John Wesley, George Whitefield and other early adherents to Wesleyan views began preaching in fields. Their aim was to spread the gospels and save souls. They attracted large audiences and many converts to evangelical Christianity. Called 'Methodists' for their focus of rules, this marked the beginning of their mission to the poor.
Between 1740 and 1744 the British naval commander George Anson sailed around the world in HMS 'Centurion'. Anson returned to England with nearly £500,000 of Spanish treasure. His account of the voyage became a bestseller.
The Battle of Dettingen
From the 1750s, landlords in the Scottish Highlands began to forcibly remove tenants from their land, usually to replace them with more profitable sheep farming. The clearances resulted in whole Highland communities leaving Scotland and emigrating, most of them to North America. Many others moved to growing urban industrial centres such as Glasgow. This was part of a broader process of agricultural change in Britain, but in the Highlands it was marked by particular abruptness and brutality.
The Battle of Plassey took place between Siraj Ud Daulah, the last independent ruler of Bengal, and the forces of the British East India Company led by Colonel Robert Clive. The defeat of Daulah, who was backed by the French, led to the entire province of Bengal passing into Company control. This victory, and the enormous wealth of Bengal, are often seen as important factors in establishing eventual British control over all of India.
Tacky's Revolt was the largest of many slave uprisings in the British West Indies in the 18th century
mercantilism - economic system of the major trading nations during the 16th, 17th, and 18th cent., based on the premise that national wealth and power were best served by increasing exports and collecting precious metals in return. It superseded the medieval feudal organization in Western Europe, especially in Holland, France, and England. The period 1500-1800 was one of religious and commercial wars, and large revenues were needed to maintain armies and pay the growing costs of civil government. Mercantilist nations were impressed by the fact that the precious metals, especially gold, were in universal demand as the ready means of obtaining other commodities; hence they tended to identify money with wealth. As the best means of acquiring bullion, foreign trade was favored above domestic trade, and manufacturing or processing, which provided the goods for foreign trade, was favored at the expense of the extractive industries (e.g., agriculture). State action, an essential feature of the mercantile system, was used to accomplish its purposes. Under a mercantilist policy a nation sought to sell more than it bought so as to accumulate bullion. Besides bullion, raw materials for domestic manufacturers were also sought, and duties were levied on the importation of such goods in order to provide revenue for the government. The state exercised much control over economic life, chiefly through corporations and trading companies. Production was carefully regulated with the object of securing goods of high quality and low cost, thus enabling the nation to hold its place in foreign markets. Treaties were made to obtain exclusive trading privileges, and the commerce of colonies was exploited for the benefit of the mother country. In England mercantilist policies were effective in creating a skilled industrial population and a large shipping industry. Through a series of Navigation Acts (in English history, name given to certain parliamentary legislation, more properly called the British Acts of Trade. The acts were an outgrowth of mercantilism, and followed principles laid down by Tudor and early Stuart trade regulations) England finally destroyed the commerce of Holland, its chief rival. As the classical economists were later to point out, however, even a successful mercantilist policy was not likely to be beneficial, because it produced an oversupply of money and, with it, serious inflation. Mercantilist ideas did not decline until the coming of the Industrial Revolution and of laissez-faire. Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Oliver Cromwell conformed their policies to mercantilism. In France its chief exponent was Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-83, French statesman). mercantilism - economic theory and policy influential in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century that called for government regulation of a nation's economy in order to increase its power at the expense of rival nations. Though the theory existed earlier, the term was not coined until the 18th century; it was given currency by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations (1776). Mercantilism's emphasis on the importance of gold and silver holdings as a sign of a nation's wealth and power led to policies designed to obtain precious metals through trade by ensuring "favourable" trade balances (see balance of trade), meaning an excess of exports over imports, especially if a nation did not possess mines or have access to them. In a favourable trade balance, payments for the goods or services had to be made with gold or silver. Colonial possessions were to serve as markets for exports and as suppliers of raw materials to the mother country, a policy that created conflict between the European colonial powers and their colonies, in particular fanning resentment of Britain in the North American colonies and helping bring about the American Revolution. Mercantilism favoured a large population to supply labourers, purchasers of goods, and soldiers. Thrift and saving were emphasized as virtues because they made possible the creation of capital. Mercantilism provided a favourable climate for the early development of capitalism but was later severely criticized, especially by advocates of laissez-faire, who argued that all trade was beneficial and that strict government controls were counterproductive.
Puritanism - a religious reform movement in the late 16th and 17th centuries that sought to “purify” the Church of England of remnants of the Roman Catholic “popery” that the Puritans claimed had been retained after the religious settlement reached early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Puritans became noted in the 17th century for a spirit of moral and religious earnestness that informed their whole way of life, and they sought through church reform to make their lifestyle the pattern for the whole nation. Their efforts to transform the nation contributed both to civil war in England and to the founding of colonies in America as working models of the Puritan way of life. The moral and religious earnestness that was characteristic of Puritans was combined with the doctrine of predestination inherited from Calvinism to produce a “covenant theology,” a sense of themselves as elect spirits chosen by God to revolutionize history
The Church of Scotland (Protestant Scottish Church)
The Calvinistic tone of the Scottish Reformation was ascribable toJohn Knox (q.v.), who became the leader of the Scottish Reformation. Knox's admiration for John Calvin and for the reformation that Calvin led in Geneva is evident in Knox's Scots Confession, in the Book of Common Order (often known as Knox's liturgy), and in the Book of Discipline, the last of which discussed a plan for a godly church and commonwealth. The Scottish Reformers held a parliament in August 1560, which abolished the authority of the pope in Scotland, adopted the Scots Confession, and forbade the celebration of mass.
Presbyterian in structure and Evangelical in doctrine.
It is controlled by a hierarchy of church courts:
the kirk session (governing the affairs of a congregation),
the presbytery (covering a group of parishes)
the synod (bringing together ministers from a group of presbyteries)
the General Assembly, at which clergy and lay representatives meet annually in Edinburgh to discuss key issues relating to Scottish society
Sir Thomas Fairfax was appointed its lord general and Oliver Cromwell his second-in-command.
Commonwealth 1649-1660 (Interregnum)
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The Austrian lawyer and scholar Philipp Wilhelm von Hornick, in his Austria Over All, If She Only Will of 1684, detailed a nine-point program of what he deemed effective national economy, which sums up the tenets of mercantilism comprehensively:
That every inch of a country's soil be utilized for agriculture, mining or manufacturing.
That all raw materials found in a country be used in domestic manufacture, since finished goods have a higher value than raw materials.
That a large, working population be encouraged.
That all export of gold and silver be prohibited and all domestic money be kept in circulation.
That all imports of foreign goods be discouraged as much as possible.
That where certain imports are indispensable they be obtained at first hand, in exchange for other domestic goods instead of gold and silver.
That as much as possible, imports be confined to raw materials that can be finished [in the home country].
That opportunities be constantly sought for selling a country's surplus manufactures to foreigners, so far as necessary, for gold and silver.
That no importation be allowed if such goods are sufficiently and suitably supplied at home.
Navigation Acts in English history, a series of laws designed to restrict England’s carrying trade to English ships, effective chiefly in the 17th and 18th centuries. The measures, originally framed to encourage the development of English shipping so that adequate auxiliary vessels would be available in wartime, became a form of trade protectionism during an era of mercantilism.
The first navigation act, passed in 1381, remained virtually a dead letter because of a shortage of ships. In the 16th century, various Tudor measures had to be repealed because they provoked retaliation from other countries. The system came into its own at the beginning of the colonial era, in the 17th century. The great Navigation Act passed by the Commonwealth government in 1651 was aimed at the Dutch, then England’s greatest commercial rivals. It distinguished between goods imported from European countries, which could be brought in either English ships or ships of the country of origin, and goods brought from Asia, Africa, or America, which could travel to England, Ireland, or any English colony only in ships from England or the particular colony. Various fish imports and exports were entirely reserved to English shipping, as was the English coastal trade. The law was reenacted in 1660, and the practice was introduced of “enumerating” certain colonial products, which could be shipped directly only to England, Ireland, or another English colony. These included sugar (until 1739), indigo, and tobacco; rice and molasses were added during the 18th century. Nonenumerated goods could go in English ships from English colonies directly to foreign ports. From 1664 English colonies could receive European goods only via England. Scotland was treated as a foreign country until the Act of Union (1707) gave it equal privileges with England; Ireland was excluded from the benefits of the laws between 1670 and 1779.
Although English tonnage and trade increased steadily from the late 17th century, critics of the navigation system argue that this would have occurred in any case and that the policy forced up freight prices, thus ultimately making English manufactured goods less competitive. At first, colonial merchants benefited from an assured market, but the tightening of the laws in 1764 contributed to the unrest leading to the rebellion of England’s American colonies; their achievement of independence made the first serious breach in the navigation system, and from then on exceptions were increasingly made. Enumeration was abandoned in 1822, and the navigation laws were finally repealed in 1849 and 1854.
The British Agricultural Revolution describes a period of development in Britain between the 17th century and the end of the 19th century, which saw a massive increase in agricultural productivity and net output. This in turn supported unprecedented population growth, freeing up a significant percentage of the workforce, and thereby helped drive the Industrial Revolution. How this came about is not entirely clear. In recent decades, enclosure, mechanization, four-field crop rotation, and selective breeding have been highlighted as primary causes, with credit given to relatively few individuals.
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which was used to end some traditional rights, such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on land which is owned by another person, or a group of people. 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. By the 20th century, unenclosed commons had become largely restricted to rough pasture in mountainous areas and in relatively small parts of the lowlands.
Mechanization
Jethro Tull made early advancements in agricultural technology with his seed drill (1701) — a mechanical seeder which distributed seeds efficiently across a plot of land.
Joseph Foljambe's Rotherham plough of 1730, while not the first iron plough, was the first iron plough to have any commercial success in Europe, combining an earlier Dutch design with a number of technological innovations. Its fittings and coulter were made of iron and the mouldboard and share were covered with an iron plate making it lighter to pull and more controllable than previous ploughs. It remained in use in Britain until the development of the tractor.
Andrew Meikle's threshing machine of 1786 was the final straw for many farm labourers, and led to the 1830 agricultural rebellion of Captain Swing (a probably mythical character comparable to the Luddite's Ned Ludd).
Increasing mechanization improved farming efficiency and reduced costs, not least by making many workers redundant.
Four-field crop rotation
From the late 17th century British farmers had been aware of successful Dutch agricultural techniques, which included the sowing of clover seed with barley (clover being a legume with nitrogen-fixing abilities); after the barley harvest, cattle were fattened on the clover crop, their manure further enhancing the soil. During the 18th century enterprising British landowners replaced the old three-field system with a new four-field rotation of crops. Each field was sown annually with a different crop, a four-year rotation typically being turnips (for winter animal feed), followed by barley, clover, and wheat. The system favoured both stockrearing and cereal-growing.
Selective breeding
In England, Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke introduced selective breeding (mating together two animals with particularly desirable characteristics), and inbreeding (the mating of close relatives, such as father and daughter, or brother and sister, to stabilize certain qualities) in order to reduce genetic diversity in desirable animals programs from the mid 18th century. Robert Bakewell cross-bred the Lincoln and Longhorn sheep to produce the New Leicester variety. These methods proved successful in the production of larger and more profitable livestock.
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period of the 18th century marked by social and technological change in which manufacturing began to rely on steam power, fueled primarily by coal, rather than on animal labor, or on water or wind power; and by a shift from artisans who made complete products to factories in which each worker completed a single stage in the manufacturing process. Improvements in transportation encouraged the rapid pace of change. The causes of the Industrial Revolution remain a topic for debate with some historians seeing it as an outgrowth from the social changes of the Enlightenment and the colonial expansion of the 17th century.
Innovations
Textiles – Cotton spinning using Richard Arkwright's water frame. This was patented in 1769 and so came out of patent in 1783. The end of the patent was rapidly followed by the erection of many cotton mills. Similar technology was subsequently applied to spinning worsted yarn for various textiles and flax for linen.
Spinning jenny
Flying shuttle
Steam power – The improved steam engine invented by James Watt was initially mainly used for pumping out mines, but from the 1780s was applied to power machines. This enabled rapid development of efficient semi-automated factories on a previously unimaginable scale in places where waterpower was not available.
Iron founding – In the Iron industry, coke was finally applied to all stages of iron smelting, replacing charcoal. This had been achieved much earlier for lead and copper as well as for producing pig iron in a blast furnace, but the second stage in the production of bar iron depended on the use of potting and stamping (for which a patent expired in 1786) or puddling (patented by Henry Cort in 1783 and 1784).
Industrial Revolution
Textile Machinery
1733 Flying shuttle invented by John Kay - an improvement to looms that enabled weavers to weave faster.
1742 Cotton mills were first opened in England.
1764 Spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves - the first machine to improve upon the spinning wheel.
1764 Water frame invented by Richard Arkwright - the first powered textile machine.
1769Arkwright patented the water frame.
1770Hargreaves patented the Spinning Jenny.
1773The first all-cotton textiles were produced in factories.
1779Crompton invented the spinning mule that allowed for greater control over the weaving process.
The first steam engine
In 1712, Thomas Newcomen together with John Calley built their first engine on top of a water filled mine shaft and used it to pump water out of the mine. The Newcomen engine was the predecessor to the Watt engine and it was one of the most interesting pieces of technology developed during the 1700's. The invention of engines, the first being steam engines, was very important to the industrial revolution.
1769 – James Watt’s Improved Steam Engine Powers the Industrial Revolution
James Watt was sent a Newcomen steam engine to repair that led him to invented improvements for steam engines. Steam engines were now true reciprocating engine and not atmospheric engines. Watt added a crank and flywheel to his engine so that it could provide rotary motion. Watt's steam engine machine was four times more powerful than those engines based on Thomas Newcomen's steam engine design
The Battle of Plassey took place between Siraj Ud Daulah, the last independent ruler of Bengal, and the forces of the British East India Company led by Colonel Robert Clive. The defeat of Daulah, who was backed by the French, led to the entire province of Bengal passing into Company control. This victory, and the enormous wealth of Bengal, are often seen as important factors in establishing eventual British control over all of India.
Tacky's Revolt was the largest of many slave uprisings in the British West Indies in the 18th century
The weaving of cotton cloth had become a major industry by the 1760s, with most of the labour being done by people in their homes. In 1771, inventor Richard Arkwright opened the first cotton mill at Cromford, Derbyshire. The spinning of yarn was carried out by his own patented machine, known as a water frame. This was a significant step towards the automation of labour-intensive industries and heralded the beginning of the 'Factory Age' in Britain.
1779 – Spinning Mule increased variety in threads and yarns
1801 Act of Union
Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Ireland were formally joined under the Act of Union to create the United Kingdom in 1801. The Irish parliament in Dublin was dissolved. Despite the Union, Catholics were still unable to vote at general elections or to hold parliamentary and most public offices.
Working class men devoted to parliamentary reform began a march from Manchester to London to publicise their case to the government. They were nicknamed 'Blanketeers' after the blankets they carried. The marchers were dispersed by troops before they reached Stockport.
A huge crowd of people gathered at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, to hear radical orators speak on the subject of parliamentary reform and high food prices.
George III, the longest-serving Hanoverian monarch, died after occupying the throne for 60 years. His eldest son, who had served as prince regent from 1811 to 1820 when his father was declared insane, became George IV. He had Brighton Pavilion built.
‘Railway Age’
The first public steam railway ran between the north eastern towns of Stockton and Darlington.
In 1828, parliament had repealed the Test and Corporation Acts which had banned Catholics from holding government and public offices or from attending universities. The Catholic Relief Act of 1829 went further, granting full emancipation to British and Irish Catholics.
The Whig Party, elected to power in 1830, introduced a major bill for parliamentary reform. Bristol, Nottingham, Derby and several smaller towns witnessed violent riots after the Reform Bill was rejected by the House of Lords. Nottingham Castle was attacked and the Council House in Bristol was burnt down.
The third version of the Reform Bill finally received assent from the House of Lords and William IV. Tory peers only backed the bill after William IV said he would create 50 new Whig lords - thereby giving the Whigs a majority from which to vote the issue through. The Great Reform Act made important changes to parliamentary constituencies and extended the franchise (those allowed to vote), but did not introduce parliamentary democracy or a secret ballot.
The Act granted seats in the House of Commons to large cities that had sprung up during the Industrial Revolution, and took away seats from the "rotten boroughs"—those with very small populations. The Act also increased the number of individuals entitled to vote, increasing the size of the electorate by 50–80%, and allowing a total of one out of six adult males to vote, in a population of some 14 million.
The Tory peer and reformer Anthony Ashley Cooper promoted the bill, which restricted the hours of work by women and children in textile mills. Under the terms of the act, mill owners were required to show that children up to age 13 received two hours of schooling, six days per week.
In 1832, a Royal Commission into the Poor Law recommended changes to the system of parish poor relief. Many of its recommendations were incorporated into the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. This statute maintained outdoor relief (relief given outside a workhouse), but led to more central control of the system.
Six farm labourers from the Dorset village of Tolpuddle set up a 'friendly society' to campaign for better pay and working conditions. They were put on trial and sent to penal colonies in Australia, but were granted pardons in 1836 following a public outcry. The so-called 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' are credited with helping to launch the trade union movement.
This legislation gave 178 boroughs the right to have their own town council. All ratepayers were thereafter entitled to vote in borough council elections. The new councils gradually took control of local services such as education, housing and street lighting.
08.05.1838 – People’s Charter advocates social and political reform
The People's Charter advocated democratic reform on the basis of six points: one man, one vote; equal electoral districts; payment of members of parliament; elections by secret ballot; removal of property qualifications for MPs; and parliaments elected every year. 'Chartism' gained substantial support among working people during the next decade and presented three national petitions to parliament in 1839, 1842 and 1849. It was the most significant radical pressure group of the 19th century.
01.08.1838 – Slavery is abolished in the British empire
08.1841 – Sir Robert Peel forms a conservative government
The Whig government under Viscount Melbourne faced increasing financial and public order difficulties, and Sir Robert Peel forced a general election after defeating the Whigs on a no-confidence motion in the House of Commons. The Conservatives won a Commons majority of more than 70. This was the first election in modern times when one political party with a parliamentary majority was defeated by another which gained a workable majority of its own.
06.1842 – Income tax is introduced for the first time during peacetime
Income tax was levied for the first time during peace by Sir Robert Peel's Conservative government at a rate of 7d (three pence) in the pound. The tax threshold was an income of £150 per year, thus exempting virtually all the working classes. The tax was not extended to famine-torn Ireland until 1853. Direct taxation was unpopular in Victorian Britain. Many 19th-century finance ministers toyed with the idea of abolishing income tax, but it proved too convenient and too lucrative to lose.
09.1845 – Irish Potato famine begins
30.06.1846 – Prime Minister sir Robert Peel resigns after the Corn Laws are repealed
Sir Robert Peel's famous reforming Conservative government came to an end shortly after legislation to repeal the Corn Laws was passed. This measure removed protective duties which had helped to keep the price of bread high. He championed it despite opposition from most of his own party, and the motion was carried by Whig votes. Peel never took office again and was remembered as the prime minister who gave the working classes cheaper bread.
07.1848 – Public Health Act aims to reduce death rates
Following pressure from the administrator Edwin Chadwick and the findings of the Health of Towns Commission, parliament passed legislation to improve urban conditions and reduce death rates. Local boards of health were established in places where the population's death rate exceeded 23 per 1,000. The act was seen as an unwelcome intrusion by central government and proved very unpopular. The central Board of Health was wound up in 1858.
08.02.1861 – Post Office savings scheme for ordinary people is launched
In the debate that led to the introduction of the Post Office Savings Bank, the chancellor of the exchequer, William Gladstone, stated that the Post Office, which contained almost 3,000 money-order offices, would offer a convenient way of encouraging small sums to accumulate in secure accounts. This initiative accorded with the Liberals' policy of encouraging habits of thrift and industry among what Gladstone called 'the humbler classes throughout the country'.
14.12.1861 – Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, dies aged 42
Albert's premature death from typhoid plunged Victoria into a long period of mourning and withdrawal from public life, during which a republican movement gained popularity. Albert had been both a restraining and a guiding force on his headstrong wife and, although never popular with the British public partly on account of his German origins, he was an able and energetic man who played an important part in the scientific and intellectual life of his adopted country.
13.02.1862 – Education funding becomes linked to pupils results.
Since 1833, the state had funded education for the poor in schools run by churches. Expenditure increased rapidly, especially after the first education inspectors were appointed in 1839 and a pupil-teacher scheme of training was implemented from 1847. By the early 1860s, an economy-minded Liberal government wanted the state to get value for money. Grant payments were linked to pupils' success in basic tests in reading, writing and arithmetic. The system was dubbed 'payment by results'.
16.03.1867 – Joseph Lister writes as antiseptics in “The Lancet”
Joseph Lister, while Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery at Glasgow University, began experiments designed to reduce high hospital mortality rates from septic inflammation. Working on French biologist Louis Pasteur's germ theory, he used carbolic acid as an antiseptic barrier on patients, reducing mortality on a male accident ward from 45% to 15%. Despite initial scepticism, Lister's methods were refined and then widely adopted. He is regarded as the founder of modern surgical practice.
15.08.1867 – Second Reform Act doubles the electorate
This Reform Act was passed by a minority Conservative government led by Frederick, Earl of Derby. Its orchestrator was Benjamin Disraeli, who permitted larger extensions to the franchise than the Liberals would have countenanced. It virtually doubled the electorate, enabling one-third of adult males in Britain and one-sixth in Ireland to vote in parliamentary elections. In a few urban constituencies, working men were an electoral majority. A separate act for Scotland was passed in 1868.
09.12.1868 – William Gladstone becomes prime minister for the first time
William Gladstone headed a Liberal government after defeating Benjamin Disraeli's Conservative government in a general election. Gladstone's ministry survived until 1874 and is credited with passing many reforms, especially relating to administration, the army and public health. Gladstone was to form three further administrations, resigning as prime minister for the last time in March 1894.
17.02.1870 – new low introduces secular school boards
This bill, introduced by the Liberal member of parliament WE Forster, was to extend opportunities for education available to the children of the poor. The act permitted new school boards to be set up where existing education provision in 'voluntary schools', controlled by the churches, was inadequate. A substantial growth in school building resulted, particularly in urban areas. The act did not make schooling compulsory.
09.08.1870 – Woman obtain limited rights to retain their property after
This act changed the previous legal situation, in which all property automatically transferred to the control of a husband on marriage. It granted some limited separate protection to a married woman's property and also permitted women to retain up to £200 of their own wages or earnings. Similar changes did not take effect in Scotland until 1877.
18.07.1872- Ballot Act
William Gladstone's Liberal government introduced voting by secret ballot five years after the Second Reform Act had substantially increased the size of the electorate. This realised one of the key points of the reforming 'Chartist' petition of 1838. Voting in secret was not uncontroversial. The proposal was fiercely contested by the House of Lords, which considered it 'cowardly' and 'unmanly'. It was first employed at a by-election in Pontefract in August of the same year.
02.08.1880 – Education becomes compulsory for children under 10
Although WE Forster's act of 1870 had greatly expanded education opportunities, and an act passed in Benjamin Disraeli's government of 1876 had set up school attendance committees, significant gaps remained. AJ Mundella introduced a bill on behalf of William Gladstone's Liberal government which made school attendance compulsory from ages five to 10. State expenditure on education, about £1.25 million a year in 1870, rose to £4 million, and would reach £12 million by the end of Victoria's reign.
01.01.1883 – Married woman obtain the right to acquire in own property
The 1870 Married Women's Property Act had been widely criticised for failing to provide sufficient safeguards for married women. A further act provided something approaching equality for women since it allowed women to acquire and retain any property deemed separate from that of their husband's. They also received the same legal protection as husbands if they needed to defend their right to property.
12.1884 – Third Reform Act stops short of creating a male democracy
The third Reform Act created a uniform franchise qualification based on the Reform Acts of 1867 and 1868. As a consequence roughly two-thirds of adult males in England and Wales, three-fifths in Scotland and half in Ireland were entitled to vote in parliamentary elections. Large numbers of adult males, such as servants, most members of the armed forces and children living in their parents' houses remained disenfranchised. This act, therefore, stopped some way short of creating a male democracy.
01.04.1889 – New local government authorities take up their duties
Under the Local Government Act passed by the Conservatives the previous year, responsibility for poor law relief, roads, bridges and asylum was transferred to newly-created county councils. London had its own county council, while boroughs with populations over 50,000 became 'county boroughs' with the same powers as county councils. Scotland had its own Local Government Act passed on 26 August 1889 and coming into effect in 1890. This established a similar system of county and town councils.
03.1894 – Parish councils are created
The Local Government Act required all parishes with a population over 300 to elect parish councils; smaller parishes could apply to their county council to have similar status. Women could vote in parish council elections. Under the act, almost 700 urban sanitary districts were reorganised as urban districts and a similar number of rural districts were established. In Scotland, a separate local government act of 1894 replaced existing 'parochial boards' with elected parish councils.
10.1897 – Women’s suffrage campaign gains momentum
The first organised activity in support of votes for women dates from the 1860s, but pressure grew rapidly in the late 1880s. A turning point was the merger of the National Central Society for Women's Suffrage and the Central Committee for Women's Suffrage into the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. The NUWSS co-ordinated a range of regional activities. Its president, Millicent Fawcett, opposed violence and promoted her organisation as law-abiding and above party politics.
10.10.1899 – Second Boer War begins in South Africa
22.01.1901 – Victoria dies and is succeeded by Edward VII
In September 1845, the potato crop which had previously provided approximately 60% of the nation's food needs, began to rot all over Ireland. The potato blight struck again the following year. What began as a natural catastrophe was exacerbated by the actions and inactions of the British government. It is estimated that about a million people died during the four-year famine, and that between 1845 and 1855 another million emigrated, most to Britain and North America.
John Mitchel came to prominence during the Irish potato famine. In March 1848 he founded a journal, 'United Irishman', which called for Irish independence and gave practical tips on how to attack British troops. Charged under the Treason Felony Act, he was sentenced to 14 years transportation. This episode helped set Irish resistance to British occupation on a more violent path.
The established Church of Ireland was Anglican, although only about 3% of the Irish population belonged to it - the vast majority being Roman Catholic. William Gladstone's legislation put church property into the hands of commissioners, who could use it for 'social schemes', including poverty relief and the expansion of higher education. Irish bishops no longer sat in the House of Lords. The act was designed to reduce tensions and increasing lawlessness in Ireland.
Ireland's Landlord and Tenant Act, passed by William Gladstone's government, attempted to address a key grievance. The act provided for compensation to tenants evicted by landlords and it gave legal protection to customary tenant right. Tenants were also allowed to purchase their holdings if they could afford the cost.
The second Land Act created a Land Commission for Ireland which could decide the level of 'fair rents'. The act also granted free sale of land and security of tenure. William Gladstone's Liberal government hoped, optimistically, that this legislation would take the sting out of violent agitation in Ireland.
The recently appointed chief secretary of Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his under-secretary TH Burke were stabbed to death in Phoenix Park, Dublin. The perpetrators were members of the 'Invincibles', an extremist branch of the 'Fenian' revolutionary organisation. The murders outraged the public in Britain and, much against his will, provoked Prime Minister William Gladstone into maintaining harsh coercive policies in Ireland.
Acting on information supplied by his son Herbert, newspapers carried reports that Prime Minister William Gladstone would support 'Home Rule' for Ireland. Although Gladstone did not confirm the reports, his Liberal government, which returned to office in February 1886, drew up proposals for Home Rule. These provoked cabinet resignations, a split in the Liberal party and a Conservative election victory in July.
This line, which connected London to the Midlands for the first time, had been planned since 1833, with sections opened in 1837. The completion of the Kilsby Tunnel enabled the full 112-mile line, designed by the engineer Robert Stephenson, to be opened. London-Birmingham was the first railway line into the capital city, with passengers disembarking in the newly-designed Euston station. The line precipitated the first of the great railway booms.
The Tubular Bridge provided a rail link from the mainland of north Wales, near Bangor, across to Anglesey and on to Holyhead for ferries to Ireland. Its designer, Robert Stephenson, constructed two main spans with rectangular iron tubes 460 feet long. The bridge itself was 1,511 feet overall and novel in construction, since the box sections were constructed on shore and then floated into the straits to be lifted into place.
This event was the brainchild of Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, and was designed to provide a showcase for the world's most advanced inventions, manufactures and works of art. It was housed in the massive 19-acre Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton. The event attracted almost six million visitors during the five summer months it was open. Many ordinary people travelled to London for the first time on cheap-rate excursion trains.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Saltash railway bridge across the River Tamar was a suspension bridge comprising two huge wrought iron trusses in the form of a parabola. This bridge afforded much speedier transport to England's most remote western county. An unbroken line from London to Penzance was completed in 1867. Opened only four months before Brunel's death, the Saltash became the only suspension bridge to carry main-line trains.
Charles Darwin's masterwork, which argued that all species evolved on the basis of natural selection, resulted from more than 20 years' research following a five-year journey around Cape Horn in HMS 'Beagle'. The book created an immediate stir, since Darwin's theory appeared to contradict the bible's creation story and call into question ideas of divine providence. Despite the influence of Darwin's work, very few Victorian scientists took up an atheistic position as a result of reading it.
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 24.06.1559 Legal form of worship, is the common title of a number of prayer books of the Church of E. used throughout the Ang. Communion
GUNPOWDER PLOT 5.11.1605 catholics, G. Fawks plotted to blow up James I PURITANISM A religious reform movement in the late 16th and 17th c. that sought to “purify” the Church of E. of remnants of the Roman Catholic “popery” that the P.claimed had been retained after the religious settlement reached early in the region of Queen Elizabeth I. P. became noted for a spirit of moral and religious earnestness that informed their whole way of life, and they sought through church reform to make their lifestyle the pattern for the whole nation.The moral and religious earnestness that was characteristic of Puritans was combined with the doctrine of predestination inherited from Calvinism to produce a “covenant theology” a sense of themselves as elect spirits chosen by God to revolutionize history. PRESBYTERIAN in structure and Evangelical in doctrine. It is controlled by a hierarchy of Church courts 1.the Kirk session (governing the affairs of congregation)2.the presbytery (covering a group of parishes)3. the Synod (bringing together ministers from a group of presbyteries)THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND (protestant scottish church) The Calvinistic tone of the Scottish Reformation was ascribable to John Knox (g.v.) who became the leader of the Scottish Reformation. Knox’s administration for John Calvin and for the reformation that Calvin led in Geneva in evident in Knox’s Scotts Confession, in the Book of Common Order (often known as Knox’s Scots liturgy) and the Book of Discipline, the last of which discussed a plan for a godly church and commonwealths. The Scottish Reformers held a parliament in August 1560, which abolished authority of the pope. (Scotts Confession)KING JAMES BIBLE 1611 It became the most famous English translation of the scriptures and had a profound impact on the English language. PLIGRIMS FATHERS ‘MAYFLOWER’ 08.1620 A gr. attempting to escape religious persecution in E. sailed for t
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