1. THE AGE OF REFORM
Reform means change or improvement - most usually changing the laws to make them fairer

2. glossary
Since Elizabethan times, there had been a system in England of helping those who were sick or who could not find work, as well as poor widows and orphans.

3. glossary
Known as the “Poor Law”, the money for this system came from the householders in each parish. Many people were unhappy with the cost of the system and the way it was run. The New Poor Law, passed in 1834, targeted people who were able-bodied yet unemployed.

4. glossary
Out-of-work labourers were no longer to get relief (money). Instead they were to go to the workhouse, where they would be separated from their families and fed the poorest food. The New Poor Law saved money, but it caused misery to thousands of people.

5. Preston Workhouse
Life in a workhouse was less comfortable than life outside the workhouse. All inmates worked hard and had to follow strict discipline, and families were split up into dormitories for males and female, with husbands and wives, parents and children separated. The work would be dull but compulsory: anyone who refused to work while in a workhouse could be imprisoned. Workhouses were large, built to look like prisons.

6. The author Charles Dickens used his novels to reveal the plight of the poor. He painted a vivid picture of the appalling conditions in workhouses, in factories, and in the slums of London.
Dickens was born in He went to London as a little boy and he had to begin to work when he was ten years because his father was sent to prison for debts. Later on his father inherited some money and the child attended then a school. But after two years he went as an office-boy to an attorney’s and there he got to know the machinery of justice and law which he described later in some of his novels. After some time he got tired of this life and took to reporting.

7. A scene from one of Charles Dickens’ s novels, Oliver Twist
A scene from one of Charles Dickens’ s novels, Oliver Twist. Oliver is famous as the workhouse boy who dared to ask for more food because he was hungry.

8. glossary
For those in work, life was sometimes little better. Conditions in many mines and factories were atrocious, with women and children working long hours with dangerous equipment. Various Factory Acts limited working hours and the age of children being put to work.

9. glossary
But the Acts were largely ineffective until inspectors were employed to check that the news laws were being obeyed. In the late 1830s, unrest over working conditions and the New Poor Law broke out in the north of England.

10. glossary
Out of this unrest grew the movement called Chartism. Chartists believed that the only way towards fairer laws was if more working men had the vote. Until 1832, only wealthy landowners were allowed to vote. In 1832 the Reform Act gave vote to men living in property worth £ 10 per year, about people.
Chartism was a movement between 1837 and They wanted a new voting system. They took their name from their Six Point Charter. In this document they asked the voting in secret for every man twenty-one years of age. Then they wanted non property qualification for members of Parliament, a payment of Members, equal constituencies (securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors). Finally they proposed annual Parliaments.
Of the six points of the original Charter, the only demand which is not in place today is that for annual elections.

11. Feargus O’Connor ( ), a Chartism leader, was dedicated to improving the condition of the working classes in England. He was never a very stable character, and was prone to violent outbursts.

12. glossary
In 1839 a group of Chartists presented the People’s Charter to parliament. It called for the vote for men of 21 years and over, but it was rejected. After 1848, Chartism died out, but parliamentary reform continued. In 1867 the Second Reform Act gave vote to about one in three working men.

13. glossary
The Education Act of 1870 introduced universal elementary; the Trade Union Act of 1871 gave unions legal status and a later Act the right to picket peacefully; the Ballot Act of 1872 made voting secret, putting an end to bribery and intimidation.

14. The Age of Reform is also known as the Victorian Age, so-called because of the sovereign’s name (Victoria ).

15. glossary
It was a very important period, in fact a series of reforms were passed. They improved the conditions of life and work of proletariat, avoiding the risk of a social revolution. It is also true that humanitarianism became a common value among the middle-class. But it was an age in which morality and hypocrisy reigned supreme.

16. ACTIVITY
Work in pairs. One of you is a supporter of the new workhouses, the other is a critic.
Supporter: You are to write a letter to your friend, who is a critic, convincing him or her that the New Poor Law is a good thing.
Critic: You are to write a letter to your pro-Poor Law friend.
Compare your letters and discuss:
Which is the most convincing?
Why do you think it is more convincing than the other one?

17. glossary householder : capofamiglia parish : parrocchia
unemployed : disoccupato
relief : sollievo, soccorsi
workhouse : casa di lavoro
slums : quartieri bassi
mine : miniera
unrest : agitazioni
outburst : scoppio
bribery : corruzione