History 330:  British History

History 330 – BRITISH HISTORY – October 21, 2004  

DISCONTENT & REFORM

 

I.                   Repression – or Reform – or Revolution?

A.     Three simple theses:

1.      Every society is structured in a certain way – some win, some lose, some are in the middle

2.      Those who win want to KEEP THINGS AS THEY ARE!

3.      Those who lose want to CHANGE THINGS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!

                  B.  Britain, c. 1789:                  

The “Left” Change things now!

The “Right” Keep things the way they are!

The Whigs (who traditionally are skeptical about monarchy anyway) Religious dissidents (especially Baptists & Methodists who dislike the Established Church) The Poor in general, especially the Urban Working Class Some intellectuals (notably the “Romantics”) who dislike the Cultural Establishment

King, royal family Monarchists Aristocrats The Tories Wealthy merchants Established Anglican Church Some established artists & academics who have done well in the “culture industry” Some older males (who benefit from a deeply patriarchal society) Some temperamental conservatives who dislike change Some ideological conservatives who are skeptical about humanity’s ability to improve things (E. Burke)

 

C.                 Britain had waged 21 year war (1793-1815) against French Revolution & the threat of drastic change

D.                IRONY:  (1) Britain thus is “conservative” and rejects “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” and Democracy, and yet

         (2) Britain, by leading the struggle against Napoleon’s tyranny,   

defends Liberty and Constitutional Gov’t

         (3) THUS: Britain is BOTH anti-democracy and pro-democracy!

                  E.   1815-1820s: Repression – stern laws designed to stamp out any hint of

 radical democracy

·        Alien & Sedition Acts (1793)

·        Combination Acts (1799-1800)

·        “Peterloo Massacre” (1819)

·        Six Acts (1819)  

II.                Stirrings on the Left

A.     Sympathy for the French Revolution (at least at first)

1.      Tom Paine, Rights of Man

2.      Mary Wollstonecraft, Rights of Women

3.      London Corresponding Society

4.      Wolfe Tone & United Irishmen

B.     1798 – Mutinies at the Nore (mass naval mutiny)

C.     1817: “March of the Blanketeers” (weavers from Manchester; protest march to London; broken up by the army)

D.     1819: “Peterloo Massacre”

E.      A Workers’ Revolution on the way?

1.      The appeal of urban-factory life – better than starving on the farm

2.      BUT: slum housing; no education; no sanitation; sorry wages; no accident insurance, no old age pensions; dangerous working conditions; powerlessness on the shop floor

3.      TRAPPED: cannot return to the dying farms; too poor to move elsewhere (unless to America); too powerless to change things

4.      RAGE: PETERLOO  

III.             A BURST OF REFORM (1830 – 1867)

A.     THE REFORM COALITION – RADICALS + EVANGELICALS

B.     “Radicals”

1.      politicians & intellectuals

2.      heirs to the 17^th century radical tradition (Puritans, Parliament, Whigs)

3.      Whig skepticism about monarchy

4.      SCIENCE, ENLIGHTENMENT & hope for A BETTER WORLD

5.      Jeremy Bentham, (1748-1832) & “Utilitarianism”

·        “greatest good for greatest number”

·        “good” = practical, physical good; housing, education, health

·        “greatest number” == democracy!

6.      “Radicals” – James Mill; John Stuart Mill

 

C.     “Evangelicals”

1.      Methodists; Baptists (heirs to the old Puritans); some Anglicans

2.      Radical reform of individuals

3.      Need for radical SOCIAL reform

4.      ANTI: alcohol; slums; prostitution; crime; gambling

5.      PRO: temperance; clean housing; sexual self-discipline; education; frugality; hard-work

6.      William Wilberforce (1759-1833)

·        SLAVERY as THE example of criminal inhumanity

D.     Base?  Intellectuals; evangelical Christians; Poor & Workers; some Middling class;  even some “reforming aristocrats”

E.      A bit of encouragement – 1830 Revolution in France!  

IV.              EIGHT ISSUES:  

1832	GREAT REFORM & debate about democratic rights
1833	Slavery
	Factory Act – should Parliament, representing “the people” oversee working conditions?
1834	Poor Law – what happens to the old, sick, orphaned, injured?
1836	London Working Men’s Association – Unions: do working class people have the right to organize themselves?
1838	The People’s Charter
	The Corn Laws
1839	Durham Report on “Affairs of British North America” – how should the “colonies” be governed?

  

V.                 WHAT HAPPENED:   

1830-37	KING WILLIAM IV
1830	Lord Grey & Whigs in power
1832	GREAT REFORM BILL
1833	Slavery Abolished Factory Act
1834	Poor Law Amendment & Edwin Chadwick Lord Melbourne Prime Minister
1836	London Working Men’s Association (trade union) begun by William Lovett
1837-1901	QUEEN VICTORIA
1838	The People’s Charter & Feargus O’Connor Anti-Corn Law League, Cobden & Bright
1839	First teachers’ training college Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth Durham Report
1841	Peel Prime Minister
1845-47	Irish Potato Famine
1846	Corn Laws repealed
1848	Chartism defeated
1867	Dramatic re-organization of the Empire:  British North American Act; Canada changes from “colony” to self-governing “Dominion”