Reform and Its Limits

1
Reform and Its Limits

• English Politics and Policy, 1832-1851

2
A rage of Reforms

• 1832 Reform Bill wasnt final after all
• 1833 Factory Act
• 1833 slavery abolished in empire
• 1835 Municipal Corporations Act
• 1834 Poor Law
• No consensus on reformself help, utilitarianism
• J. S. Mills idea of gradual amelioration of
  social conditions and emphasis on personal
  liberty eventually carried the day.

3
Repeal of Corn Laws

• Challenge for Robert Peel and Tory Democracy
• Richard Cobden and John Bright headed Anti-Corn
  Law Leagueadvocated free trade
• Irish potato famine made corn-law repeal more
  urgent
• Peel got support from John Russell and Whigs and
  new that Wellington and Lords would go along for
  pragmatic reasons
• Repeal in 1846, but Peels enemies forced him
  from office.

4
Richard Cobden and John Bright
5
Chartism

• Universal manhood suffrage, secret ballot, equal
  electoral districts, annual parliaments, no
  property qualifications for M. P., salaries for
  M. P.
• Too many issuesbut there were 3 million
  signatures on the 1842 petition.
• Chartism as a movement failed, but by end of 19th
  century all but annual parliaments were enacted.

6
Chartist Newspapers
7
Queen Victoria, 1837-1901

• She reigned but did not rule
• Bedchamber Crisis (1839) showed that a monarch
  could affect parliamentary politics
• Married Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gothamarriage was
  a good one and Albert was learned in continental
  matters.
• V. had many children and by end of century was
  grandmother of all Europe.
• John Brown scandal

8
We are not amused
9
(No Transcript)
10
Queen Victoria on "Fyvie" with John Brown at
Balmoral, 1863.
11
Foreign Policy1820-1851

• Splendid Isolation but also active
• Britain began to support failing Ottoman Empire
  to keep Russia out of the Mediterranean
• 1839Treaty of Londonguaranteed Belgian
  neutrality.
• 1830-1852 1855-1865, Henry Temple, Viscount
  Palmerston, ran foreign affairs and then was PM.
• Don Pacifico incident was quintessential
  Palmerston

12
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, 1784-1865
13
Crystal Palace Exposition, 1851

• Iron and glass building in Hyde Park, 1851 feet
  long
• 22 weeks to build
• 15,000 exhibits from 41 countries
• 500,000 attended opening day
• Symbol of Englands apogee