Lord Liverpool's Government's Responsibility for the Popular Unrest in the Years 1815 - 1821

Lord Liverpool's Government's Responsibility for the Popular Unrest in the Years 1815 - 1821

It is without doubt that the period of Liverpool's government from

1815 to 1821 was one of great civil disturbance. It has been alleged

that the period was the closest Britain has ever come to internal

revolution with the exception of the civil war. Many historians argue

that the unrest, clear in the many violent protests and attempted

"uprisings" during the period, was due directly to actions taken, and

laws passed by the Tory Cabinet of 1815, but how much of this unrest

was caused by factors entirely outside the governments control?

Historians consider a vast number of factors to have contributed to

the crisis, not all of them the government's fault. The government was

accused of extreme classist policies. The Corn Laws, one of the more

controversial laws introduced by the government, was described by Lord

Blake (an expert on the period) as "one of clearest pieces of class

legislation on English History." This law drove up bread prices,

benefiting the rich "landed interest" at the expense of the poor. The

repeal of Income tax likewise benefited rich at the expense of poor,

as higher indirect taxes were introduced to compensate, costing the

poor more and the rich less. The government was also seen to be

repressive; cases of government "agent provocateurs" such as Mr Oliver

at the Pentrich Uprising, and the suspension in 1816 of Habeas Corpus,

are cited as examples of the government's restriction of personal

freedom. However, there were many other factors not directly caused by

the government; the French revolution had sparked off radical feeling

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...d existing problems caused by the French Revolution, bad

harvests, and economic downturn, and the repression of personal

freedom and expression through the implementation of the six acts,

caused those dissidents to take radical action to make their

grievances heard. The Government handled the initial unrest badly

responding with force when a more diplomatic response would have been

more appropriate. Eventually, it is true that the Government ended the

series of disturbances, but only through a policy of harsh retaliation

to any radical opposition. The Government may have prevented a worse

situation from developing, but that does not change the fact that

Liverpool's Government was almost completely responsible for the

general unrest that did occur in the years 1915 to 1921, whether from

wrong actions or merely inaction.