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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1138: STATE OF PARTIES.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

STATE OF PARTIES.

A.D. 1839

It has been noticed in a previous page that the relative strength of the two great parties in the country continued much the same as they were at the commencement of the year 1837. The Whigs, indeed, gained by the change which had taken place in the monarchy, inasmuch as by the death of the late king they were delivered from an avowed adversary, and by the accession of Queen Victoria they gained a known friend to their cause. The ministers, indeed, found considerable advantage in her support. Yet in the house of commons the number of’ their supporters had upon the whole rather decreased since their accession to the government; and in the country generally their popularity may be said to have continued on the decline. One of the principal grounds in this change is to be found in the connection of government with the agitator O’Connell. Although that gentleman had rendered many services to the cause of reform, yet his delinquencies were so many, that he never enjoyed the sympathy of any considerable mass of the English people. Moreover, popery, of which he was one of the leaders, is still unpopular in this country, and the Conservatives sedulously took advantage of the connection of the ministers with him to raise apprehensions of Romanist intrigue and encroachment. This was, therefore, a great source of embarrassment to the ministry; and yet they could not offend this man of the people of Ireland by standing aloof from him. Another cause of embarrassment was the movement of the people calling themselves Chartists.