The Liberal Reforms of the 1820s

• The death of Castlereagh in 1822 led to a cabinet reshuffle:

  • Castlereagh killed himself due to his homosexuality
  • after his death, he was replaced with his arch nemesis called George Canning and other younger men who wished to reform the government
  • Robert Peel -> home office
  • William Huskisson -> Board of Trade
  • Fredrick Robinson -> treasury
  • George Canning -> foreign office
• William Huskisson (1770-1830):

  • son of Worcestershire landowners
  • seen as an expert in French affairs and economics
  • he was a leading advocate of free trade
  • served on the Board of Trade
  • supported the Corn Law
  • became president of the Board of Trade
  • introduced important free trade measures
  • first person to be killed in a railway accident
• Sir Robert Peel JR (1788-1850):

  • became prime minister and created the conservative party
  • son of a wealthy Lancashire textile manufacturer
  • educated at Harrow and Oxford
  • 21 given parliamentary seat in Ireland and went on to be that country's chief secretary
  • created the MET police force
  • strongly supported a gold based currency in 1819
• Sir Robert Peel became home secretary in January 1822
• Problems Robert Peel faced: Change of Penal Code

  • crime was rising -> population grew and more people lived in cities away from the traditional controls of local gentry. 1809 - 1816 --> 30 000 criminal convictions, this rose to 63 000 between 1817-1825
  • enforcement of the law was haphazard and legal penalties were extreme --> 200 crime punishable by the death penalty (the Bloody Code), public hangings were shown
  • Whig reformers had argued for a more humane legal code --> very few supported this
  • although not a humanitarian -> he knew changes had to occur
• Problems Robert Peel faced: Change of Penal Code

  • the death penalty was removed for offences involving 40s (£2) of property and other trivial crimes, such as impersonating a Chelsea pensioner in 1823
  • Juries Regulation Act 1825 --> regulated qualification for jury service to make it uniform through England and Wales
  • procedures in criminal trails were standardised
  • 1825 - 1828 --> 278 laws relating to criminal offences were repealed and replaced by 8 new laws which covered all the same offences
• How effective were the Peel's penal code reforms?

  • many offences not involving murder or violences carried the death penalty too -> such as making counterfeit coins
  • between 1822 -1828 there were still on average 63 executions a year -> similar to 1805-1812
  • reforms to procedures were aimed at getting the approved penalties carried out -> 1822 1016 death penalties only 97 carried out -> this continued to fall but this was due to the increase usage of transportation
  • transportation was like a death sentence due to the time it took to get to Australia and the conditions people were kept in
• Peel and the Reform of Prisons:

  • 1823 Gaols Act -> required all counties and major towns to have maintain a prison. JPs (Justices of the Peace) were required to hold inspections and report findings to the home office. Some education became available along with health care, and they had to make sure all were treated equally. Men and women would be seperated and female wardens were hired
  • this was due to reformers such as Elizabeth Fry and John Howard
• Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) :

  • she was a quaker
  • travelled to northern England and Scotland -> here she inspected prisons
  • Her recommendations for Newgate Prison -> separation of the sexes, classification of criminals, female supervision for women, adequate provision for religious and secular instruction, and useful employment. Even in her lifetime her suggestions were increasingly acted upon throughout most of Europe.
  • Fry highlighted the ways in which female prisoners were being exploited by male prison warders
• Peel and the Police Force 1829:

  • to reduce crime, better law enforcement was key
  • 1822 -> Peel set up a parliamentary committee to debate the possibility of the creation of a new police force
  • 1828 -> another committee was founded who believed that there should be a force
  • 1829 -> creation of the Metropolitan Police Force
• Metropolitan Police Force 1829:

  • grew to 3000 men in 1830
  • 1850 -> 5300 police men
  • dealing with a population of around 2.5 million in London
  • played a large part in controlling riots, highwaymen and smugglers
  • criticised by the general public -> seen as spies, increased violence, mutual distrust
  • standard wage for a constable was one guinea (£1.05) a week for a 12 hour shift six days a week, with Sunday as a rest day
• Huskisson and Trade in the 1820s:

  • he aimed to promote trade
  • Trade Reciprocity Act of 1823 -> facilitated commercial agreements with other countries which resulted in lowering duties on imports
  • Navigation Laws (altered in 1823) -> make it easier for foreign ships to dock in British Ports -> the Elizabethan Law had stopped this
  • trade with newly independent countries in South America (broken away from Spain) was encouraged -> Argentina
  • maximum duty on imported products was 30%
• The Navigation Acts:

  • over 100 years, only british manned and british built ships could dock -> stop the dutch from dominating trade
  • Holland was no longer a serious trade threat
  • helped to increase trade
• Corn Law Reform:

  • first modified 1822 -> more significantly in 1828
  • introduction of the sliding scale of duties on imported corn
  • as the price of British corn rose, more foreign imports would be allowed into the country -> improvement on the outright ban on imports until a se price was achieved
  • Frederick Robinson as Chancellor of Exchequer introduced tax reductions
  • the landlords rejected this and Huskisson resigned in 1828
• Frederick Robinson (1782-1859):

  • received the nickname 'Prosperity' Robinson from William Cobbett
  • he began his political career as private secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland and rose to be president of the Board of Trade (1818–23) and chancellor of the Exchequer (1823–27)
• Prosperity Robinson and finances:

  • a new sinking fund
  • removal of income tax in 1816 had cut off an income stream for the government
  • improved trade meant increased revenue from imports and exports
  • reduced tax -> taxation fell by £8 million
  • reduced tariffs on imports -> stimulated demand for goods and the goods became more affordable
• The Banking Crisis 1825:

  • encouraged by the easing of restrictions and by increased trade and production 1823-1824 -> boom in investment and companies
  • government had liberalised currency by allowing £1 and £2 notes
  • 600 new companies for trade with South America
  • London had replaced Amsterdam as the financial capital of Europe
  • Banks lent money to large number of dubious companies --> 80 regional banks collapsed
  • too much paper money in circulation
  • 10 percent of the banks in Wales and England failed
  • 1500 registered bankruptcies
• Government reaction to the Banking Crisis:

  • restricted the supply of paper money to £5 or above
  • the Bank of England set up regional branches
  • still 1500 bankruptcies
  • falls in production and trade led to unemployment and hardship
  • troops called out into industrial districts
  • coincided with higher bread prices
• Repeal of the Combination Acts, 1824:

  • combination acts (1799-1800) forbade people combining in organisations which might interfere with trade --> wages kept low
  • intended to stop workmen meeting together to force up wages or discuss political change
  • if charged under these acts, then you would face trial without Jury --> likely to be found guilty
  • demands for this to change were led by Francis Place and Joseph Hume MP
  • 1822 -> select committee said the repeal should be allowed
  • little opposition of the repeal in 1824
• Repeal of the Combination Acts, 1824:

  • the repeal became law
  • however, after this workers began to strike more -> Huskisson introduced an Amending Act in 1825 to strengthen laws against criminal conspiracies
  • Combinations of Workmen Act -> typical of the Liverpool government, workers in groups couldn't threaten others or restrain lawful trade
  • employers used the law to prevent collective bargaining by making individual work agreements
  • liberal elements were very weak
• Non-conformists and Catholics:

  • non-conformists => Protestants who were not Church of England
  • Catholics and Non-Conformists had fewer political and civil liberties than those who belonged to the official state church
  • since the 17th centUrey -> all officers of the crown, local councillors, MPs, and army officers had to swear on oath of allegiance to the Church of England
  • Whigs had been calling for a repeal of the law
  • John Russell proposed repeal of laws -> 1828
• Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts 1828:

  • laws restricting Protestant dissenters from Public office were repealed in 1828
  • the test acts restricted non conformists form positions of power in the civil service, local government and legal professions
  • Catholics were still subject to the harsh laws
  • Non-conformists still paid taxes to support the Church of England, universities still didn’t accept them as students
• Canning and Catholic emancipation:

  • he wanted reform to go further
  • he thought Catholicism should be tolerated in the same way as dissent
  • Canning became Prime Minister
  • died in 1827
  • his successors Goderich and Wellington were against the concessions to Catholics
• O’Connell and Catholic Emancipation:

  • Daniel O’Connell was an Irish Lawyer
  • founded the Catholic Association which campaigned for equal rights for Catholic Irishmen
  • campaigned for and won the Parliamentary seat for County Clare
  • he wasn’t allowed to enter Parliament -> demonstrations erupted in Ireland
  • Wellington and Peel reluctantly permitted the Catholic Emancipation Act -> 1829
  • Pragmatic -> encouraged other reformists such as the Anti Corn League
• Test and Corporations Act:

  • 1661 -> Cavalier Parliament passed it
  • after the restoration of Charles II
  • stop the Puritans
  • 1673 -> Test Act —> all officers of the crown to conform
• Catholic Emancipation 1829:

  • Pitt had intended to allow Catholic Emancipation -> 80% of the Irish population was Catholic
  • Whigs continued to press for the measure to change, introduce a bill in 1817
  • 1823 -> Irish Lawyer Daniel O’Connell set up Catholic Association —> campaign for change
  • An Act of 1825 -> collected money with the aim of changing the church
• The County Clare Election:

  • O’Connell pushed matters by standing for election in 1829 -> won the seat but as a Catholic was not eligible
  • fearful unrest in Ireland -> Emancipation Act was passed in 1829
  • government changed the rules on who could vote in Ireland
  • rather than having property worth 2 points, voter had to have property worth 10 pound per annum
  • restricted vote to the wealthy
• Consequences of the Catholic Emancipation:

  • great deal of division within the Tory Party over giving Catholics more rights
  • Peel and Wellington (PM) criticised for being hypocrites -> previously against the measure