Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T22:48:07.214Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

1848 and Parliamentary Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Roland Quinault
Roland Quinault
Affiliation:
Polytechnic of North London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

1848 has gone down in history – or rather in history books – as the year when England was different. In that year a wave of revolution on the Continent overthrew constitutions, premiers and even a dynasty but in England, by contrast, the middle classes rallied round the government and helped it preserve the status quo. This interpretation of 1848 has long been the established orthodoxy amongst historians. Asa Briggs took this view thirty years ago and it has lately been endorsed by F. B. Smith and Henry Weisser. Most recently, John Saville, in his book on 1848, has concluded that events in England ‘demonstrated beyond question and doubt, the complete and solid support of the middling strata to the defence of existing institutions’. He claims that ‘the outstanding feature of 1848 was the mass response to the call for special constables to assist the professional forces of state security’ which reflected a closing of ranks among all property owners. Although some historians, notably David Goodway, have recently stressed the vitality of Chartism in 1848 they have not challenged the traditional view that the movement failed to win concessions from the establishment and soon declined. Thus 1848 in England is generally regarded as a terminal date: the last chapter in the history of Chartism as a major movement. Thereafter Britain experienced a period of conservatism – described by one historian as ‘the mid-Victorian calm’–which lasted until the death of Palmerston in 1865.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 831 - 851
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Briggs, Asa, The age of improvement 1783–1867 (London, 1966), pp. 311–12Google Scholar; Smith, F. B., ‘The view from Britain I: Tumults abroad, stability at home’ in Kamenka, E. and Smith, F. B. (ed.), Intellectuals and revolution, Socialism and the experience 0f 1848 (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Weisser, Henry, April 10: Challenge and response in England in 1848 (New York, 1983)Google Scholar.

2 Saville, John, 1848: The British state and the Chartist movement (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 220, 227Google Scholar.

3 For this concept see: Best, Geoffrey, Mid-Victorian Britain 1851–75 (London, 1971), pp. 228–9Google Scholar and Balfour, Michael, Britain and Joseph Chamberlain (London, 1985), pp. 59–63Google Scholar.

4 Weisser, , April 10, p. 300Google Scholar.

5 McPhee, Peter, ‘The crisis of Radical Republicanism in the French Revolution of 1848’, Historical Studies, XVI (1974), 79–80Google Scholar.

6 Pouthas, Charles, ‘The revolutions of 1848’ in Bury, J. P. T. (ed.) The new Cambridge modern history, vol. X, The zenith of European power (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 389–415Google Scholar.

7 Brougham, Lord, Letter to the marquis of Lansdowne on the late revolution in France (London, 1848), p. 10Google Scholar.

8 Bourgeois, Emile, History of modern France, vol. 1, 1815–52 (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 240–1Google Scholar, 287–308.

9 Le Moniteur universel (Paris), 6 03, 1848Google Scholar.

10 Dasent, A. I., John Thadeus Delane (2 vols., London, 1908), I, 72Google Scholar; Reeve, Henry (ed.), The Greville memoirs (8 vols., London, 1889), VI, 135Google Scholar.

11 The Times, 19 Aug. 1859.

12 Hodder, Edwin, The life and work of the seventh earl of Shaftesbury (London, 1887 edn), pp. 389–90Google Scholar.

13 Disraeli, Benjamin, Coningsby or the new generation (London, 1983 edn), p. 322Google Scholar.

14 Monypenny, W. F. and Buckle, G. E., The life of Benjamin Disraeli earl of Beaconsfield (2 vols., London, 1929 edn), I, 911Google Scholar: Disraeli to Lord John Manners, 8 March 1848.

15 Illustrated London News, 4 March 1848.

16 Froude, J. A., Thomas Carlyle (2 vols., London, 1884), I, 429Google Scholar: Carlyle's journal entry for 5 March 1848.

17 Daily News, 25 April 1848.

18 HonAshley, Evelyn M.P., The life & correspondence of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (2 vols., London, 1879), II, 73Google Scholar: Palmerston to Normanby, 28 Feb. 1848.

19 Cited in Schoyen, A. R., The Chartist challenge (London, 1958), p. 161Google Scholar.

20 Thompson, Dorothy, The Chartists (London, 1986), pp. 310–11Google Scholar; Belchem, John, ‘1848 Feargus O'Connor and the collapse of the mass platform’ in Epstein, J. and Thompson, D. (ed.), The Chartist experience: studies in working-class radicalism and culture 1830–60 (London, 1982), p. 272Google Scholar.

21 , F. G. and Black, R. M. (ed.), The Harney papers (Assen, 1969), p. 62Google Scholar: F. O'Connor to J. Harney, 6 Jan. 1848.

22 Goodway, David, London Chartism 1838–48 (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 68–72Google Scholar.

23 Palmerston to Normanby, 14 March, 1848, Palmerston papers, British Library, Add. MSS 48, 557

24 The life and struggles of William Lovett (London, 1967 edn), pp. 275–6Google Scholar, See also: The minutes of the Working Men's Association, vol. III, British Library, Add. MSS 37, 775, fos. 107–8.

25 The Halifax Guardian, 18 March, 1848 (cited in Thompson, , The Chartists, p. 312)Google Scholar.

26 Mather, F. C., Public order in the age of the Chartists (Manchester, 1959), pp. 160–3Google Scholar. Large, David, ‘London in the year of revolutions 1848’ in Stevenson, J. (ed.), London in the age of reform (Oxford, 1977), pp. 185–9Google Scholar .

27 Belchem, , Chartist experience, pp. 269–71Google Scholar.

28 The Times, 11 April 1848.

29 Large, , London, p. 191Google Scholar.

30 Smith, , Intellectuals and revolution, pp. 112Google Scholar, 115.

31 Ashley, , Palmerston, II, 86Google Scholar: Palmerston to Normanby, 11 April 1848.

32 Wellesley, Gerald (ed.), The conversations of the first duke of Wellington with George William Chad (Cambridge, 1956), p. 21Google Scholar.

33 Foot, M. R. D. and Matthew, H. G. G., The Gladstone diaries: Vol. IV 1848–54 (Oxford, 1974), 23Google Scholar: entry for 10 April 1848.

34 Illustrated London News, 15 April 1848.

35 The Times, 17 April 1848.

36 Punch, vol. XIV (London, 1848), 166Google Scholar.

37 The Tablet, 29 April 1848.

38 Colchester, Lord (ed.), Lord Ellenborough, a political diary 1828–30 (2 vols., London, 1881), II, 432–3Google Scholar. Part. Debates, 1830, I, 521.

39 Smith, , Intellectuals and revolution, p. 112Google Scholar.

40 Reid, T. Wemyss, The life, letters and friendship of Richard Monckton Milnes, fast Lord Houghton (2 vols., London, 1890), I, 432Google Scholar.

41 P. D., 1848, XCVIII, 45, 54.

42 Ibid. 116.

43 Dorchester, Lady (ed.), Lord Broughton: recollections of a long life (6 vols., London, 1911), VI, 216Google Scholar.

44 Hodder, , Shaftesbury, p. 393Google Scholar: journal entry for 13 April 1848.

45 The Times, 15 April 1848.

46 Ibid. 16 June 1866.

47 P. D., 1848, XCIX, 888, 899.

48 Walmsley, H. M., The life of Sir Joshua Walmsley (London, 1879), pp. 192–3Google Scholar.

49 The Times, 17 April 1848.

50 Sydney Morning Herald, 24 Jan. 1849.

51 Foot, and Matthew, , Gladstone diaries, p. 30Google Scholar: entry for 22 April 1848. See also: The Gladstone papers, B.L. Add. MSS 44, 737 fo. 29.

52 The Times, 18 May 1848.

53 P.D., 1848, XCVIII, 1308–9.

54 The Times, 2, 8, 16, June 1848.

55 McCord, N., ‘Cobden and Bright in politics 1846–57’, in Robson, R. (ed.), Ideas & institutions of Victorian Britain (London, 1967), pp. 87–114Google Scholar.

56 Trevelyan, G. M., The life of John Bright (London, 1913), p. 183Google Scholar.

57 P. D. 1848, XCVIII, 117, 472.

58 Morley, , Cobden, pp. 487–8Google Scholar.

59 Henry Vincent to R. Cobden, 9 April 1848, Cobden papers, B.L. Add. MSS 43, 667.

60 Morley, , Cobden, p. 485Google Scholar.

61 The Times, 15 April 1848.

62 Ibid. 1 May 1848.

63 Daily News, 6 May 1848.

64 Manchester Guardian, 10 May 1848.

65 J. Bright to his wife, 10 June 1848, Bright papers, University College, London, Ogden MS 65: Box 1.

66 Fraser, Derek, ‘Edward Baines’, in Hollis, Patricia (ed.), Pressure from without in early Victorian England (London, 1974), p. 203Google Scholar.

67 Leeds Mercury, 6 May 1848.

68 Russell to Clarendon, 10 April 1848, Clarendon papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Irish box 43.

69 P. D., 1854, CXXXXI, 307.

70 The Times, 17 April 1848.

71 Parker, C. H., Life & letters of Sir James Graham 1792–1861 (2 vols., London, 1907), II, 69Google Scholar.

72 Macaulay to Russell, 23 April 1848, Russell papers, Public Record Office 30/22/7B fos. 331–5.

73 Normanby to Russell, 29 April 1848, ibid. fos. 103–4.

74 The Times, 8 March 1848.

75 Campbell, Peter, French electoral systems and elections since 1789 (London, 1958), p. 65Google Scholar.

76 Marquis, of Normanby, , A year of revolution from a journal kept in Paris in 1848 (2 vols., London, 1857), I, 343–5, 420Google Scholar.

77 Broughton recollections, VI, 221.

78 Illustrated London News, 1 July 1848.

79 Boesche, Roger (ed.), Alexis de Tocqueville: selected letters on politics and society (Berkeley, 1985), p. 212Google Scholar.

80 Rev. SirLewis, G. F. Bt., Letters of the Rt. Hon. Sir George Cornewall Lewis Bt. to various friends (London, 1870), p. 174Google Scholar: Lewis to Head, 14 May 1848.

81 P. D., 1848, XCVIII, 1312.

82 Illustrated London News, 10 June 1848.

83 Greville memoirs, VI, 192.

84 Ibid. 195.

85 Cf. Large, , London, p. 196Google Scholar.

86 Russell to Clarendon, 11 June 1848, Clarendon papers, Irish box 43.

87 Greville memoirs, VI, 197–8.

88 P. D., 1848, XCVIII, 1308–9. Minutes of Working Men's Association, 26 April 1848, Add. MSS 37, 775, fo. 113.

89 Walmsley, , Walmsley, p. 196Google Scholar.

90 P. D., 1848, c, 182–3.

91 Ibid. XCIX, 928–9.

92 Ibid. 928–33.

93 The Times, 21 June 1848.

94 Lewis, , Lewis, p. 178Google Scholar: Lewis to Head, 20 June 1848.

95 Punch, vol. XIV (1848), 221Google Scholar.

96 P. D., 1848, XCIX, 951, 962–5.

97 Ibid. c, 213, 217.

98 Ibid. 226.

99 Walpole, Spencer, The life of Lord John Russell (2 vols.,London, 1889)Google Scholar; Prest, John, Lord John Russell (London, 1972), p. 303Google Scholar.

100 Smith, F. B., The making of the second reform bill (Cambridge, 1966), p. 32Google Scholar; Wright, D. G., Democracy and reform 1815–1885 (London, 1970), pp. 57–8Google Scholar.

101 Seymour, Charles, Electoral reform in England & Wales (London, 1915), p. 240Google Scholar.

102 Stewart, Robert, The foundation of the Conservative Party 1830–67 (London, 1978), p. 353Google Scholar.

103 Daily News, 21 June 1848.

104 Greville memoirs, VI, 209.

105 Brougham, , Letter, pp. 75–6, 165Google Scholar.

106 Milnes, Richard Monckton, A letter to the marquis of Landsdoume (London, 1849), pp. 54, 63Google Scholar.

107 The Quarterly Review, LXXXV (1849), 307–8Google Scholar.

108 P. D., 1849, CV, 1159 and CVII, 1300.

109 P. D., 1850, CXII, 1180.

110 Walmsley, , Walmsley, pp. 214–18Google Scholar; Prospects of reform: a letter to Sir Joshua Walmsley M.P. (London, 1849), p. 12Google Scholar.

111 P. D., 1849, CV, 1225.

112 Walpole, , Russell, II, 102–3Google Scholar.

113 Hoppen, K. Theodore, ‘The franchise and electoral politics in England and Ireland 1832–85’, History, LXX (1985), 208Google Scholar.

114 Russell to Clarendon, 24 April 1848, Clarendon papers, Irish box 43.

115 P. D., 1851, CXVI, 853.

116 P. D., 1852, CXXIII, 1739–40.

117 Monypenny, and Buckle, , Disraeli, I, 1152Google Scholar: Salisbury to Disraeli, 17 Jan. 1852.

118 P. D., 1852, CXXIII, 1726.

119 Gooch, G. P. (ed.), The later correspondence ofLord John Russell 1840–78 (2 vols., London, 1925), II, 137Google Scholar: Palmerston to Russell, 10 April 1854. See also: Bell, H. C., ‘Palmerston and parliamentary reform’, Journal of Modern History, IV (1932), 186–201Google Scholar.

120 P. D., 1854, CXXXII, 843. See also: Walling, R. A. J. (ed.), The diaries of John Bright (London, 1930), p. 168Google Scholar.

121 Herrick, F. H., ‘The second reform movement in Britain 1850–65’, Journal of the History of Ideas, IX (1948), 189Google Scholar; Briggs, , Age of improvement, p. 416Google Scholar; Smith, , Making sec. ref. bill, p. 28Google Scholar.

122 See also: Zeldin, T., The political system of Napoleon III (Oxford, 1958)Google Scholar.

123 Cobden to Bright, 27 Dec. 1851, B.L. Add. MSS 43, 649 fo. 242.

124 P.D., 1852, CXIX, 279.

125 P. D., 1866, CLXXXIV, 654–5.

126 Brook, J. and Sorensen, M. (ed.), W.E.Gladstone: autobiographica (London, 1971), pp. 52–3Google Scholar.

127 Rev. J. L. Ross to Gladstone, 3 March 1848, Gladstone papers, B.L. Add MSS 44, 367 fo. 97.

128 Gladstone, , Diaries, IV, 19–22Google Scholar.

129 Ibid. IV, 17, 23, 42.

130 Ibid. IV, 45, 48.

131 Gladstone, , Autobiographica, pp. 52–3Google Scholar.

132 Morley, John, The life of William Ewart Gladstone (2 vols., London, 1908 edn), I, 289Google Scholar.

133 Rogers, J. E. Thorold (ed.), Speeches by the Rt. Hon. John Bright M.P. (London, 1869), pp. 351, 374Google Scholar.

134 P. D., 1867, CLXXXVIII, 1550.

135 P. D., 1848, C, 226.

136 Denholm, Anthony, Lord Ripon 1827–1909 (London, 1982), pp. 4–13Google Scholar.

137 Reid, T. Wemyss, Life of the Rt. Hon. W. E. Forster (2 vols., London, 1888), I, 215–27, 245, 314Google Scholar.

138 For the controversy this bill occasioned see: Morley, , Gladstone, I, 568–72Google Scholar.

139 P. D., 1867, CLXXXVIII, 1533–4, 1660–1.

140 P. D., 1852, CXIX, 306.

141 Pinto-Duschinsky, M., The political thought of Lord Salisbury 1854–68 (London, 1967), pp. 191–2Google Scholar.

142 The Times, 8 July 1848.

143 Carlyle, Thomas, Latter-day pamphlets (London, 1850), pp. 7–8Google Scholar.