The unreformed political system in the 1780's

Question 1

How was the country ruled? (1780)

Answer 1

The King could appoint the PM and have a say in other matters, although he had to take account of the wishes of parliament and needed taxes which parliament granted.

Question 2

Which two parties dominated parliament? (1780)

Answer 2

Tories and Whigs were the two main political parties, they went back to the civil war and both dominated by landed families and led by Anglicans.

Question 3

Who were the Tories?

Answer 3

Tories:

• feared change
• feared revolution
• tough on law and order
• strict protestants
• strongly defended Church of England
• defended the Monarch.

Question 4

Who were the Whigs?

Answer 4

Whigs:

• mild reformers
• more likely to question the monarch
• religious toleration
• more sympathetic to nonconformists
• interest in political reform
• drew support from business classes.

Question 5

How could you vote?(1780)

Answer 5

Only 1/10 men had the right to vote.

Only “forty shilling freeholders” (£2)- could vote which was 500,000 out of 10,000,000.

Question 6

How were MPs distributed? (1780)

Answer 6

In 1780 there were 658 MPs today the number is 650. They were divided in constituencies where an MP represented that county/shire.
There are 82 county seats and 403 borough seats.
You could also have 2 MP’s for declining towns.

Question 7

What were the voting qualifications for boroughs? (1780)

Answer 7

• Freeman boroughs- title of “freeman”
• Pots-walloper boroughs- had a house and a pot
• Burgage boroughs- owned land
• Scot and lot boroughs- who paid taxes
• Corporation boroughs- members of the local town council
• Pocket boroughs- where large landowners are controlling the votes in the borough
• Rotten boroughs- only a few voters

Question 8

Was voting corrupt? (1780)

Answer 8

2 weeks elections
No secret ballot, so people could be pressurised.
Bribery, 25% were under the direct influence of the landlords.
Elections were boisterous and riotous
Coops were often done where some voters were kidnapped and drunk.

Question 9

Why did people want reform (King)?

Answer 9

MPs attacked for raising taxes and increased government expenditure.
Excessive use of patronage (control of appointing officers) by George III to win support for his policies in Parliament. - Wanted to reduce the power of the King, there was corruption.

Question 10

What did the middle class have to say about reform?

Answer 10

Middle classes did not support the radicals:

• Did not believe in universal male suffrage
• Only those who owned property had a right to vote: property gave a person a stake in the country

Middle class people wanted some reform and wanted a say e.g. factory owners, bankers, merchants, shop keepers.
The rural south was over represented in the Commons; e.g Cornwall sent 42 MPs but Manchester had 0.
Eventually in the 1820’s it became respectable and realistic goal for some of the middle classes
Though, Tory domination of politics prevented any possibility of reform
George IV was strongly opposed.

Question 11

What was the Catholic Emancipation, 1829?

Answer 11

Daniel O’ Connell’s campaign in Ireland forced the Tories to concede and grant Catholics full political rights:
Wellington and Peel feared civil war: many Tories saw them as traitors
Tories split in two: which weakened their ability to block reform and enabled the Whigs to come to power in 1830

Question 12

What happened at the Accession of William IV in 1830?

Answer 12

Death of George IV led to William IV succeeding and and election:

• Period of depression: poor harvests, rising unemployment, revival of radicalism, Swing Riots
• Tories narrowly won but lost a lot of their usual support
• Wellington made it clear he was opposed to any reform
• Whigs favoured reform: they were more confident than before and could gain the support of William IV
• Whigs formed a government in November 1830: embittered Tories joined with the Whigs to bring down Wellington

Question 13

What happened with the emergence of political unions?

Answer 13

French Revolution of July 1830: the Bourbon monarch, Charles X, was forced to flee, frightened the ruling classes in Britain, feared revolution

The Birmingham Political Union led by Thomas Attwood attracted mass support: aimed to reform Parliament, middle class and working class supporters
Political unions were formed in the major towns and cities: London, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, applied pressure ‘out of doors’, many MPs took the view that to oppose reform might incite violence

Question 14

What did the Whigs have to say about reform? (1831)

Answer 14

The Whigs aimed to form Parliament:
Remove the worst abuses of the political system e.g. abolish rotten boroughs
Not revolutionaries but wanted to preserve rule by the landed classes, with the support of the middle classes

A four man committee to draw up the terms: chaired by Lord Durham, Lord John Russell, large enough to satisfy public opinion, to afford sure ground of resistance to further innovation, based on property, based on existing territorial divisions, that would not risk overthrowing the existing form of government
An element of political self-interest: potential Whig voters

Question 15

How did the campaign for the first reform bill go? 1831-1832

Answer 15

Lord John Russell presented the reform bill to Parliament in March 1831: It produced an ‘absolutely electrifying shock’: it went way beyond what many expected

• Many boroughs would lose either one or both of their MP’s to be redistributed to new industrial towns
• A uniform voting qualification in the boroughs: all those who owned or rented a house worth £10 a year in rent
• Tories were horrified

Question 16

Why did the bill fail to pass? (1831)

Answer 16

It took eighteen months of bitter conflict to pass political reform.

Defeat of the bill, April 1831:
Passed by 302-301
Defeated in committee
Whigs asked William IV to call an election, the King was reluctant
Swing Riots
Grey persuaded him that it would pacify the country, reform would be the best guarantee of peace and stability.

Vast support for a bill for the working class men to get the vote- middle class reformers did not want this. They kept pressure on parliament and the King. There was a huge campaigning for the bill and indicated an impression of relentless desire for reform.

Question 17

What happened with the second reform bill in 1831 June-October?

Answer 17

Whigs came back to power with majority over 130 seats.
Aristocrats were defeated.
The bill allowed Tories to amend the bill by extending the vote: tenants who rented land worth £50 a year.
Tories expected tenant farmers to vote the same way as their landlords. The bill was eventually passed even though majority of the Lords were Tories.

Attwood organised a huge march in Birmingham, 100,000 joined ranging from bankers to minors. The aristocrats were warned not to resist.

The Lords rejected it and riots broke out in cities like Bristol and Nottingham.
People were shocked, but the Whigs could not back down as they could’ve been blamed for the riotousness of reform and how it is as bad as the Tories hoped. Or it could show the resilience of the Whigs and that their movement was organised and disciplined.

Question 18

How did the political unions respond to the failure of the second reform bill?

Answer 18

Attwood and other middle class leaders of political unions needed to gain mass support to keep pressure on the Whigs but needed to avoid repression from the government. Parliament was under pressure from the Tory opponents of reform and the masses that formed. Reformers wanted peace and wanted to prove to the Tories of their strength. 
The Whig reform bill was deliberately designed to exclude the working classes, so that it could get passed.

Question 19

What happened with the third reform bill in December 1831?

Answer 19

The King was under pressure, and people were unsure whether the Lords would pass another reform bill, so he tried to add more peers in to the House of Lords to turn the favour to Whig. But Grey wanted 50 or 60 peers rather than how many the King was willing to give. There was speculation that the Whig government was weak.
The political temperature was rising as it took much stress in the house of Lords for the bill to be passed.

Question 20

Why did the Whigs resign, May 1832?

Answer 20

The pressure was also building up as Attwood claimed he would rather die than see the great bill rejected.
Whig leaders and Grey said they would resign if they did not pass the bill unamended.
The Lords rejected the bill and the Whigs were forced to resign.

The King now looked to a Tory government. The Duke of Wellington was expected to lead a new government. Many tories did not like him because of what happened at the Catholic Emancipation.

A new government would have to pass some kind of reform in order to settle the whole question and calm agitation.
Peel in the commons was not completely opposed to reform, but as he opposed the first bill he was not going to go back on his word as he had been breaking his word over the Catholic emancipation.

Question 21

What happened when Wellington was in power?

Answer 21

Wellington tried to form a government, the political unions were determined to block any Tory administration, e.g. by refusing to pay taxes.

Francis Place a tailor by trade, proposed that holding paper money should demand its gold equivalent from the banks, thus depleting stocks and causing a financial collapse.
As not much paper money was about and banks would’ve been under pressure. Businesses could no longer borrow money to keep up their production. The government struggled to deal with it.

Wellington hated all political unions. He had ordered the soldiers to start rough sharpening their swords, but it was unsure whether the soldiers were support a fight against civilians.

Wellington could not get any support from Tories and once the King found out he could not form a government, the Whigs were called back in. The Whigs enforced that they would only come back if the King allowed more whig peers.

Question 22

What were the redistribution terms of the Great Reform Act?

Answer 22

Redistribution:
Rotten boroughs abolished and many pocket boroughs disappeared
30 boroughs lost one MP
Number of MPs remained 658, 145 MP’s redistributed
22 new borough with two MP’s: 14 in London, others in northern industrial town e..g Manchester, Leeds
19 new boroughs with one MP
54 new county seats created to increase the representation of the larger counties, e.g. Yorkshire
18 English seats transferred to Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Question 23

What were the franchise terms of the Great Reform Act?

Answer 23

Franchise:
Countries: adult males owning 40s freehold stayed the same, Chandos Amendment- tenants paying £50 a year in rent
Boroughs: old qualification abolished, adult males owning or occupying property worth £10 or more a year in rent
Register: all voter had to put their name on electoral role, one shilling.

Only the very top of the working class would get the vote, and 1/10 males went up to 1/5 adult males.

Question 24

What were the electorate terms of the Great Reform Act?

Answer 24

Electorate:
No reliable figures on the electorate, estimated increase 490,000 to 800,00 out of 24,000,000.
Property ownership was still the basis of the franchise
Most of the middle class and some skilled craftsmen could now vote
Most of the working class were excluded, felt betrayed, turned to Chartism
Just under 20% of males could vote

Question 25

What happened to the power of the people after the Great Reform Act?

Answer 25

Power of the Aristocracy:
Fewer pocket boroughs, means seats in parliament controlled by the Lords were reduced
Lords suffered a blow and had been forced to give in
Dominance of the commons
All cabinet ministers and all prime minsters were members of the aristocracy, except Peel
Wealthy landlords continued to exert influence

Power of the middle classes:
Middle class interest were more solidly represented in Parliament
The middle classes had been accepted into the political system
Few industrialists even entered Parliament: needed to run they own business
They contributed significantly to local politics

Question 26

How did the elections themselves change?

Answer 26

Elections: There has been a increase in contests in elections from 30% in the previous 30 years to over 50% in the next 30 years.
Open voting continued and so there was still bribery. In Ipswich you could sell your vote for £20.

Registration of voters: People needed to register their names and prove they are eligible.
Elections continued to be noisy and chaotic

Question 27

How did the reform act affect the crown?

Answer 27

The reform act weakened the position of the monarch:
William IV had been forced to give in under pressure
The monarch could no longer rely on patronage to get his way- as George III had done with the appointment of Pitt as PM in 1783
This reflected a slow decline in the power of the monarch e.g. George IV failed to get his divorce through Parliament in 1820
The House of Commons was becoming the more dominant part in government

Question 28

Why was the reform act important?

Answer 28

Whig historians called it the Great Reform Act: development of democracy in Britain, but this was not the intention of the Whigs.
They wanted to ‘remove the worst abuses’ e.g. rotten boroughs, recognise the importance of industry and include the middle classes
The reform was not radical: many features of the old system endured, the middle classes were included but as junior partners, the working class were deliberately excluded, the Whigs achieved a big majority at the next election
The Whigs intended it to be a final settlement but other reforms would follow e.g. 1867, 1884/5, 1918, 1928
It was passed in an atmosphere of great drama: passing it was the most important thing. 

Registration of voters: led the Whigs and Tories to improve their party organisation they wanted to get as many of their supporters on the register as possible, challenge the right of their opponents to vote, Tories set up the Carlton Club in 1832, the Whigs the Reform Club in 1836, local party agents, increased professionalism.

Question 29

How did the Conservatives and Liberals form?

Answer 29

Peel issued the Tamworth manifesto when he became Tory leader in 1834. He was more open to moderate reform of “proven abuses”, preserve established institutions. The term “conservative” came into use but was Peel was bought down by the Lichfield House Compact in April 1835, an alliance of Whigs, Irish and Radicals.

Peels government of 1841-6 passed significant economic reforms but collapsed over Corn Law crisis. Peels loyal supporters (Peelites) left the conservative and move towards the Whigs.

In 1859 the Liberal Party was formed.

Question 30

What was the abolition of MPs qualification in 1858?

Answer 30

Chartists strongly attacked the injustice of the property qualifications, they enabled the rich to dominate, laws were applied inconsistently, many businessmen found ways around the law.