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Politics and Parties from 1815 to 1832
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Politics and Parties from 1815 to 1832
The effects of the " Industrial Revolution " were felt not less in political than in other spheres of national life. The growth of the big towns, the increase in the numbers and imporÂtance of the middle class, all contributed to make it impossible to continue a system under which the vast majority of people had no vote, and the members of the House of Lords, through their influence over "pocket boroughs", nominated a large proportion of the members of the House of Commons (see Ch. XXXVI). The reform of Parliament was bound to come, and it is only surprising that it should have been delayed till 1832. The influence, however, of the French Revolution upon English opinion had been that reform was associated with revolution or with a military despotism like that of Napoleon. Moreover, the great war had occupied the energies of Great Britain until 1815. And after the war was over, her attention was at first taken up with matters other than political reform. Finally, when the agitation for reform did come, it was not immediately successful.
Consequently, for the first seventeen years after the battle of Waterloo the British Constitution remained unchanged. The eldest son of George III exercised the powers of the monarchy, first after 1811 as Prince Regent, and then after 1820 as King George IV; but his private life was so disreputable that he was despised and disliked by the best elements in the nation; and the power and influence of the Monarchy was, as a consequence, seriously weakened. The Government remained under the control of the landowning oligarchy; the Tory section of it was in power, first under Lord Liverpool till 1827, and later on under the Duke of Wellington. Finally, however, in 1830, a Whig ministry, pledged to ParliamenÂtary reform, came into office.
- Years of Distress, 1815-1822
- Beginning of Reforms, 1822 - 1827
- 1827 - 1832, Catholic Emancipation and the Reform Bills
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Chronology
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