By 1831, even the most anti-reformist of opponents were beginning to relate to the opinion of the Whigs, that reform may be necessary. This can be seen when the Duke of Wellington attempted to form a Tory government in May 1832 pledging to parliamentary reform, but this was too little to late. Peel refused, because he did not want to draw back on his previous policies, so refused office. In April 1831 William IV agreed to dissolve parliament, and have a general on the issue of reform. Since at this time, this would prevent revolution by providing a vent for the stress in the country. The Whigs won the election with a huge majority of around 130, it seemed that the Reform Bill would pass easily through parliament. Though, the opposition in the Lords would be just as determined.
In October 1831, the House of Lords started to debate on the second reading of the Bill. The Birmingham Political Union (BPU) held a meeting on the same day, which was attended by a huge number of people, giving the BPU huge amounts of support for their cause and showing further to the government that the need for reform was immense. Furthermore, about 100 petitions were presented to the Lords in favour of the Bill adding further to the power of popular pressure. In spite of the widespread support for the Bill, it was defeated in the House of Lords by 41 votes on the 8th October. This led to much widespread violence because the people simply did not understand why the bill had been defeated. Of course, it was due to the lords not wanting to lose their hold on power in parliament. The riots took place in constituencies, which did not have a Political Union to speak for them. There was rioting in Derby and Bath and at the end of October there were huge which claimed about 400 casualties. This gave the Whigs yet more just cause to push the bill further.
The Industrial Revolution, had led to growth of the middle classes; this had contributed to the boost in the economy. But, the middle classes were still unrepresented in parliament, although they were gradually becoming more aware of their situation and the unjust system. Parliament was still being dominated by the wealthy landowners and aristocrats who were consumed in there own interests of furthering the businesses. The industrial revolution, had also created the urban working class, of which were also unrepresented. These two classes were in the majority so were very powerful under popular pressure. Furthermore, criticism of the regime had an economic motive in 1830, there was crisis due to crop failure, this led to unemployment and inflation in Britain. The people had a problem; they were unable to be voiced in parliament, as the wrong sections of society had the majority of the vote. The economic situation, pro-reformists argued was to blame on the unequal system not listening to the people, this further added to the popular pressure movement
In conclusion, it was not unlikely that the Whigs through political self interest, saw the reform as a suitable way of regaining power from the Tories. Regardless of this, the Reform Bill was introduced at the time because of the large amount of popular pressure in its favour, so protest from the country soon made it impracticable for the Whigs to drop the Bill. The Whigs' relentlessness for pushing the Reform Bill was due to the fear that, if they didn’t ‘satisfy the people’ a revolution would occur. The influence exerted by the Political Unions such as the BPU in ensuring that the Whigs supported the Reform Bill in 1831, was far greater than the influence they had in 1832 in preventing Wellington from forming a Tory government. Further adding to the Tory failure was Wellington's unsuccessful attempt at forming a government due to Peel's refusal to serve in a parliament. This allowed the Whigs to push through the reform bill , pleasing the people and allowing them a hold on power. Ultimately, without the pressure from the country the Reform Bill would not have been passed, but in the end it was the actual parliament itself, which had to reform of its own volition in order to prevent a mass revolution.
Bibliography
- Handout, “Was Britain on the brink of revolution in the years 1830 to 1832”
- Handout, “The great reform act: causes”
- Government and reform Britain 1815-1918 Pearce and Stern
- A3 Blue Handout Sheet – Political writers
- Handout , Annette Mayer – The Growth of Democracy in Britain (1999)
- “External and Internal Challenges 1780-1868”