Liverpool and the radicals

Corn Law, 1815

• a measure that was a result of foreign competition to ensure that British wheat growers did not face such low prices that it would not be worth their while to grow

• Keep balance to allow grain not to be too expensive that poorer could not afford it but not be so cheap that farmers could not afford to grow it

• kept price of bread high to maintain rich people lifestyle = poor people not happy

• duty on corn put pressure on urban areas = poor relief was linked to bread

Liberal Toryism

• Lord Liverpool had a stroke

• Ministers Peel, Huskisson, and Robinson

• Period where tories maintained the status quo in a sophisticated form of conservatism

Lord Liverpool

• acting in the interests of the landed class

• From 1815, gov relied on indirect taxes which hit the poor harder

• didn’t adopt Pitt’s favoured free trade policies

• did not follow Pitt in Catholic emancipation

Catholic Emancipation

• 1829, Peel introduced the Catholic Emancipation

  • Catholics were allowed to stand as MPs as long as they swore an oath to uphold the protestant English state (renouncing the pope and accepting the reformation)

Response to Catholic Emancipation

• HoC made qualification to be an MP more expensive, disenfranchisement

• Widespread opposition led to Peel’s resignation from his seat for Oxford uni who refused to renominate him

  • he remained a minister in 1829 by accepting nomination for the rotten borough of Westbury in Wiltshire

Catholic association and its consequences

• Catholic Association set up by Daniel O’Connell in 1823

  • UK gov responded with a ban on associations who collected money in order to try and change church and state

  • Daniel O’Connell wins a by-election and foces Peel to pass emancipation

When did Peel become Irish Secretary?

1814

Union of Ireland

• Union of Ireland was passed by Pitt in 1800

  • He intended to allow Catholics to stand in elections as MPs

    • Opposed by the King

1822 key political positions

• Huskisson, board of trade

• Peel, home office

• Robinson, chancellor of the exchequer

Peterloo and the Hampden Clubs

• Mayor John Cartwright founded the Hampden Club in 1812 in memory of John Hampden

  • believed in universal male suffrage and rights of the people

• Like-minded reformers founded Hampden Clubs all over the country

• Clubs inspired groups such as the Patriotic Union Society in Manchester

Peterloo?

• Manchester, 1819

  • Henry Hunt invited to speak about reform

  • ~55,000 people attended

  • local magistrates worried about a riot and amassed troops

  • struggle ensued

    • 15 died, 400 wounded

  • event came to be known as Peterloo

Queen Caroline Affair

• 1820, King George III dies

• George IV inherits the throne

• The Affair

  • wants to divorce wife because she cheated

  • Convinces Liverpool to pass a bill that would allow him to do so

  • Whigs oppose it to be messy and protest prevents the bill from going through

March of the Blanketeers

• 1817

• John Johnson led a march on London to protest about the hardships of the handloom

• march was stopped 7 miles outside of the city, Johnson was arrested

Radical Press

• The Political Register was founded by William Cobbett in 1802

  • cheap enough to gain a circulation of 40,000

  • agrarian

  • wanted to raise agricultural wages and abolish rotten boroughs

• Leeds Mercury

  • catered to the middle class

  • advocation extension of male suffrage to direct taxpayers, excluded the lower classes

• Sheffield Independent and Manchester Guardian

  • appealed for economic change and freer trade

Derbyshire Rising

• 1817

• 300 iron workers and stocking makers led a rising

• foiled by an internal gov informant

• leaders were charged with treason and executed to serve as an example to working-class reform efforts

Cato Street Conspiracy

• gov spy infiltrated and encouraged radicals led by Arthur Thistlewood to conspire to kill the cabinet

• Government agents storm house where they were dining, one agent dies in the process

• Five were transported, four were hanged

• Thistlewood was both hanged and beheaded in 1820

Peel in the Home Office

• inherited a broken crime problem

  • by 1825 there had been 63,000 criminal convictions

  • legal penalties were extreme, death penalty applied regularly to act as a deterrent

• made jury qualification more uniform

• narrowed qualification for the death penalty

• 1829 implementation of the metropolitan police

  • became model for other urban police forces

  • deterrent effect

  • reduced number of death sentences

Changes to trade and finance in the 1820s

• new president of the board of trade, William Huskisson aimed to promote trade

• Trade Reciprocity Act, 1823, facilitated commercial agreements with other countries, resulting in lower duties on goods

• maximum duty on imported goods was set at 30%

• Navigation acts were changed to allow freer trade between colonies and foreign countries

• Made British ports cheaper and easier to access to encourage trade

• Trade with newly independent South American countries from Spain, was encouraged

• customs revenue increased by 64% between 1821-27

The new Gaols Act?

• 1823

Banking Crisis

• 1823-24, promotion of new companies and boom in investment

• Gov had liberalised the currency by circulating £1 and £2 notes

• South American trade (Huskisson) led to formation of 600 new companies

• banks lending money to dubious companies, investments were unsound and failed

• 80 regional banks collapsed

• banks could not facilitate the return of depositors money with notes so they favoured gold coins

• gov restricted bank notes to control circulated money

• 1500 bankruptcies in first half of 1826

• gov had to relax corn duties as a one-off measure

Combination Acts repeal

• 1824

• the acts forbade people from forming unions and allowed trial without jury

• repealed on the grounds of the belief that the acts only increased worker agitation

Repeal of the test and the corporation acts

• 1661 Corporation Act didn’t allow non-protestants to run corporations or city and town councils

• 1673 Test Act required all MPs to swear an oath conforming to the Church of England

• The Whig, Lord John Russell proposed their repeal in 1828

• repeal took away requirement for CofE communion and the oath was that the MP wouldn’t harm the institution of the CofE

  • Office holders couldn’t believe in transubstantiation

• Discrimination continued

  • Only Anglican ministers could perform marriages

  • Catholics couldn’t hold office

  • restrictions on burials for Catholics and non-conformists

Combinations of Workmen Act

• 1825

• implemented after combination act repeal

• re-imposed criminal sanctions for striking

• allowed workers to meet to discuss wages but obstruction of business remained strictly forbidden

What were the six acts?

• Training Prevention Act: Banned unauthorized civilian drilling and military-style training to prevent armed rebellions.

• Seizure of Arms Act: Authorized local magistrates and justices of the peace to enter homes and seize weapons believed to be used for insurrection.

• Seditious Meetings Act: Required prior written permission from a magistrate or sheriff to hold public meetings of more than 50 people.

• Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act: Toughened punishments for publishing material deemed critical of the government or church, making repeat offenses punishable by up to seven years of banishment.

• Misdemeanours Act: Sped up the judicial process, making it much harder for defendants facing charges to delay their trials or secure bail.

• Newspaper Stamp Duties Act: Increased the stamp tax on pamphlets and newspapers to price radical, working-class publications out of the reach of the general public.