By Judi Gebhard
To what extent can the Tory party be responsible for its collapse in 1830?
Before 1830 the Tory party had been in government for nearly 50 years and had seemed to have everything under control up till 1815, between 1815 and 1830 the government faced many problems and made many changes but by 1830, the party collapsed. There is major debate to what caused the break down. I am going to look at the events leading up to the parties collapse to find out to what extent the Tory party was responsible for its collapse.
When the Napoleonic wars came to an end in 1815, it would seemed good news, but it was quite the opposite as the after affects of the wars were left on Britain. Leaving major unemployment, huge money problems and therefore major discontent across British society, this was not helped by the advance in technology and the harsh attitude of the government.
The British public acted upon their disconnect between 1815 and 1820 with mass demonstrations. Examples of their outbreaks of discontent include the Spa field meetings 1816 and The Blanketeers in 1817. This was the start of the problems for the Tories.
In 1822 The Tory government realised action was critical and with out it there was the huge threat of reform. In the early 1820s the Tories had a change of personnel. After the suicide of Viscount Castlereagh the foreign secretary and the leader of the House of Commons in 1822, his positions needed replacing, George Canning took his place as the Foreign secretary and Sir Robert Peel became the leader of the House of Commons. Other changes were within the positions of Chancellor of the Exchequer and President of the board of Trade. The new members of the cabinet were younger, more in touch with the new merchant classes and were not as ultra as the previous members. This may have been one of the first problems the Tories had created for themselves. The new members of the team were going to be more liberal, unlike the existing members and therefore could create conflict within the party. But without the introduction of these new members the party may have faced reform as the British public was not very happy and showing signs of forceful response.
