The Period of Public Protests in Britain - Coursework Example

Assess the significance of the public protest in challenging ity in Britain in the period 1815-1926." The period 1815-1926 was important in various aspects; most significant of all was that this was the era when British government transformed itself into a democracy. And public protest was responsible. Public Agitation for Social reform Authors such as Dickens belabored the need for social reform with their novels where conditions of the working class (see for instance Bleak House and Oliver Twist) were explored. Other prominent authors who focused on social problems during this age included Thomas Hardy and Elizabeth Gaskell (see, for instance, her ‘North and South’). Their intention was to push for legal and moral change. Arguably, the first notable public protest during this period was the ‘Agrarian Revolution’ (1815) where the laborer, due to high prices, often, lost his land; his distress aggravated by the economic reactions that followed the Napoleonic war and by Parliament trivializing his grievances. Along came William Cobbett whose weekly “Political Register” stressed that reform of Parliament would redress their evils. Cobbett’s description is telling, and it is worthwhile to quote it in order that it serve as comparison between one part of the era and the other: “I have the good fortune to live in a part of the country where the laboring people are better off than in any part of England I have seen.. But now it has found us out, and threatens to involve us in one general mass of misery. I could name numerous individuals who are actually become a sort of skeletons.. I see scores of young men, framed by nature to be athletic, rosy-cheeked, and bold.. I see them thin as herrings, dragging their feet after them, pale as a ceiling and sneaking about like beggars.” (Political register, August 10, 1816, quoted in Green, p. 794). The conditions of the industrial worker were just as gloomy, if not, in several manners, more so. To furnish the new demand for goods brought on by the close of the war, factories had been hastily erected neglecting even the rudiments of sanitation and safety: old barns, cart-houses, and out-buildings were, occasionally, converted into loom shops. People (including women and children; minors too) worked strenuously long hours on minimal wages and in abysmal conditions that were often dangerous, life threatening, and health impacting. Pauper children from the workhouses (indiscriminate of sex) were obtained and cruelly used, some even ‘conscripted’ at five years of age. Anyone who attempted to flee (women and girls included) had irons riveted to their ankles in which they were compelled to work and sleep. Small wonder that social discontent became increasingly vocal. In May 1816, riots broke out in Norfolk, Suffolk, Huntingdon, and Cambridgeshire, and conflagrations were started by laborers who demanded better working conditions, more employment, and improved wages. The revolution spread to the colliers of the Tyne-side, the ironworkers of Monmouthshire and Staffordshire, the juteworkers of Dundee, and the clothworkers of Wiltshire. Simultaneously, a meeting of workmen in Bermondsey (November 1816) was followed by a protest to the Prince regent by the Corporation of London, who declared that “ the distress and misery which for so many years has been progressively accumulating, ahs at length become insupportable; that the commercial, the manufacturing, and the agricultural interests are equally sinking under its irresistible pressure, and it has become impossible to find employment for a large mass of the population,” (quoted in Green, p. 796). The evils were partially attributed to “the corrupt and inadequate state of the representation of the people in Parliament” (ibid.) “The March of the Blanketeers” - workmen who set out to march to London – was succeeded by another riot in the Midlands, whilst huge meetings agitating for reform were held in various parts of the country including Glasgow, Leeds, and Stockport. This, subsequently, led to the notorious massacre at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester where the yeomanry charged with drawn swords into the agitating crowds, killing and injuring several hundreds. Protests ensued, the weightiest perhaps from the Common Council which, by 71 votes to 45, affirmed “the undoubted right of Englishmen to assemble together for the purpose of deliberating upon public grievances” (quoted in Green, p.799). The Combination Act of 1824 that legalized trade unions generated a plethora of trade societies and subsequent strikes. The “last Laborers’ Revolt’ (1830) in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Dorsetshire, Gloucetshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Oxfordshire, was successful in several parts of the country, failed in others and uniformly demanded higher wages; 450 rioters were condemned to imprisonment, expulsion, or death. Finally, the public (with prominent philosophers and politicians such as Bentham, Hume, Cobbett, France Place, and Mill) pressed for parliamentary reform. Much was wrong in the “unreformed House of Commons” including unequal representation of the people, several regions (though large like Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds) not represented at all, several others, though negligible overly represented, and more than a third of the representatives had entered the House of Commons through rigged votes. Bills passed by Earl Grey’s Whig Ministry (1831) pressing for Reform were repeatedly rejected by the House of Lords prompting public demonstrations and incendiary acts in Nottingham and Bristol. Armed rebellion seemed in the offing, so the King recalled Earl Grey, permitting him to create his own Peers thus enabling the Bill to be passed. The significance of the Act was immense: for the first time ever the landed aristocracy was forced to keel to the middle and commercial classes and Dissenters now attained real influence. More importantly, political power was now with the middle and commercial classes, rather than with the lords, and even though the working classes were not included, this change in parliament had effectively transferred focus from a self-centered, largely self-occupied sector to a sector more representative of the country, intent on urging reform. The Results of the Public Protest. a. Public Education – Until 1833, it had been two non-profit societies that had chiefly provided education for the children of the British poor. On August 17, 1833, the House of Commons lobbied for responsibility of general education to be transferred to the state. This was the beginning of public education as we know it today. In 1847, taxation was apportioned for elementary education, and the Elementary Education Act (1870) introduced three principles: (i) the compulsory attendance of children at school, (ii) a representative local authority and, (iii) a compulsory local rate. England was, subsequently, divided into school districts, with free schools being established in very poor districts, and in any district the fees of disadvantaged parents paid by the Board. Compulsory Education (1876) enforced elementary school attendance, setting up School Attendance Committees in every district in England and Wales where no school Boards existed. Evening continuation schools were established in 1890, and the vicious system of “payment by results” was abolished. b. Emancipation of Slaves – On August 1, 1834, official slavery was abolished with all children under six years instantaneously liberated, and all unborn children to be born free, c. Factory Legislation and Trade Unions- Lord Althrop’s Factory Act (1833) demanded a ten hours’ day for all workers under twenty-one. Work was prohibited between 8.30pm and 5.30 am to any laborer under 18, as well as work for more than 12 hours a day, and all work by children under nine except in silk mills. In 1847, the Ten Hours Act, went further by limiting the hours of labor for women and children to ten hours per day and in 1890 a significant Bill, the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act prohibited the employment of children under ten (later (1891)) extended to all children under eleven, and made it a misdemeanor to neglect or ill-treat them. In 1891, too, Bills were passed ensuring improved conditions in factories and workshops, and women’s labor was reduced to twelve hours per day with an hour and a half for meals. The “Grand National Consolidated Trades Union” had appeared in 1834 representing a new spectacle: the working classes were becoming independent and forming their own large and powerful associations. Peaceful picketing was permitted in 1871, although certain acts of intimidation, likely to be used by unionists remained heavily punished. Finally, the “Workmen’s Compensation Act” (1897) made employers liable for compensation even though it had been their workmen, not they, who had been guilty of negligence. d. Religious Autonomy/ Equality - In 1833, Quakers, Moravians, and Separatists could enter the House of Commons and substituted affirmation for an oath. In 1868, compulsory Church rates were abolished and Ireland obtained freedom from compulsory allegiance to the Church of England. Incidentally - although, nevertheless, significant - catechism (nor any other distinctive denomination formulary) was not allowed to be taught in any of the Board Schools, whilst theological tests for professors, tutors, fellows, and scholars was abolished (1871). e. Poor Law Reform – The Poor Law Amendment Act was passed in 1834. Poor relief, which had been until now under local administration, was now transferred to central jurisdiction, administered by a body of three Poor law commissioners. All owners and occupiers of taxable property were now represented and representation was in proportion to taxable capability. Although criticized, the Act raised the esteem of the working poor, and introduced the principle of centralization. The “Peel and Free Trade” repealed “for ever of all duties on all articles of subsistence” came as solution to appalling poverty specifically as evidence in the wake of the 1845 failed potato crop in Ireland, and a latter Bill (1870) initially passed for Ireland, guaranteed an evicted tenant basic rights and compensation. Altogether government (e.g. Mr. Balfour in regards to the poverty-stricken West Ireland (1891) and private efforts (for instance General Booth’s “In Darkest England and the Way Out”, and his founding the Salvation Army (1891)) revolutionized the study and the treatment of poverty. The issue was being closely and sympathetically investigated, and solutions were being actively sought and gradually discovered. f. Parliamentary and Municipal Reform- The “Municipal Corporation Act” (1835) endeavored to deal with the corruption of municipal institutions and their magistracy. The new Act vested government to appropriately elected councilors who, in turn, elected mayor and aldermen and controlled all municipal servants. g. Army Reform- Conscription in the Army became voluntary rather than compulsory. Furthermore, purchasing commissions to enable promotions was now prohibited, and the system of permanent reserve was implemented (“The Army Enlistment Act” (1872)). h. Public Health – A body of sincere, disinterested, and determined men established the “General Board of Health” (1848), and attempted to publicize the public filth and insanitation with its attendant evils of disease and aggravated poverty. More substantially, the “Public Health Act” (1875) established a system of local health administration and codified the duties to be placed on the municipalities. Although criticized and not without its shortfalls (some of them egregious indeed), the act was significant in that it made public health a national responsibility. The Significance of the Public Protest in Challenging Authority. The intensity of the public protest could be summed up by Shelley’s ode to the Peterloo Massacre, “Masque of Anarchy”: “Rise like lions after slumber In unvanquishable number. Shackle your chains to earth, like dew, Which in sleep have fallen on you: Ye are many, they are few.” Revolt had produced changes. The power of the corrupt aristocracy had passed to the more socially-involved middle class. The cobwebs of medievalism, an overly powerful aristocracy, and a narrow religious system had been whisked away for greater progressiveness and reform. All classes were starting to be equally represented; the masses were taken into account. England’s greater atmosphere of refinement was shown not only in Acts that persisted in greater humanness to animals (1840) but also in the granting of Old Age Pensions (1903), and in the heretofore unequalled intensity, administrative capacity and disinterest with which it studied the Poor Problem. There had been profound changes in every activity of national life: Sectarianism was being slowly driven out; political power had passed from the privileged aristocracy to the lap of intelligent manual workers; the vulnerable members of the population were beginning to be cared for; elementary education for all was compulsory; public sanitation had become a national issue; Parliament had begun to equally represent the people, whilst factory conditions had significantly improved with working men forming their own Unions. All of these conditions and more must be traced to national agitation for change. Sources Archer, J Social Unrest and Popular Politics in England, 1780-1840, Cambridge University Press, 2000. Ensor, R. England: 1870-1914.Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936. Green, J.R. A Short history of the English People: 1815-1960 (vol. 2). London: Everyman’s Library, 1960 Hall, W. P A History of England and the British Empire, London: Ginn & Co. Lowe, N. Mastering Modern British History, Palgrave Macmillan, Fourth Edition, 2009 Trevelyn, G.M. British History in the 19th Century and After: 1782-1919 London: Longman’s Green, & Co., 1922. Read More