Pitt to peel dates

Hovering Act - This allowed the Navy to search ships up to four leagues out at sea and was significant in aided the oppression of the smuggling trade.

Commutations Act - Reduced levels of taxation on every-day products. This ensured that smuggling was made more risky and so people were less likely to get a profit out of smuggling in goods. Instead they sold them legally. One huge example of this is tea; it was reduced from 119% tax to 25%.

Bleacher, Printer and Dyers Taxed and annual rate of £2. They didn't pay this because they thought it was ridiculous

Pitt ensures that he has a majority in Parliament with the General Election.

The Sinking Fund - This helped by letting money accumulate in a separate government fund in which they were to put in £1,000,000 per year and let officials guard the fund so as the government could only use it in extreme conditions. This reduced the national debt by £10,000,000 in the first few years. Even though this money wasn't a significant amount, Pitt's main goal was to stimulate the economy by inspiring confidence in the British citizen.

The Triple Alliance - Britain, Prussia and Holland.

French Revolution - resulted in the beginnings of a radical movement in Britain for some sort of reform.
Two famous writings came out of this; one by Burke entitled 'reflections on the French Revolution, the other by Tom Paine called the 'Rights of Man'.
Paine highly encouraged radicalism in Britain and so, in consequence, anti-radical legislation was put into place as a form of eradicating them.

Seditious Writings banned - including that of Tom Paine titled 'Rights of Man'. This also gave the Home Office powers to monitor activities by opening letters. However, with only 25 members, it was difficult for them to fully function effectively.

Suspension of Haebus Corpus - Haebus Corpus was a personal liberty that was a required writing that stated a reason for arrest. This was a success because it meant anybody remotely linked to radicalism could be detained indefinitely and not told the reason behind it. It instilled fear in the population.

Treasonable Practices Act - was a vicious attack on personal liberties. It extended the definition of 'treason' to include speaking and writing, even if no action followed. It attacked public meetings, clubs, and the publication of pamphlets.

Seditious Meetings Act - Any meetings over 50 attendees had to have authorized permission from a local magistrate. They had the authority to disperse any meeting.

Cheap Repository Tracts - was an anti radical form of propaganda. Hannah Moore was the writer and she made out that Tomas Paine was stupid and that radicals didn't know what they were talking about. It made people look at all radicals as the enemy and succeeded in its task of belittling radicalism.

Unlawful Oaths Act - Only one persecution made under this law shows that it wasn't efficient in how it dealt with the radicals.

Realm Act - This enabled the Government to obtain information about how many males were eligible for military service.

Combinations Act - The Combinations Act banned any form of worker organisation including Trade Unions.

Pitt resigns.

• 1801-1803- Liverpool is Foreign Secretary

• 1804-1809- Liverpool is Home Secretary

• 1809-1812- Liverpool is Secretary for war and colonies

Liverpool becomes Prime Minister. So from 1812 to 1822 - defeat in Radicalism; there is a Repressive era and then from 1822-1827 there is a period of the Enlightened Tories.

Luddites - Government sends in agent provocateurs to incriminate activist groups. Government dealt well with these and after all of the radical protest brought in the Six Acts. Radicals not successful in getting what they want; government dealt quickly (Oliver).

War with France ends. The French Revolutionary Wars aided in the destruction of the radical cause as all radicals were branded enemies of the nation, un-patriotic. Not only this but people were more caught up in the war effort and so less likely to catch onto radical ideas.

Corn Law introduced - forbade imported corn. Farmers had started over-producing during the war and so after the war ended they had a surplus of grain and nowhere to sell it. Therefore the price of British grown corn was expensive - poor brought imported grain which was no good to the British economy. It was supported by agricultural sector, not by the industrial sector.

Spa Fields - it was a public meeting in London. Riots and looting broke out. There were more riots after this event in support of the working-class. Again resulted in the creation of the Six Acts.
Income tax removed - most of government income came from taxes and so this lowered the annual income of Britain.

Pentrich Rising - A radical group had been infiltrated and told that if they marched to Nottingham they would receive more support. When they did so, they were met by troops that arrested/executed/deported those to deter other groups form doing the same. This lost government some support as it seemed like the government were making some groups that were not doing any harm do things. Didn't deter other groups.
March of the Blanketeers - They went to march all the way to London to hand a petition to the regent demanding some reform. They were stopped by the Yeomanry. This helped with the creation of the Six Acts

Peterloo Massacre - This was a sort of family outing where there would be radical speakers, military style drilling and stalls. The legal authorities braced themselves, sent out the Yeomanry to arrest Henry Hunt, but when they tried their way was blocked by people who formed a protective circle around Hunt. They killed and forced their way through, but this lost the government a lot of popularity and sympathy for radicalism increased.

Cato Street Conspiracy - this was a plot to kill the cabinet but was infiltrated quickly and the leaders arrested before any real damage could be caused.

There was a failure to pass the bill of Roman Catholic Emancipation.
The Queen Caroline Affair - This was during the coronation of the Prince of Wales. Caroline, who thought she should be Queen tried to force her way into Westminster abbey. She was met outside by troops who would not let her in. At first she had the support of the radicals who believed that if she became Queen then there would be a more radical government. Lord Liverpool was close to getting fired as the Prince of Wales told him to pass a bill denying Caroline of her right to the throne.

Failure to pass the bill on Roman Catholic Emancipation.

The Six 'Gagging' Acts:

• The Training Preventation Act
• The seizure of Arms Act
• The Misdemeanors Act
• The Seditious Meeting Prevention Act
• The Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act
• The Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act

• All meetings causing disobedience banned.

• Meetings over 50 people had to be approved by a magistrate.

• No public meetings allowed whilst Hampden Club disbanned.

• Some groups broke away in confusion because magistrates disallowed debating socieites.

Training Prevention Act- Prohibited military training unless a part of the army. Private training was also forbidden.

Seizure of Arms Act- Magistrates were able to search houses and they could seize arms as well.

Newspaper Stamp Duty Act- Pamphlets and printed materials all subject to a stamp duty. This enabled less networking of radical newspapers or reading materials and reduced circulation.

• Misdemeanours Act- provided for speedier legal machinery so that people could be brought to trial faster.  This reduced the likelihood of bail being obtained by the accused; it also allowed for quicker convictions.  Perhaps this was no bad thing, on either count.
• Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act- fixed the penalties for these activities to fourteen years' transportation.  Magistrates were empowered to seek, seize and confiscate all libellous materials in the possession of the accused.  This piece of legislation was not especially effective because it was never enforced rigorously, and also because of Fox's 1792 Libel Act. Juries were reluctant to convict people on flimsy evidence.

Haebus Corpus was a written statement that was issued to a person wen arrested that explained the reason for arrest and the period of time they would be serving for. This was removed and meant that anyone suspected of radicalism could be detained for however long. This especially led to a decrease in government popularity.

Reciprocity of Duties Act - this changed the Navigation laws and was designed to protect British ships from competition for the Dutch. It stated that goods entering Britain and their colonies had to be carried by British ships or ships from origin. This did more harm as international ports excluded British ships from their ports.

Jail Act - conditions in prisons up until this time were filthy, over-crowded, insanitary and disease-ridden. Jailers were unpaid and had to make their money through fees paid by prisoners. Peel removed worst abuses and jailers were to be paid. Women jailers could only look after women prisoners, for example. Prisoners would also receive an education and be visited often by doctors and chaplains.

The Combinations Act banned any form of worker organisation including Trade Unions. By repealing this, it meant that people could criticise the government by making demands on behalf of the workers.

Failure to pass bill on Roman Catholic Emancipation.

Liverpool resigns due to his ill health.

County Clare by-elections. Daniel O'Conell and the Catholic Association, in order to show how strongly they felt about Emancipation, decided to go for a place in the House of Commons. He wins the election. MP's believe that a civil war would be inevitable, if they didn't grant O'Conell his seat.

Catholic Emancipation
Metropolitan Police Act - Introduction of the police force as we know it today. Peel thought that law and enforcement would work better if there would be an organisation to deter the criminals. At first there were 1000 constables and soon increased to 3000. This resulted in a huge reduction in the crime rates.

In consequence of this, the bill was passed quickly through both the Houses of Lords and Commons. Then Peel forced O'Conell to re-fight for his seat (after Peel raised the voting qualification). O'Conell won again. People were furious with the sneakiness of the government and their popularity fell more.

The Great Reform Act - raised the electorate by 75%. Still only 15% of males in the country could vote. There still was no secret ballot and did disappoint many reformers. It removed some representation of rotten boroughs. It opened the door to more reform. Enfranchised the new middle-class and gave representation to many cities, for example, Sheffield.

Peel becomes Prime Minister for 100 days.

General Election - Tories receive 290 votes and Peel is out of office.

General Election - Tories receive 313 votes.

Triggered by the death of King William IV and produced the first parliament reign of his successor, Queen Victoria.

It saw Robert Peel's Conservative close further on the position of the Whigs who won their fourth election of the decade.

General Election - Tories receive 370 votes. They are back in office with a brand new name and political view: conservatives

Revival in trade.

• Reduced working hours in factories to a maximum of 15.
• Children only had to work half a day working 6 hours so that they could go to school and reduced exploitation and helped children to get an education.

This was very successful; it limited inflation. There were strict controls on banks in order to reduce inflation. It helped economic growth.

• Made it easier to donate money or property to the Catholic Church and it was easier for the Catholic Church to raise money.
• Anglican Church opposed reforms which weakened its position.

• This stopped financial fraud in stocks and shares of companies. There were independent auditing of accounts and led to a confidence in investment.
•  For example, the railway boom and other companies really helped economic growth.
• However, this was not Peel. William Gladstone was behind this.

• Maynooth bill - Peel tried to increase government grant to Maynooth College in order to its facilities and improve the training of Catholic Priests.
• This would ensure that the Catholic Church would work closer to the British government and would be less radical.
• There was a strong opposition to this in Parliament and the general public in Britain.

• Caused a social crisis in Ireland which British government had to deal with.
• The Corn Laws were already a big issue in Britain.
• The famine gave Peel excuse to end them.
• This might allow more cheap food into Ireland.

• Repeal of the Corn Laws
• End of Peel