Steve Poole looks at the theatre and occasional violence of chairing ceremonies [20-minute read] At the conclusion of the extremely violent and contentious election for Coventry in 1780, the victorious Tory candidates, Lord Sheffield and Edward Yeo were hoisted onto wooden chairs and triumphantly paraded through the streets. It had been a tough contest, fought […]
Robin Eagles asks why certain elections were contested, while others were not [20-minute read] In May 1741 the Nottinghamshire gentlewoman Gertrude Savile (sister of Sir George Savile, bt. MP for Yorkshire), commented with relief on the conclusion of the recent elections. She reported: Great struggles and mob[b]ing in several places espeshily [sic] Westminster, yet thank […]
Mark Knights discusses attitudes to bribery and patronage in 18th-century elections [30-minute read] The corruption of electoral politics took two forms: one, of the process of an election itself, and the other, more endemically, of the electoral system as a whole, particularly relating to the prevalence of ‘rotten boroughs’ which enabled the wealthy, the influential […]
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Jon Rosebank argues that very few wanted to replace the unreformed electoral system [15-minute read] It would be easy, from our modern perspective, to imagine that the eighteenth-century electoral system was increasingly dysfunctional. There was, after all, much evidence of growing discontent with it. Indeed, its critics complained about the electoral system under a succession […]
Jon Rosebank explains why proceeding to a vote could be seen as something to avoid [15-minute read] Poll books represent not the moments when eighteenth-century politics functioned properly, but the times when it faltered. They offer a first, invaluable step towards untangling the complexities of the most bitter of the constituency struggles. Faced with inviting […]
Henry Miller argues that petitioning could often engage more people than elections [15-minute read] Petitions were a complementary and at times alternative form of political participation to elections in the eighteenth century. Like the lively culture of election rituals, petitions enabled participation by people who were not eligible to vote in elections. Just as importantly […]
Penelope J. Corfield charts the steps on Britain’s long road to democracy [20-minute read] Democracy is not a flawless form of government. Nor do all democracies survive for all time. Nonetheless, representative democracies uphold the ideal notion of a rational politics, in which all citizens have an equal vote – all exercise their judgment in […]
Pamela Clemit uncovers Godwin’s report on two tightly fought metropolitan polls [15-minute read] The 1818 general election was the first to be held after the Napoleonic Wars. Wellington’s decisive victory at Waterloo in 1815 ended twenty-three years of almost uninterrupted war, and by 1817 Britain was experiencing a severe economic downturn. Mass unemployment, rising food […]
Read More… from The 1818 General Election: A Londoner’s Perspective
