Effectiveness and motives

• Reforms


  • Corn Law Repeal
  • Bank Charter Act
  • Companies Act
• Motives


  • Economic
  • Individual (Peel)
  • Political (Preserve Aristocracy)
  • Social (Irish Famine)
  • Social (Reduce Potential for Unrest)
• Corn Law Repeal


  • Helped revive and stabilise the economy
  • Removed Govt deficit
  • Ushered in a "Golden Age of the UK Economy from late 1840s to 1873
  • Adapted the country to the industrial age
  • Removed a piece of social tension by removing class legislation
  • Farmers were able to survive without the Corn Law
  • Protected the status of the aristocracy by removing a source of social tension
  • Did little to help the famine in Ireland
• Bank Charter Act, Companies Act


  • Appealed to the industrial M/C
  • Pinnacle of Peel's free trade policy
• The introduction of income tax in Peace Time was controversial
• Results were not instant
• Companies Act didn't apply to Railway companies
• Peel built on the reforms of Huskisson
• Split the Conservative Party
• Peelites left the party
• Conservative Party remained largely in opposition from 1846 until election win in 1874
• Peel's Campaigning


  • Appealed to the industrial M/C
• Reforms to Conditions in Mines and Factories

  • Placed restrictions on working age children
  • Machinery fenced off
  • Separate place for sexton
• Unable to make reforms from Chadwick's Report into Public Health due to Corn Laws
• Helped to split moderate Catholic Priests and moderate M/C from O'Connell's Repeal movement
• Gave Catholic Priests and M/C vested interest in the status quo
• Peel refused to reduce the working day in Factories to 10 hours-12 hours was as low as he would go
• Mainly the work of other Individuals eg Shaftesbury No reforms from Chadwick's Report into Public Health
• Peel was accused of betraying his party
• Caused further tension between Peel and his backbenchers