The

Reform
Movement.

[1815

National Association for the Protection of Labour," and its aim was to prevent reductions, but not directly to promote advances of wages. Unionists had yet to learn that strikes against reductions are less likely to be successful than strikes for advances. They naturally disliked the former more than they liked the latter, but, as reductions usually come with a contraction in trade, a policy of mere general resistance to reductions is not likely to be successful. However, the

It

National Association was for a time fairly flourishing. obtained large funds, and in 1831 it started a paper of its own-The Voice of the People.

The efforts of the trade unionists to organise combinations either of separate trades, or of a more general character, were, however, less in evidence than the agitation for an extension of the suffrage and a redistribution of seats. Throughout this period there were two distinct movements, one aiming at an improvement in the condition of the poor by legislative changes, the other attaching most importance to voluntary combinations and organisations. As early as 1819 a great reform meeting at Manchester was dispersed by force (the Peterloo Massacre, p. 3). The subject was then taken up by the Whigs in Parliament, and the outside agitation was to some extent quieted; but after 1823, when the Parliamentary movement languished, the country began to show unmistakable signs of a genuine demand for manhood suffrage, equal electoral divisions,

annual parliaments, and the ballot. Meanwhile the middle classes were becoming more and more determined on changes far less sweeping than these, but almost equally hateful to the aristocracy. The death

of George IV. gave them their opportunity, and the Radicals showed more readiness than might have been expected to support the more moderate reformers. By means of enthusiastic meetings, and ultimately by riots, they supplied the democratic

1832]

pressure that helped to ensure victory to the great middle

class.

On the whole, then, this period was a period of distinct, General

Results,

though slow, progress. 1815-1832.
The population of the
United Kingdom rose
from about eighteen to
about twenty-four millions.
National wealth increased
even more rapidly. In
money value the increase
is estimated at fifty per
cent.; but if the fall in

prices be allowed for, we cannot put the actual increase of wealth,
measured in commodities, at less than eighty per cent. The
burden of taxation was also much diminished, and the annual
national expenditure had fallen from one hundred to fifty-two
million pounds. There was, however, little increase in wages.
The improvement was mainly among the well-to-do. The
evils of the factory system (p. 298 seq.) were at their worst.
Labour was still almost unorganised. There was no system of
national education, and the overworked children were almost
without instruction. On the other
hand, the working classes had
gained much knowledge and ex-
perience, especially through their
failures, and were soon to secure
for themselves improved conditions
of labour.

1826

"JOEY

GROAT OF WILLIAM IV.

As the lives of Queen Charlotte and of George III. drew to a
close, men began to fear lest a crop of social evils should spring
from the example set by the Prince-Regent and his wife. Sir
Walter Scott writes in 1818: "If we should suppose the Princess
of Wales to have been at the head of the matronage of the
land for these last ten years, what would have been the differ-
ence on public opinion!
Honest old Evelyn's
account of Charles II.'s court presses on one's recollection."
But if George IV. with his eighteen mistresses-five historic,

.

.

MARY

BATES
Life.

Social

Men's
Dress.

(1815

eleven named, two unnamed--could compete with Charles II. in wantonness, in social talent he could not do so; nor, even had

his gifts been greater, could he have rivalled Charles II.'s influence, for social conditions were changed. The personal influence of the sovereign was never stronger than in the reign of Charles II., never weaker than in the reigns of George IV. and his brother.

The Prince Regent did not exercise any paramount authority even on the subject of dress, for there his friend Beau Brummel was supreme dictator as president of the Council of Taste, and the Regent himself wept when the Beau disapproved of the cut of his coat. When the Beau's influence was removed, George IV. showed himself unwilling to succumb to a new fashion till it had been firmly established in his despite. In 1816 Weston, in Old Bond Street, had the best cut for the long-tailed and short-waisted coat, which for morning and evening dress alike was generally blue. Pantaloons were close-fitting and made of stockinette; they stopped some inches short of the ankle, showing black silk stockings and pumps. 1830 pantaloons were superseded by long black trousers, held in place by silk straps under the foot. Only at court, at the opera, and at Almack's balls, knee-breeches and "chapeau bras" were still etiquette.

QUEEN CAROLINE'S MATRIMONIAL

LADDER.

(By George Cruikshank.)

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