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The creation of the Liberal party

The creation of the Liberal party stemmed from the Great Reform Act 1832 The Whigs came from a powerful aristocratic landowning families. They were in favour of the Great Reform Act but they wanted controlled reform. Some Junior Whigs wanted to split themselves from these extremly rich Whigs and started to call themselves Liberals. Most of these new liberals were middle class from business and commerical backgrounds. They were lawyers and professional men that had come into Parliament after 1832. These middle class people believed in individual liberty, Free Trade, freedom of the press and religious freedom. Many of them were Dissenters or Nonconformists who thought that Church should be separate and free from state patronage and control.  When the Conservative party split over the repeal of the Corn Laws into the Peelites and the Protectionists the Peelites increasing voted with the Whigs. This lead to the Conservative party being out of power up until 1868.  Over the years the
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1867 Reform Act

-Disenfranchisement clauses- 53 seats were made available for redistribution. - Redistribution- Due to the 53 seats now available in 9 boroughs were created, several seats were sent to the Scottish counties and boroughs. Wales also gained a seat. -Voting qualifications- Extended borough franchise to all male householders who paid rates directly and also lodgers who paid 10 pounds. The new elecorate now contained majority working class voters. -In 1866 the Liberals had attempted to pass a Bill. Which was judged 'too radical' and was promptly defeated. The thing is that the act was passed by a Conservative government by Disraeli and it was his way of attacking the Liberal party. Historians think that this act was more radical than the one that the Liberals. -The Conservative Bill was passed through government and undertook several transformations but essentially was still very radical. -Moneypenny and Buckle (1910)- Disraeli was educating his party and creating the Tory &
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The Anti-Slavery movement

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The Anti-Slavery movement One of the key people at the time was a man called Josiah Wedgewood. He was anti-slavery and a very rich pottery maker. He spent 10,000 pounds of his own money to expanding the canals. This was important for him as it meant that he could transport his pottery in a safer way than using horse and cart. He was also a key anti-slavery campaigner . He created the symbol and the phrase 'Am i not a man and a brother' which was a famous slogan which was sent to Benjamin Franklin in 1788. Many middle class people had this slogan on the pottery they would buy off him  Josiah Wedgewood lived until 1795 so never saw the end of the slave trade or the end of slavery altogether. Abolition of Slavery Act 1807 This act ended the trading of slaves but did not help those already enslaved in the British colonies. This was passed as the West Indies sugar production was not important anymore to the economy as industrialisation was producing greater source of wealth.
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The Great Reform Act 1832

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The Great Reform Act 1832 The changes since 1783 meant there was the emerging manufacturing classes that wanted to challenge the aristocratic system of government. A lot of these people did not yet have the right to vote. This lead to when the Whigs came to power in 1830 under Charles Gray they went forward with the Great Reform Act 1832.  This Bill took a while to get through in October 1831 the bill was thrown out by the House of Lords.  In May 1832 after months of protests and unrest another bill was created which was rejected by the House of Lords. Grey asked the king to create 50 new peers to get the bill through. Gray resigned and Wellington tried to take over but he didn't have the support and Britain was on the verge of revolution. Gray return as PM and King William agreed to create the peers if the Lords failed to pass the bill. In June 1832 the Great reform act was created, What did it do The act increased the electorate from 435,000 to 652,000 an increased o
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Economic development between 1812-1832

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                                                                        Overview Between these years Britain continued to grow, This is backed up with the production figures in the three main industries of cotton,coal and iron. Between the years of 1815 to 1830 coal production rose from 16 million tons to just under 30 million tons, between 1815 to 1830 pig iron production doubled as at the start of the century it took 8 tons of coal to create 1 ton of pig iron but by 1830 this was only 3.5 tons which means the production became more efficient. With cotton production by the 1830s an estimated 30% of the industrial workforce was part of the cotton industry as 70% of all British exports were textiles which were mostly cotton. Raw cotton accounted for 20% of Britain's import. This makes sense that the export market was growing as during this period there was the development of the shipbuilding industry. This was seen that in 1820 the tonnage of ships built and registered in Britain
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Duke of Welllington

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The Duke of Wellington/Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) He was renowned as a great military leader. He led a successful campaign against the French in the Peninsular War and defeated Napolean at Waterloo. He took up politics, joining Liverpool's cabinet in 1822 and became PM in 1828.  He fought hard against parliamentary reform, but introduced  Catholic Emancipation in the face of a possible civil war in Ireland. He was later respected an elder statesman and war hero. Arthur Wellesley was given the title Duke of Wellington in 1814. His opposition to reform caused his popularity to plummet to such an extent that crowds gathered to throw missiles at his London home.  After the Great reform Act had passed 2 years later he refused a second invitation to form a government, instead joined Sir Peel's ministry as Foreign Secretary. He later became the leader of the House of Lords and when there was Sir Peel's resignation he retired from politics.
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The Corn Laws

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In 1815 the Corn laws were passed that said no foreign corn could be imported until the home price reached 80 shillings a quarter. This passed with ease as the House of Parliament were dominated by the land owning class in which land was their main source of income. The Landowners and farmers was doing well during the war as the demand was high but in 1813 there was a good harvest which caused a fall in prices then the next year in 1814 there was a poor harvest which caused there to be an import of foreign corn so people did not starve to death. The problem with this is that foreign corn is cheaper than British corn (a bit like how everything know is made in China and the rest of Asia because of cheap labour) and the landowners wanted to protect themselves from other competition. Boyd Hilton suggest that the government was not solely acting for landowner interests. According to him this was not a permanent solution was put in place to stop the worst effects of post-war slump in prices.
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