1. Radical Movements of the early-19th century
& the 1832 Reform Act

2. Format of lecture Part 1: 1789-1815: Radical groups 1789-1815 :
The London Corresponding Society
Luddism
The Role of the Radical Press
Part 2:
Key radicals
Radical groups :
Hampden Clubs
The Society of Spencean Philanthropists
Key events:
The Spa Fields Riots and Response
The Peterloo Massacre and Cato Street
The Six Acts
The Queen Caroline Affair
The Resurgence of Radicalism in the Early 1830s
‘Captain Swing’
Political Unions
Was Revolution Averted?

3. Introduction
‘Although universal suffrage was the prime aim of the vast majority of working class radicals from the 1790s there was never any chance of it being enacted by a nineteenth-century parliament.’
D G Wright, Popular radicalism. The Working Class Experience (Longman, 1991), p. 84
The Reform Acts of 1832, 1867 and 1884 were ‘passed by men who had no belief in the kind of political democracy implicit in universal suffrage and equality of electoral districts and who feared that the introduction of such a system would lead to the tyranny of the illiterate many over the cultured few and of a numerical majority over the interests of minorities.’
Norman Gash, Pillars of Government, 1986, p. 55

4. Part 1:

5. ‘Then raise yr drooping spirits up Nor starve by Pitt’s decree
Fix up the sacred Guillotine
Proclaim- French Liberty!’
Tewkesbury Bread Riots, 1795,

6. Radical groups 1789-1815 The London Corresponding Society Demands:
Manhood suffrage (based on Paine and the Natural Rights of Man) – but with limitations, as we’ll see
Annual Parliaments
Redistribution of Parliamentary seats
Numbers:
Hard-core activists - about 650 in 1792, about 1,500 in 1795
members in each division, sending a delegate to a national committee – a membership of 5,000 was claimed by the LCS

7. Luddites
Who were they?
Framework knitters in Nottingham
Handloom weavers in South Lancashire
Croppers (shear workers) in West Yorkshire
What motivated them?
Hostility to powered machinery
…or a more complex set of grievances including the feeling of being excluded from the process of government?

8. The Role of the Radical Press

9. Part 2: 1815-1832 Part 2: 1815-1832 Key Radicals: Sir Francis Burdett
Major John Cartwright
William Cobbett
Henry Hunt
Thomas Spence
Francis Place
Burdett
Cartwright
Hunt
Spence
Cobbett
Place

10. Radical groups :
Hampden Clubs
The Society of Spencean Philanthropists
Birmingham Political Union
National Political Union
Other political unions in the provinces

11. The Spa Fields Riots
Contemporary cartoon of the Spa Fields Riots

12. The Peterloo Massacre
‘Thou was covered with anger and persecuted us.
Thou has slain us and hast not pitied us.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel.’

13. The Cato Street Conspiracy

14. The Six Acts
The Training Prevention Act, (or Unlawful Drilling Act) this made any person attending a meeting for the purpose of receiving training or drill in weapons liable to arrest and transportation. Military training of any sort was to be conducted only by municipal bodies and above.
The Seizure of Arms Act gave local magistrates the powers to search any private property for weapons in counties where there had been disturbances, seize them and arrest the owners.
The Misdemeanors Act aimed to increase the speed of the administration of justice by reducing the opportunities for bail and allowing for speedier court processing.
The Seditious Meetings Prevention Act required the permission of a sheriff or magistrate to convene a public meeting of more than 50 people if the subject of that meeting was concerned with "church or state" matters.
The Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act (or Criminal Libel Act) increased the maximum sentence to fourteen years transportation for authors of publications deemed to be seditious.
The Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act extended and increased taxes to cover publications which had escaped duty by publishing opinion and not news.

15. The Queen Caroline Affair

16. ‘Captain Swing’ and the Swing Riots

17. Was revolution averted with the passing of the 1832 Reform Act?