What problems did Liverpool face on coming to office in 1812? What was the main impact of the Corn Law?

Question 1

What had the successive governments before Liverpool fail to do?

Answer 1

• bring an end to the French Wars
• deal with the issue of Catholic Emancipation

Question 2

What is a potential reason for why the successive governments before Liverpool failed to bring an end to the French wars?

Answer 2

• they had very short terms in office so they could not showcase the full extent of what they could do

Question 3

What were the first three years of Liverpool’s time in office dominated by?

Answer 3

bringing an end to the Napoleonic wars

Question 4

What three major problems did Liverpool face when became PM in 1812?

Answer 4

• the urgent need to reorganise government finances
• the revival of working class radicalism
• Catholic Emancipation

Question 5

Who made up Liverpool’s cabinet when he came to office and what were their roles?

Answer 5

• Addington; Home Secretary
• Nicholas Vansittart; Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Castlereagh; Foreign Secretary and Leader of house of Commons

Question 6

How has Liverpool’s cabinet been described? Why did he form such a cabinet?

Answer 6

• reactionary; harsh towards radicalism
• Liverpool himself hated radicalism after being present at the Storming of Bastille July 14th 1789

Question 7

What was the state of Britain when Liverpool came to power in 1812?

Answer 7

• on verge of social, political and economic revolution due to distress and politicisation of lower class
• manufacturing prosperity in certain sectors and trade opportunities in the New World

Question 8

How has Liverpool been described?

Answer 8

• uninspiring
• a safe pair of hands

Question 9

What was a difficulty Liverpool faced with his ministers?

Answer 9

• they all had different views and personalities

Question 10

Why did it prove difficult to hold a majority in the House of Commons?

Answer 10

• Liverpool’s government were outmatched in debating skills by their Whig opposition
• radicals were gaining more influence and being elected into Parliament

Question 11

How did Liverpool describe his political orientation?

Answer 11

• individual
• pittite
  (- Whig)

Question 12

Why was the use of patronage declining? What effect did this have on party politics?

Answer 12

• to save money
• parties became less fluid and more disciplined as roles were becoming for important and specific

Question 13

How many sinecure offices did Liverpool remove between 1815 and 1822?

Answer 13

1800

Question 14

What was the Queen Caroline affair?

Answer 14

• describes the arduous build up to the divorce of George IV and Queen Caroline
• angered the public

Question 15

What happened in 1795 between the Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick? What was the nature of their marriage?

Answer 15

• married
• lived separately for 18 years

Question 16

What did Caroline do in 1814?

Answer 16

• move to Europe alone, without her husband the prince regent

Question 17

What was the Milan Commission? When was this established?

Answer 17

• committee to look for grounds for divorce
• tried to find evidence of Caroline cheating
  (- ordered by the George IV/prince regent)
• 1814

Question 18

Did Parliament know about the Milan Commission? When did they find out?

Answer 18

• no
• once Caroline tried to claim her position as Queen

Question 19

What happened on the 29th January 1820? What was the impact of this?

Answer 19

• George III died
• the couple became King and Queen of England

Question 20

What happened when Caroline tried to claim her position as Queen?

Answer 20

• Milan Commission provided evidence of her having an affair
• turned away from her husband’s coronation at Westminster Abbey

Question 21

What Bill was announced in Parliament? Was it passed? (Caroline affair)

Answer 21

• Bill of Pain and Penalties
• for an Act to deprive Caroline of the rights and title Queen Consort
• to dissolve her marriage to George
• to avoid going through the ecclesiastical courts.
• it was passed 1820

Question 22

What was the impact on government after the bill was passed?

Answer 22

• weakened
• humiliating; expected to be more independent from the monarch at this stage

Question 23

When did Caroline die?

Answer 23

• 3 weeks after being denied access to George IV’s coronation

Question 24

What was the impact of the Queen Caroline affair on the radical movement?

Answer 24

• radicals saw it as an example of the cruelty of government
• petitions were written to the Commons and Lords in defence of the Queen
• the Queen’s loss of rights became synonymous with the loss of the rights of the people

Question 25

When was the Queen Caroline affair?

Answer 25

• 1820

Question 26

When was the Corn Law passed?

Answer 26

• 1815

Question 27

What was the Corn Law?

Answer 27

• prohibited the import of grain until domestic prices reached 80 shillings
• ensured that farmers could charge a high price for their grain without the fear of being undercut by cheaper imports

Question 28

Why was the Corn law passed?

Answer 28

• good harvests of 1813, 1814, and 1815 = corn prices fell
• higher taxation bc of the war
• meant that farmers couldn’t repay bank loans and went bankrupt

Question 29

How did the Corn Law impact the labouring population? When were the riots?

Answer 29

• couldn’t afford bread, a staple to their diet
• riots in London in March 1815, where the homes of politicians were attacked

Question 30

Why did Liverpool defend the Corn law?

Answer 30

• saw it as protecting jobs and national security in the long run
• kept farmers and landowners happy, who dominated parliament

Question 31

What was the impact of the Corn law on the prices of Corn? How did prices change?

Answer 31

• prices stayed high
• bad harvests continued to reduce profits
• prices fell from 71 to 56 shillings 1815 - 1816

Question 32

When did Liverpool’s attitude towards farmers begin to change? How was it changing?

Answer 32

• 1822
• farmers could no longer expect to dictate government policy

Question 33

When was the Corn law refined? How did it change?

Answer 33

• 1828 sliding scale
• as the price of British corn rose, the duty on imports would reduce

Question 34

What is the Corn Law an example of? What is this the opposite of?

Answer 34

• protectionist measure; protecting domestic industries by tackling overseas competition by using duties on imports
• free trade (adam smith); something that Liverpool followed

Question 35

What is protectionism?

Answer 35

government policies protect domestic industries by using duties on imports to tackle overseas competition

Question 36

What happened between 1821 and 1823 in Liverpool’s government?

Answer 36

• his cabinet ‘reshuffled’
• a new mood emerged
• the government became stronger through self-reliance rather than dependency on the monarchy

Question 37

How did this ‘new mood’ emerge?

Answer 37

• Liverpool’s administration began to win over many of its opposition, such as the Grenville Whigs
• Duke of Wellington, Robert Peel, Huskisson and Canning moved into office

Question 38

How did Liverpool’s new government ‘reinvent’ itself?

Answer 38

• began to move towards a more liberal approach than a reactionary one

Question 39

What did historians state about the success of Liverpool’s new government?

Answer 39

• not as successful as it intended to be
• no single move brought a break in earlier policies

Question 40

How was there continuity within Liverpool’s government?

Answer 40

• division between his ministers remained

Question 41

Who were the High/Ultra Tories? When did they emerge?

Answer 41

• emerged in the 1820s
• reactionary and anti-reform Tory MPS, particularly in regards to parliamentary reform and catholic emancipation