HIST 051 MIDTERM

Pamela

Epistolary novel by English writer Samuel Richardson, first published in 1740. It tells the story of a beautiful 15-year-old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose country landowner master, Mr. B, makes unwanted and inappropriate advances towards her after the death of his mother. After Mr. B attempts unsuccessfully to seduce and rape her multiple times, he eventually rewards her virtue when he sincerely proposes an equitable marriage to her. Pamela, who is emotionally fragile and confused by Mr. B's manipulation, accepts his proposal. In the novel's second part, Pamela marries Mr. B and tries to acclimatize to upper-class society. The story, a best-seller of its time, was very widely read but was also criticized for its perceived licentiousness and glorification of abuse. Considered by many literary experts as the first English novel.

Oddfellows/Friendly Societies

International fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in London. Odd Fellows from that time include John Wilkes (1725-1797) and Sir George Savile, 8th Baronet of Thornton (1726-1784), advocating civil liberties and reliefs, including Catholic emancipation.

Liberalism

Classical liberals were committed to individualism, liberty and equal rights. They believed that required a free economy with minimal government interference. Classical liberalism was the dominant political theory in Britain from the early 19th century until the First World War. Its notable victories were the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, the Reform Act of 1832 and the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. In Great Britain the Whigs had evolved by the mid-19th century into the Liberal Party, whose reformist programs became the model for liberal political parties throughout Europe. Liberals propelled the long campaign that abolished Britain's slave trade in 1807 and slavery itself throughout the British dominions in 1833. The liberal project of broadening the franchise in Britain bore fruit in the Reform Bills of 1832, 1867, and 1884-85. The sweeping reforms achieved by Liberal Party governments led by William Gladstone for 14 years between 1868 and 1894 marked the apex of British liberalism.

Act of Settlement

(1701) Act of the Parliament of England that was passed in 1701 to settle the succession to the English and Irish crowns on Protestants only. The next Protestant in line to the throne was the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James VI of Scotland and I of England. After her the crowns would descend only to her non-Roman Catholic heirs. The act played a key role in the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain. England and Scotland had shared a monarch since 1603, but had remained separately governed countries. The Scottish parliament was more reluctant than the English to abandon the House of Stuart, members of which had been Scottish monarchs long before they became English ones. English pressure on Scotland to accept the Act of Settlement was one factor leading to the parliamentary union of the two countries in 1707. Under the Act of Settlement anyone who became a Roman Catholic, or who married one, became disqualified to inherit the throne. The act also placed limits on both the role of foreigners in the British government and the power of the monarch with respect to the Parliament of England. Some of those provisions have been altered by subsequent legislation.

Act of Union

(1707) Two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706, following negotiation between commissioners representing the parliaments of the two countries. By the two Acts, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland—which at the time were separate states with separate legislatures, but with the same monarch—were, in the words of the Treaty, "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain".

Charles James Fox

(1749-1806), Britain's first foreign secretary (1782, 1783, 1806), a famous champion of liberty, whose career, on the face of it, was nevertheless one of almost unrelieved failure. He achieved only two important reforms, steering through Parliament a resolution pledging it to abolish the slave trade speedily and, in the 1792 Libel Act, restoring to juries their right to decide not merely whether an allegedly libellous article had, in fact, been published but also what constituted libel in any given case and whether or not a defendant was guilty of it. Rival to William Pitt the Younger. Supporter of French Revolution.

Gordon Riots

(1780) began as an anti-Catholic protest in London against the Papists Act of 1778, which was intended to reduce official discrimination against British Catholics. The protest evolved into riots and looting. The Popery Act 1698 had imposed a number of penalties and disabilities on Roman Catholics in England; the 1778 Act eliminated some of these. The Riots came at the height of the American War of Independence, when Britain was fighting American rebels, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic. They led to unfounded fears that the riots had been a deliberate attempt by France and Spain to destabilize Britain before an imminent invasion similar to the Armada of 1779.

Cottonopolis

19th century nickname for Manchester, as it was a metropolis and the centre of the cotton industry.

Beau Nash

A celebrated dandy and leader of fashion in 18th-century Britain. He is best remembered as the Master of Ceremonies at the spa town of Bath. His position was unofficial, but nevertheless he had extensive influence in the city until early 1761. He would meet new arrivals to Bath and judge whether they were suitable to join the select "Company' of 500 to 600 people who had pre-booked tables, match ladies with appropriate dancing partners at each ball, pay the musicians at such events, broker marriages, escort unaccompanied wives and regulate gambling (by restraining compulsive gamblers or warning players against risky games or cardsharps). He was notable for encouraging a new informality in manners, breaking down the rigid barriers which had previously divided the nobility from the middle-class patrons of Bath, and even from the gentry.

Fiscal-Military State

A state that bases its economic model on the sustainment of its armed forces, usually in times of prolonged or severe conflict. Characteristically, fiscal-military states will subject citizens to high taxation for this purpose. In the past, states such as Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden, which were embroiled in long-lasting periods of war for local or global hegemony, were organized as fiscal-military states. The British East India Company also employed military fiscalism in maintenance of rule in India in the mid-18th century. Colonial powers generated their revenue for the maintenance of the army. Currently there are few states that could be described as fiscal-military states, which is probably due to the decline of large scale international conflicts in recent times.

Newspaper Tax

A tax was first imposed on British newspapers in 1712. The tax was gradually increased until the 1815 Stamp Act increased it to 4d. a copy. As few people could afford to pay 6d. or 7d. for a newspaper, the tax restricted the circulation of most of these journals to people with fairly high incomes. However, it was not until 1855 that the newspaper stamp duty was finally abolished.

Black Act of 1723

Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1723 in response to a series of raids by two groups of poachers, known as the Blacks. Arising in the aftermath of the South Sea Bubble's collapse and the ensuing economic downturn, the Blacks gained their name from their habit of blacking their faces when undertaking poaching raids. They quickly demonstrated both "a calculated programme of action, and a conscious social resentment", and their activities led to the introduction of the Black Act to Parliament on 26 April 1723; it came into force on 27 May. The Act introduced the death penalty for over 50 criminal offences, including being found in a forest while disguised, and "no other single statute passed during the eighteenth century equalled [the Black Act] in severity, and none appointed the punishment of death in so many cases". Following a criminal law reform campaign in the early 19th century, it was largely repealed on 8 July 1823, when a reform bill introduced by Robert Peel came into force.

Jewish Relief Act of 1858

Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which removed previous barriers to Jews entering Parliament. Following the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 there had been an unsuccessful attempt in 1830 to also allow Jews to sit in Parliament. The 1858 measure was the result of a long process which began with a bill introduced by the Whig leader Lord John Russell following the election of Lionel de Rothschild to the City of London constituency in 1847. Rothschild could not take the seat without taking the Christian oath. The bill was supported by the future Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli but not by his party. In 1848, the bill was approved by the House of Commons but was twice rejected by the House of Lords as was a new bill in 1851. In the 1852 general election, Rothschild was again elected but the next year the bill was again defeated in the upper house. Finally, in 1858, the House of Lords agreed to a proposal to allow each house to decide its own oath. The bill allowed "any Person professing the Jewish Religion, [to] omit the Words 'and I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian'" in their oaths, but explicitly did not extend to allowing Jews to various high offices, and also stated that "it shall not be lawful for any Person professing the Jewish Religion, directly or indirectly, to advise Her Majesty ... touching or concerning ... any office or preferment in the Church of England or in the Church of Scotland."

Major Cartwright

Advocate of radical reform of the British Parliament and of various constitutional changes that were later incorporated into the People's Charter (1838), the basic document of the working class movement known as Chartism. His younger brother Edmund was the inventor of the power loom. See Chartism.

"Hungry Forties"

Also known as the European Potato Failure. Food crisis caused by potato blight that struck Northern Europe in the mid-1840s. While the crisis produced excess mortality and suffering across the affected areas, particularly affected were the Scottish Highlands and even more harshly Ireland. Many people starved due to lack of access to other staple food sources.

Lichfield House Compact (1835)

An 1835 agreement between the Whig government, the Irish Repeal Party and the Radicals to act as one body against the Conservative Party. It allowed O'Connell to push for further reforms for Ireland. It was signed in February 1835. The Compact has been argued by historians to have been the moment of formation of the Liberal Party. However, the Compact was formed in opposition to the Peelite faction, and some argue that it was the Peelites whose contribution to Liberal ideology played a dominant role in later years. A number of supporters of Daniel O'Connell saw this agreement as a betrayal of their hopes for a repeal of the Act of Union. Many voters saw the alliance as dangerous. However, the Whigs and their Radical and Repeal allies won a majority in the January 1835 general election, and in April their leader Lord Melbourne replaced Peel as Prime Minister.

Catholic Association

An Irish Roman Catholic political organization set up by Daniel O'Connell in the early nineteenth century to campaign for Catholic emancipation within Great Britain. It was one of the first mass-membership political movements in Europe. It organized large-scale public protestsin Ireland. Senior British official Sir Robert Peel was alarmed and warned an associate of his in 1824, "We cannot tamely sit by while the danger is hourly increasing, while a power co-ordinate with that of the Government is rising by its side, nay, daily counteracting its views." The Duke of Wellington, Britain's prime minister and its most famous war hero, told Peel, "If we cannot get rid of the Catholic Association, we must look to civil war in Ireland sooner or later." To stop the momentum of the Catholic Association it was necessary to pass Catholic Emancipation, and so Wellington and Peel turned enough Tory votes to win. Passage demonstrated that the veto power long held by the Ultra-Tories faction of reactionary Tories no longer was operational, and significant reforms were now possible.

The Extraordinary Black Book

An extraordinary document which details the corruption and financial abuses of the British government as well as the sinecures and privileges of the army, church, and other groups. It was drawn up by John Wade as part of the radical movement to expand the franchise in England in 1832.

"Less Eligibility"

British government policy passed into law in the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.It stated that conditions in workhouses had to be worse than conditions available outside so that there was a deterrence to claiming poor relief. In reality this meant that an individual had to be destitute in order to qualify for poor relief.

South Sea Bubble

British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of national debt. The company was also granted a monopoly to trade with South America and nearby islands, hence its name. (The modern use of the term "South Seas" to refer to the entire South Pacific was unknown in England at the time.) When the company was created, Britain was involved in the War of the Spanish Succession and Spain controlled South America. There was no realistic prospect that trade would take place and the company never realised any significant profit from its monopoly. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its operations dealing in government debt, peaking in 1720 before collapsing to little above its original flotation price; the economic bubble became known as the South Sea Bubble.

Robert Peel

British statesman of the Conservative Party who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834-35 and 1841-46) and twice as Home Secretary. Peel often started from a traditional Tory position in opposition to a measure, then reversed his stance and became the leader in supporting liberal legislation. This happened with the Test Act, Catholic Emancipation, the Reform Act, income tax and, most notably, the repeal of the Corn Laws as the first two years of the Irish famine forced this resolution because of the urgent need for new food supplies. Peel, a Conservative, achieved repeal with the support of the Whigs in Parliament, overcoming the opposition of most of his own party. Many critics accordingly saw him as a traitor to the Tory cause, or as "a Liberal wolf in sheep's clothing", because his final position reflected liberal ideas.

Robert Walpole

British statesman who is generally regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain. Walpole was one of the greatest politicians in British history. He played a significant role in sustaining the Whig party, safeguarding the Hanoverian succession, and defending the principles of the Glorious Revolution (1688) ... He established a stable political supremacy for the Whig party and taught succeeding ministers how best to establish an effective working relationship between Crown and Parliament.

Lord Palmerston

British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period 1830 to 1865, when Britain was at the height of her imperial power. He held office almost continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865. He began his parliamentary career as a Tory, defected to the Whigs in 1830, and became the first Prime Minister of the newly formed Liberal Party in 1859.

Maynooth Grant

Cash grant from the British government to a Catholic seminary in Ireland. In 1845, the Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, sought to improve the relationship between Catholic Ireland and Protestant England by increasing the annual grant from the British government to Maynooth, a Catholic seminary in Ireland in dilapidated condition. It aroused a major political controversy in the 1840s, reflecting the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic feelings of the British Protestants.

Chartism

Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in Britain that existed from 1838 to 1857. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement. People's Charter called for six reforms: Vote for every man 21+, Secret Ballot, No property qualification for members of parliament, Payment of parliamentary members, Equal constituencies, and annual parliamentary elections.

Thomas Carlyle

Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime with certain acclaim in the Victorian era. Essentially a Romantic, Carlyle attempted to reconcile Romantic affirmations of feeling and freedom with respect for historical and political fact. Many believe that he was always more attracted to the idea of heroic struggle itself, than to any specific goal for which the struggle was being made. Great man theory is a 19th-century idea according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great men, or heroes; highly influential individuals who, due to either their personal charisma, intelligence, wisdom, or political skill used their power in a way that had a decisive historical impact.

Rotten boroughs

Depopulated election district that retains its original representation. The term was first applied by English parliamentary reformers of the early 19th century to such constituencies maintained by the crown or by an aristocratic patron to control seats in the House of Commons. Just before the passage of the Reform Act of 1832, more than 140 parliamentary seats of a total of 658 were in rotten boroughs, 50 of which had fewer than 50 voters.

Lunar Society

Dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle, "Lunar Society" became the formal name by 1775. The name arose because the society would meet during the full moon, as the extra light made the journey home easier and safer in the absence of street lighting.

English Declaration of Rights

Document written to detail the wrongs committed by the King of England, James II, and specify the rights that all citizens of England should be entitled to and that all English monarchs should abide by. The English Parliament read the Declaration aloud to William of Orange and his wife, Mary (daughter of the absent James II) on 6 February 1689 when the formal offer of the throne was made to them jointly, although it was not made a condition of their acceptance. The Declaration was a tactical compromise between the Whig and Tory parties, who advocated for Constitutional Monarchism and Absolutism respectively.

Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842)

Edwin Chadwick was commissioned by the government to undertake an investigation into sanitation and make recommendations on improving conditions. What followed was the independent and self-funded Report on the sanitary conditions of the laboring population of Great Britain. Chadwick found that there was a link between poor living standards and the spread and growth of disease. He recommended that the government should intervene by providing clean water, improving drainage systems and enabling local councils to clear away refuse from homes and streets. To persuade the government to act, Chadwick argued that the poor conditions endured by impoverished and ailing laborers were preventing them from working efficiently.

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII and after 1766 the Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain. During his lifetime, he was also known as "The Young Pretender" or "The Young Chevalier" and in popular memory as "Bonnie Prince Charlie". He is best remembered for his role in the 1745 rising; defeat at Culloden in April 1746 effectively ended the Stuart cause and subsequent attempts such as a planned French invasion in 1759 failed to materialize. His escape from Scotland after the uprising led him to be portrayed as a romantic figure of heroic failure in later representations

Henry Sacheverell

English High Church Anglican clergyman who achieved nationwide fame in 1709 after preaching an incendiary 5 November sermon. He was subsequently impeached by the House of Commons and though he was found guilty, his light punishment was seen as a vindication and he became a popular figure in the country, contributing to the Tories' landslide victory at the general election of 1710.

John Wesley

English cleric and theologian who, with his brother Charles and fellow cleric George Whitefield, founded Methodism. A key step in the development of Wesley's ministry was, like Whitefield, to travel and preach outdoors. Under Wesley's direction, Methodists became leaders in many social issues of the day, including prison reform and the abolition of slavery.

Richard Arkwright

English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. Although his patents were eventually overturned, he is credited with inventing the spinning frame, which following the transition to water power was renamed the water frame. He also patented a rotary carding engine that transformed raw cotton into cotton lap. Arkwright's achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and the new raw material of cotton to create mass-produced yarn. His skills of organization made him, more than anyone else, the creator of the modern factory system, especially in his mill at Cromford, Derbyshire, now preserved as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. Later in his life Arkwright was known as the "father of the modern industrial factory system."

Richard Cobden

English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with two major free trade campaigns, the Anti-Corn Law League and the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty. The Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1860, promoting closer interdependence between Britain and France. This campaign was conducted in collaboration with John Bright and French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament's endemic mistrust of the French.

William Hogarth

English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects", perhaps best known being his moral series A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian"

Jeremy Bentham

English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism. Bentham defined as the "fundamental axiom" of his philosophy the principle that "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong".

William Wilberforce

English politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to stop the slave trade. He headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.

Josiah Wedgewood

English potter and entrepreneur. He founded the Wedgwood Company. He is credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. The renewed classical enthusiasms of the late 1760s and early 1770s were of major importance to his sales promotion. His expensive goods were in much demand from the nobility, while he used emulation effects to market cheaper sets to the rest of society.

Edwin Chadwick

English social reformer who is noted for his work to reform the Poor Laws and to improve sanitation and public health. A disciple of Jeremy Bentham, he was most active between 1832 and 1854; after that he held minor positions, and his views were largely ignored.

John Bright

Famous for battling the Corn Laws. In partnership with Richard Cobden, he founded the Anti-Corn Law League, aimed at abolishing the Corn Laws, which raised food prices and protected landowners' interests by levying taxes on imported wheat. The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846. Bright also worked with Cobden in another free trade initiative, the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1860, promoting closer interdependence between Britain and France. This campaign was conducted in collaboration with French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament's endemic mistrust of the French.

Somersett's Case

Famous judgment of the Court of King's Bench in 1772, which held that chattel slavery was unsupported by the common law in England and Wales, although the position elsewhere in the British Empire was left ambiguous. Slavery had never been authorized by statute in England and Wales, and Lord Mansfield's decision found it also unsupported in common law. Lord Mansfield narrowly limited his judgment to the issue of whether a person, regardless of being a slave, could be removed from England against their will, and said they could not. Even this reading meant that certain property rights in chattel slaves were unsupported by common law. It is one of the most significant milestones in the abolitionist campaign.

Highland Clearances

Forced eviction of inhabitants of the Highlands and western islands of Scotland, beginning in the mid-to-late 18th century and continuing intermittently into the mid-19th century. The removals cleared the land of people primarily to allow for the introduction of sheep pastoralism. The Highland Clearances resulted in the destruction of the traditional clan society and began a pattern of rural depopulation and emigration from Scotland.

Tolpuddle Martyrs

Group of 19th-century Dorset agricultural labourers who were arrested for and convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. The rules of the society show it was clearly structured as a friendly society and operated as a trade-specific benefit society. At the time, friendly societies had strong elements of what are now considered to be the predominant role of trade unions. On 18 March 1834, the Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced to penal transportation to Australia.

Hellfire Club

Hellfire Club was a name for several exclusive clubs for high society rakes established in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. Such clubs were rumored to be the meeting places of "persons of quality" who wished to take part in socially perceived immoral acts, and the members were often involved in politics.

Repeal of the Corn Laws (1846)

In 1845 and 1846, the first two years of Great Famine in Ireland, there was a disastrous fall in food supplies. Prime Minister Peel called for repeal despite the opposition of most of his Conservative Party. The Anti-Corn Law League played a minor role in the passage of legislation—it had paved the way through its agitation but was now on the sidelines.

Six Acts

In Britain, following the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, the British government acted to prevent any future disturbances by the introduction of new legislation, the so-called Six Acts aimed at suppressing any meetings for the purpose of radical reform. Six Acts included: Training prevention, Seizure of arms, Seditious Meetings, Blasphemous and Seditious Libels, Misdemeanors, Newspaper and Stamp duties

Enclosure

In England and Wales the term is also used for the process that ended the ancient system of arable farming in open fields. Under enclosure, such land is fenced (enclosed) and deeded or entitled to one or more owners. The process of enclosure began to be a widespread feature of the English agricultural landscape during the 16th century. Enclosure is considered one of the causes of the British Agricultural Revolution. Enclosed land was under control of the farmer who was free to adopt better farming practices. There was widespread agreement in contemporary accounts that profit making opportunities were better with enclosed land. Following enclosure, crop yields increased while at the same time labour productivity increased enough to create a surplus of labour. The increased labour supply is considered one of the causes of the Industrial Revolution.

"Macaronis"

In mid-18th-century England was a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion"[2] in terms of clothes, fastidious eating, and gambling.

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

It was one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London, from the mid-17th century to the mid-19th century. The site became Vauxhall Gardens in 1785 and admission was charged for its many attractions. The Gardens drew all manner of people and supported enormous crowds, with its paths being noted for romantic assignations. Tightrope walkers, hot-air balloon ascents, concerts and fireworks provided entertainment. The rococo "Turkish tent" became one of the Gardens' structures, the interior of the Rotunda became one of Vauxhall's most viewed attractions, and the chinoiserie style was a feature of several buildings.

The 3rd Earl of Bute

John Stuart, Earl of Bute, was a favourite of George III. PM from 1762-63. Bute faced the difficult task of negotiating peace at the end of the Seven Years War. A new tax on cider increased his unpopularity and stoked fears that George III was more authoritarian than his predecessors. Even after his resignation, it was claimed that Bute continued to influence the king.

John Wilkes

John Wilkes (1725 -1797) was an English radical, journalist, and politician. In 1780, however, he commanded militia forces which helped put down the Gordon Riots, damaging his popularity with many radicals. This marked a turning point, leading him to embrace increasingly conservative policies which caused dissatisfaction among the progressive-radical low-to-middle income landowners. See North Briton 45.

George I

King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698 until his death. Although over 50 Roman Catholics were closer to Anne by primogeniture, the Act of Settlement 1701 prohibited Catholics from inheriting the British throne; George was Anne's closest living Protestant relative. In reaction, Jacobites attempted to depose George and replace him with Anne's Catholic half-brother, James Francis Edward Stuart, but their attempts failed. During George's reign, the powers of the monarchy diminished and Britain began a transition to the modern system of cabinet government led by a prime minister. Towards the end of his reign, actual political power was held by Robert Walpole, now recognised as Britain's first de facto prime minister.

King George III

King of the United Kingdom from 1760-1820. Marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain's American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. "The scapegoat for the failure of imperialism"

Poor Law Amendment Act (1834)

Known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the Poor Law of 1601 and attempted to fundamentally change the poverty relief system in England and Wales. The Act has been described as "the classic example of the fundamental Whig-Benthamite reforming legislation of the period". Its theoretical basis was Thomas Malthus's principle that population increased faster than resources unless checked, Thomas Malthus's "iron law of wages" and Jeremy Bentham's doctrine that people did what was pleasant and would tend to claim relief rather than working. The Act was intended to curb the cost of poor relief, and address abuses of the old system, prevalent in southern agricultural counties, by enabling a new system to be brought in under which relief would only be given in workhouses, and conditions in workhouses would be such as to deter any but the truly destitute from applying for relief.

David Salomons

Leading figure in the 19th century struggle for Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom. He was the first Jewish Sheriff of the City of London and Lord Mayor of London. In 1851, he stood as a Liberal candidate at a by-election in the Greenwich constituency, and on 28 June he was elected as one of the constituency's two Members of Parliament (MPs). He was not permitted to serve in the House of Commons, because he had not taken the oath of abjuration in the form established by Parliament. However, he did not withdraw quietly: instead he took the oath, but omitted the Christian phrases, and took his seat on the government benches. He was asked to withdraw, and did so on the second request, but he returned three days later, on 21 July 1851. In the debate that followed, Salomons defended his presence on grounds of having been elected by a large majority, but was eventually removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and fined £500 for having voted illegally in three divisions of the House. When the law was eventually changed in 1858, Lionel de Rothschild became the first Jewish MP to legally take his seat, having been elected in 1857. In the 1859 general election, David Salomons was re-elected for Greenwich and served as the constituency's MP until his death in 1873.

Power Loom

Mechanized loom powered by a line shaft and alcohol, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. By 1850 there was 260,000 power looms in operation in England. Fifty years later came the Northrop loom which replenished the shuttle when it was empty. This replaced the Lancashire loom.

Spinning Jenny

Multi-spindle spinning frame, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. The device reduced the amount of work needed to produce cloth, with a worker able to work eight or more spools at once. This grew to 120 as technology advanced. The yarn produced by the jenny was not very strong until Richard Arkwright invented the water-powered 'Water Frame', which produced yarn harder and stronger than that of the initial spinning jenny. It started the factory system.

Robinson Crusoe

Novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. Robinson is a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical desert island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers, before ultimately being rescued. Despite its simple narrative style, Robinson Crusoe was well received in the literary world and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre.

Daniel O'Connell

Often referred to as The Liberator or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century. He campaigned for Catholic emancipation—including the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 years—and repeal of the Acts of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland. Throughout his career in Irish politics, O'Connell was able to gain a large following among the Irish masses in support of him and his Catholic Association. O'Connell's main strategy was one of political reformism, working within the parliamentary structures of the British state in Ireland and forming an alliance of convenience with the Whigs. More radical elements broke with O'Connell to found the Young Ireland movement.

Granville Sharp

One of the first English campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade. He also involved himself in trying to correct other social injustices. Sharp formulated the plan to settle black people in Sierra Leone, and founded the St. George's Bay Company, a forerunner of the Sierra Leone Company. His efforts led to both the founding of the Province of Freedom, and later on Freetown, Sierra Leone, and so he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Sierra Leone.

Irish Potato Famine

Period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. During the famine, about one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%.

Pax Brittanica

Period of relative peace between the Great Powers during which the British Empire became the global hegemonic power and adopted the role of a global police force. Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britain's "imperial century", around 10,000,000 square miles (26,000,000 km2) of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British Empire. Victory over Napoleonic France left the British without any serious international rival, other than perhaps Russia in central Asia. When Russia tried expanding its influence in the Balkans, the British and French defeated them in the Crimean War (1854-56), thereby protecting the feeble Ottoman Empire.

Condition of England Question

Phrase coined by Thomas Carlyle in 1839 to describe the conditions of the English working-class during the Industrial Revolution.

Whigs

Political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute monarchy. The Whigs played a central role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and were the standing enemies of the Stuart kings and pretenders, who were Roman Catholic. The Whigs took full control of the government in 1715 and remained totally dominant until King George III, coming to the throne in 1760, allowed Tories back in. The Party's hold on power was so strong and durable, historians call the period from roughly 1714 to 1783 the age of the "Whig Oligarchy" The Whigs thoroughly purged the Tories from all major positions in government, the army, the Church of England, the legal profession and local offices..

Jacobitism

Political movement in Great Britain and Ireland that aimed to restore the Roman Catholic Stuart King James II of England and Ireland (as James VII in Scotland) and his heirs to the thrones of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. The movement took its name from Jacobus, the Renaissance Latin form of Iacobus, which in turn comes from the original Latin form of James, "Iacobus". Adherents rebelled against the British government on several occasions between 1688 and 1746.

Lord Liverpool

Prime Minister (1812-27). As Prime Minister, Liverpool called for repressive measures at domestic level to maintain order after the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. He also steered the country through the period of radicalism and unrest that followed the Napoleonic Wars. He sought a compromise of the heated issue of Catholic emancipation. Throughout his career, he remained opposed to the idea of Catholic emancipation, though did see marginal concessions as important to the stability of the nation such as the admittance of English Roman Catholics to the higher ranks of the armed forces, the magistracy, and the parliamentary franchise; but he remained opposed to their participation in parliament itself.

Queen Anne

Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland between 8 March 1702 and 1 May 1707. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, two of her realms, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain. She continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death. During her reign, Anne favored moderate Tory politicians, who were more likely to share her Anglican religious views than their opponents, the Whigs. The Whigs grew more powerful during the course of the War of the Spanish Succession, until 1710 when Anne dismissed many of them from office.

North Briton 45

Radical newspaper published in 18th century London. Although written anonymously, The North Briton is closely associated with the name of John Wilkes. The North Briton issue number 45 (23 April 1763) is the most famous issue of the paper. It criticized a royal speech in which King George III praised the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years' War. Wilkes was charged with libel (accusing the King of lying), and imprisoned for a short time in the Tower of London. Wilkes challenged the warrant for his arrest and seizure of his paper, eventually winning the case. His courtroom speeches started the "Wilkes and Liberty!" cry, popular slogan for freedom of speech and resistance to power. Later that year, Wilkes reprinted the issue, which was again seized by the government. In 1764, the British House of Commons declared Wilkes the author of number 45. Nonetheless, by the time Wilkes was released from prison in 1770, "45" was still a popular icon not only of Wilkes, but of freedom of speech in general.

Earl Grey

Refers to Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he was a long-time leader of multiple reform movements, most famously the Reform Act 1832. His government also saw the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, in which the government purchased slaves from their owners in 1833. Grey was a strong opponent of the foreign and domestic policies of William Pitt the Younger in the 1790s. In 1807, he resigned as foreign secretary to protest the King's uncompromising rejection of Catholic Emancipation. Grey finally resigned in 1834 over disagreements in his cabinet regarding Ireland, and retired from politics.

Old Pretender

Refers to James Francis Edward Stuart. son of King James II and VII, the monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife Mary of Modena. His Catholic father was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 only months after his birth, and his Protestant older half-sister Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. The Bill of Rights 1689 and Act of Succession 1701 excluded Catholics from the British throne, and James was raised in exile. After his father's death in 1701, James claimed the English, Scottish and Irish thrones as James III of England and Ireland and James VIII of Scotland, in which he was supported by his Jacobite followers and his cousin Louis XIV of France. In 1715, he unsuccessfully attempted to gain power in Britain during the Jacobite rising of 1715.Following his death in 1766, his elder son Charles Edward Stuart continued to make these claims pursuant to the Jacobite Succession.

Edmund Burke

Served as a member of parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons with the Whig Party. Burke was a proponent of underpinning virtues with manners in society and of the importance of religion in moral life. These views were expressed in his A Vindication of Natural Society. Burke criticized British treatment of the American colonies, including through its taxation policies. He also supported the rights of the colonists to resist metropolitan authority, though he opposed the attempt to achieve independence. Burke is remembered for his support for Catholic emancipation, the impeachment of Warren Hastings from the East India Company and for his staunch opposition to the French Revolution. In his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke claimed that the revolution was destroying the fabric of good society, traditional institutions of state and society and condemned the persecution of the Catholic Church that resulted from it. This led to his becoming the leading figure within the conservative faction of the Whig Party, which he dubbed the "Old Whigs", as opposed to the pro-French Revolution "New Whigs", led by Charles James Fox.

Society of Dilettanti

Society of noblemen and scholars which sponsors the study of ancient Greek and Roman art, and the creation of new work in the style. The Society of Dilettanti aimed to correct and purify the public taste of the country.

Anti-Corn Law League

Successful political movement in Great Britain aimed at the abolition of the unpopular Corn Laws, which protected landowners' interests by levying taxes on imported wheat, thus raising the price of bread at a time when factory-owners were trying to cut wages. Its long-term goals included the removal of feudal privileges, which it denounced as impeding progress, lowering economic well-being, and restricting freedom. The League played little role in the final act in 1846 when Sir Robert Peel led the successful battle for repeal. However, its experience provided a model that was widely adopted in Britain and other democratic nations to demonstrate the organization of a political pressure group with the popular base.

William III

Supported by a group of influential British political and religious leaders, invaded England in what became known as the "Glorious Revolution". 1688, he landed at the southern English port of Brixham. James (catholic father in-law) was deposed and William and Mary became joint sovereigns in his place. They reigned together until her death on 1694, after which William ruled as sole monarch. William's reputation as a staunch Protestant enabled him to take power in Britain when many were fearful of a revival of Catholicism under James. William's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is still commemorated by loyalists in Northern Ireland and Scotland. His reign in Britain marked the beginning of the transition from the personal rule of the Stuarts to the more Parliament-centred rule of the House of Hanover.

Liberal Toryism

Term used to describe Liverpool's administration between 1822 and 1827. The policies of Liverpool's administration after 1822 marked a shift in emphasis from solely maintaining law and order to encouraging economic prosperity as well. This change in government policy was induced by a decline in extra-parliamentary agitation after the Peterloo Massacre in August 1819 and the arrest and deaths of the Cato Street conspirators in 1820.

Public Health Act (1848)

The Act established a Central Board of Health, but this had limited powers and no money. Those boroughs that had already formed a Corporation, such as Sunderland, were to assume responsibility for drainage, water supplies, removal of nuisances and paving. Loans could be made for public health infrastructure which were paid back from the rates. Where the death rate was above 23 per 1000, local Boards of Health had to be set up. The main limitation of the Act was that it provided a framework that could be used by local authorities, but did not compel action. Sunderland was one of the towns which was keen to use the new powers offered by the Act, and the Corporation watched the Bill's progress through Parliament.

Cato Street Conspiracy

The Cato Street Conspiracy was an attempt to murder all the British cabinet ministers and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool in 1820. The police had an informer and the plotters fell into a police trap and 13 were arrested, while one policeman was killed. Five conspirators were executed, and five others were transported to Australia. Conspirators were the Spencean Philanthropists

Peterloo Massacre

The Peterloo Massacre occurred at St Peter's Field, Manchester, England, in 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000-80,000 who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment, exacerbated by the introduction of the first of the Corn Laws. By the beginning of 1819, the pressure generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with the relative lack of suffrage in Northern England, had enhanced the appeal of political radicalism. In response, the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform, organised a demonstration to be addressed by the well-known radical orator Henry Hunt. Shortly after the meeting began local magistrates called on the military authorities to arrest Hunt and several others on the hustings with him, and to disperse the crowd. Cavalry charged into the crowd with sabres drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and 400-700 were injured. The massacre was given the name Peterloo in an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier. Peterloo's immediate effect was to cause the government to crack down on reform, with the passing of what became known as the Six Acts.

Spa Fields Riots

The Spa Fields riots were incidents of public disorder arising out of mass meetings at Spa Fields, Islington, England in 1816. Revolutionary Spenceans, who opposed the British government, had planned to encourage rioting and then seize control of the government by taking the Tower of London and the Bank of England. Arthur Thistlewood and three other Spencean leaders were arrested and charged with high treason as a result of the riot; James Watson was on trial during June 1817 with Messrs Wetherell and Copley as their defence counsel. Watson was acquitted and the other three were released without trial.

Addison and Steele

The Spectator was a daily publication founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England, lasting from 1711 to 1712. The Spectator will aim "to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality". The journal reached an audience of thousands of people every day, because "the Spectators was something that every middle-class household with aspirations to looking like its members took literature seriously would want to have." He hopes it will be said he has "brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools, and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee-houses".

Swing Riots

The Swing Riots were a widespread uprising in 1830 by agricultural workers in southern and eastern England. It began with their destruction of threshing machines in the Elham Valley area of East Kent in the summer of 1830, and by early December had spread throughout the whole of southern England and East Anglia. They were protesting agricultural mechanization and other harsh conditions. The rioters directed their anger at the three targets identified as causing their misery: the tithe system, requiring payments to support the established Anglican Church; the Poor Law guardians, who were thought to abuse their power over the poor; and the rich tenant farmers who had been progressively lowering workers' wages while introducing agricultural machinery.

Zong Affair

The Zong massacre was the mass killing of 133 African slaves by the crew of the British slave ship Zong in the days following 29 November 1781. The Gregson slave-trading syndicate, based in Liverpool, owned the ship and sailed her in the Atlantic slave trade. As was common business practice, they had taken out insurance on the lives of the slaves as cargo. When the ship ran low on potable water following navigational mistakes, the crew threw slaves overboard into the sea to drown, partly in order to ensure the survival of the rest of the ship's passengers, and in part to cash in on the insurance on the slaves, thus not losing money on the slaves who would have died from the lack of drinking water. After the slave ship reached port at Black River, Jamaica, Zong's owners made a claim to their insurers for the loss of the slaves. When the insurers refused to pay, the resulting court cases (Gregson v Gilbert (1783) 3 Doug. KB 232) held that in some circumstances, the deliberate killing of slaves was legal and that insurers could be required to pay for the slaves' deaths. The judge, Lord Chief Justice, the Earl of Mansfield, ruled against the syndicate owners in this case, due to new evidence being introduced suggesting the captain and crew were at fault.

Tories

The first Tories emerged in 1678 in England, when they opposed the Whig-supported Exclusion Bill which set out to disinherit the heir presumptive James, Duke of York, who eventually became James II of England and VII of Scotland. This party ceased to exist as an organixed political entity in the early 1760s, although it was used as a term of self-description by some political writers. A few decades later, a new Tory party would rise to establish a hold on government between 1783 and 1830, with William Pitt the Younger followed by Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool. The Earl of Liverpool was succeeded by fellow Tory Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, whose term included the Catholic Emancipation, which occurred mostly due to the election of Daniel O'Connell as a Catholic MP from Ireland. When the Whigs subsequently regained control, the Representation of the People Act 1832 removed the rotten boroughs, many of which were controlled by Tories. In the following general election, the Tory ranks were reduced to 180 MPs. Under the leadership of Robert Peel, the Tamworth Manifesto was issued, which began to transform the Tories into the Conservative Party. However, Peel lost many of his supporters by repealing the Corn Laws, causing the party to break apart.[3] One faction, led by the Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli, survived to become the modern Conservative Party. Conservative party members are commonly still referred to as Tories, as they still often follow and promote the ideology of Toryism.

British Raj

The rule by the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947. This system of governance was instituted on 28 June 1858, when, after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria (who, in 1876, was proclaimed Empress of India). It lasted until 1947, when Britains Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states: the Dominion of India (later the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the eastern part of which, still later, became the People's Republic of Bangladesh).

Spencean Philanthropists

Thomas Spence was an English Radical and advocate of the common ownership of land. Spence was one of the leading revolutionaries of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He was born in poverty and died the same way, after long periods of imprisonment, in 1814. His admirers formed a "Society of Spencean Philanthropists," of which some account is given in Harriet Martineau's England During the Thirty Years' Peace. The Society of Spencean Philanthropists were involved in the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820 and Spa Field Riots.

"Peelites"

Those Conservatives who were loyal to Peel. Included the Earl of Aberdeen and William Gladstone. In 1859 the Peelites merged with the Whigs and the Radicals to form the Liberal Party.

George Canning

Tory politician who served in various senior cabinet positions under numerous Prime Ministers, before himself serving as Prime Minister for the final four months of his life. Canning helped the Tory Party take a more liberal view on many questions of domestic, colonial, and foreign policy. Although a steadfast opponent of parliamentary reform, he helped contribute to the creation of that independent and liberal spirit among the younger members of the House of Commons without which the Reform Bill of 1832 could not have been carried without a revolution.

Grand Tour

Traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper class European young men of sufficient means and rank (or those of more humble origin who could find a sponsor), as well as young women if they were also of sufficient means, and accompanied by a chaperon, such as other family members, when they had come of age (about the age of 21 years old). The custom flourished from about 1660, until the advent of large-scale rail transport in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage. Though primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry, similar trips were made by wealthy young men of other Protestant Northern European nations, and from the second half of the 18th century, by some South and North Americans. The tradition declined with the lapse of neo-classical enthusiasm and after rail and steamship travel made the journeys much easier when Thomas Cook made the "Cook's Tour" of early mass tourism a byword.

Factory Acts

UK labor law Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to regulate the conditions of industrial employment. The early Acts concentrated on regulating the hours of work and moral welfare of young children employed in cotton mills but were effectively unenforced until the Act of 1833 established a professional Factory Inspectorate. The regulation of working hours was then extended to women by an Act of 1844. An Act in 1847 (the Ten Hour Act) (together with Acts in 1850 and 1853 remedying defects in the 1847 Act) met a long- standing (and by 1847 well-organised) demand by the millworkers for a ten-hour day. The Factory Acts also sought to ameliorate the conditions under which mill-children worked with requirements on ventilation, sanitation, and guarding of machinery.

Young England Movement

Victorian era political group born on the playing fields of Cambridge, Oxford and Eton. For the most part, its unofficial membership was confined to a splinter group of Tory aristocrats who had attended public school together. Young England promulgated a conservative and romantic species of Social Toryism. Its political message described an idealized feudalism: an absolute monarch and a strong Established Church, with the philanthropy of noblesse oblige as the basis for its paternalistic form of social organization.

Outwork

Whereby small parts of a larger production process were carried out in numerous individual homes. This organizational reform was especially important for shoe and boot making. However, the chief organizational breakthrough of the Industrial Revolution was the "FACTORY SYSTEM" where work was performed on a large scale in a single centralized location.

Lord John Russell

Whig and Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on two occasions during the early Victorian era. Russell led his Whig party into support for reform; he was the principal architect of the great Reform Act of 1832. As Prime Minister his luck ran out. He headed a government that failed to deal with a famine in Ireland that caused the loss of a quarter of its population. Taylor concludes that, as Prime Minister, he was not a success. Indeed, his ministry of 1846 to 1852 was the ruin of the Whig party: it never composed a Government again, and his ministry of 1865 to 1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party also.

Self-Help (1859)

Written by Samuel Smiles, promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. It has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism", and it raised Smiles to celebrity status almost overnight.

Methodism

a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity which derive their inspiration from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother Charles Wesley were also significant early leaders in the movement. It originated as a revival within the 18th century Church of England and became a separate denomination after Wesley's death. The movement spread throughout the British Empire, the United States, and beyond because of vigorous missionary work, today claiming approximately 80 million adherents worldwide.

Workhouses

a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment. The origins of the workhouse can be traced to the Poor Law Act of 1388, which attempted to address the labour shortages following the Black Death in England by restricting the movement of labourers, and ultimately led to the state becoming responsible for the support of the poor. But mass unemployment following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the introduction of new technology to replace agricultural workers in particular, and a series of bad harvests, meant that by the early 1830s the established system of poor relief was proving to be unsustainable. The New Poor Law of 1834 attempted to reverse the economic trend by discouraging the provision of relief to anyone who refused to enter a workhouse. Some Poor Law authorities hoped to run workhouses at a profit by utilising the free labour of their inmates, who generally lacked the skills or motivation to compete in the open market. Most were employed on tasks such as breaking stones, crushing bones to produce fertiliser, or picking oakum using a large metal nail known as a spike, perhaps the origin of the workhouse's nickname.

Clapham Sect

group of Church of England social reformers based in Clapham, London, at the beginning of the 19th century (active 1780s-1840s). They are described by the historian Stephen Michael Tomkins as "a network of friends and families in England, with William Wilberforce as its centre of gravity, who were powerfully bound together by their shared moral and spiritual values, by their religious mission and social activism, by their love for each other, and by marriage".

William Pitt

prominent British Tory statesman of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest British prime minister in 1783 at the age of 24. He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806. The younger Pitt's prime ministerial tenure, which came during the reign of George III, was dominated by major events in Europe, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt, although often referred to as a Tory, or "new Tory", called himself an "independent Whig" and was generally opposed to the development of a strict partisan political system. He led Britain in the great wars against France and Napoleon. To meet the threat of Irish support for France, he engineered the Acts of Union 1800 and tried (but failed) to get Catholic Emancipation as part of the Union. He created the "new Toryism", which revived the Tory Party and enabled it to stay in power for the next quarter-century. One of Pitt's most important accomplishments was a rehabilitation of the nation's finances after the American War of Independence. Pitt helped manage the mounting national debt, and made changes to the tax system in order to improve its capture of revenue. Some of Pitt's other domestic plans were not as successful; he failed to secure parliamentary reform, emancipation, or the abolition of the slave trade, although this last did take place with the Slave Trade Act 1807 the year after his death.

Olaudah Equiano

writer and abolitionist from the Igbo region of what is today southeastern Nigeria according to his memoir, or from South Carolina according to other sources. Enslaved as a child, Equiano purchased his own freedom in 1766. He was a promient abolitionist in the British movement to end the Atlantic slave trade. His autobiography, published in 1789, helped in the creation of the Slave Trade Act 1807 which ended the transatlantic slave trade for Britain and its colonies. Told Granville Sharp about Zong Affair.