Post-Reform England

The Reform Act of 1832 fully satisfied the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie. The Whigs were eager to pacify the country as the workers realizing that they had been cheated stepped up their struggle for economic and social rights.

The reforms were introduced by the Whigs. Under the pressure of the workers the parliamentary Act of 1833 placed a minimum age limit of nine years for factory workers, required children under thirteen to attend school part of each day, restricted their hours of labour, and provided a system of inspection.

Parliamentary sittings became open to the public and a special gallery in Parliament was open to the press and public.

The Whigs made another gesture. The law of 1834 abolished slavery in the colonies, decreeing that slaves then living should be apprenticed and freed gradually and that others born later should be free born.

In 1837 William IV died, and his eighteen-year-old niece, Victoria, became queen (1837 – 1901). Her reign of more than sixty-three years was the longest in English history. It was a period when England attained industrial and financial supremacy. Many traits of life of the English well-to-do classes such as snobbery, conservatism, an imperial outlook, humbug and hypocrisy are associated with the name of Queen Victoria.

The thirties and forties of the nineteenth century marked the final stages of the Industrial Revolution which set in motion a train of changes in all aspects of English life.

In connection with the development of large-scale industry, the conditions of the artisans who were being ruined were appalling. Those who went to work in the factory also suffered greatly. They worked 16 – 18 hours a day and received a pittance for their labour. The emergence of the working class was associated with new types of protest – more highly organized, sustained, political and, above all, class-conscious. As always, the change from one type of social action to another was not sudden and complete.

In the meantime the working class in the course of struggle for its rights was gaining a mature sense of class consciousness. It meant that industrial organization and strike action were the only remaining options left to the workers to defend their economic and social rights. It was within this atmosphere of social disillusionment and discontent that the great political and social movement of the working class was gaining momentum in England in the first half of the nineteenth century known as Chartism.

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