PARLIAMENTARY REFORM KNOWLEDGE TEST

Question 1

How much did GB national debt rise to and from what after 1800??

Answer 1

£238mn to £902

Question 2

When were the spa field riots, who led them and how many people attended??

Answer 2

1816, led by Henry Hunt with 20,000 people

Question 3

When were the days of May and what happened??

Answer 3

1832, 200,000 people attracted and led by the BPU

Question 4

What was the political group formed just before the days of may and how many people did it have??

Answer 4

BPU in 1829, amassed 100,000 people both middle and class working class

Question 5

What society formed in 1792 and how many members did it peak at??

Answer 5

London corresponding society said to have peaked at 5000 members, cost a penny to join

Question 6

What event was led by the LCS in October 1795??

Answer 6

Peaceful demonstration at Copenhagen field which attracted 100,000

Question 7

How many boroughs had less than 40 people and yet returned how many MPs to parliament??

Answer 7

50 boroughs had less than 40 people and yet returned 2 MPs each

Question 8

What were pocket boroughs and give an example of one

Answer 8

Pocket boroughs= where one wealthy inhabitant owns all the property and gives all inhabitants the right to vote, but bribes them. eg Appleby in Cumbria

Question 9

What 4 new industrial cities were massively underrepresented and what was the population of Manchester??

Answer 9

manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield

Manchester had 400,000 people

Question 10

What were rotten boroughs and give a common example of them??

Answer 10

Boroughs that were massively over represented due to the deterioration in population- Old Sarum

Question 11

What were ‘lambs’ and what was ‘treating’

Answer 11

lambs- thugs used to intimidate voters

Treating- where MPs would pay for voters food and accommodation

Question 12

How were seats redistributed in the first reform act (1832)

Answer 12

• 56 boroughs with less than 2000 people lost an MP and 30 completely disenfranchised
• 42 new borough constituencies set up, including 20 new two seat constituencies for cities like Birmingham and Manchester

Question 13

How much did it cost to become an MP and how many middle class people were in the cabinet between 1830-66

Answer 13

£600 a year, 14 out of 106

Question 14

How many MPs did the north and south have??

Answer 14

North- 120

south-370

Question 15

What were property qualifications in the counties and boroughs after 1832??

Answer 15

Counties- rented land worth £50 or owned worth £10

Boroughs- owned worth £10

Question 16

What did electorate sizes increase to in the 1832 act and then 1867 act??

Answer 16

1832- 366,000 to 650,000 now 18% of the population

1867- 2.46million now 1/3 of the adult male population

Question 17

How did the whigs try to exclude the lower classes in the 1832 election??

Answer 17

Land owning qualification- made no attempt to hide this fact

Question 18

What legislation prohibited 1/3 of the population voting even after 1867??

Answer 18

Occupation of residency clause of 1 year in a house

Question 19

How were the seats reallocated after the 1867 reform act??

Answer 19

45 boroughs with less than 10,000 people lost an MP and a further 7 disenfranchised.
25 seats went to counties, 20 to boroughs, 6 gained an additional seat and 1 to the university of London

Question 20

How many boroughs had fewer than 500 voters and how many fewer the 300??

Answer 20

73 had fewer than 500 and 31 fewer than 300

Question 21

When were the NRU and NRL set up and what did they do??

Answer 21

Both set up in 1864, both wanted extended franchise to all males, a secret ballot, and the NRU wanted equal distribution of seats. They were middle class liberals, with the NRL being slightly more radical, however they were more popular, attracted many ex chartists and used non violent demonstrations that were widely successful and hard for the government to ignore

Question 22

What prompted the Hyde park riots, when were they and what happened??

Answer 22

after first liberal bill failed, NRL held meeting in Hyde park 23rd July 1866, which was declared illegal and the police chained shut the entrances. Despite this, 200,000 people invaded the park by breaking through the gates; clearly a huge assembly of people asking for reform. Military support was requested

Question 23

What did the failed 1st reform bill plan to do and who wanted to introduce it??

Answer 23

• Gladstone tried to introduce it in 1866
• Would bring land qualifications down to workers earning £7 in boroughs (200,000 more voters) and bring renting of £50 worth of land in counties down to £14 to include 170,000 more voters

Question 24

What 2 positions of government did Disraeli hold in 1866 and how did he contribute to the second reform act??

Answer 24

Disraeli was chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the commons

• formed a minority government under earl of derby in 1866
• advertised moderate reform when they sense a mood for change
• advertised extending the franchise to urban voters to gain their votes from the liberals

Question 25

How did better party politics in 1832 inspire Gladstone in 1868??

Answer 25

Gladstone saw the importance of working with his party and toured the country to give speeches to the masses, leading to the liberals win in 1868

Question 26

Name and describe 3 acts/ changes made under Pitts reign of terror and when they were??

Answer 26

• Combination acts in 1799
• ‘two acts’ in december 1795 which banned public meetings of over 50 people who were discussing reform
• Licenses taken away from pubs who allowed such meetings

Question 27

What was paine’s thesis on society??

Answer 27

Paine rejected the idea that societies develop organically from their past, and instead each age has the right to establish a new political system.

Question 28

When was Paine charged with treason and how many copies of what book did he sell by 1793??

Answer 28

charged with treason in 1792 and fled to France, had sold 200,000 copies of his book ‘ the rights of man’ by 1793

Question 29

When were the 3 chartist petitions and how many signatures did they each get?

Answer 29

1st- 1839 with 1.2million signatures
2nd- 1842 with 3.3million signatures
3rd- 1848- 5.7million signatures but 3.7million were said to be forged

Question 30

Why and how did the first chartist petition fail??

Answer 30

bill rejected, chartists arrested and 6000 troops sent North to keep peace.

Question 31

Why and how did the 2nd chartist petition fail?

Answer 31

parliament reject it by even more votes than the last one (287 votes to 49)

Question 32

why and how did the 3rd chartist petition fail??

Answer 32

Chartists are banned for forging 3.7 out of 5.7 mil signatures, 8000 more soldiers sent out to stop them.

Question 33

How did the chartists use of petitions lead to their failure??

Answer 33

They grew increasingly desperate with their use of petitions, began forging them by 1848, which only led to further government opposition eg 2nd bill rejected by even more than the first one. Made it harder for them to be taken seriously in the long term

Question 34

When and where was the 1st use of violence by the chartists and what happened?

Answer 34

Newport rising 1839- thousands of miners storm hotel to rescue arrested chartists. Many leaders arrested and killed, worsening morale of chartists

Question 35

How many chartists were injured and killed at Newport??

Answer 35

50 injured, 20 killed

Question 36

When and where was the second use of violence by the chartists and what happened?

Answer 36

Plug riots 1842- following rejection of the second bill, 500,000 workers went on strike in Yorkshire, removing plugs from boilers to make them useless

Question 37

How many people arrested after the plug riots and why was it controversial??

Answer 37

1000, the chartists didn’t actually lead the riot but were blamed and many arrested

Question 38

How did the use of violence lead to the chartist failure??

Answer 38

The lower class background of the chartists meant they lacked the funding to protest effectively and turned to violence, therefore provoking further oppression from the government who weren’t prepared to meet their demands due to their violent nature.

Question 39

What two chartist groups were set up in 1842 and how many members did they have?

Answer 39

NCA had 70,000 members and complete suffrage union who had over 50 branches

Question 40

Why did the NCA fail??

Answer 40

Lower class demographic lacked the organisational ability and funding to campaign effectively, leaders were poorly paid and couldn’t gather resources.

Question 41

why did the Complete suffrage league fail??

Answer 41

Collaborated with the anti corn league but failed when it realised that repealing the corn laws would lead to lower wages for chartists

Question 42

Why did the political organisations of the chartists lead to its fail??

Answer 42

They had no strong supported aims and lacked the funding to campaign and change government attitudes, lower class demographic, no threat to the wealth land owning elite that were politicians

Question 43

How many daily and tri weekly politicised papers did London have in the 1790s, and what effect did this have on lower class agitation

Answer 43

13 daily and 10 tri weekly, coincided with the growth of mass movements which increasingly politicised the lower classes, who made further demands for reform

Question 44

What prominent member did the NRU have and what did he do??

Answer 44

Samuel Morley- a wool manufacturer from Nottingham who was voted as MP in 1865- believed in uplifting society through universal suffrage

Question 45

How did the legacy of the 1832 reform act lead to the 1867 act??

Answer 45

-Whigs publicly excluding the lower classes from voting with the £10 land owning qualification
-chartists who responded to the lack of working class reform through radical violence and petitions
-continued over-representation of land owning elite v under-representation of lower and middle classes
ALTHOUGH NOT ITS GOAL, IT SERVED AS A STARTING POINT FOR FURTHER REFORM AND INCREASED PRESSURE ON GOVT FROM LOWER AND MIDDLE CLASSES

Question 46

What was beneficial for politicians to do to gain support of middle class around 1866-1867

Answer 46

politicians like Disraeli realised he could advertise universal suffrage to the liberal middle class, who would in turn vote for the tories because they were the ones advertising reform

Question 47

When did Napoleon blockade ports and how many soldiers returned home after the French wars?

Answer 47

1806-1812

400,000

Question 48

How many people from what industry and where lost their jobs after the war?

Answer 48

7000 ironworkers from Shropshire

Question 49

How much did indirect tax revenue increase between 1790 and 1816?

Answer 49

£50million

Question 50

How did the tories change their approach to government after 1832??

Answer 50

• They looked to extend franchise very slightly, by introducing the land qualifications in the boroughs into the counties where they had lots of support from the landed gentry
• very moderate reform to include some more people and improve their support and benefit them

Question 51

How did the tories rebrand themselves after 1832 and who led the next tory government?

Answer 51

Robert Peel led the newly named Conservatives after 1832, there was a new group of tories emerging who were more inclined to offer moderate reform

Question 52

What did Russell do as early as 1852 and why did tories oppose it??

Answer 52

as early as 1852 Lord Russell, liberal lord Russell proposed reducing borough qualifications from £10 to £6, tories felt it was too lenient and inclusive of the lower classes and were worried it was too soon after 1832

Question 53

how did the whigs rebrand themselves after 1832?

Answer 53

In response to the tories rebrand, they rebranded themselves as liberals because of the inclusion of more non aristocratic members of parliament, who they relied on after 1850, wanted to be the party to advertise more inclusive reform and attract tories who in turn would vote liberal

Question 54

What 2 ‘revolutionary’ movements encouraged parliament to keep the pre reform system?

Answer 54

• French Revolution

- growth of unionism in new factories

Question 55

How did the government respond to revolution?

Answer 55

• 2 acts (treason and seditious acts)
• 6 acts 1817-19
• combination acts

Question 56

When were the 6 acts and what were some of the laws introduced??

Answer 56

Laws to suppress the radical activities in Britian

• newspaper and stamp duties increased the price of newspapers to stop spread of radical press
• seizure of arms act gave powers to search for weapons
• seditious meetings prevention act imposed restrictions on public meetings

Question 57

What was radical press and who notoriously added to it?

Answer 57

• The emergence of increasingly politicised news read by the lower classes to encourage them to ask more questions regarding democracy etc
• From November 1816, William Cobbett began republishing his weekly political register to a large working class audience

Question 58

What 3 reasons were there for the lack of reform up until 1820?

Answer 58

• fear of revolution
• benefits of pre reform system to government
• failed/ineffective rises in lower classes

Question 59

Why did the government not want to reform parliament due to its benefits?

Answer 59

• The general consensus was that GB had been prosperous in its current political state so there was no need to change it
• the land owning elite knew that increased democracy would see a reduction in their power in the rural areas as power would shift towards the new industrial cities

Question 60

When was the Cato street conspiracy, what happened and how did it add to lack of reform?

Answer 60

1820, attempt to assassinate lord Liverpool and trigger uprisings across the country, added to the earlier fears of revolution from the government

Question 61

What examples of ineffective/violent challenges from the Lower classes were there?

Answer 61

• LCS
• cato street conspiracy
• Thomas paine
• Henry hunt/ spa field riots