To What Extent Did The Government Show Excessive Concern to
Between 1815 and 1820 Britain was suffering from out brakes of public disturbances and general unrest. The party in power was the Tories and the prime minister was Lord Liverpool. Many bills and laws were past during this time which dealt with law and order issues. This was a reaction to the perceived threat of revolution in Britain. But did the government overreact to the situation?British society in 1815 was under radical change. The industrial revolution had meant that urbanisation was taking place. Badly designed and polluted cities were populated by millions of poor factory workers that lived in crowded and squalid conditions. Many writers and poets of the time recognised the harsh lives that the working class had to live in. Many writings of the time comment on the civil unrest and the affect that the rapid growth of industry was having on the working class. The unhappiness felt by the working class manifested itself into many well-known examples of the disillusionment felt towards the government. The Radical party was seen as the voice of the people for this period of unrest. Famous leaders such as Major John Cartwright created debating clubs all over Britain to give the working class a voice. Henry Hunt gained a re
Five members of the group were executed. The government deployed over 22,000 extra troops in suspected hotspots. The government was undoubtedly out of touch with the working class. This was a rather harsh punishment for men who were tricked into the plot by a government spy. This was a huge overreaction to the perceived threat of radicalism. In fact without Edwards interference the group wouldn't have been a threat at all. This was an early for of detective work. The facts were that the cause of the unrest was in fact economic reasons such as the Corn Law, the end of the war and thus the loss of military contracts and social reasons such as bad living conditions. In direct response to the Spa Field meetings the government suspended Habeas Corpus. A very famous spy, George Edwards infiltrated a group of Spenceans. This was symptomatic of a government that considered all problems to be with law and order. An example of this was The Cato Street Conspiracy. The acts were a very specific reaction to the dangerous situation developing. Both Lord Liverpool and Lord Sidmouth had lived through the French revolution and thus could see the affects that a revolution could have on a country. While all this law and order legislation was going through economic and social subjects and legislation was ignored.
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Napoleonic Wars,
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