Britain after the French Revolution

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.