POLITICS IN THE VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN PERIOD

POLITICS IN THE VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN PERIOD

Bill = when Parliament makes the law, this law is called and ACT

when a BILL is passed, it becomes and ACT

a BILL is a proyet that becomes an act

1832 REFORM BILL

Extended the franchise (the right to vote)

And the BILL was passed in the middle of a social and political crises

It was first of all an economic crises, with very high unemployment rate since the end of the french wars, ( the wars againts Napoleon, they ended in 1815 with the battle of xxx)

after the end of the french war, all the soldiers came back to Britain, and they wanted to find a job

There was alot of unemployement = wages went down  to starvation level, people could not buy enoght food (when alot of people apply for job wages down)

- In France, revolution had just taken place

The revolution of 1830, had just taken place

This was seen as a model for Britain ( the french had a revolution, why not us)

Specially in the North of England, there were more and more trade unions and the air was rumous of workers army and drilling (preparing for war)

- Trade unions had been legalised in 1824, buy the REPEAL OF THE COMBINATION ACT

(combination = old word for trade union)

At the end of the century there were laws againts the trade union

- A national police force was setup, and it was in the 1820, before there was not a police force, and the HOME SECRETARY was called ROBERT PEEL

the new police mas were called bobbies, because policeman were invented by ROBERT PEEL, and the nickname of the Roberts is BOB.

- In that climax of disorder, troubles, there was a demand for parlamentary reform

to understaint that, we have to see that there was a new strong class emerging, “ middle class” with bankers, merchants, captains of industries, employers, THEY WERE UNDERREPRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT:  because those who had the power in Parliament, were the landowners.

The landowners their interest were defended by the TORIES the conservative party

lest represented of the population in the 18th century

because of the industrial revolution, new towns had developped like Manchester, Liverpool, and they became huge towns, those big towns returned very few members of Parliament.

An MP for Manchester by himself represented 200 hundred thousant people

in rural britain an MP representd just a few families

there was an inbalance b/w rural Britain and the towns

Britain had become an urban nation, the electoral system had never adapted to the change

The country was overrepresented

the big industrial towns were underrepresented

with this rural depopulation, in some cases u have a few families sending one MP parliament

If you have a few voter is easy to be dishonest, you can buy them.

This lead to CORRUPTION, to buy people, to threaten,

and the name used by historian is ROTTEN BOROUGHS: places were there was alot of corruption, because a few people were in Parliament.

You could say at the time, that the urban areas (the new town) were disfranchised  (they had not the right to vote anymore).

The middle class, who were underrepresented in Parliament, they wanted more power, they wanted to be more represented they wanted a reform THE 1832 REFORM

THE 1832 REFORM

Was made by the middle class (bankers, etc

It was dificult because the landowner had the power

How can u oblige those who had the power to shared with u???

They used the third class ( the working class)

the middle class used the working class againts the landowners

Like a game

they organised an associationg called THE NATIONAL POLITICAL ASOCIATION: was under middle class leadership  but with a very strong working class membership. The small soldiers were the working class and the generals were the middle class. This send hundred of thousand of people on the street.

They were demonstrating, asking for more representation, in this climax of sociall disorder, of trade union everywhere in the North, with the workers army and drilling, the landowners were AFFRAID, so they accepted to pass THE 1834 REFORM BILL:

this refomr was in favor of the rolling class, agains the landowners: conflict b/w the two sectors  and they used the working class as an instrument to reach to their ends.

THE 1834 REFORM BILL was passed and it became THE 1834 REFORM ACT

RESULT:

the rotten boroughts disapeard

the bigs towns (manchester, lvierpool) were given more representation

New constituancy were created  (area that sends one MP has been elected by one constituancies, = more MP)

- The workers soon understood, that they have been taken in ( they had worked for s.o else, all that effort was not for them but for the middle class

- the working classes were excluded from all the benefits of the reform, they had made it, and yet they were excluded, and so the ELECTORATE, (all the people who vote) is increased from 220.000 thousand to 670.000 thousand ** the population at the time was 14 million people, the vast majority did not vote.

They did not get what they diserved

CONSEQUENCES OF THE 1832 REFORM ACT

- Had lasting consequences: first of all, it created a mass basis for the libera party, because they were defended by the TORIES, but they were defended by the LIBERAL PARTY. And the liberal party dominated policits after 1832 and all along the middle of the 19th century

conservative = land interest

liberal party – industrial

- Parliament had been dominated by the tories (conservative)

- know they were dominated by the liberals ( the conservative middle class )

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