To what extent does the strength of government resolve explain the decline in demand for reform in the years 1785-1830?

Question 1

What are the factors that need to be discussed?

Answer 1

Government resolve within parliament
Government action against protesters 
Hunger politics/ improving economy 
Dominance of the tory party 
External factors

Question 2

Describe parliament in 1785

Answer 2

Not supportive of radical change or reform to the parliamentary system

Question 3

What shows that parliament in 1785 was not supportive of radical change or reform to the parliamentary system?

Answer 3

Pitt’s proposal to disenfranchise 36 of the worst boroughs and redistribute their seats to larger counties was defeated by 74 votes in commons.

Question 4

In 1785, what were few MPs not motivated to do?

Answer 4

Change the system from which they benefitted

Question 5

What in the 1820s shows that Parliament was still just as opposed to parliamentary reform as it was in the 1780s?

Answer 5

1822 Whig Leader John Russel sought to introduce a bill designed to disenfranchise 100 of Britain’s most rotten boroughs, yet this received no support from the Tory government and failed by a large majority.

Question 6

1822 Whig Leader John Russel’s failed bill is symptomatic of what?

Answer 6

the continued aristocratic conservatism of government that meant that people did not demand reform because they knew that they wouldn’t get it

Question 7

When was the highly reactionary period of government?

Answer 7

1815-21

Question 8

What were there not during the majority of the 1820s which suggests government approach thought the 1810s had worked?

Answer 8

Truly threatening protests

Question 9

What ensured that there were no serious challenges to government’s authority until the end of the wars in 1815?.

Answer 9

Treason Act 1795 allowed for the use of the death penalty in any reasonable activity, including political meetings and the publication of seditious material that might challenge gov’s authority.

Question 10

When did war outbreak with France?

Answer 10

1793

Question 11

What did the outbreak of war with France replace?

Answer 11

Any sense of revolutionary spirit with a strong sense of patriotism which reinforced the existing status quo and brought more rigorous government control

Question 12

What strengthened the hand of a government that was increasingly alarmed at the threatening discontent?

Answer 12

December 1819 6 acts

Question 13

What, a part of the 6 acts, did the Seditious meetings prevention act do?

Answer 13

Banned public meetings of more than 50 people

Question 14

What, a part of the 6 acts, gave power to search for and seize arms?

Answer 14

Raw Seizure of Arms Act

Question 15

What, a part of the 6 acts, introduced a tax on newspapers to make them more expensive and what were newspapers who did not pay this tax known as?

Answer 15

The Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act

Question 16

What did the The Newspaper and Stamp duties Act do?

Answer 16

introduced a 4d tax on newspapers to make them more expensive

Question 17

What was the purpose of the The Newspaper and Stamp duties Act?

Answer 17

To stop the spread of radical and revolutionary information, which they saw as something the drove the French Revolution

Question 18

By silencing those who made speeches (sedition), what did the government remove?

Answer 18

A key component of the revolutionary structure

Question 19

When was peterloo?

Answer 19

August 1819

Question 20

Who spoke at peterloo?

Answer 20

Henry Hunt

Question 21

How many at peterloo?

Answer 21

60 000

Question 22

Who were sent to suppress Henry Hunt’s peterloo?

Answer 22

Manchester Yeomanry

Question 23

How many people were killed and wounded at Peterloo?

Answer 23

killing 11 people and wounding 400-600

Question 24

What was the peaceful march in 1817 and when was this?

Answer 24

March of the Blanketeers 10th March 1817

Question 25

How many gathered for the March of the Blanketeers at St Peter’s fields and how many actuarily left?

Answer 25

4 500 and 300

Question 26

How far did the Blanketeers get?

Answer 26

Stockport 7 miles away

Question 27

What happened when the Blanketeers reached Stockport?

Answer 27

stopped by Yeomanry, with one Blanketeer begin shot dead and several more wounded.

Question 28

What did the Cato Street Conspirators plan to do?

Answer 28

The Cato Street Conspirators, all planning to assassinate Lord Liverpool’s Cabinet in February 1820

Question 29

What was the government response to the Cato Street Conspirators?

Answer 29

all arrested and a number executed. Five more were transported.

Question 30

When was the northern rebellion and what is it called?

Answer 30

Pentrich Rebellion

Question 31

What were the two rebellions of the Pentrich Rebellion?

Answer 31

Huddersfield in June 1817

Pentrich in Derbyshire march to Nottingham Castle

Question 32

what happened to the Huddersfield June 1817 rebellion?

Answer 32

200 men were quickly stopped by a small detachment of troops

Question 33

What happened with the Pentrich Rebellion?

Answer 33

Jeremiah Brandreth led 200 stocking-makers, ironworkers, quarrymen and labourers to seize Nottingham Castle. Before reaching the castle, the leaders were captured and three of them were executed, with a further 30 being transported.

Question 34

What were protests often motivated or catalysed by?

Answer 34

poor economic situations

Question 35

What fact about Britain’s GNP shows improving economic conditions?

Answer 35

Between 1821 and 1829 Britains’s GNP rose by 16.8%

Question 36

What two facts about Britain’s manufacturing shows improving economic conditions?

Answer 36

1) Between 1821 and 1829 manufacturing grew by 25%

2) By 1811 British Manufactures produced £130 million of goods of which £40 million was exported

Question 37

By what percentage did Glasgow’s population grow by during the 1810s?

Answer 37

Glasgow’s population grew by 46% during the 1810s

Question 38

By what percentage did Manchester’s population grow by during the 1820s?

Answer 38

44%

Question 39

What can a growing population said be said to be a symptom of?

Answer 39

Good economic conditions

Question 40

When did the french wars end?

Answer 40

1815

Question 41

Between which dates was Lord Liverpool providing the country with strong and stable leadership?

Answer 41

1812-27

Question 42

What can be said about the position of the Whigs that led to declining demands for reform?

Answer 42

The Whigs were a poor opposition party during this period therefore not giving the necessary support to those people in the country who wanted change.

Question 43

What did Lord Liverpool not address because he thought it would precipitate further calls for reform?

Answer 43

Catholic question

Question 44

What was the split in the tories after the 1826 election?

Answer 44

between Peel (anti-Catholic) and Canning (supporter of Catholic emancipation)

Question 45

Even when Lord Liverpool suffered a stroke in 1827, why could it be said that reform was not addressed by government?

Answer 45

there was apparent chaos in the Tory party who had 3 leaders in 11 months with the Duke of Wellington taking over in August 1828. The Tories were trying desperately to sort themselves out so the last thing on their minds was bringing about electoral reform.

Question 46

When were the two relevant French revolutions?

Answer 46

1789 1830

Question 47

What was the effect of the French revolutions?

Answer 47

Scared the government and made them keen to enact even more draconian laws

Question 48

Faced with the criticism of the ‘rule by the rich’, what happened?

Answer 48

a strong defence of the status quo ensued from conservative politicians and other figures who benefitted from the system

Question 49

At the heart of the a strong defence of the status quo ensued from conservative politicians and other figures who benefitted from the system, lay what argument?

Answer 49

why change something that was working so well?

Question 50

Describe the situation in france and compare that with Britain?

Answer 50

Turmoil, “reign of terror” wheres Britain had kept the monarchy, kept a stable and increasingly prosperous society and had victory in the French Wars

Question 51

What political writer gave reactionary figure ammunition following he french revolutions?

Answer 51

Burke

Question 52

When did Burke publish his book and what was it?

Answer 52

1790 book “reflections on the revolutions in France”

Question 53

For Burke, what was the value of the British system?

Answer 53

For him, the value of the British system was its slow and adaptive nature based on traditional practices.

Question 54

The initial force of government against protest, combined with the latter internal problems of the Tory party ensured that both parliamentary and external calls for reform could not gain what?

Answer 54

Significant traction

Question 55

the decline in hunger politics and the economic improvement did what?

Answer 55

help to placate the calls for reform towards the end of the period, particularly from the poorest segments in society

Question 56

What are the most significant factors?

Answer 56

those which decreased the parliamentary demands for reform, rather than those which reduced the much less effective radical protest

Question 57

when the tory party was having internal fights, what was there no room for?

Answer 57

Any internal reform to come from within parliament