Britain Before Reform

England’s Population

• 1701: 5 million

• 1750: 5.8 million

• 1801: 8.67 million

• 1831: 13.3 million

Aristocracy and Gentry

• Not much change to 1815

• More mannered after

Education

Eton

Harrow

Public School

• Not private tutors, so public (with others)

• Not state supported

Eton Uniform

Aristocratic Roles

• Politics

• Business

• Idleness

• Military

• Church

Primogeniture

• Eldest son inherits everything

• Contractual tradition

• Result: fewer titled nobility

Middle Class

• Home-centered

• Women not to work

Laboring Classes

• Hand workers

• Artisans

• Agricultural workers

• Servants

Poverty natural

• Not degrading

• Poor relief ok

• Deserving vs. Undeserving poor

Poor Law

• Elizabethan

Government

• Mixed (one, many, few)

Sir William Blackstone

• 1723-1780• Blackstone’s

Commentaries

Who?

• Property owners

• Great landlords most influential

• Industrialization brings discontent

Parliament in 1815

• House of Lords– 360 members

• House of Commons– 658 members (489 English)– County and Borough members

Rotton Borough

Old Sarum

Local Government

• Counties and Boroughs

County

• Lord Lieutenant

• Justices of the Peace– Supervised roads– Licensed estates– regulated liquor– Set poor rates

Parishes

• 10,000 in England and Wales

• Vestry

Conclusion

• Britain unbureaucratic and uncentralized