whig party reforms

reasons for reform

pressure from groups, utilitarianism, humanitarianism, need for reform, whig political necessities, emergence of system for reform

pressure from organisations and interest groups

radicals and reformers were encouraged by the reform act, and wanted reform of education, poor relief, working hours, and slavery, so placed pressure on the government for further reform

utilitarianism

Benthamite utilitarianism became increasingly influential among the educated classes. It gave reasons for reform and a plan for going about it, identify the problem and think rationally how it might be solved with a view to promote happiness.

evangelicalism and humanitarianism

religious leaders and individuals inspired by an impulse to improve conditions for others.

increasing need for reform

by the 1830s it was clear Britain was going through an economic and social transformation which created problems the existing systems were not designed to deal with. Eg pauperism and poverty was dealt with ad hoc by local parishes such as the Speenhamland system, but could no longer deal with issue properly.

emergence of procedure for reform

royal commissions were set up to look into particular problems and draw up solutions of how they could be solved. This solved issue of MPs not being able to deal with problems due to lack of administrative training and were not elected to deal with such issues.

whig political necessities

to keep their coalition together the whigs needed to maintain momentum with a series of legislative reforms.

sunday schools

set up by Methodist chapels. By 1830 over a million working class children were attending Bible classes on Sundays (the one day they did not work), and they learned to read. The schools were financed by voluntary contributions from the congregations or interested benefactors.

monitorial schools

One teacher would instruct older pupils as monitors to teach the children. The National Society and the British and Foreign Society, both found in 1811 promoted the monitorial school system.

gov intervention on schools

voluntary schools were overwhelmed by the growing population so in 1833 the government made a grant of £20,000 to be shared between the two societies(national and british+foreign) to help them open more schools, In 1839 the grant was increased to £30,000 and a Cabinet committee was set up to monitor how the money was spent.

failed attempts to reform education

• In 1843 the home secretary James Graham attempted to introduce the Factory Education Bill which would make schooling under Anglican direction compulsory for child labourers, however this was defeated by joint nonconformist and catholic opposition.

• In 1846 Kay-Shuttleworth’s council attempted to establish a national system of teacher training to standardise the quality of teaching in granted schools. However because it required so much funding it was abandoned.

impact of educational reforms

marked the beginning of state intervention and responsibility to establish a compulsory comprehensive education for all children. It seems that more children from working class backgrounds began to attend school: The Newcastle Commission in the 1850s estimated that out of the nation’s 2.7 million children between 3 and 15, only 120,000 never attended school at all.

limitation of educational reforms

figures are probably too optimistic because many children were only nominally on the school roll but rarely attended. Large numbers only went to school for 3 years and the quality of education received was often poor.

pressure for factory reform

• The Ten Hour Movement led by Lord Ashley, a Tory evangelical, was a campaign which advocated to shorten working hours.

• Humanitarians and evangelicals joined forces with working class groups and attended public meetings to pressure the government to reform.

opposition to factory reform

firmly held view among manufacturers that government intervention in market forces would bring economic disaster.

Factory owners enjoyed cheap and flexible child labour, and some jobs such as repairing broken threads in cotton spinning machines were especially suited to children. Preventing children working would therefore directly damage profitability and raise costs, as well as make the work of men more difficult without children to assist them. The report of the Royal Commission recommended legislation only in respect of children’s working hours.

1833 factory act

no child under 9 could be employed to work in a factory, children aged between 9 and 12 could work a maximum of 9 hours a day and 48 hours per week, children have to have a compulsory 2 hours of education per day.

significance of factory act

principle of state intervention in working hours had been established and set precedent for further reform. It was effective because of the system of regulation through inspectors, who gathered more evidence of abuses which pointed the way to further reform. Factory owners breaking the law could be prosecuted and doctors had to approve a child working which meant parents could not lie about the age of children.

limitations of factory act

act was not due to philanthropic concern, but enabled children to be used in 8 hour relays so allowed adults to be worked up to 16/17 hours a day. The inspections were light, only four inspectors had to cover all factories. One inspector had to cover an area with 2700 factories. Many local magistrates were factory owners or friends/colleagues of them so convictions were hard to achieve and penalties were light. There was also a shortage of doctors and doctors could be persuaded by parents or employers to grant certificates when they were not justified.

reason for slave abolition

was disappointment among abolitionists that slavery had not been involved in the Reform Act of 1832. Parliament was flooded with petitions against the continuance of slavery in the British Empire. An increase in slave revolts, and the level of violence in the uprising in Jamaica in 1831-32 triggered fear among plantation owners for their lives and profits. A parliamentary enquiry followed

opposition to slavery abolition

Plantation owners in the British Colonies who depended on slave labour were reluctant to accept abolition because it could impede on their profits, and argued that slaves were their property so abolishing slavery would deprive them of their lawful property and they therefore would require compensation if this were to happen.

slavery abolition act 1833

• Slavery was to officially end on 1 August 1834, but in practice slaves had planned release dates as far as 1840.

• However peaceful protests brought these dates forward to 1838.

• The government paid £20,000,000 in compensation to slave owners, which reflected the government’s view that slavery was morally unacceptable but recognised the vested interests of a considerable number of families.

impact of abolition of slavery

• Indentured labour was introduced in the British West Indies by bringing workers from India to help replaced the lost workforce. Regulations were put in place to safeguard the workers, but there were many abuses of the system and it could be regarded as a form of forced labour.

• A new Anti-Slavery Society was formed in 1839 with the ambition of ending slavery worldwide.

issues with poor relief variation

varied greatly across the country. It was run by each local parish and there was no central control or administration. This mean the treatment varied depending on which of the 15,000 parishes was administering it. The increasing population meant that the poor relief system had evolved out of the conditions of Elizabethan England and no longer met the needs of an urbanised and industrial England.

issue with poor relief speenhamland

Speenhamland system had no consistency, it was criticised by economists for apparently encouraging larger families and depressing wages as employers cut wages knowing that the parish would top up payments, it was introduced to try and prevent social unrest but it was precisely in the Speenhamland southern and midland counties that saw the captain swing riots of 1830.

issue with poor relief cost

The cost of poor relief was rising rapidly and fell on middle class parish ratepayers. By 1831, poor law expenditure had reached £7 million per annum, and this was 80% of all spending out of rates and was 36.8% of all gov spending that year (£19 million).

gov response to poor relief issues

royal commission was set up in 1832 to investigate the matter, but was strongly weighted towards thorough reform of the poor laws as the driving force within it came a Ricardian economist and was under the chairmanship of a noted opponent of the poor laws Bishop Blomfield.

1834 poor law amendment act

• Outdoor relief for the able-bodied was abolished as it was thought to encourage idleness.

• A system of indoor relief was introduced in its place. The Poor Law Commission was set up to oversee the implementation of the new law.

• Parishes were grouped together in unions, and each union was responsible for maintaining a workhouse.

• The ‘principle of less eligibility’ was to be applied to anyone claiming poor relief.

new poor law achieving its purpose

drop in the average annual poor rates from £6.75 million in 1830-34 to £4.5 million in 1835-39, number of able-bodied men receiving state support significantly reduced to under 12,000 able bodied men receiving outdoor relief and were only about 6% of the workhouse by the 1850s.

new poor law effect on outdoor relief

• Outdoor relief did not end. In practice destitute women and children and the elderly and the ill continued to receive outdoor relief. In the 1840s and 1850s, 80% if those receiving poor relief did so outside the workhouse.

new poor law impact in industrial north

• When the workhouse system was extended to the industrial north in 1837 it was not as successful as the south. In the south poverty was endemic and structural, but in the north it was linked much more to industrial fluctuations. During recessions unemployment could not be blamed on laziness, and these unemployed could not be accommodated in workhouses. There were protests and outdoor relief continued in these regions. For example in 1837 a recession in the Nottingham stocking trade forced the commissioners to agree to the resumption of outdoor relief payments.

new poor law limitations

• The provision of workhouses was much below what was anticipated, mainly due to the sheer cost. There was little provision for education, medical care or sanitation. The conditions in the workhouses were often bad. The Boards of Guardians who were overseeing the system were elected by local rate payers, and as a result instead of encouraging them to be more efficient they just tried to cut spending eg by not building work houses or providing bad quality food.

municipal corporations

bodies which regulated the affairs of urban boroughs. They could levy local tolls and taxes, often acted as trustees for charitable bequests and schools, often controlled who could stand for election in a borough etc

municipal corporations reason for reform

in 1832 were frequently corrupt and inefficient, their organisation varied notably across the country, they were hardly suited to cope with issues created by urbanisation and industrialisation.

municipal corporations bill

1835 was proposed. The bill passed easily in the commons as Peel rallied the conservatives behind it. However it was vigorously opposed in the lords because they saw it as an attack on the ancient corporations and in turn an assault on the system of traditional privilege which underpinned their own positions.

revised municipal corporations act september 1835

councils could take over social improvements such as proper drainage and street cleaning (permissive)

All closed corporations were abolished

Borough councils were to be elected by all male ratepayers who had lived in the town for three years

Councillors were elected for three years at a time and one-third of the council was to be elected annually

Each borough was to have a paid town clerk and treasurer. Accounts were to be properly audited

Councils were required to form a police force

significance of municipal corp act

introduced the elective principle into the constitution of the council by removing closed corporations, introduced a more democratic franchise than the reform act since all rate payers got the vote, gave councils powers to carry out urban improvements, was an example of implementing Benthamite utilitarianism to existing set of institutions.

limitations of municipal corp act

measure did not apply to all towns (London, Birmingham, Manchester were excluded), the franchise was only about 25% bigger than that of parliamentary elections since most working class residents did not pay rates at all so did not get the vote, the hold of property on local government was not broken since there was a property qualification to be a councillor and to vote, the councils rarely improved urban conditions because they were expensive, there was no central agency to monitor the councils so there was no consistency in what they actually did