Notes: The Walpolean Regime 1721-1742 PDF

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Notes on The Walpolean Regime 1721-1742...

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The Walpolean Regime, 1721 – 1742 Notes taken directly from The Long Eighteenth Century by Frank O’Gorman so be careful of plagiarism! � ●

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The succession of George II - ‘The incident has always been taken to illustrate Walpole’s dependence on the monarch, but it equally illustrates the monarch’s dependence on the minister’ Walpole's supremacy was no less dependent upon his ability to persuade Parliament to agree to his measures. In the house of Lords he maintained majorities for the government by adopting a number of tactics - Only advanced and promoted new peers who were likely to be friendly to his ministry - Revived the Order of Bath - 16 Scottish peers were well disposed towards to dynasty - Many bishops were careful whigs By the mid-1720s the tories struggled to assemble over 40 peers in a House of just under 200 Patronage played a powerful role, but it merely provided the materials from which a Lords majority might subsequently be fashioned Within a few years Walpole had succeeded in taming the house of lords - 1723 Lord Orrery Complained ‘The House of Lords are treated pretty much as a useless body and they seem to acquiesce under that threat for they neither are nor desire to be… troubled with publick affairs’ - G. Holmes, Britain in the First Age of Party 1680-1750 - Could still assert itself - Excise Crisis and Quaker relief bill in 1736 It was even more vital then that Walpole should establish political mastery of the house of commons - 120 placemen in Queen Anne’s reign to 180 in George II’s - ‘Walpole thus had at his disposal a more solid and reliable phalanx of Court supporters in the Commons than any of his immediate predecessors’ (Speck, Stability and Strife) Patronage alone was not enough - He needed to identify himself with the Commons chamber - He attended the house assiduously, intervened in debate constantly and patiently - He had to try to conciliate opponents within his own party - The large body of country gentlemen within Parliament had to be wooed and won -Enhanced norfolk accent and keeping land tax low He chose to retain his seat in the commons In uniting the Treasury with the political leadership of the House of Commons he was establishing himself as a prime or first minister Those who had done this previously such as Oxford sat in the House of Lords Walpole's presence in the Commons, together with the sheer length of his tenure established a different set of precedents for future political leaders - Pelham, Lord North, Younger Pitt all lead from the house of commons

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Walpole also enjoyed years of greater religious tranquillity - The first requirement was to conform and defend the supremacy of the Anglican church Tories were tarred with the brush of Jacobitism and divided by the Schism of the Non-Jurors By upholding it and subjecting it to the disciplines of partiality and patronage the Anglican church was one of the most loyal sponsors and supporters of the Walpolean regime Walpole was anxious to reward dissenters for tier fidelity to the throne and Whig party - Annual Indemnity Acts cushioned them from the force of the Test and Corporation acts - After 1723 he set aside a small sum for the relief for widows of Dissenting ministers Not all dissenters were pleased, The Committee of Dissenting Deputies petitioned Parliament for the outright repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts in 1736 and 1739 and were defeated heavily both times Walpole was not so sure-footed with the Quaker Tithes bill - It was pushed through the house of commons but thrown out of The House of Lords ending his friendship with Bishop Gibson - The incident is revealing as one of the few occasions when Walpole managed to alienate one of his natural constituents of support The session of 1736 is interesting because it reminds us that religious sentiments were still potent - The same year saw the publication of William Warburton’s Alliance between Church and State, the classic justification of the established church and of its close relationship with the state Walpole’s long ministry then rested on both the structures of support in politics AND religion Neither could be devised or conserved with economic stability which was one of Walpole's greatest achievements Britain needed peace and prosperity after the clamour of the south sea bubble - Peace would nullify the Jacobite threat and rally the nation behind the dynasty WP had a (somewhat exaggerated) belief in the importance of exporting manufactured goods and in promoting economic growth, prosperity and employment - Stimulated manufacturing by removing export duties from over 100 articles - Issued bounties for sugar, silk and spirits - Protected certain domestic industries such as linen, paper and silk from foreign competition - Abolished duties on agricultural exports including grain - Introduced a simplified system of import duties, summarized in a revised book of rates Evaluating Walploe’s commercial policies - Not an early free-trader such as Peel, Gladstone or the Younger Pitt - Capable of not only protecting domestic industries but regulating them, e.g. issuing minimum standards of quality for clothes, linen and serges

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If this were not protectionism enough he pushed through parliament in 1721 and 1726 acts to provide for the regulation of wages by JPs and for the prohibition of combinations of workmen

How successful was Walpole - Trade volume went from 7 to 10 million a year between 1721 and 1738 - Exports were to rise more steeply in the 20 years following Walpole’s fall - Many of his attempts to boost individual industries failed, in particular silk In peacetime the government could afford to lower taxes due to lower expenditure - Land tax lowered to 2s. In the pound between 1722 and 1726, in 1730 and between 1734 and 1739 - In 1731 and 1732 it stood at only 1s. In the pound To pay for the reduction in tax from the landed classes Walpole increased revenue from indirect taxes which disproportionately fell upon the poor - Malt, salt, soap, sugar, leather and candles The efficiency with which these excise duties were levied by inquisitorial visits from excise officials was the source of much popular resentment - The phenomenon of a minister popular with the landed classes while unpopular with the masses may to some extent be explained by these patterns of taxation Walpole abhorred the size of the National Debt - Fifty four million by 1721 - WP devoted himself to lowering by the use of a sinking fund (Originally established by Stanhope in 1717) - By the end of his ministry the debt had been reduced to forty six million - WP also managed to reduce interest on the debt from 6% in 1721 to four percent in 1727 Walpole may have been more of an economic manager than a reformer The improvement of the condition of the masses was not considered by WP to be a government responsibility, it was that of local government, private agencies and the Church

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WP saw continuing domination of Ireland and Scotland during his regime - The general election of 1715 had returned a safe Whig majority to the Dublin Parliament and because neither the Triennial or Septennial Act applied to Ireland there was no need to hold another general election during the reign of George I - The only threat came from Protestants in fact, they had shown distaste with their political subservience to London even before the Hanoverian Succession. In 1698 a new strain of irish Protestant patriotism was announced with the publication of WIlliam Molyneaux’s The Case of Ireland Being Bound by Acts of Parliament In England in which the author argued for the independence of the Irish Parliament - These sentiments were aroused again in 1720 by the Declaratory act The Irish coinage patent controversy (‘Wood’s Halfpence’) provoked a storm of protest

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Dean Swift’s The Drapier’s Letters ‘You are, and yought to be as free a people as your Brethren in England’ Walpole diffused the situation by recalling the ineffective Duke Grafton and replaced him with Carteret in 1724 who was much too close to George I for WP’s liking This did not solve it and WP was forced to withdraw the patent in 1725 Walpole’s achievement may be best reflected in the loyalty of Ireland during the ‘45. Until the demise of Jacobitism and development of a more powerful sense of national identity Anglo-Irish relations would remain fundamentally stable - The price paid was a weak and inefficient government...