1830-1850

Question 1

Explain why there was a revival in the demand for parliamentary reform between 1829 and 1830?

Answer 1

• Strikes in the North of England
• Sudden slump in the economy
• Jeremy Bentham continued to advocate
  -Death of King George the 4th
• Passing of catholic Emancipation

Question 2

Explain the pressure put on the government to pass the Great Reform Act?

Answer 2

-Birmingham political union formed and put pressure on the government by organising strikes and protests
-swing riots of 1830 scared the government into action
-1831 riots in Derby and Nottingham when the first bill was rejected, 12 people were killed

Question 3

How did the Great Reform Act effect the franchise?

Answer 3

-property rate was lowered to £10 in borough constituencies
- county constituencies people had to hold a long lease of £10 and short of £50.

Question 4

How did the Great Reform Act effect representation?

Answer 4

• 56 rotten boroughs were abolished
• 143 seats were made available for redistribution
  65 given to counties, 65 given to boroughs without MPs, 8 to Scotland and 5 to Ireland

Question 5

Name some arguments FOR the Great Reform Act

Answer 5

• electorate in Britain increased from 478,000 to 813,000
• rotten boroughs disappeared
• industrial towns were given MPs
• first step towards democracy

Question 6

Name some arguments AGAINST the Great Reform Act

Answer 6

• Scotland, Wales and Ireland continued to be under represented
  -length of parliament remained 7 years
• no dramatic change to the membership of the HoC

Question 7

What did the Swing Riots do?

Answer 7

Destroyed workhouses and teithe barns

Question 8

What was the Merthyr rising?

Answer 8

large groups of men and women marched through the streets, broke into shops to reclaim what had been stolen from them and destroyed account books detailing their debts

Question 9

What was the result of the Merthyr rising?

Answer 9

The execution of Richard Lewis
-The Truck Act was passed - paying workers in tokens became illegal
Unions were stamped out

Question 10

What were the tolpuddle martyrs ?

Answer 10

Group of farm labourers from the village of Tolpuddle. Small group including George Loveless set up a secret union and swore an oath to keep it a secret.
Sentenced to 7 years transportation

Question 11

Why were the Rebecca riots significant ?

Answer 11

display of public protest that the government gave in to.
sending soldiers to stop the riots didn’t work so they were forced to make the tolls fairer

Question 12

What did the chartists do?

Answer 12

in 1839 Submitted a petition with 1/.3 million signatures on to the HoC
a second was submitted in 1842

Question 13

What was the Humanitarian movement?

Answer 13

People from all walks of life who wanted to improve the working and living conditions of the working classes. William Wilberforce was one

Question 14

Name some reform Acts passed in 1833

Answer 14

• Abolition of Slavery
• Factory Act
• First Grant for education

Question 15

What was the Poor Law Amendment Act?

Answer 15

Based on Edwin Chadwick’s report. Extremely unpopular, took away outdoor relief, workhouses became the focus of discontent, only benefitted rate payers.
It was lucky that there were a few years of good harvests otherwise the death rate would have been much higher.

Question 16

What was the Municipal Corporations Act 1835?

Answer 16

benefitted the rate payers and middle classes but not the poor:
- councillors now elected every three years
- mayor elected annually
- compulsory to pay for the police force

Question 17

What were the problems of the Whig reforms from 1833-41?

Answer 17

• They still used repressive measures in incidents like the Tolpuddle Martyrs 1834, Chartists 1839, Rebecca Riots. So they didn’t really understand the real causes of poverty and unemployment
• Did little to ease suffering of working classes
• Reform came to a trickle after 1835 as Palmerston (PM) was against reform
• some laws made a start but did not go far enough or were not compulsory

Question 18

What were Peel’s motives to repeal the Corn Laws?

Answer 18

• Corn Laws were against his free trade principles
• Pressure from the anti-corn law league
• fear that if the Corn laws weren’t repealed, there would be increased calls for further electoral reform

Question 19

Was the repeal of the Corn Laws easy to put through parliament?

Answer 19

It took 5 months of fierce struggle with his opponents before the Act became law in June 1846.
- Ministers resented Peel’s high handed attitude towards the party
- many conservative MPs believed that the repeal of the Corn Laws was a betrayal of the Party’s commitment to protectionism