State of Britain after the French Revolution
The French
Revolution left Britain politically and economically unstable with the
government feeling paranoid that a similar revolution would seize the
population of Britain.
Nationality and the British Government; Pitt
made sure his government was a neutral party, decided they were not financially
or diplomatically able to intervene in the events in France. Once France began
encouraging revolutions in other European countries Britain's views changed, it
made Pitt much more suspicious of supporters and their impact on the public. He
passed multiple acts such as the Friendly Societies Act to hopefully prevent
the possibility of a revolution. A series of bad harvests worsened the
governments fears.
Anti-Revolution and Edmund Burke; Burke was a
politician and argued the HOC should not be full of the Kings supporters and
began supporting the French Monarchy and the American War of Independence but
opposed the French Revolution which confused a lot of people. He thought people
didn't have the right to disregard the elected government. He believed in the
natural growth of society and not giving in to drastic, chaotic measures
especially violence. He began to gain supporters as his predictions became
true, lots of these supporters were politically powerful but lots of them took
his ideas the wrong way and tried to prevent reforms which he did not endorse.
Pro-Revolution and Tom Paine; He lived in the
US and was for the war of independence, he then returned to England and
published texts that argued of societies need to break away from the past if it
wanted to progress. Supported fundamental rights for all and encouraged
democracy in England whilst believing all were equal and the government should
represent this. He demanded social reforms such as free education and
pensions.
Friendly Society Act 1973; Passed in 1973 it
was the governments response to their paranoia after the French Revolution. It
was based on the suspicion of the solidarity between workers, positively it
helped the workers' with financial security but negatively it outlawed trade
unions which gave them fewer rights. The government realised it would get a
bigger profit without trade unions so did not care about workers rights. It is
accepted that it was passed just so the government wouldn't have to fund the
upkeep of the sick, elderly and poor. The societies gave workers the right to
recover funds and claim money from the deceased or bankrupt, allowed them to
solve disputes, lead to them rushing paperwork and in the 1800s there were
around 30,000 friendly societies. For a while many failed and gained a bad
reputation. The overall aim of the societies were to give people a mutual sense
of mutual benefit and belonging.
Introduction of the income tax 1798; Introduced
by Pitt the younger as an option to help solve some of the many economic
problems Britain faced. The purpose was for taxes to be placed on peoples
earnings, in one year this raised a total of £6 million. It was first intended
as a temporary measure however it was kept in place.
The Combination Acts 1799-1800; These were a
series of six acts which restricted freedom of speech and were harsh on the
working class. Some of the features included; trade unions were illegal,
workers who work together for better wages could be imprisoned and employers
combinations were forbidden.
