HCJ Lecture Three Cobbett

A tale of two revolutions and two perspectives-Urban (Dickens) and Rural (Cobbett). The United Kingdom did very well out of the French Revolution-although during the period of the Napoleonic War, it was very expensive and income tax was created in 1799 to pay for the war effort. British Naval power was absolute, and the blockades of the French ports destroyed French trade and created a boom for British exports-to such an extent that British manufacturers were actually clothing the French Army. Textiles made up 60% of exports and coal output doubled between 1750 and 1800.

Manchester went from 17,000 to 180,000 people from 1760-1830. The city was seen as revolutionary and it was something that had never before been seen.
The end of the war meant the end of the boom, and this caused widespread unemployment and a steep fall in wages. In response to this, the government brought in the Corn Laws which put a tariff on imported grains. Conditions in towns and cities were dire-most people lived in slums and Cholera was common. The policy of brutal repression on any sort of dissent and strict penal penalties was effective in the short term. The Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819 saw cavalry charge a crowd of 60,000 demanding parliamentary reform, in which 11 people died.
The protesters demanded that growing industrial towns of Britain should have the right to elect MPs. Less than 2% of the population had the vote at the time, and resentment was sharpened by "rotten boroughs" such as the village Old Sarum which had 11 voters and two MPs. Manchester and Leeds however, had none.

The poor were looked after by the Speenhamland system. The new Poor Law Act of 1834 stated that no able-bodied person was to receive money or other help from the Poor Law authorities except in a workhouse.
Bentham argued that people did what was pleasant and would not do what was unpleasant-so that if people were not to claim relief, it had to be unpleasant. This was the core of the argument for "stigmatising" relief-making it (in the happy phrase of the time) "an object of wholesome horror". The Act moreorless criminlaised the poor.

Ireland (Act of Union 1801)

• Duke of Wellington passed Catholic Emancipation in 1829 due to the threat of an irish uprising after Daniel O'Connell was elected MP for County Clare in 1828.
• Famine: Between 1845-1850, more than one million died of malnutrition and two million emigrated.
• During the years of the Famine, Ireland was a net exporter of food. Armed troops escorted the crops to the ports in order to export to England. The export of livestock actually increased during the famine years.

Cobbett himself was an anti-radical who became a radical-what changed him was the plight of farm workers in the early 19th century. He thought that rapid industrialisation was going to destroy traditional ways of life. He spent about 20 years abroad, mainly in The United States and France in the army but when he returned he was shocked by the state of the countryside. Farm workers were reduced to "walking skeletons". Cobbett has no time for the government that taxed the farmers, or the army who he says are free loaders, or for the church. He was nearing 60-years-old when he started "Rural Rides" and he wrote the political register which was read by the working class. Finally, a tax on newspapers led Cobbett to publish the Political Register as a pamphlet-which had a circulation of 40,000.