CIVILISATION CM 5

1872 - Crystal Palace Speech
Conservative PM Benjamin Disraeli’s Speech
1. Modernity & Politics: the New Party System
2. Trade Unionism & the Labour Movement
1872 Crystal Palace Speech – Conservative Principles:
- Maintain the institution of the country
- Associate with the Monarchy the idea which it represents
o The majesty of the law
o The administration of justice
o The fountain of mercy and of honour
- An established Church
Benjamin Disreali
- PM 1868 - 1880
In Politics, it marks the SHIFT that took place from the older parties to modern
parties. Not to mix up PM (Prime Minister) and MP (Member of Parliament).
- The Tory party still exists when Benjamin Disraeli makes that speech. He’s the
predecessor of Theresa May. Around that same year, we can notice a SHIFT
from powerful Monarchy to very strong Parliament.
- Distinction between
o The Conservatives à don’t want any changes
o The Liberals à Don’t like revolution and they support the Monarchy unlike
the Republicans and focus also on the Established Church and defend
it.
1. Modernity & Politics: the New Party System
2. The Background You Must Know
3. The New Party System
1. The Background You Must Know
Old Politics

Monarchs VS Royal Council
- English/ British Monarch always kept an eye on nobility and court as conflicts
between head of the state and the barons had been so numerous.
- Monarchs have always relied on a council to help them to take a decision.
- The council of the king was composed of members of the aristocracy (barons,
nobility)
- With the French ruling dynasty (House of Normandy, William the Conqueror) the king’s
council was turned into a Parliament (From the French Parlemanter)
- The Parliament had one house à The House of Lords
- In the 13th century, landholders sent representatives to court to present their
complaints. They were so numerous that is the 14th century, they were given a separate
house à The House of Commons
- The opposition between monarchs and parliament increased steadily
- In the 17th century, the Civil war which took place between the Stuart Kings and the
British Parliament (Led at one stage by Oliver Cromwell) was the epitome of that
opposition
- After the Great Revolution of 1688, Parliament had won its fight against the monarchy
à Throughout the 18th century and the 19th century, the British monarchs steadily lost
most of their former powers.
à Old Politics: The Monarch and the Royal Council have always filled Britain with
history and always existed;
à From the Feudal System divided into: King and Queen Knights/ Nobility/
Upper class/ Lower class/ Peasants
à At the beginning, there was only the Monarch and the House of Lords but they were
arguments between them and tension increased (there was something about Richard
the Lion Heart and the house of Plantagenet which said only God could decide who
was King/Queen à Divine rights of kings)
à In the 13th century, Lords would send ambassadors (people from lower class) to go
talk to the King and little by little, they would gain more powers à the House of
Commons.
à Increase of the tensions between Parliament and Monarchy
à The King is displeased to discuss any matters with the Stuart kings, especially
the Stuarts of Scotland.
à Oliver Cromwell (example of that opposition puts Parliament above Monarchy).
MONARCH à Catholic PARLIAMENT à Protestant (At the time) 1688 The Great
Revolution (as important as French Revolution for us
House of Commons – 646 MPs
House of Lords – 700 Members
Opposition parties
Governing parties
Governing party
Opposition parties
and crossbenchers
Shadow ministers
Whips
Backbenchers
Prime Minister
Ministers
Whips
Ministers
Whips
Shadow ministers
Whips
Backbenchers
Law Lords
Bishops
Backbenchers
Backbenchers

Political parties and class system:
As Parliament took its full place in a modernised political life, so did the political
parties which emerged in the 19th century as the modern party system we know today.
In the 18th century, they were not parties in the modern sense of the term, we could
say that they were groups of influence or tendencies.
Whigs
Tories
- Against absolute monarchy. They
opposed the Stuart kings
(monarchy by divine right)
- Composed of aristocrats and
dissenters (Calvinists, non-
Anglicans) and middle-class
industrialists and merchants.
- Known as Country Party
- For absolute monarchy in the 1!th
century. Then, they accept the
new monarchs à Parliamentary
monarchy.
- They become the champion of
the new monarchy and defend
landed interests (country squire &
small gentry), the old aristocracy
and the Anglican Church.
- Known as the Court Party
Social Classes
Aristocrats
- Royal Family
- Spiritual Lords
- Temporal Lords
- Great Officers of the State
o Baronets
o Knights
o Country Gentlemen
Middle Class
- Upper Middle Class
o Factory Owners
o Large Scale Business Men
o Bankers
o Doctors
o Lawyers
o Engineers
o Clergymen
- Lower Middle Class
o Small Scale Business Men
o Shopkeepers
o Merchants
o Civil Servants
Lower Class
- The Working Class
o Labor
o Factory Workers

o Seamstresses
o Miners
o Sweepers
- The Poor
2. The New Party System
The series of Prime Ministers is due to the coalition breaking Notice that : Tory
changed into Conservatives from 1830 Whigs into Liberals (the economic saved the
name) and they supported the Chartist movement in the Early 1900’s but things have
evolved since early 1900’s with the Labour Party in 1906 which is a powerful party
beyond the Liberal Party (even though they still make the decisions).
- Benjamin Disraeli – 1868 – Conservative – Victoria I
- William Ewart Gladstone – 1868-1874 – Liberal – Victoria I
- Benjamin Disraeli – 1874-1880 – Conservative – Victoria I
- William Ewart Gladstone – 1880-1885 – Liberal – Victoria I
- Robert Gascoye-Cecil, Lord Salisbury – 1885-1886 – Conservative – Victoria I
- William Ewart Gladstone – 1886 – Liberal – Victoria I
- Robert Gascoye-Cecil, Lord Salisbury – 1886-1892 – Conservative – Victoria I
- William Ewart Gladstone – 1892-1894 - Liberal – Victoria I
- Archibald Primrose, Lord Rosebery – 1894-1895 – Liberal – Victoria I
- Robert Gascoye-Cecil, Lord Salisbury – 1895-1902 – Conservative – Victoria I
The Economy at the Heart of Politics
The Tories: against the Stuart Kings
The Whigs (called after their wigs on their head): the nobility from the
countryside à The power of the Monarch is no longer and Queen Victoria cannot
make decisions (only a few)
Whigs – Liberals
Tories – Conservatives
LIBERALISM
PROTECTIONISM
Non-intervention of the government in
the economy (repealing of the Corn
Laws – 1846)
The government protects à Specific
interest (using taxation on Corn Laws –
1815 – For example)
Support the manufacturers & traders
(middle class)
Support the aristocratic landed gentry
For the franchise to all, so as to have
more voting liberals
Against the franchise to all, restricting it
to upper class Tories/conservative voters
Support the Chartist movement (one
man – one vote)
Against the Chartist movement
Working class people will support
liberalism and the Liberal party, but will
then turn to its own labour forces
Little by little, the conservative party will
adopt free trade attitudes such as the
Peelites who even joined the Liberal
party

The Conservative Party
à The Tories was a coalition formation in the 18th century. The party organised in the
1830’s and took the name “Conservative”, even though the name Tory is still used
today. The party became the champion of the Church of England (Anglican Church)
therefore, it rejected the Catholic Emancipation of 1830
à Local Party (one didn’t need to go to the capital to meet with other members)
which needed the local support besides the elite and got elected in 1874.
- The Conservative party founded the National Union and Conservative and
Constitutional Associations in 1867.
- It is a federation of local organisations which is ruled by an assembly of
delegates who meet once a year in what is going to become a national
congress.
- Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli supported such a system as it
enabled him to promote his idea of a “popular conservative” (not just meant
to work for an elite) and which helped him to win the 1874 elections.
Conservative values:
- Defence of the Crown, the Church and the Constitution.
o Preservation of the prerogatives of the Crown, upholding the
independence of the House of Lords and continuation of the Union of
Church and State.
Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, an industrialist, not a landowner modernised the party. He opposed
the great landowners after the Irish Famine of 1845 by repealing the Corn Laws.
à Although he was a conservative leader, he was convinced by free trade. He
knew the repealing of the Corn Laws would put an end to his career, but he went on
anyway.
à The best of his ideas were conservative.
There was a conservative split in 1846 over the repealing of the Corn Laws.
- The more conservative members of the party (the Protectionists) rejected the
repealing.
- The Peelites voted the repealing and in 1859 joined the Liberals.
The Liberal Party
à The Liberal Party was founded in 1859 wit the merging of Whigs, Peelites
conservatives and Radicals
à It turned into the Liberal Democrats in 1988
à The Middle class accessed the franchise in 1832 – The old Whig party faded to give
way to Middle class liberalism.
à 1868 – Election of William Gladstone à End of the dominance of the Whig
aristocratic oligarchy and beginning of the New Liberal Party (Modern Party)
- The Middle-class is a puritan party with Calvinists values, based on the
protestant ethic of loving God though hard and honest work and personal