Books Bundaberg's Beginnings Chapter 16

Part Five Around the World in a Rather Short Time

Chapter 16

England

Not so merry

The acquisition of new scientific knowledge in the eighteenth century, most notably in the areas of mechanics and of thermodynamics, was soon to produce dramatic results, particularly in England where economic and industrial thinking was to be heavily influenced by the works of such intellectuals as Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and his major work The Wealth of Nations (1776); and of Jeremy Bentham, Fragment on Government (1776) and his, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation . In 1797 Sir James Pulteney M.P. was to observe, quite correctly, that Smith’s work, “would persuade the current generation and govern the next” (J. Steven Watson).

The 18th century transition from feudal to industrial England did little to improve the conditions of the ordinary worker; however it did result in a significant increase of the general population. Depopulation of the rural areas of England, as a consequence of the agricultural revolution, had commenced during the Tudor period and, by Elizabethan times, the small capacity iron puddling furnaces were giving way to the much larger capacity blast furnaces needed to manufacture the military equipment of the age such as ship’s cannon. The preconditions for the industrial revolution were evolving.

Harsh working conditions, such as long hours, an unhygienic working and living environment and child-labour, prevalent under the landlord based feudal system, were to carry on into the industrial age whilst in industry working hours were heavily influenced by the need to keep expensive plant and equipment in operation. However there was greater opportunity for employment of men, women and also children in the ever expanding number of factories and, in most cases, the mill owners could pay higher wages than could the landed gentry. A rising middle class of industrialists, together with its business associates, was prospering and gaining ascendancy over those who relied upon land based wealth.

In earlier times, and even into the 19th century, mills were constructed to service the local populations. These early industrial mills were typically small in nature, powered by water-wheels and were utilised in such applications as the spinning of thread. These mills were to evolve into the much larger, steam-powered factories whose high chimneys, necessary to provide the strong updraft required by the industrial equipment, provided a lasting visual and mental image of the Industrial Revolution. By the mid 1700’s material such as smelted brass was being converted into consumer products in factories that also provided worker accommodation.

The latter half of the 18th century England, driven largely by the application of the new scientific discoveries and by the advent of coal based steam power, experienced a veritable explosion in the application of inventions which were to have nation altering consequences. Industrial evolution also had its effect as, for example, the techniques necessary to produce barrels capable of giving accurate and reliable cannon fire could also be applied to the manufacture of cylinders for the assembly of effective and economical steam engines.

Over this period the rapid development of entirely new processes, and of equipment with the capacity to provide quality mass production in items of a highly tradable nature, occurred in such areas as:

In his widely read and influential publications Adam Smith, amongst other matters, postulated that governments should cease to impose restrictions on industry and commerce and leave individuals free to seek their own profit and that this private profit would then result in public wealth. The highly successful application of Smith’s dictates to the industrial and commercial scene in England was owed, at least in part, to the stable conditions in the country at the time, and to the country’s predictable business environment consequent upon the wide adoption of the Protestant business ethic. Without the general acceptance and implementation of such ethics in a relatively stable environment it is possible that the truly dramatic effects obtained by following Smith’s recommendations could not have been achieved.

Rapid industrial development, in combination with the low level of government regulation in the new industries then largely devoid of parliamentary interference, provided the perfect environment for Britain’s rapid expansion of influence and was to result in its becoming the world’s greatest industrial power.

By the early 1800’s there had evolved organisations, such as the Luddites who were totally opposed to industrialisation and who were prepared to go so far as to destroy factories and industrial equipment. They were reacting to the swift transition to industrialisation that was replacing the crafts, particularly in the weaving industries. Here an unskilled worker using dedicated machinery was considerably more productive than a qualified weaver. The Luddites (presumably named after a folklore character named Ned Ludd) began their attacks on the industrial infrastructure as early as 1811.

By the early 1800’s the supply of raw cotton, and hence the export of the finished cotton fabric, exceeded the more restricted supply of raw wool. In 1803 Captain Macarthur delivered a report advocating sheep production in Australia. His advice was acted upon and his assessment proved to be correct. However it was not until the cessation of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 that supplies from this source arrived in quantity. The English manufacturers and merchants now had access to large supplies of both raw cotton and raw wool.

The government was becoming concerned with the rising popularity of the various reactionary groups and used the militia and the army to protect vulnerable industrial infrastructure. Activists who were captured were hung or, if more fortunate, received lifetime transportation. In a similar vein agitators of the early 1830’s who sacked a factory at Fordingham and wrecked its machinery, and others who destroyed the poor house at Headley, were executed following their trials at the assizes. These were not isolated incidents.

Jeffrey, in The Edinburgh Review , when describing the political situation of the 1820’s commented that, “There are two parties in the nation the Tories, who are almost for tyranny, and the Democrats who are almost for rebellion.” ( The Decade of Reform - The 1830s by Alexander Llewellyn) The Whigs stood somewhere between these two extremes.

A liberal member of Parliament, Mr. E. G. Wakefield, in 1831 was to remark that “An English labourer and an English pauper, those words are synonymous. … he pilfers when occasion offers and teaches his children to lie and steal. … He is depraved through and through, too far gone to possess even the strength of despair.” (Llewellyn) While the traditional disparity in wealth between the landed gentry and the labourers under the old feudal system had been accepted for so long as to be taken largely for granted, the accumulation of wealth by the recently rich industrial class was a new phenomenon, and highly observable.

The prosperity of the successful mill owners enabled them to obtain very palatial residences for themselves and their families but the same could not be said for the factory workers. Most workers, having little control over their economic circumstances, were forced to live in small, cramped and often damp accommodation with open sewers and shared toilet facilities.

Due to these conditions often fatal diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera and smallpox were prevalent. In addition to the unsatisfactory housing, chronic hunger, nutritional deficiencies and malnutrition were common. The resultant climate of discontent created an environment readily receptive to reform. Despite all of this the population of England rose from about 8.3 million peoples in 1801 to 16.8 million in 1851.

Children of the early Industrial Revolution had a very limited opportunity to obtain an education and, because child wages were very much less than adult wages and as their labour was just as productive as those of an adult when working machinery, they obtained preferential employment. As the evolving industrial processes were totally new no worker – adult or child – had experience in factory production and hence adults had no latent advantage over the children as to the possession of employable skills. Work houses could sell orphans or abandoned children to masters who could, in turn, force the children to work for board and lodging only. If these children ran away they could be whipped and returned to their masters.

Children as young as four years old could be employed, and the daily working time could exceed twelve hours. Children’s wages were typically between ten and twenty per cent of adult wages. In many cases dangerous work conditions prevailed as safety procedures were primitive or non-existent and tired or dosing children could fall victim to unshielded heavy machinery, mining trolleys or to toxic industrial fumes. Under these conditions deaths and serious injuries were common. However, despite these unacceptable conditions, the survival of children beyond the age of five years increased from approximately twenty-five per cent in 1740 to over seventy per cent by 1820.

Partially as a result of long standing settlement laws surplus labour in the south of England had no ready access to work opportunities in the north and a disparity in labour demand between the north and south, with the accompanying disparity in wage payments, was the result. It followed that industrial areas in the north such as Lancashire, prior to railway construction, had to draw workers from the local countryside. This workforce would be supplemented by labourers from nearby Ireland as required. To compound the problem industrial centres in the north, as well as creating a demand for labour, also required increasing amounts of farm produce. This was no help to the inhabitants of such south-western shires as Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire where weekly wages were 10 shillings or less, compared with those in Lancashire which could be as much as 14 shillings, and as a result the discontent and revolutionary tendencies were first to evolve in the southern areas.

A consequence of this was that, by 1830, lawlessness was rife particularly in the south and south-west of the country. The creation of an enclosure* of 2,000 acres in Oxfordshire was the catalyst for serious disturbance and the Prime Minister of the time, the Duke of Wellington, ordered the deployment of two regiments to the area. Prisoners were taken but released by the crowd at St Giles fair. Rioting was to spread and the nocturnal burning of hayricks became a common tactic. Attempts to deter these activities included the public hanging of three offenders in Somerset, each hung offender bearing the notice, ‘For Firing Stacks’.

[NOTE: Enclosure – the conversion of common land or open fields into areas fenced off – or enclosed – for the use of a specific owner]

In the more eastern areas of Kent and Sussex wage demands were often presented by Methodist preachers and violence was more measured and contained. Where applied it was invariably against people that the agitators strongly disliked, usually parsons, tithe men or overseers. The last mentioned could sometimes expect to be ousted from their parish in a vehicle such as a muck-cart or, if more fortunate, a wheelbarrow.

The workers’ revolts of the early 1830’s in the south and in the west of the country were precipitated as much by antagonism towards the tithe* collecting clerics as by hostility to the landlords. The anti-clerical attitude was widespread often to the extent of giving common cause to both labourer and farmer. At Selbourne the local vicar was so terrified by a hostile mob that he signed away one-half of his tithe. The Bishop’s palace in Bristol was burnt down; the Bishop of Bath and Wells retired to Torquay, and the Bishop of London went into seclusion when the House of Lords rejected the first Reform Bill . This rejection was largely in response to the widely held establishment view that the primary purpose of the official church was to compliment the work of the civil government by toughening the fabric of society.

[NOTE: tithe – Literally one-tenth: a proportion of the annual agricultural income collected as a compulsory levy from the local congregation for the maintenance and other requirements of the official church] The formation of new non-conformist movements was taking place, a notable event being the branching off of the Methodist movement from the Church of England, with the acquisition of many adherents. On the other hand the Oxford movement favoured the return to a religious observation in line with pre-reformation practice and became referred to as the ‘High Church’. As industry prospered so too did the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists. In the half century following the year 1800 Methodist chapels expanded in number from 825 to 11,000, and Methodism had obtained as adherents an eighth of the population. However, as it was the Methodists who were providing the working class with organization and training, their social standing was lower than that of other non-conformists and their movement had little appeal to such as the more established dissenters such as the Calvinists. Notwithstanding all of the above the Methodists were probably the most conservative of the dissenters as they did not wish to attack the Church of England establishment from which they had sprung.

In the party political arena, whilst traditional Wiggery had been a prominent defender of the Protestant ascendancy, by 1835 there was an influential group of Whigs led by Lord Russell, who were sympathetic to the anti-clerical atmosphere that was then prevalent and who stood for alienating the property of the church.

On the other hand the Tories were beginning to appear as defenders of the Anglican Church against the Dissenters and Catholics. Hence defence of the church became part of the Tories’ platform which also included a proposal for protection of the landed interests.

The Whigs made an unsuccessful attempt to introduce legislation reforming the established church in Ireland, where perceived abuses were the most prevalent, and where opposition to the collection of the tithe had resulted in murders and other acts of violence towards the clergy of the establishment. As well as Sir Robert Peel’s opposition in Parliament to Russell’s legislation it was also opposed by people who genuinely believed that the church was more than an institution that could be reformed by legislation as its government, liturgy and dogma was directed by divine inspiration. The bill was dropped in the House of Lords with Lord Russell remarking that, “This country could not stand a revolution once a year.” (Llewellyn)

From 1830 and up to the signing of the Reform Bill in 1832 there were many indications of an imminent revolt. By 1831 this mood for revolt had spread to the agricultural areas in the midlands and crowds lacking any semblance of control were to congregate in London itself. Also in this year the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, was to communicate to the Duke of Wellington his opinion that “the concessions that were made to violence in year 1830 have, I fear, had a permanently bad effect upon the character of the agricultural population.” (Llewellyn) However it required the introduction of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 to address the limitations of the inadequate relief measures that had been introduced during the French wars. The lack of relevance of these now anachronistic laws was becoming increasingly obvious with the passage of time as the relief was aimed at local, mainly rural, situations and was not a panacea for wages that were inadequate to meet living expenses encountered over extensive periods by the members of urban societies.

A very prominent figure, relevant to this era, was the previously mentioned Jeremy Bentham whose movement’s main objective was directed to the reform of the law. To achieve this he promoted constant parliamentary activity as a means of sweeping away restraints on individual liberty as he was intolerant of the historical anomalies contained in the then current laws. His philosophy led to legislation based on accumulated information gathered by officially appointed commissions. It has been postulated that the age of law reform was also the age of Jeremy Bentham.

[NOTE: The holding of the 1889 Royal Commission into the Queensland Colony’s sugar industry is one example of the consequences of Bentham’s philosophical heritage.]

In the preparation of the Amendment Act to the Reform Bill Benthamite principles were employed by an informed commission which interviewed thousands of witnesses whose differing backgrounds as to rank, profession and nature of employment were able to provide a great variety in knowledge and opinion. The commissioners’ final report was based on three main principles:-

Westminster – the seat of the English Parliament
Westminster – the seat of the English Parliament

The implementation of these measures under the act largely achieved the desired results by eliminating the undesirable practice of providing relief in lieu of adequate wages, and of providing comfort to the aged and the genuinely incapable in such a manner as not to make the relief preferable to the rewards of independent labour. With the elimination of the anachronistic settlement laws and the corresponding increase in the mobility of labour the new law was also to produce a steady reduction in expense to the exchequer. Migration of labour from the poverty struck south to the industrial north was actively encouraged by the commissioners.

However resistance to the amended Act’s provisions was encountered and the regulations against outdoor relief proved difficult to enforce. Some resistance was of a very serious nature, and in the 1837 recession Stoke-on-Trent, the first industrial town to have had the parish union system applied, was faced with a situation where 30,000 workers were retrenched at much the same time. A ruling was made that no outdoor relief was to be given to the unemployed until the workhouses had filled and, under those conditions, they very quickly did.

As had occurred with the older relief provisions, ongoing industrialization was to highlight the fact that a set of conditions still largely formulated to meet the requirements of the passing, agricultural age could not adequately cope with the differing nature of the poverty peculiar to the urbanised situation of the newly formed industrial towns. Protests against the new poor laws were to quickly morph into protests against industrialization itself with its new mills and their clustering into the evolving industrial towns.

A new problem acts as a prompt for a new debate and on one side of this debate were the advocates of maximum production with maximum labour availability. The proponents of this view believed that this approach would solve the prevailing social problems and that measures such as reduced working hours would have the undesirable effects of reduced productivity with a corresponding reduction in profits and national wealth. Adherents of the other side of the debate queried the whole industrialised system and advocated a return to the system of support for the landed interests which would act as protection for the working classes.

There was however a more positive side to the various industrial disturbances as they led to considerations of reform and to the formation of the initial trade unions. These could pursue what would ultimately prove to be more effective, and lawful, avenues of reform. Bargaining between worker and employer was initially between the trained and skilled workers, whose labour was difficult to replace, and the owner/managers. However as the Industrial Revolution concentrated workers into specific locations such as the factories, mills and mines of industry it thereby facilitated the organization of bargaining groups, or trade unions.

These groups of organized workers could stop or disrupt production by strike action leaving employers with the choice of higher labour costs or lack of production and hence sales. Prior to its repeal in 1824 strike action was forbidden under the Combination Act of 1799. However the unions gradually overcame these restrictions and in 1842 a major, general strike was organized by the Chartist movement. Despite all of this, over the years 1815 to 1832, the quantity of raw cotton processed by the factories of Lancashire quadrupled.

The fall in the death rate over the same period created a dramatic rise in the population. Rapid urbanization, with the consequent migration from the agricultural areas to the developing townships, had the effect of separating a large percentage of the population from its traditional lands with the corresponding loss of the open, rural areas previously utilized as playing fields. It is possible that this may, in turn, have led to the gradual evolution of organized sport in the industrial regions of England.

[NOTE: The earliest surviving English book on the rules of football was published in about 1860. It allowed for twenty players to a side and for the application of quite robust tactics.]

The concentration of workers and others under the industrial revolution lead to the formation of the great cities that we accept as normal today. In these embryonic cities the power of steam facilitated the rapid expansion of newspaper and book publishing with a further increase of the public awareness of civil issues and injustices.

Into this period of population instability a system of railways was to be constructed which would dramatically increase the mobility of travellers, and in particular, of the workers. A railway line was built from Liverpool to Manchester in 1828, and in 1833 parliament approved the construction of a line from London to Birmingham with a linkage to the Manchester line. London was now connected by rail to the developing centres of industry in the north.

Initially there was restrained enthusiasm for the investment of private capital in railway construction. However by the closing years of the 1830’s a grid of privately funded railways had been installed across the country to meet the demands of the new era. These railways were now positioned to provide competition to the transport of commodities that had previously been provided by the horse drawn canal barges that had serviced the industrial revolution for the preceding half century.

With the advent of the Reform Act law relating to voting rights was relaxed, though it still did not introduce universal suffrage. It was the time of such activists as those men who came to be known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs. This group consisted of six men, Messrs J. Brine, J. Hammett, G. & J. Loveless and T. & J. Standfield who initially formed an association referred to as ‘The Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers’. These men objected to the 1830’s tendency to lower wages and, with the current, standard wage of seven shillings a week refused to work for less than a weekly ten shillings.

By invoking a little used law dating back to 1797 the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, was able to arrest the Tolpuddle group and they were, on being found guilty, transported to Australia where it is hoped that they had greater opportunities for advancement and/or higher wages than prevailed in the England of the time. Despite this setback other workers managed to form into friendly societies that acted as effective social and work related support groups.

In 1838, following the combined action of the London Working Men’s Association and the Birmingham Political Union in Birmingham, the Peoples Charter was drafted by a committee of six in an attempt to address the perceived omissions in the Reform Act of 1832. The most active of this committee were Lovett, Place and Roebuck. Lovett believed that the accumulation of property into the hands of individuals was the cause of all evils. This belief was combined with a hatred of the established church.

The Charter was intended to be a public petition and had six dominant demands:

When the People’s Parliament of Chartists met in 1839 there was a depression of trade in Lancashire and the agricultural harvest had been poor. In Newcastle, which had a large Irish population, arms were being collected and in Halifax workers were actively drilling with pikes made from broomsticks. Sir Charles Napier commenting on the poor of the north noted that they had, “a stern look of discontent, of hatred to all who are rich, a total absence of merry faces.” (Llewellyn)

Laws forbade the gathering of more than fifty people, so the first Chartist convention, held in London in February 1839 was limited in attendance to this number. Divisions of opinion were immediately apparent as some delegates favoured the use of violence, others a general strike and still others the election of a people’s parliament. Middle class attendees were almost certainly frightened off by the motto finally adopted by the conference of, “peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must.”

Though working class activists saw the Charter as a cure-all for the social and economic ills of the day the number of these demands were probably enough to create a lack of popular acceptance for the Charter , by ensuring the division of support for any particular issue.

Nevertheless over one and a quarter million signatures were accumulated in support of the document and the Charter was presented to the House of Commons in mid-1839. Though supported by future prime-minister Benjamin Disraeli it was defeated 235 to 46. A second petition in 1842 and yet a third petition presented in 1848, were also defeated.

Meanwhile agitation was to continue through the spring, particularly in the north of England, and government troops were utilized to preserve order. An outbreak of violence at Newport resulted in twenty-four protesters being killed and many of the Chartist Movement’s leaders were detained or arrested in other locations. With the violence and turmoil of the French Revolution still fresh in middle-class memories the enthusiasm for radical reform was dampened, and when the national leadership was dissolved many members of the Chartist Movement transferred their attention to more specific and pressing local problems.

As the passage of time was to demonstrate, the movement proved to be far from a total failure as it was to raise, or at least increase, awareness of many pressing issues. A large number of its former adherents were to join other associations such as the temperance league and workers’ education groups. It is also probable that its activities helped focus public attention on the need for repeal of the Corn Laws – but more of that later.

By the 1830’s increased public awareness of the working children’s plight, particularly in the middle and upper classes, helped to introduce a change in the climate of opinion, though legislation in the form of the Factory Acts of the 1830’s and 40’s was necessary to change the behaviour of the factory owners; some of whom – to be fair, and possibly with some justification – thought that the children’s wage payments were necessary for the children and their families to avoid starvation.

Along with other provisions the Acts precluded children younger than nine years old from working, and youths under eighteen years were allowed to work no longer than twelve hours per day. Schooling for children was also introduced in line with the recommendations of the commission that had been instituted to provide advice in the formulation of the Factory Act of 1833. In the 1850’s the use of child and female labour in the mines was finally disallowed.

Dramatic changes were also taking place elsewhere in the empire. Both the radicals and the free-traders were anxious for the British to divest themselves of the trappings of empire. In 1822 it had been suggested in parliament that if Canada were to sink below the ocean England would have little to lose. Later Disraeli, in 1852, was to express the view that the colonies were a, “millstone around our neck.” (Llewellyn) However there still remained a significant body of opinion that favoured the retention of empire.

In 1833 Stanley introduced a bill to end slavery in the sugar cane fields of the West Indies. The slave owners were to receive £20 million in compensation; and while all children under six years old would be free, any slave aged over six years would have a maximum working day of ten hours, seven and one half of which was to be devoted to labour for the owner and two and one half hours to the slave’s own benefit. By this means the slaves should have been able to obtain their redemption in a period of twelve years.

Meanwhile the pattern of convict settlement in Australia was evolving into a preference for free settlement. In 1830 there were only 309 free settlers in the colony as against 3,225 transported convicts; however four years later this ratio had changed to 1,564 free settlers to 3,161 transported convicts.

In China following the seizure of the English merchants’ opium chests by the Chinese commissioners, and the resultant short war between the British and the Celestial Empire, the victorious English were to gain their objective of much improved trading rights to the Chinese ports and the lease of the harbour at Hong Kong, together with the acquisition of complementary defensive naval bases.

Up to this point a very significant issue of these times has received scant attention, the introduction of the Corn Laws , and the consequent rise of the anti-corn laws groups. For the sake of clarity it should be pointed out that, in this context, ‘corn’ referred to all grains used for human and domestic animal consumption, not just the corn grain itself. These laws had a major, and largely adverse, effect not just on the English population but also on the populations of Ireland and Scotland where cumulative circumstances were to produce national tragedies.

During his wars with England Napoleon had made an unsuccessful attempt to mount a blockade of the British ports, and at a later date the now dominant English navy returned the compliment by mounting a blockade of the Napoleon dominated continental ports. The elimination of grain imports caused a rapid expansion of cultivation in Britain and this caused much planting that was not economically viable in its own right hence the need for protective tariffs. When Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815 the British blockade was lifted and corn prices in England fell from 15 shillings and 10 pence a bushel in 1812 to 8 shillings and 2¼ pence per bushel in 1815.

As in the 18th century there was a general feeling, particularly amongst the protectionists, that it was essential for nations to be self-sufficient in food production. As the right to vote for parliamentary members was dependent upon land ownership the landowners had a disproportionate influence upon parliament and this influence was again used to direct parliamentary proceedings.

This protectionist feeling was not shared by the free-traders who were very conscious of the effect that any tax on the constituents of bread would have on their own production costs and on the financial circumstances of their potential customers. This dichotomy of opinion engendered a marked hostility between the manufacturers, represented by the northern Whigs, and the squires, represented by the radical Tories.

In 1804 the landowner dominated Parliament passed the first Corn Law which lead to a rapid expansion in English grain production, with the consequence of high bread prices for the workers. This was to be followed by the second Corn Law which allowed the entry of foreign wheat free of duty only when the price of the English grain equalled or exceeded 10 shillings per bushel. When this legislation was being passed the presence of armed troops was needed by the Parliament to protect it from a large and very angry crowd.

Whilst the general trend following the Napoleonic Wars was towards increasing populations, the expansion of industry and falling prices, an economic cycle of approximately five years duration produced a succession of recessions with their accompanying infliction of hunger and other hardships upon the poor when the cost of staples such as bread rose markedly.

The citizens of the rapidly expanding industrial towns hated the high bread prices as they had to spend the major portion of their income on grain based food for sheer survival, and their employers were very concerned at the level of wages that may be claimed to purchase the highly priced food. If there was no excess income for the workers to purchase manufactured goods the employers lost trade, had to discharge some of their workers, and the regressive spiral worsened. The employers saw this as a transfer of wealth from themselves to the agricultural landowners under government legislation.

In 1828 the Corn Laws were again modified, under the Duke of Wellington’s ministry, to allow for a sliding scale of duties, the amount dependent upon the prevailing grain price, which it was hoped would help to remove some of the distress. By 1832 the conditions pertaining to the right to vote had been relaxed under the Reform Act and this change advantaged the merchant class. This class was far more likely to be favourably disposed to a change in or repeal of the Corn Laws .

Corn prices were still fluctuating wildly and were to double between the year of 1835 and the recession year of 1837. A further recession in 1839, combined with a succession of poor harvests, reignited the discontent associated with the laws. As a consequence associations previously formed in London and Manchester to oppose the laws were amalgamated under the guidance of Richard Cobden and formed into the Anti-Corn Law League which had the capacity to execute a national campaign.

A minor victory for the League occurred in this year when The Times expressed opposition to the Corn Laws though, on the other hand, the year also saw the first clashes, some violent, with the Chartists. The cause of this friction was the strong rivalry between the Chartists, whose goal was a major overhaul of the country’s constitution, and the League, whose only objective was the repeal of the Corn Laws . The League countered the opposition of the Chartists by founding operative Anti-Corn Law Associations in Manchester and Leicester each with quarterly subscriptions of 3 pence.

Cobden, probably influenced by Adam Smith’s proposition of seventy years earlier that rational men bought when prices were cheapest and sold when prices were dearest, believed that expanded and unrestricted trade promoted harmony between differing classes and nations. A friend of Cobden, and a very gifted orator, John Bright, offered to assist Cobden with his campaign and Bright was very effective in spreading the message that the landowners, with their privileged position compliments of the prevailing legislation, were a cause of considerable suffering to the poorer members of society. This was a message that had considerable appeal to both the working and middle classes.

The mood of anti-clericalism was also harnessed by the League in its cause. Parsons benefitted from the bread tax through their tithe revenues which, owing to the close connection between the official Church and the State, were seen as additional taxation on the workers means of sustenance. John Bright had previously opposed the payment of tithe and in Durham had expressed the view that, “This body of men especially appointed to take care of the flock should, instead of being the shepherds, appear to all men’s eyes as the shearers.” (Llewellyn) Cobden, though himself a churchman, shared these views.

In 1840 officials of the Board of Trade came out in sympathy with the League and a select committee of the House of Commons investigating all import duties produced a report strongly in support of the free-trade cause.

In the 1841 general election of the House of Commons Richard Cobden became the Member for Stockport and he was now in a position to constantly remind the Parliament that reform of the Corn Laws was necessary. When the economic recession of 1839 continued on through the years 1840 to 1842 speeches by Cobden and Bright commanded large audiences. In the same year they were joined in their opposition to the Corn Laws by Daniel O’Connell the leader of the Irish nationalists in parliament and this, in combination with the effect of a partial failure of the potato crop in Ireland (and to a lesser effect in England) put very considerable pressure upon the Conservative government of Sir Robert Peel.

The year of 1841 also saw a revival of violent clashes between the League and the northern Chartists. The Irish, who at the time made up a fifth of the population of Manchester, were engaged by the Anti-Corn Law League to provide for the protection of their members at their meetings.

Edward Watkin, in his writing of Cobden’s biography described one such altercation. The Chartists carrying banners and short staves broke into a meeting and started to lay about themselves with the staves. The Irish, upon seeing the near killing of a League supporter by a Chartist with an iron bar, tore down the banners, broke the shafts and laid about themselves so effectively as to drive the Chartists out of the square.

A year later in Manchester there was another altercation at a meeting between Feargus O’Connor’s Chartists and the combined free trader supporters and the O’Connell followers. Watkin reported that forms, desks, chairs and gas pipes were used as weapons; all furniture was smashed and Feargus O’Connor was knocked down three times and acquired seven wounds during the engagement. On the other hand the Reverend Schofield, who had been nominated as the Chairman of the meeting, acquired a black eye, loose teeth, cut lip and contusions. Four of his Irish defenders were badly hurt, two with fractured skulls – they however, “are used to it and will soon be well.” (Llewellyn)

Starting in 1841 the League launched a major appeal for funds and committees were set up to run the sales promotion campaign. Well-crafted cards were engraved which displayed the campaign’s target figure and these were distributed to the collectors. The lady collectors were issued with cards displaying the engraved portraits of leading free traders. The national target for the collection was £50,000 of which an amount of £40,000 had been collected by 1843.

The League was also not averse to the manipulation of the corrupt political situation particularly in relation to the acquisition of voting rights for the achievement of its own objectives. Bright made an estimate in early 1845 that £250,000 (a very large sum in those days) had been spent by the League to acquire land in the north-west of the country for the attached voting rights to be exercised by its supporters.

Subsequently Cobden was to obtain the support of the rich northern merchants, who applied the same professionalism to the promotion of the League as they did to the administration of their own industries. This was to result in the creation of the most efficiently financed and organized propaganda machine in Victorian England.

By the early 1840’s England had entered into a new age and the cotton manufacturers and merchants of Manchester were seeing their city as a northern capital, rivalling London in status. By January 1846 Sir Robert Peel had yielded to political reality and the duty on oats, barley, wheat and corn was reduced to 1½ pence per bushel which effectively eliminated the influence of the Corn Laws on bread prices and thus on the staple food of the workers and of their families.