To what extent does the emergence of an industrial middle class explain the increasing demand for parliamentary reform in the years 1785-1832?

Question 1

What four factors need to be discussed?

Answer 1

1) Emergence of an industrial middle class
2) Corrupt old system
3) External factors
4) Unrest/protest

Question 2

Who were the new middle class?

Answer 2

Educated, self made factory owners who had reaped huge economic benefits from the industrial revolution and employed many thousands of workers

Question 3

With whom had the industrial middle class previously sided with to maintain their prosperity?

Answer 3

The establishment

Question 4

Name two notable industrialists

Answer 4

Richard Arkwright and Samuel Crompton

Question 5

Instead of siding with the establishment, what did the new middle class’s wide business interest mean?

Answer 5

they demanded a more laissez faire approach to economics

Question 6

What did the fact that they employed so many mean for their desire for representation?

Answer 6

They wanted political influence equivalent to their economic influence

Question 7

What did the 1815 corn laws do?

Answer 7

mean theta foreign grain could not be imported until the price of a bushel of wheat reached 10 shillings

Question 8

Was the 1815 corn laws designed to do?

Answer 8

protect the domestic markets in the economic slump following the 1815 war

Question 9

How did the middle classes see the 1815 corn law?

Answer 9

saw it as the government looking after their own, prioritising the interests of landowners

Question 10

What Wass the implication of the corn laws for the middle classes?

Answer 10

It forced up the price of bread, so the middle classes had to pay workers more in order to sustain a healthy workforce

Question 11

What did the middle class accuse the government of?

Answer 11

Aristocratic nepotism

Question 12

The aristocratic nepotism of the government, which prevented the middle classes getting involved, was - to them - an abject waste of what?

Answer 12

talent

Question 13

By 1831 what was lancashire’s population and how many MPs did it have?

Answer 13

By 1831 Lancashire had a population of 1.3 million and had 14 MPs

Question 14

By 1831 what was Cornwall’s population and how many MPs did it have?

Answer 14

Cornwall had a population of 300 000 but 42 MPs.

Question 15

How many boroughs had fewer than 40 voters

Answer 15

> 50

Question 16

How many MPs represented a borough, even if only one person voted in it?

Answer 16

2

Question 17

What was interesting about old sarum?

Answer 17

had a single landowner and no inhabitants, but still returned 2 MPs to parliament

Question 18

How did Rotten Boroughs come about?

Answer 18

They were towns that had been important in the 17th century, but had since been depopulated

Question 19

Why did New towns such as Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield did not return any MPs?

Answer 19

They did not exist in the 17th century

Question 20

Name two types of borough to indicate the discrepancies between voting qualifications in boroughs

Answer 20

1) pot walloper

2) Scot and Lot Borough

Question 21

Give an example of a pot walloper borough

Answer 21

Taunton

Question 22

What happened in a pot walloper borough?

Answer 22

A man would be qualified to vote if he had a fireplace big enough to boil a pot in

Question 23

What happened in a Scot and Lot borough?

Answer 23

all men who paid taxes such as the poor rate could vote

Question 24

Give an example of a Scot and Lot borough

Answer 24

Preston

Question 25

What proportion of elections were uncontested?

Answer 25

2/3

Question 26

How long could a general election take?

Answer 26

up to 2 months- the result not being known until the end of it

Question 27

What existed in place of a secret ballot?

Answer 27

Hustings

Question 28

What was common in the hustings?

Answer 28

Open bribery

Question 29

What was Treating?

Answer 29

When candidates would pay their supproter's food and drink and accommodation throughout the election

Question 30

What were lambs?

Answer 30

‘Lambs’ were groups of armed thugs who intimidated rival supporters

Question 31

What was cooping?

Answer 31

kidnapping rival supporters until the end of the election

Question 32

In 1831 what proportion of the male population had the right to vote?

Answer 32

5%

Question 33

When did Thomas Hardy open his London corresponding society?

Answer 33

1792

Question 34

How much did Hardy's LCS cost a week to join?

Answer 34

1 penny

Question 35

How many people came to Thomas Hardy's 1795 demonstration on copenhagen fields?

Answer 35

Over 100 000

Question 36

What was significant about the low cost of Hardy's LCS?

Answer 36

Accessible ways of displaying demand were rising for the working class.

Question 37

Why would the government be concerned about organisations such as Hardy's LCS?

Answer 37

They were a union between working and middle class that proved dangerous in the french revolution

Question 38

Why would the government's concern about organisations such as Hardy's LCS translate into giving the middle class the vote?

Answer 38

They wanted the middle class on their side not the side of the worker

Question 39

What did Paine's rights of man do?

Answer 39

questioned monarch, nobility and Church and called for a fundamental reassessment of the British Political system.

Question 40

By 1793, how many copies of Paine's rights of man had been sold?

Answer 40

200 000

Question 41

What does the 200 000 copies of Paine's rights of man show?

Answer 41

That there was both support for reform form the literate, and an underlying threat of radicalism

Question 42

What shows how concerned the British government were about Paine's rights of man?

Answer 42

he was charged with treason in 1792 and fled to France

Question 43

What kind of press emerged after 1815?

Answer 43

Radical and cheap press

Question 44

Give three examples of newspapers that were radical and cheap

Answer 44

1) Cobbett's political register 2) William Sherwin’s “Weekly Political Register” 3) Edward Baines’ “Leeds Mercury”

Question 45

How much did Cobbett's Political Register cost in November 1816?

Answer 45

2d

Question 46

What suggests that the government viewed the press to be dangerous, and suggests that in the late 1810s, they were an effective means of co-ordinating people into demanding the vote?

Answer 46

The 6 acts imposed a 4d tax on all newspapers

Question 47

by 1821 what percentage of Britons were under 15?

Answer 47

48%

Question 48

Who spoke at the Spa Fields riots?

Answer 48

henry hunt

Question 49

Who spoke at the peterloo massacre?

Answer 49

henry hunt

Question 50

When was peterloo?

Answer 50

August 1819

Question 51

How many gathered to hear Hunt speak August 1819?

Answer 51

60 000

Question 52

What was the intention of the Peterloo massacre?

Answer 52

To promote a violent response from the government

Question 53

When did a crowd attack the Prince Regent's carriage?

Answer 53

1817

Question 54

How many killed at Peterloo?

Answer 54

11

Question 55

How many wounded at Peterloo?

Answer 55

400-600

Question 56

What was cato street?

Answer 56

A plot to kill Lord Liverpool's government

Question 57

When was Cato street?

Answer 57

February 1820

Question 58

What did Cato street precipitate?

Answer 58

A flurry of short term revolutionary activity such as in huddersfield and glasgow where weavers attempted to take over the town

Question 59

When were the 6 acts passed?

Answer 59

1817

Question 60

What would the 6 acts passage indicate?

Answer 60

indicate that the government perceived revolutionary activities to be a tangible threat to government

Question 61

When was the combination act repealed?

Answer 61

1824

Question 62

What did the repeal of the combination act do?

Answer 62

Gave rise to much union activity

Question 63

Give an example of a unionist newspaper that attacked capitalism and the establishment

Answer 63

Hodgskin’s Trades Newspaper

Question 64

How did Unionism create pressure for electoral reform/

Answer 64

This provided a structure to the workforce that would have worried the government substantially.

Question 65

Give an example of a political union?

Answer 65

Birmingham Political Union

Question 66

When was the BPU established?

Answer 66

1830

Question 67

How many did the BPU attract over the course of the days of may?

Answer 67

200 000

Question 68

What did the BPU create?

Answer 68

A union between upper and lower classes

Question 69

What did the Napoleonic wars allow the government to do?

Answer 69

successfully link domestic radicalism to the revolution in France

Question 70

What did the end of the Napoleonic precipitate?

Answer 70

return of radical activity, the driving force for parliamentary reform.

Question 71

How could the 1815 corn laws be described?

Answer 71

A protectionist legacy from the Napoleonic wars

Question 72

Following the Napoleonic wars and the war with the US in 1812, what did national debt increase from and go to?

Answer 72

increased from £238 million to £902 million

Question 73

When was income tax repealed?

Answer 73

1816

Question 74

How was the gap in tax caused by the 1816 income tax repeal filled?

Answer 74

indirect taxes were raised on items such as beer and sugar which fuelled hunger politics

Question 75

Following the end of the Napoleonic wars and the war with the US in 1812, how many soldier returned home?

Answer 75

400 000

Question 76

Following the end of the Napoleonic wars and the war with the US in 1812, how many iron workers lost their jobs in shropshire?

Answer 76

7 000

Question 77

Average earnings were lower 1815-19 than they were when?

Answer 77

1780s

Question 78

What did low wages do?

Answer 78

Increase the sources of working class discontent that lead to radical action

Question 79

What did the threat of revolution do within parliament?

Answer 79

Increased the support for reform from within parliament