Lord Liverpool Essays - Fellows Of The Royal Society,

Lord Liverpool How convincing is the argument that the year 1822 marked a turning point in the way Lord Liverpools government approached its domestic policy ? On the face of it , the year 1822 did mark a significant turning point in the way Lord Liverpools administration dealt with its domestic policy . The importance of the cabinet reshuffle after the imminent death of Lord Castlereagh in 1822 , and the perceived move toward Liberal Toryism following this date has been well documented by a number of early historians , including W.R Brock and Spencer Walpole. With the changes of 1821-3 Liverpool was able to gather round him a group of liberal minded men ready to take whatever opportunities were offered for economic reforms The years of unrest , spanning from the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 to the cabinet reshuffle of 1822 would also seem to point to a much more tolerable and less repressive government after this date .The Six Acts of 1819 were a repressive low for Liverpools administration. What followed throughout the 1820s was a series liberal minded reforms led by Robinson , Huskinson and Peel , which did seem to change the natur e of government .These men have generally been accredited with setting Britain on the road to free trade and Peel as home secretary successfully rationalised the legal system and legalised trade unions .However more recent Historians such as Eric Evans ,Cookson and Gash have persuasively argued that the Liberal Tory phase of the Lord Liverpool administration was a natural response to the improved economic circumstance brought about by a more prosperous and confident Britain .Reforms introduced during this period were not new ideas instigated by a more liberal minded party , but those which many Tories had supported since the Pitt administration of the 1780s .An economic revival simply meant that these ideas could be followed through without the threat of instability .As Historian Gash states, The 1820s economic recovery gave scope for a policy less driven by fear of revolution .In fact many progressive ministers had already served in the administration before 1822 , Robinson had bee n in government since 1809 and had these fixed views and beliefs prior to the cabinet reshuffle , as did many of his so called reactionary peers .As Eric Evans suggests , 1819 is a better candidate for a change in the Liverpool administration , although not one specific date can be given .It was 1819 that saw the first real steps toward Free trade ( Britain started the process of returning to the gold standard ) through Peels conscious efforts and links with economists such as Ricardo , this was to launch Britain into a new free market economy, one which had only been postponed by the out break of the Napoleonic wars . Free Trade was a highly debated issue throughout the early nineteenth century . Pitt as Prime Minister during the 1780s had raised it as an important issue and many parallels can be drawn between his administration of 1783 to 1801 and the Liverpool government of 1812 to 1827 . It shows a Tory party intent on bringing in Free Trade measures well before 1822 . Legislation such as the Commutation Act introduced by Pitt increased the government yield on wines by 29 per cent , on spirits by 63 per cent and on tobacco by 39 per cent .This gave a government surplus of 1.7 million pounds by 1792 , 47 per cent higher than when Pitt came to office in 1783.Other Free Trade measures from Pitts administration included the expansion of British trade into the Orient. By reducing tariffs on Chinese tea for example Pitt induced the Mogul Empire to import Western manufactured goods as well as produce from other countries in the British Empire. Indian raw cotton, Asian spice and opium all began to ente r China after Pitts India Act of 1784 , the legislation handed responsibility of Indian affairs to Henry Dundas and a new office for trade was created, the President of the Board of Control. The expansion of British trade under Pitt was to see domestic exports triple in the twenty years after 1784 and the governments increasing involvement