Richard Gaunt
Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham
In the wake of the French Revolution of 1789, a wide-ranging debate about the nature of Britain’s political institutions began. William Cobbett summarised the case for change when he described ‘The Thing’ – a system which was closed, self-regulating, and subject to corruption. During the 1790s, corresponding societies were formed, drawing upon a diverse membership, which campaigned for the overhauling of established institutions, particularly the monarchy and parliament. The achievement of parliamentary reform in 1832 did not satisfy these concerns. Reformers had anticipated that an extended franchise would purify the political system, enabling wider changes. The disappointment of those hopes led to the Chartist movement (1838–48) and the Anti-Corn Law League (1838–46), which combined political demands for reform with moral denunciation of Britain’s governing institutions. Campaigners sought wide-ranging changes to major institutions, including the universities, the army, and the courts, while others sought the disestablishment of the Church of England, a decrease in the powers of the monarchy, and the reform – or abolition – of the House of Lords.
Gladstone’s first ministry (1868–74) passed a series of notable reforms in these areas. The army and the civil service were opened to promotion by merit rather than by influence, purchasing military commissions in the army was abolished, and civil service posts were opened to entrance by examination. Meanwhile, the higher court system was completely reorganised in the Judicature Acts (1873, 1875). Later Conservative governments were not opposed to reform. Lord Salisbury established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales through the Local Government Act (1888). Gladstone took this further, in the 1894 Local Government Act, by establishing elected parish and district councils. The political crisis which followed the rejection of the ‘People’s Budget’ by the House of Lords in 1909 led to further changes. Asquith’s Liberal government passed the Parliament Act of 1911, which removed the Lords’ power to reject money bills and replaced its veto over other public bills with the power of delay. Meanwhile, the government’s Welsh Church Act of 1914 disestablished the Church of England in Wales. Gladstone had disestablished the Church of Ireland in 1869.
This Routledge Historical Resource includes a wide range of primary sources and secondary literature which examine the key institutions of Britain in the long nineteenth century. Tom Crook’s essay ‘Corruption and the morality of public life’ provides an excellent introduction to the issue of institutional reform, while Ben Griffin’s essay examines the crucial relationship between ‘Monarchs, prime ministers, and cabinets’. Richard A. Chapman’s The Civil Service Commission 1855–1991 explores the importance of the period after 1850. Among primary sources, the wide-ranging material in three collections – The London Corresponding Society, 1792–1799, William Cobbett: Selected Writings, and The Chartist Movement in Britain, 1838–1856 – shows the persistence of attacks on parliament and the monarchy. An alternative perspective can be found in Memoirs of the Court of George III.