Page 29 - History 2020

after his fall, many demanded reform of parliament. But the French Revolution

(1789) and resulting wars put reform in England on hold until 1815.

After 1815, demands for reform revived, fueled by post-war economic dislocation
and discontent. Soldiers returned from the wars to unemployment. Food prices were
high. In rural areas there were violent disturbances in rural areas (said to be
organized by a mythical “Captain Swing” (“Revenge for thee is on the wing, from thy
detested Captain Swing”). Even the estate of liberal-minded landowner the Duke of
Richmond at Goodwood suffered Swing attacks. In industrial areas there were attacks

on factories by displaced hand-loom weavers put out of work by factory machines
(their leader was an equally mythical “Ned Ludd”). In Manchester, crowds attending a
peaceful demonstration for extending the vote were cut down and trampled by the
yeomanry at St Peter’s Fields in 1819 (scornfully called “the Peterloo Massacre”). The
Cato Street Conspiracy saw an assassination plot against the whole Tory cabinet.
Repression followed. Reform seemed as far off as ever.

The catalyst for reform came, surprisingly, over religion. The Irish had agreed to the
Act of Union (1800) bringing the country under the Westminster parliament. In
return the Irish were promised the removal of all anti-Catholic restrictions, including
the right to sit in the Westminster parliament as an MP. The promise was
immediately broken; King George III point-blank refused, saying it violated his
coronation oath; and it was dropped. But in the 1820’s a mass campaign was led by
Irish leader Daniel O’Connor who twice got himself elected to parliament even
though as a Catholic he couldn’t take up his seat. Protests grew, and Tory Prime

Minister the Duke of Wellington concluded that Ireland would become ungovernable
unless it was granted. A Catholic Emancipation Act was duly passed in 1829. But this
divided the Tories.

When in a speech in parliament Wellington set his face against any reform of
parliament whatsoever, disorder immediately broke out on the streets of London.

Wellington then lost a parliamentary vote and resigned. The Whigs took office,
ending four decades of virtually uninterrupted Tory rule. The new Whig prime
minister, Earl Grey*, was a respected veteran of the pre-1789 parliamentary reform
movement. Tall, commanding and dignified, with once dark curly hair, now an
impressive dome, Grey was a little vain and enjoyed the flattery of women. He now
decided it was time to revive the reformism of his youth.

*Earl Grey tea is presumed to be named after a gift of tea he received flavoured with oil of
bergamot. Grey died in 1845. A Grey’s tea was known in the 1850’s. An Earl Grey tea is in adverts of
the 1880’s. The Grey family say it was made to offset the taste of lime in the water at their stately
home in Northumberland. Twinings say it was gift from a Chinese mandarin whose son was saved