The major act of the education reform programme was Forster’s education act of 1870. This act laid the foundations of the English education system; the ‘dual system’ was created where either Church schools or state schools provided education. Anglican and Nonconformist schools continued with increased grants, and boards were set up to control state schools. Attendance was neither compulsory nor free except if the boards paid for the poor children. It is well to set up this ‘free’ education but did this have an impact? Did the poor send their children to schools?
As attendance was not compulsory parents may have preferred to send their children to work illegally to get a little extra money. The number of children attending schools did double between 1870-80, but this was still not the whole child population. This reform did pave the way for further educational reforms, and the dual system still, somewhat, exists today.
This legislative reform did not improve conditions for the working class directly or quickly, but they did give them something that would help to improve their conditions in the future. This act did though cause many problems; Gladstone did not manage to stay within the fine lines created by the pressure groups. He did in fact make a total mess of it as he managed to upset virtually everyone, in trying to please all of the pressure groups he did in fact please none. Another major reform of the Gladstone ministry was his trade union reform of 1871. In this area there was a different pressure group Gladstone had to contend with, the New Model 4Jnions who wanted legal protection for trade unions. They got this in the trade union act, where the trade unions were recognised as legal bodies; the working class were ecstatic. This would have improved working conditions greatly, had there not been a second measure, this took away virtually all power from the trade unionists. The criminal law amendment act forbade violence in strikes and made picketing illegal. This originates from Gladstone’s religious views and how he is against the use of force to sway opinions. This amendment act cancelled out the trade union act as without picketing they had little power. The working class were furious; their chance of decent working conditions was ripped away from them. Having done this Gladstone unsurprisingly lost the majority of his working class support.
The public health act of 1872 was probably the reform most directly linked to the question. Public health was in desperate need of great improval at the start of the 19th century, many Prime Ministers tried to tackle these problems but few succeeded. Gladstone was one of these, he attempted to solve the problems but his act was another failure. He established Urban and Rural sanitary authorities that were responsible for public health in local authorities. This had followed the findings of the Royal commission on sanitary matters, and the ideas were good in principle. When put in practice though the duties of the health boards were unclear, and they were reluctant to spend for any radical health reform. This act was a failure and did little to improve conditions for the working classes.
There were many other domestic reforms that were not directly made to improve working class conditions but did so indirectly. In the mid 19th Century ‘widespread drunkenness’ was a feature of Britain. With Gladstone’s moral issues he was unhappy about this. The licensing act of 1872 was a toned down version of the first proposed act but was still unpopular with the working classes with brewers. It limited opening times, introduced licenses and the adulteration of beer was forbidden. Although the working classes were furious at Gladstone and the liberals,
and that this led to their downfall, this act did go far to improving their conditions.
A reform that did not improve working class conditions physically, but perhaps did mentally, was the electoral reform. The ballot act introduced one of the Chartist’s six points, secret voting. This meant that they could vote for whom they wanted, as they could no longer be pressurised by their landlords. This was of course unpopular with landlords and employers, but did give the poor some freedom.
The civil service reform was designed to help the working class by making it easier for them to get a job in the civil service. Before this getting a job was down to whom they knew rather than what they knew. Appointments were now to be made by public examination. This though did not really help the working classes at all; they were not as yet educated and had no chance in competing with the upper classes.
In this, Gladstone’s first ministry as leader of the liberal party, he brought in many domestic reforms in an attempt to improve conditions for the working classes. He was faced with many pressure groups that he had to please. In his reforms we can see how they were shaped to please everyone but however he managed to neither please few of these pressure groups nor make any major improvements for the conditions of the working class.
Some of his reforms, such as the education reform and the public health acts, laid the foundations for further reforms and did further down the line improve conditions for the lower classes. They were, however, in the short term not that influential, due to the pressure groups Gladstone had to please; this led to him introducing halfhearted reforms. Other reforms like the licensing act did help the working class indirectly, but only in a small way. His trade union reform was pointless as he gave the trade unions power and then took it straight back, not benefiting the working class at all.
Many historians, including E.J. Feuchtwanger believe that,
“In terms of legislative achievement the government was to become one of the greatest of the 19th Century.” I, however, totally disagree with this. Although Gladstone did introduce many reforms they were neither far-reaching nor influential. It was an attack on the privileged and did allow further reforms to be introduced in the future to help the working class. At that time, however, they did not do much to improve conditions for the working class.
