Why Did The Tory Party For The Collapse

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The Responsibility of the Tory Party for the Collapse in 1830

Before 1830 the Tory party had been in government for nearly 50 years and had seemed to have everything under control up till 1815, between 1815 and 1830 the government faced many problems and made many changes but by 1830, the party collapsed. There is major debate to what caused the break down. I am going to look at the events leading up to the parties collapse to find out to what extent the Tory party was responsible for its collapse.

When the Napoleonic wars came to an end in 1815, it would seemed good news, but it was quite the opposite as the after affects of the wars were left on Britain. Leaving major unemployment, huge money …show more content…

This was the start of the problems for the Tories.

In 1822 The Tory government realised action was critical and with out it there was the huge threat of reform. In the early 1820s the Tories had a change of personnel. After the suicide of Viscount Castlereagh the foreign secretary and the leader of the House of Commons in 1822, his positions needed replacing, George Canning took his place as the Foreign secretary and Sir Robert Peel became the leader of the House of Commons. Other changes were within the positions of Chancellor of the Exchequer and President of the board of Trade. The new members of the cabinet were younger, more in touch with the new merchant classes and were not as ultra as the previous members. This may have been one of the first problems the Tories had created for themselves. The new members of the team were going to be more liberal, unlike the existing members and therefore could create conflict within the party. But without the introduction of these new members the party may have faced reform as the British public was not very happy and showing signs of forceful …show more content…

The next year the Tories had different periods experienced 5 different prime ministers all whom were of no good, therefore the party became very rocky and unstable.

If finding a prime minister who was good for the job was not bad enough, across the waters major conflict was arousing in Ireland. (just give them potatoes.) Daniel O'Connell, with the support of the Catholic Association, won the county Clare election. However because he was a catholic he was not allowed to take his seat. Wellington the prime minister, had two choices. Either he could pass a Catholic Emancipation Act and let O'Connell take his seat or he could declare the election null and void. Doing this he ran the risk of violence in Ireland, and possible civil war. He knew the majority of MPs favoured emancipation and that they were against 80% of Ireland. In April 1829 the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed, with the support of the Whigs. This created massive political conflict within the Tory party. And resulted in a massive split. Some of the Tory members joined the Whigs the party, which was seeming to see more controlled and

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