1830-1859
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Coalition before 1886
Whigs, Peelites and Liberals: an examination of coalitions before 1886.
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Promoting progress everywhere
Review of Jonathan Parry, The Politics of Patriotism: English Liberalism, National Identity and Europe 1830-1886 (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
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Origins of the party
Review of John Vincent, The Formation of the British Liberal Party 1857-68 (Constable, 1966).
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Lord John Russell and the Irish Catholics
1829 – 1852: despite the Whig leader Lord John Russell’s efforts to work for justice to Ireland, his policies ended mainly in failure.
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Richard Cobden and British Imperialism
Cobden’s critique of British imperialism.
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The Age of Russell and Palmerston, 1846-1868
The collapse of Sir Robert Peel's Conservative government, following the 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws, began a complex re-arrangement of British political parties; one that took more than a decade to complete. Paradoxically, by rejecting Peel, the remaining Tories held the advantage of unity in their desire to protect agricultural interests and the established…
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The Anti-Corn Law League
The second Corn Law of 1828 sparked a wave of radical protest amongst Britain’s urban classes by introducing a sliding scale of duties on foreign wheat, thus causing bread prices to fluctuate excessively during a period that was plagued by high unemployment and poor harvests. The Corn Laws were seen to safeguard the interests of…
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Free Trade and the Repeal of the Corn Laws
Belief in free trade became an enduring characteristic of British liberalism in the 19th century but its roots were complex. In part it stemmed from popular Radical hostility to monopoly in all its forms, in part from the diffusion of Smithian and Ricardian political economy and in part from the administrative pragmatism, reinforced by evangelical…
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Dizzy and the Grand Old Man
Review of Richard Aldous, The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs Disraeli (Hutchinson, 2006).