1830-1859
William IV’s dismissal of the Whig administration in 1834
William IV's dismissal of Lord Melbourne's Whig government in November 1834 was the last time a British monarch tried to assert political authority by bringing down a government that had majority support in the House of Commons.
Exploding the delusion of protection
A speech made by Richard Cobden in March 1845, near the climax of the campaign to abolish the Corn Laws.
Vacillating statesman
Review of Arthur Aspinall, Lord Brougham and the Whig Party (Originally published 1927; reprinted Nonsuch, 2005).
Gladstone 1809-1874
Review of H.C.G. Matthew, Gladstone 1809-1874 (Oxford University Press, 1988).
Out of Chartism, into Liberalism?
Popular radicals and the Liberal Party in mid-Victorian Britain.
The Liberal electoral agent in the post-Reform-Act era
An analysis of the activities of the Liberal electoral agents in the period after the Great Reform Act.
Plus ca change
The politics of faction in the 1850s; an introduction to a speech by John Bright.
‘His friends sat on the benches opposite’
Examination of the part played by the renegade Conservatives – the Peelites – in the creation of the Liberal Party.
William Edward Forster, 1818-1886
W. E. Forster was a typical nineteenth century Radical: a successful self-made businessman of nonconformist origins who was driven by his conscience to work for the less well-off in the community. His great achievement was the successful creation of the framework for a state education system which is still recognisable today. His ill fortune was…