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British History

The document discusses the emergence of demands for parliamentary reform from 1785 to 1832 in Britain. It notes that while the monarch had significant power over parliament up until 1785, acts in the late 1700s reduced the king's authority. A new industrial middle class was created during this time by the Industrial Revolution, but they did not have equal political power despite their economic status. From around 1780, extra-parliamentary groups put pressure on politicians to reform parliamentary representation and give more voice to the growing middle class. This pressure increased over time and ultimately led to the modest reforms of the 1832 Reform Act.

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Constança Rocha
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38 views1 page

British History

The document discusses the emergence of demands for parliamentary reform from 1785 to 1832 in Britain. It notes that while the monarch had significant power over parliament up until 1785, acts in the late 1700s reduced the king's authority. A new industrial middle class was created during this time by the Industrial Revolution, but they did not have equal political power despite their economic status. From around 1780, extra-parliamentary groups put pressure on politicians to reform parliamentary representation and give more voice to the growing middle class. This pressure increased over time and ultimately led to the modest reforms of the 1832 Reform Act.

Uploaded by

Constança Rocha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Assignment 1

Up to 1785 the Crown had significant power over the Parliament as the monarch retained the right to
choose ministers and to summon or dissolve Parliament. However, most of its authority had been lost by
1785 due to the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement. Nevertheless, the power to appoint ministers
granted George III, king from 1760 to 1801, some influence over the Parliament. His influence was also
obtained through royal patronage which was highly criticised by a parliamentary opposition called
economical reform. Around 1780, the Rockingam Whigs argued that the influence of the king on government
policy was blatant patronage to keep an unpopular ministry in office. In 1780 they won over enough
independent MPs to support a parliamentary motion, Dunning’s motion.
The industrial middle classes was a new middle class created by the Industrial Revolution. This class
owned and operated new factories, mines and other industries. Therefore, their had a wealthy lifestyle.
However, this does not mean they had as much political power as they did economically. Also, this class
often lived in under-represented areas. Some places almost depopulated returned two MPs. In contrast,
expanding industrial towns, such as Manchester, had no MPs. This was due to an unequal representation of
the people.
Industrialists gave support and baking to extra-parliamentary political critics which was more
apparent in the Association Movement. This movement saw its beginning around 1780 when Wyvill decided
to coordinate pressure for reform outside Parliament and the capital. The political system at the time was also
questioned by the Society for Constitutional Information. This organisation was founded by radicals John
Cartwright and John Jebb. Both the associations from the Association Movement and the Society for
constitutional Information were not only made up of men from the middle class but also from the upper
class.
In the beginning of the XIX century, middle class’s pressure for reform in Parliament was not a result
of social or economic distress, mostly caused by the French wars, like the rest of the population, but instead
the result of the search of overseas markets leading them to seek direct representation in Parliament.
Attwood’s Birmingham Political Union was, as shown by its name, a union of the middle and working
classes set up by Thomas Attwood in Birmingham. Attwood had as his main goal currency reform allowing
more flexible credit and wider use of paper money. To achieve this he needed a reform parliamentary system
that allowed full participation of the middle classes in the parliamentary process. Birmingham allowed the
creation of this union due to the already existing cooperation between these two classes which indicates that
the creation of similar unions could be accomplished in other towns. However, by 1830 there had been set up
other ten unions across Great Britain. This, of course, does not mean the classes agreed in what the so sought
reform looked like. But they did share dissatisfaction with the existing system and so found enough common
ground to combine pressure against the Parliament. This unity had progressively more parliamentarians,
especially Whigs that were the most represented party in Parliament at the time, worried about the future and
therefore more open to the need to make changes.
Concluding, all the points analysed above caused the emergence of an industrial middle class to
increase the demand for parliamentary reform from 1785 to 1832. The demand for reform led to the 1832
Reform Act which made moderate reforms to extend the franchise and redistribute seats.

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