Another good example of such peripheral influence that the French revolution tended to exert of events in Britain is the Irish problem of the period. The French Revolution had not caused the problem, of it had had noting to do with the tensions between the propertied elite and the impoverished masses, yet it did make a troubled situation worse. The British government feared that Revolutionary ideals would spread to Ireland, and so supported giving concessions to the Catholics. The principles of the French revolution stimulated enough admiration in Ireland to lead the Society of United Irishmen to call for major political reforms for all Irishmen. The failure of these reforms in the face of opposition form the Protestant Ascendancy and the Dissenting majority in Ulster, the United Irishmen turned to Revolutionary France to look for support, both political and military. Although the connection between the radical Irish and the French were never fully co-ordinated, they did heighten tensions within Ireland and produce sectarian warfare. Worried by these events, Westminster urged the Protestant Ascendancy to give up its independent legislative rights and accept a fully incorporating act of union with Britain in1800. The Act of Union altered the size and composition of Parliament, an major historic event in Britain. Again, the French revolution had helped to shape the course of events in Britain, without dictating them.
The party politics of Westminster were also effected by the events in France. Dickinson identifies four significant developments in the period: a rallying behind the government of most of the propertied elite; reduced support for the opposition Whigs; a more marked two-party structure; and a decade of ministerial instability. He argues that all of these trends may well had occurred even had there been no French Revolution, but it is possible to trace importance connections between these constitutional and political changes and the events in France. The popular stance taken by Pitt the Younger in opposing radical reform at home, and eventually abroad too, drew young new politicians to his side. Most rising politicians naturally looked for careers in a party of government rather than with discredited opposition groups. Pitt and his supporters were credited with being the patriotic defenders of the nation and its institutions. Edmund Burke lent his support to their actions and the more conservative Whigs, led by the Duke of Portland, aligned themselves with the government, bringing the great majority of the propertied elite with them. During the period, a sense of intense admiration for the British constitution, coupled with growing fear for its safety in light of events in France, led to the creation and articulation of a conservative ideology of ‘considerable appeal, resilience and intellectual power’. Men in this camp rushed to defend the existing order of natural law, history and prescription, denouncing ideas of universal natural rights and the sovereignty of the people. The ruling oligarchy was strengthened by calls to the nation to unite and rally to the defence of the monarchy and the established church.
The Whig opposition did not fair well in this patriotic climate, and the French Revolution was arguably instrumental in destroying any Whig hopes of Foxite government. Forty years of political exclusion followed for the Whigs. Events in Britain beforehand had certainly played a major part in keeping the Whigs out of office. The complaints that the opposition Whigs had made about the royal prerogative ensured that George III would do everything in his power to keep them out of office. The disastrous Regency crisis had darkened the political horizon for the Whigs, and after this the Whigs suffered from erratic judgement and divided consel, whilst tying themselves too closely to the unpopular Prince of Wales. Yet these problems were greatly worsened by the Whig’s inability to unite in response to the French Revolution and the subsequent wars. The Whigs fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the Revolution in France, and so held back from condemning the terrors of the Revolution. They mistakenly believed that the French wished to establish a constitutional monarchy, similar to the one in England, and when the revolutionaries turned to violence, the Foxites claimed that the absolutist powers of Europe, aided by the reactionary Pitt, were more to blame than the French themselves. The Whigs went on to condemn the war against France, believing it to be unjust and unnecessary. These attitudes continued to be maintained, even in the face of increasing evidence to the contrary, and thus ensured that the Whigs would never command a majority in the House so long as the French threat remained. In their different responses to the French Revolution the Pittites and the Foxites were divided more than in any other recent government and opposition. These differences and setbacks set the Foxite Whigs on a path to further improve party organisation. Similarly, Pitt saw that to put his conservative ideas into effect greater party organisation would be needed to rally his supporters in the House. With the reduction in the King’s patronage and his declining health, this became ever more desirable.
Although Pitt came to dominate for a considerable period, the effect of the French Revolution in creating a large majority in Parliament united in opposition to French principles did not necessarily guarantee a strain administration. After Pitt’s resignation in 1801, Britain underwent a series of five administrations, all of them short-lived. This ministerial instability was a direct result of the French wars. Internal problems played an important role too: the King’s refusal to tolerate Catholic emancipation had much to do with the downfall of Pitt; Perceval’s administration collapsed with his assassination; and, Addington’s ministry suffered from having too many able politicians in opposition. However, the importance of the French Wars in undermining ministerial stability was more likely the key factor in causing such a rapid series of failed governments. In these years the British were disenchanted with government unable to make peace or defeat the French. The short-lived and unsatisfactory Treaty of Amiens, the shift from military disaster to military crisis and the new threat of invasion all alienated public opinion and undermined confidence in ministers. It was this military defeat abroad, rather than any internal failings, that made so many otherwise stable ministries appear so inadequate to the task before them. The fact that Lord Liverpool could establish a stable administration from 1812 onwards, once the military tide had turned, reinforces this theory.
The effect of the French revolution upon the political reform movement in Britain was perhaps the best example a clear reversal in British politics caused by events on the continent. Before the French Revolution their was a strong extra-parliamentary movement for reform, much of it originating from earlier debates on the American Revolution. With the outbreak of the French Revolution, the reform movement was considerably revived after a decline in the mid-1780s. However, soon after this, hostile reactions to the French Revolution created an political environment in which the radical cause was seriously weakened. The conservative reaction, both in Britain and abroad, prompted the swift growth of a militant loyalism. Although most British radicalism was based around more or less established concepts that had much in common with the reform movement of more than a decade earlier, and renounced the use of force as in France, the Revolutionary wars inevitably associated violence with reform in the minds of the public, thereby seriously undermining any chances of success the radicals might have hoped for in the period. The protracted wars and the economic hardship that accompanied them led to the formation of violent radical groups, such as the United Irishman and Luddites, which concerned the British propertied elite and cemented their support for the status quo. The British people, long used to taking pride in their historic liberties and constitution, had an inherent willingness to rally to a patriotic defence of the nation when it seemed threatened by the French. This characteristic led to the formation of a more sophisticated popular conservatism in the 1790s than had occurred in previous wars. The government actively encouraged the establishment of loyalist organisations, and the scale of loyalist activities in the 1790s was without precedent. The furious activity of the loyalist movement, utilising the pamphlet and the pulpit to spread a patriotic message, dwarfed the actions of the radicals The government and the loyalists combined to swamp the radicals and drive their cause off the main political agenda. So effective was this that it was only with the end of the Napoleonic wars, leaving Britain with a huge national debt, severe economic distress, high taxation, political corruption and a large military establishment that the radical cause for parliamentary reform could resurface.
In conclusion, the impact of the French Revolution upon British politics was varied and complex. It encouraged existing trends, prompted reform and hindered it at the same time, as well as placing great strains upon the British nation as a whole. The sheer magnitude of the French Revolution and the Revolutionary wars makes any definitive description of its influence upon British politics impossible, and at best we can hope to speculate upon its role in the major changes in Britain between 1789 and 1815. It is perhaps best to summarise that the French Revolution was largely important in British Politics an all important factor in determining decisions. This is to say that from 1789-1815 British policy was heavily influenced by concerns relating to the French Revolution. The effect of the Revolution was thus more often indirect in nature, creating in Britain a reactionary ethos that was to prevail for more than twenty years. Ultimately, this determination in Britain to continue the war until victory after successive abortive attempts at peace was perhaps the most significant aspect of the Revolution, for not only did it encourage the conservative loyalism that had taken root in British politics, it also shaped the economic, imperial and military future of Britain.
Dickinson Britain and the French Revolution 1789-1815 1989 p5