Class and Conflict in Nineteenth-Century England

1815-1850

Patricia Hollis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317268109
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Weltgeschichte

First published in 1973. This title aims to use contemporary documents to illustrate the attitudes and relationships of working men towards each other and against other groups in society in the years 1815 to 1850. The material comes under three headings; the analysis of class in terms of economic and political theory; class relations in the years between the end of the French wars and the move into mid-Victorianism; and finally, the response to the more disturbing aspects of class by the appropriate vehicles of social control. This title will be of interest to students of history.

Class and conflict in nineteenth-century England 1815-1850

Edited by Patricia Hollis

First published in 1973

by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd

Broadway House, 68–74 Carter Lane,

London EC4V 5EL and

9 Park Street,

Boston, Mass. 02108, U.S.A.

Printed in Great Britain by

Unwin Brothers Limited

The Gresham Press, Old Woking, Surrey, England

A member of the Staples Printing Group

© Patricia Hollis 1973

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism

ISBN 0 7100 7419 0 (c)

ISBN 0 7100 7420 4 (p)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315637464

Contents

1. Chronological table
2. Introduction
3. One Class and conflict—the analysis
4. 1 Old Corruption and the attack on privilege
5. 1a T. Paine: hereditary government, 1790, 1791
6. 1b P. Colquhoun: producers and parasites, 1814
7. 1c Crisis: producers and parasites illustrated, 1834
8. 1d W. Cobbett: taxation and working men, 1816
9. 1e Gorgon: the structure of Old Corruption, 1818
10. 1f R. M. Martin: the burden of taxation, 1834
11. 1g Operative: Old Corruption or capitalism? 1838
12. 1h Chartist Circular, Northern Star: times to try men’s souls, 1840
13. 2 Old Corruption—the attack on priestcraft
14. 2a R. Carlile: The tyranny of the mind, 1819, 1822
15. 2b R. Carlile: Kingcraft, priestcraft, lordcraft, 1831
16. 2c H. Hetherington’s testament of a secularist, 1849
17. 3 The theft of land—the attack on property
18. 3a T. Spence: the land, the people’s farm, 1775
19. 3b A. Davenport: the parish commonwealth, 1822
20. 3c A. Davenport: monopoly in land, 1824
21. 3d Man: pledges for reform, 1833
22. 3e B. O’Brien: land and currency reform, 1847
23. 4 Competition—the attack on poverty
24. 4a T. Malthus: population and poverty, 1830
25. 4b R. Owen: unemployment and the world of plenty, 1820
26. 4c The Economist: the virtues of Owenism, 1821
27. 4d Black Dwarf: the morality of Owenism, 1817
28. 4e Poor Man’s Guardian: Owenism and politics, 1832
29. 5 Capitalism—the attack on political economy
30. 5a J. R. McCullough: classical political economy, 1825
31. 5b H. Martineau: political economy popularized, 1832
32. 5c T. Hodgskin: the capitalists’ monopoly of the produce of labour, 1825
33. 5d W. Thompson: equality of distribution, 1824
34. 5e G. P. Scrope: the fallacies of socialism, 1833
35. 5f J. Wade: labour for sale, 1834
36. 5g Trades Newspaper: masters and men, 1825
37. 5h J. Scott’s evidence: labour and capital contrasted, 1835
38. 6 Capitalism—the attack on exploitation
39. 6a Poor Man’s Guardian: on wages, 1832
40. 6b Cooperator, Pioneer: exploitation, 1829, 1834
41. 6c Blackwood’s: free trade and the public good, 1830
42. 6d Penny Magazine, Poor Man’s Guardian: the weaver’s song, 1832
43. 6e Pioneer: a warning, 1833
44. 6f E. Jones: exploitation and surplus value, 1851
45. 6g E. Jones: the song of the low, 1852
46. 7 Capitalism—the analysis of under-consumption
47. 7a Trades Newspaper: the freedom of the weaver, 1826
48. 7b Northern Star, Henry Mayhew: the economy of sweating, 1846, 1861–2
49. 7c Advocate: the Moloch of machinery, 1833
50. 7d C. Knight, W. Cooke Taylor, A. Ure: a defence of machinery, 1831, 1842, 1835
51. 7e Trades Newspaper: foreign trade and foreign benefits, 1825
52. 7f Poor Man’s Guardian: machinery and consumption, 1835
53. 7g Companion, Poor Man’s Guardian: under-consumption or over-production? 1833
54. 7h W. Carpenter: machinery and mass misery, 1831
55. 7i R. Oastler’s evidence: the demand for a regulated wage, 1834
56. 7j F. O’Connor: producers and consumers, 1841, 1848
57. 8 Politics and economics
58. 8a B. O’Brien: property, 1834, 1838
59. 8b Poor Man’s Guardian: a last warning on the accursed Reform Bill, 1832
60. 8c W. Carpenter: the Reform Bill, 1831
61. 9 The language of class
62. 9a F. Place, Pioneer: the people, 1832, 1834
63. 9b Poor Man’s Guardian: class and politics, 1831, 1833
64. 9c G. J. Holyoake: the chimera of class conciliation, 1842
65. 9d E. Jones: the boundaries of class, 1851
66. 9e K. Marx: the definition of class, 1851
67. 9f Red Republican: three generations of radical language, 1850
68. Two Class and conflict—action
69. 1 Peace and Peterloo
70. 1a Major Cartwright’s Hampde...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Title Page 1
• Copyright Page 1
• Contents
• Chronological table
• Introduction
• One Class and conflict—the analysis
• 1 Old Corruption and the attack on privilege
• 1a T. Paine: hereditary government, 1790, 1791
• 1b P. Colquhoun: producers and parasites, 1814
• 1c Crisis: producers and parasites illustrated, 1834
• 1d W. Cobbett: taxation and working men, 1816
• 1e Gorgon: the structure of Old Corruption, 1818
• 1f R. M. Martin: the burden of taxation, 1834
• 1g Operative: Old Corruption or capitalism? 1838
• 1h Chartist Circular, Northern Star: times to try men’s souls, 1840
• 2 Old Corruption—the attack on priestcraft
• 2a R. Carlile: The tyranny of the mind, 1819, 1822
• 2b R. Carlile: Kingcraft, priestcraft, lordcraft, 1831
• 2c H. Hetherington’s testament of a secularist, 1849
• 3 The theft of land—the attack on property
• 3a T. Spence: the land, the people’s farm, 1775
• 3b A. Davenport: the parish commonwealth, 1822
• 3c A. Davenport: monopoly in land, 1824
• 3d Man: pledges for reform, 1833
• 3e B. O’Brien: land and currency reform, 1847
• 4 Competition—the attack on poverty
• 4a T. Malthus: population and poverty, 1830
• 4b R. Owen: unemployment and the world of plenty, 1820
• 4c The Economist: the virtues of Owenism, 1821
• 4d Black Dwarf: the morality of Owenism, 1817
• 4e Poor Man’s Guardian: Owenism and politics, 1832
• 5 Capitalism—the attack on political economy
• 5a J. R. McCullough: classical political economy, 1825
• 5b H. Martineau: political economy popularized, 1832
• 5c T. Hodgskin: the capitalists’ monopoly of the produce of labour, 1825
• 5d W. Thompson: equality of distribution, 1824
• 5e G. P. Scrope: the fallacies of socialism, 1833
• 5f J. Wade: labour for sale, 1834
• 5g Trades Newspaper: masters and men, 1825
• 5h J. Scott’s evidence: labour and capital contrasted, 1835
• 6 Capitalism—the attack on exploitation
• 6a Poor Man’s Guardian: on wages, 1832
• 6b Cooperator, Pioneer: exploitation, 1829, 1834
• 6c Blackwood’s: free trade and the public good, 1830
• 6d Penny Magazine, Poor Man’s Guardian: the weaver’s song, 1832
• 6e Pioneer: a warning, 1833
• 6f E. Jones: exploitation and surplus value, 1851
• 6g E. Jones: the song of the low, 1852
• 7 Capitalism—the analysis of under-consumption
• 7a Trades Newspaper: the freedom of the weaver, 1826
• 7b Northern Star, Henry Mayhew: the economy of sweating, 1846, 1861–2
• 7c Advocate: the Moloch of machinery, 1833
• 7d C. Knight, W. Cooke Taylor, A. Ure: a defence of machinery, 1831, 1842, 1835
• 7e Trades Newspaper: foreign trade and foreign benefits, 1825
• 7f Poor Man’s Guardian: machinery and consumption, 1835
• 7g Companion, Poor Man’s Guardian: under-consumption or over-production? 1833
• 7h W. Carpenter: machinery and mass misery, 1831
• 7i R. Oastler’s evidence: the demand for a regulated wage, 1834
• 7j F. O’Connor: producers and consumers, 1841, 1848
• 8 Politics and economics
• 8a B. O’Brien: property, 1834, 1838
• 8b Poor Man’s Guardian: a last warning on the accursed Reform Bill, 1832
• 8c W. Carpenter: the Reform Bill, 1831
• 9 The language of class
• 9a F. Place, Pioneer: the people, 1832, 1834
• 9b Poor Man’s Guardian: class and politics, 1831, 1833
• 9c G. J. Holyoake: the chimera of class conciliation, 1842
• 9d E. Jones: the boundaries of class, 1851
• 9e K. Marx: the definition of class, 1851
• 9f Red Republican: three generations of radical language, 1850
• Two Class and conflict—action
• 1 Peace and Peterloo
• 1a Major Cartwright’s Hampden clubs, 1826 on 1812 and 1813
• 1b S. Bamford: the early reform movement, 1841 on 1815–17
• 1c Cobbett on the impact of Cobbett, 1817
• 1d S. Bamford: provocation and suppression, 1841 on 1817
• 1e Black Dwarf: the Political Protestants, 1818
• 1f Peterloo, 1819
• 2 Combinations and Combination Acts, 1815–25
• 2a Home Office informers: the politicization of distress, 1818
• 2b Home Office informers: general union, 1818
• 2c The Select Committee on the working of the Combination Acts, 1824
• 2d The Report of the Select Committee, 1824
• 2e Place’s prophecy, 1825
• 3 Rural unrest
• 3a W. Cobbett: the destruction of the rural economy, 1825
• 3b Home Office informers: Swing: in Norfolk, 1830
• 3c W. Cobbett: the rural war, 1830
• 3d Joseph Arch: village discipline, 1830s and 1840s
• 4 Political unionism
• 4a The Birmingham Political Union, 1830
• 4b F. Place, Penny Papers: the National Union of the Working Classes, 1831
• 4c Bristol Job Nott: another version of the NUWC, 1833, 1831
• 4d F. Place: the National Political Union, 1831
• 4e The NUWC on the NPU, 1831
• 4f Poor Man’s Guardian: the need for separate working-class unions, 1832
• 4g F. Place: the middle-class radical platform, 1832
• 4h Cold Bath Fields—a statement of grievances, 1833
• 4i Address of the London Working Men’s Association, 1876 on 1836
• 4j W. Lovett: the LWMA demands reform, 1837
• 5 The freedom of the press
• 5a Medusa, Gorgon: the Six Acts, 1820, 1822
• 5b Republican: supporters of a free press, 1822
• 5c Poor Man’s Guardian: the Unstamped press, 1831, 1833
• 5d Hetherington’s blasphemy, 1840
• 6 Parish radicalism
• 6a The Vestries Act and the Reform Act, 1839
• 6b The great procession, 1831
• 6c The NUWC: assessed taxes, a cause for class co-operation?
• 7 Co-operation, 1820–35
• 7a The Economist: co-operation at Spa Fields, 1821
• 7b W. Lovett, Cooperator: the early co-operative movement, 1876 on 1828, 1830
• 7c Crisis, Poor Man’s Guardian: mutual exchange, 1832, 1834
• 7d Crisis: stores and societies, 1832
• 7e Crisis: the impact of Owen, 1832
• 8 Trades unionism, 1825–40: the wage question
• 8a Trades Newspaper: the need for union, 1825
• 8b United Trades Co-operative Journal: Doherty and general union, 1830
• 8c W. Benbow’s Grand National Holiday, 1832
• 8d Pioneer: the Operative Builders’ Union, 1833
• 8e Pioneer’s argument for syndicalism, 1833, 1834
• 8f Pioneer: the Derby turn-out, 1833
• 8g Blackwood’s, E. Tufnell: from the other side, 1834
• 8h Pioneer: the founding of the GNCTU: resolutions of a conference held in London, 13–19 February 1834
• 8i The tailors’ strike: the demand for equalization, 1834
• 8j G. Loveless, a Tolpuddle ‘Martyr’, 1838
• 8k Evidence to the Select Committee: unions and intimidation—Glasgow cotton spinners, 1838
• 8l Commissioners’ comments on masters and men in Norwich, 1838
• 8m Doherty’s evidence: defence and desperation, 1838
• 8n F. Engels: the implications of unionism, 1844
• 9 The Short Time movement: the question of hours
• 9a Trades Newspaper: adults for children, 1825
• 9b R. Oastler: Yorkshire slavery, 1830
• 9c Destructive: the factory girl, 1833
• 9d Herald, W. Cobbett: committee, commission and legislation, 1834
• 9e J. Fielden: child and adult labour, 1836
• 9f Herald: the National Regeneration Society, 1834
• 9g A. Ure, W. Cooke Taylor: the charms of child labour, 1835, 1842
• 9h Poulett Thomson: the evils of protection—labour and the Factories Regulation Bill, 1836
• 9i R. Oastler defending the law, 1836
• 9j Northern Star: cheap humanity, 1845
• 9k Northern Star: the politics of Short Time, 1846
• 10 The new Poor Law, 1834
• 10a Report: paupers or labourers? 1834
• 10b J. R. Stephens demanding repeal, 1838, 1839
• 10c General Sir Charles Napier, Northern Star: misery and relief, 1857 on 1840, 1842
• 10d R. Oastler: the rights of the poor undermined, 1841
• 10e Northern Star: wages and the Poor Law, 1845
• 11 Chartism
• 11a Chartism: the middle-class interpretation, 1849, 1839
• 11b Chartism: the working-class view, 1839, 1846, 1887
• 11c The 1842 petition
• 12 Protest Chartism
• 12a R. Lowery, T. Cooper: distress and desperation, 1856, 1872
• 12b Charter: ulterior measures, 1839
• 12c Northern Star: a meeting on ulterior measures, 1839
• 12d C. Napier, T. Devyr: pikes and guns, 1839
• 12e C. Napier: physical force, 1839, 1843
• 12f R. Lowery, Charter: the general strike, 1856 on 1839, 1839
• 12g Northern Star: the national holiday, 1840
• 12h Charter: the Newport rising, 1839
• 12i Northern Star: plans for a general rising, 1840
• 13 Self-help Chartism
• 13a Northern Star: the National Charter Association, 1840
• 13b Northern Star, R. Lowery: the move into popular politics, 1841, 1857 on 1841
• 13c Northern Star: municipal Chartism, 1842
• 13d B. Wilson: popular politics and exclusive dealing, 1887 on 1846
• 13e Nonconformist: let us join the oppressed, 1841
• 13f Chartist Circular, Northern Star, R. Lowery: Christian Chartism, 1840, 1841, 1856
• 13g Northern Star, Chartist Circular: teetotal Chartism, 1840
• 13h Chartist Circular: Chartist schools, 1840
• 13i W. Lovett, F. O’Connor: knowledge Chartism and the new move, 1841
• 13j F. O’Connor’s verdict on all these new moves, 1841, 1852
• 13k Self-control and social control—S. Bamford’s plea, 1841
• 14 Chartism and the middle-class alliance
• 14a B. O’Brien: the propriety of a middle-class alliance, 1841
• 14b B. O’Brien: the middle-class union, 1841
• 14c Nonconformist: the suffrage question, 1841
• 14d Northern Star etc.: the Complete Suffrage Union, 1842, 1872 on 1842
• 14e R. Lowery, W. Cooke Taylor, Northern Star: Chartism and the Anti-Corn Law League, 1857, 1840, 1842
• 14f F. Engels: Chartism and the bourgeoisie, 1844
• 14g B. O’Brien: The middle-class alliance, 1842
• 15 Chartism and trades unionism
• 15a Charter, Northern Star: the involvement in politics, 1842
• 15b T. Cooper on the Plug Plots, 1872 on 1842
• 15c The declarations, 1842
• 15d Lord Abinger on Chartism: a conspiracy, 1842
• 15e Richard Pilling’s defence, 1843
• 15f Midland Mining Commission: miners and magistrates, 1843
• 15g Northern Star: Chartism and the trades, 1845
• 15h Northern Star: the theory and tactics of unionism, 1845
• 16 The Land Plan
• 16a Northern Star: the Land Plan as presented to the Chartist Annual Conference of April, 1845
• 16b Evidence to the Select Committee on free trade and the Land Plan, 1848
• 17 1848
• 17a The National Convention on ulterior measures
• 17b R. Gammage: military preparations, 1894 on 1848
• 17c Hector Berlioz’s comment, 1848
• 18 Co-operation and trading
• 18a G.J. Holyoake: Rochdale pioneers, 1857 on 1844
• 18b Meliora: co-operative societies in 1860
• Three Class and conflict—conciliation
• 1 Philanthropy
• 1a Shaftesbury on restlessness and responsibility, 1840
• 1b P. Colquhoun: poverty and pauperism, 1814
• 1c W. Allen: the social utility of philanthropy, 1812
• 1d T. Chalmers: pauperism relieved by the poor, 1850 on 1819
• 1e J. Kay: charity, the chain of sympathy, 1862
• 1f H. Martineau: the folly of philanthropy, 1832
• 1g Figaro: the other view of charity, 1832
• 2 Education
• 2a D. Giddies, P. Colquhoun: the consequence of education, 1807, 1806
• 2b C. Knight, Rev. J. Dufton: the economy of education, 1832, 1847, 1854
• 2c Blackwood’s: the myth of useful knowledge, 1834
• 2d Working-class comment: education as manipulation, 1823, 1834, 1884, 1852
• 2e An inspector’s report, 1841
• 2f The inspector and the clergyman: education and social structure, 1859
• 3 Religion
• 3a Archdeacon Lyall, W. Cooke Taylor, Rev. Oakley, Rev. Sinclair, A. Ure: faith and tranquility, 1833, 1842, 1840, 1849, 1835
• 3b A. Ure, R. Lowery: faith and self-discipline, 1822, 1835, 1856
• 3c Chartist Circular, Northern Star: anti-clericalism, 1839, 1840
• 3d R. Lowery, religion and social responsibility, 1856
• 3e C. Kingsley, F. D. Maurice: Christian socialism, 1848, 1851
• 4 Politics or paternalism?
• 4a The Little Charter, 1848
• 4b T. Frost: the Parliamentary Reform Association, 1880 on 1849
• 4c R. Cobden: freehold land society, 1849
• 4d Quarterly Review, Blackwood’s: in loco parentis, 1832, 1848
• 4e R. Lowery: the assumption of responsibility, 1856
• 4f Edinburgh Review: the new philanthropists, 1845
• 4g J. S. Mill: the poor and their position—two conflicting accounts, 1848
• Index