capitalism and Doherty’s Voice of the People which called for political reform

Question 26

Who was Doherty?

Answer 26

Doherty was the leader of the Lancashire Spinners and founder of the General Union of the Operative Spinners of Great Britain and so spoke for many workers