How liberal was Russell's administration of 1846-152?

How liberal was Russell’s administration of 1846-152?

The liberals believed that change was essential to preserve the importance of the political system. This showed they were accepted reform, a lot more than the conservatives. This however was slightly limited to the beliefs of the Whigs. The liberals also believed in free trade, as did the Whigs and therefore were in favor of disposing of the Corn Laws. They had open attitudes to the allowing the middle class into the framework, and hence worked on the franchise. The middle class was the liberals target vote and so they were also in favor of a cheap government, remaining keen on low taxes due to their economic policies. They had a respect for the rights of the ordinary Englishman. Also taking into account their laissez-faire approach, less emphasis on the role of the government. The liberals saw the political system superior to those of the European countries and the democratic excess of USA. In addition they wanted a restriction on the monarchs use of power and similarly they put less emphasis on the importance of the Church of England, and felt that religion did not matter; they had sympathy towards the nonconformist denominations, valuing equality.

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The Whigs passed the Great Reform Act in 1832; It extended franchise and in the process removed a large amount of the rotten boroughs, making the political system slightly less corrupt. This had quite a big impact, which also leads to the repeal of the Corn Laws, both Liberals and Whigs were for those acts. Another liberal impact was the Factory Reform Act, which meant the men and women factory workers could only work 10 hours a day, following Earl Grey’s act in 1850 which meant if they disobeyed they act they would be punished. This act was anticipated before the protest of the amount of work, which indicated the liberals were looking out for the middle class. They also introduced the Sugar Act in 1848, which removed the trading privileges of British West Indies. Russell’s ministry also repealed the Navigation Laws in 1849, allowing overseas traders to use any ships they wanted to transport goods abroad and not restricted to the British Merchant Navy. Another act they introduced, was the Public Health Act in 1848, which allowed no open sewers. Russell’s ministry supported religious freedom; however did little in the form of improving the funding of the nonconformist religions. Russell also attempts to reform Ireland by improving the electoral system, which increases the number of people who can vote from 4,000 to 163,000, and also showing his support for religious freedom by setting up the non-demonical university.

However during the time of Russell’s ministry there was no political reform. The religious census illustrated that half of church attendance was to the nonconformist churches, and Russell’s ministry made no effort to reform this. Also along these lines Russell introduced the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, which prevented English Roman Catholics bishops from taking up titles with the same name as their Church of England counterparts. This bill however failed but does not diminish the fact that Russell’s ministry was less liberal than it claimed to be.

An important fact to take into account was that Russell referred to himself as Whig indicating that his actions had some conservative tendencies to them. The Great Reform act although very significant to the liberal party was not actually Russell’s doing, it was his idea which had been quite radical for a Whig but it was Earl Grey who passed it.

Russell also faced Chartism, although the problem solved itself, there had been a genuine fear that this would be the start of the revolution upholding Russell’s belief in not giving the people what they want but what is good for them. This indicating that perhaps Russell’s ministry was not as supportive of the middle class rights as it gives the impression.

The ministry however was in a minority, this meant that Russell not only had to take into account the middle class etc but also had to please the Peelite party, who were the deciding factor of whether the government was Whig or Conservative. Due to the fact that in essence the Peelites were mostly Conservatives except for their beliefs on free trade, this was quite a challenge. Therefore Russell’s ministry could not be too liberal otherwise it would have been voted out of power.

There was also the Radicals and Queen Victoria. Bills still had to be passed through the Queen and she overly participated through this rule. Queen Victoria felt that Russell’s ministry was doing far too much in the way of reform, while the Radicals felt enough was not being done. Being torn between them Russell had to compromise any liberal ideas he may have had due to the Queen’s power and pressure for less reform.

Russell’s ministry did not propose any changes to the country; there was no reform of the civil service or the army. The public health act although a liberal measure, was not all that useful and had been Chadwick’s idea, not Russell’s. Most of the Liberal acts had been done earlier in 1932, like the Great Reform Act and the Corn laws. Since these were such major Liberal acts, the Conservatives probably would not have tolerated another.

20 years later Russell formed another government, this was much more liberal. The government at the time was much more liberal for its time, in comparison to the second one. Many Liberal occurrences happened however; these were not all to do with the Russell, and more to do with the demands of the people

Consequently in conclusion, for the time it was the most liberal government, however in comparison to the later Liberal government, it was hardly liberal. Russell had many factors to consider, like what was good for the people at them time, as they weren’t as educated 20 years later in the later Liberal government. Also there was the Queen who was a deciding factor in how liberal Russell’s ministry could go.

Aditya Patel