Britain Before Reform

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Britain Before Reform
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Englands Population

• 1701 5 million
• 1750 5.8 million
• 1801 8.67 million
• 1831 13.3 million

3
Aristocracy and Gentry

• Not much change to 1815
• More mannered after

4
Education
Eton
5
Harrow
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Public School

• Not private tutors, so public (with others)
• Not state supported

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Eton Uniform
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Aristocratic Roles

• Politics
• Business
• Idleness
• Military
• Church

9
Primogeniture

• Eldest son inherits everything
• Contractual tradition
• Result fewer titled nobility

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Middle Class

• Home-centered
• Women not to work

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(No Transcript)
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Laboring Classes

• Hand workers
• Artisans
• Agricultural workers
• Servants

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Poverty natural

• Not degrading
• Poor relief ok
• Deserving vs. Undeserving poor

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Poor Law

• Elizabethan

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Government

• Mixed (one, many, few)

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Sir William Blackstone

• 1723-1780
• Blackstones Commentaries

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Who?

• Property owners
• Great landlords most influential
• Industrialization brings discontent

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Parliament in 1815

• House of Lords
• 360 members
• House of Commons
• 658 members (489 English)
• County and Borough members

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Rotton Borough
Old Sarum
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Local Government

• Counties and Boroughs

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County

• Lord Lieutenant
• Justices of the Peace
• Supervised roads
• Licensed estates
• regulated liquor
• Set poor rates

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Parishes

• 10,000 in England and Wales
• Vestry

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Conclusion

• Britain unbureaucratic and uncentralized