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Whigs (British political party)
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=== 19th century === [[File:Grey2.JPG|thumb|''[[Portrait of Earl Grey]]'' by [[Thomas Phillips]], 1820. Grey led the Whigs for many years in opposition.]] Many of the Whigs who had joined with Pitt would eventually return to the fold, joining again with Fox in the [[Ministry of All the Talents]] following Pitt's death in 1806. The followers of Pitt—led until 1809 by Fox's old colleague the Duke of Portland—rejected the label of Tories and preferred to call themselves [[Pittite|The Friends of Mr. Pitt]]. After the fall of the Talents ministry in 1807, the Foxite Whigs remained out of power for the better part of 25 years. The accession of Fox's old ally, the Prince of Wales, to the regency in 1811 did not change the situation, as the Prince had broken entirely with his old Foxite Whig companions. The members of the government of [[Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool|Lord Liverpool]] from 1812 to 1827 called themselves Whigs.<ref>{{cite book |first=I. R. |last=Christie |title=Wars and Revolutions. Britain 1760–1815 |location=London |publisher=Edward Arnold |year=1982 |page=283 |isbn=0-7131-6158-2 }}</ref> ==== Structure and appeal ==== By 1815, the Whigs were still far from being a "party" in the modern sense. They had no definite programme or policy and were by no means even united. Generally, they stood for reducing crown patronage, sympathy towards [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformists]], support for the interests of merchants and bankers and a leaning towards the idea of a limited reform of the voting system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lowe |first=Norman |title=Mastering modern British history |date=2009 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-20556-7 |edition=4th |series=Palgrave master series |location=Basingstoke |page=9}}</ref> Most Whig leaders, such as [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Lord Grey]], [[Lord Grenville]], [[Lord Althorp]], William Lamb (later [[Lord Melbourne]]) and [[Lord John Russell]], were still rich landowners. The most prominent exception was [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]], the talented lawyer, who had a relatively modest background.<ref>{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Lowe |title=Mastering Modern British History |edition=3rd |year=1998 |pages=9–10 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-333-72106-3 }}</ref> Hay argues that Whig leaders welcomed the increasing political participation of the English middle classes in the two decades after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. The fresh support strengthened their position in Parliament. Whigs rejected the Tory appeals to governmental authority and social discipline and extended political discussion beyond Parliament. Whigs used a national network of newspapers and magazines as well as local clubs to deliver their message. The press organised petitions and debates and reported to the public on government policy, while leaders such as [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]] (1778–1868) built alliances with men who lacked direct representation. This new approach to the grass roots helped to define Whiggism and opened the way for later success. Whigs thereby forced the government to recognise the role of public opinion in parliamentary debate and influenced views of representation and reform throughout the 19th century.<ref>William Anthony Hay, {{"'}}If There Is a Mob, There Is Also a People': Middle Class Politics and The Whig Revival, 1810–1830", ''Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750–1850: Selected Papers'' (2000), pp. 396–402.</ref> ==== Return to power ==== [[File:William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Lord Melbourne (Partridge)|Portrait of Lord Melbourne]]'' by [[John Partridge (artist)|John Partridge]]. Melbourne was twice Prime Minister during the 1830s.]] Whigs restored their unity by supporting moral reforms, especially the abolition of slavery. They triumphed in 1830 as champions of Parliamentary reform. They made Lord Grey prime minister 1830–1834 and the [[Reform Act 1832]] championed by Grey became their signature measure. It broadened the franchise and ended the system of "[[rotten and pocket boroughs]]" (where elections were controlled by powerful families) and instead redistributed power on the basis of population. It added 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in England and Wales. Only the upper and middle classes voted, so this shifted power away from the landed aristocracy to the urban middle classes. In 1832, the party abolished enslavement in the British Empire with the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]]. It purchased and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar islands. After parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labour, limited reforms were passed in 1833. The Whigs also passed the [[Poor Law Amendment Act 1834]] that reformed the administration of relief to the poor<ref>E. L. Woodward, ''The Age of Reform, 1815–1870'' (1938), pp. 120–145, 325–330, 354–357.</ref> and the [[Marriage Act 1836]] that allowed civil marriages. It was around this time that the great Whig historian [[Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay|Thomas Babington Macaulay]] began to promulgate what would later be coined the [[Whig history|Whig view of history]], in which all of English history was seen as leading up to the culminating moment of the passage of Lord Grey's reform bill. This view led to serious distortions in later portrayals of 17th-century and 18th-century history, as Macaulay and his followers attempted to fit the complex and changing factional politics of the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] into the neat categories of 19th-century political divisions. In 1836, a private gentleman's Club was constructed in [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]], [[Piccadilly]] as a consequence of the successful [[Reform Act 1832]]. The [[Reform Club]] was founded by [[Edward Ellice Sr.]], [[Member of parliament|MP for Coventry]] and Whig [[Whip (politics)|Whip]], whose riches came from the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] but whose zeal was chiefly devoted to securing the passage of the [[Reform Act 1832]]. This new club, for members of both Houses of [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]], was intended to be a forum for the [[Political radicalism|radical]] ideas which the First Reform Bill represented: a bastion of liberal and progressive thought that became closely associated with the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]], who largely succeeded the [[Whig Party (UK)|Whigs]] in the second half of the 19th century. Until the decline of the Liberal Party in the early 20th century, it was ''de rigueur'' for Liberal MPs and peers to be members of the Reform Club, being regarded as an unofficial party headquarters. However, in 1882 the [[National Liberal Club]] was established under [[William Ewart Gladstone]]'s chairmanship, designed to be more "inclusive" towards Liberal [[grandee]]s and activists throughout the United Kingdom. ==== Transition to the Liberal Party ==== The [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] (the term was first used officially in 1868, but had been used colloquially for decades beforehand) arose from a coalition of Whigs, [[free trade]] Tory followers of [[Robert Peel]] and free trade [[Radicals (UK)|Radicals]], first created, tenuously under the [[Peelite]] [[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen|Earl of Aberdeen]] in 1852 and put together more permanently under the former [[Canningite]] Tory [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]] in 1859. Although the Whigs at first formed the most important part of the coalition, the Whiggish elements of the new party progressively lost influence during the long leadership of former Peelite William Ewart Gladstone. Subsequently, the majority of the old Whig aristocracy broke from the party over the issue of [[Irish home rule]] in 1886 to help form the [[Liberal Unionist Party]], which in turn would merge with the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] by 1912.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Porritt |first1=Edward |title=Political Parties on the Eve of Home Rule |journal=The North American Review |date=1912 |volume=195 |issue=676 |pages=333–342 |jstor=25119718 |issn=0029-2397}}</ref> However, the Unionist support for trade protection in the early twentieth century under [[Joseph Chamberlain]] (probably the least Whiggish character in the Liberal Unionist party) further alienated the more orthodox Whigs. By the early twentieth century "Whiggery" was largely irrelevant and without a natural political home. One of the last active politicians to celebrate his Whiggish roots was the Liberal Unionist statesman [[Henry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford|Henry James]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1909/nov/29/finance-bill-1#S5LV0004P0_19091129_HOL_23|title=Finance BILL. |website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|access-date=3 March 2018|archive-date=8 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308025813/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1909/nov/29/finance-bill-1#S5LV0004P0_19091129_HOL_23|date=29 November 1909|url-status=live}}</ref>
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