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Home Politics and Parties from the Reform Bill of 1832 to that of 1867 Review of Affairs outside Party Politics, 1832-1867 |
Review of Affairs outside Party Politics, 1832-1867On the whole our domestic politics from the fall of Lord Grey in 1834 to the Reform Bill of 1867 were, apart from the struggle for the repeal of the Corn Laws, unexciting, This was partly due to the fact that the programme of the Liberals or Whigs was exhausted, and that they desired organic changes no more than the Conservatives. Moreover, towards the close of the period the attention of Great Britain was increasingly drawn to affairs outside her own shores. First came the revolutionary movements of 1848. Then followed the intrigues and negotiations leading to the Crimean War of 1854. Immediately after the termination of that war came the Indian Mutiny of 1857, which was followed by the war of Italian Unity in 1859. The American Civil War occurred in 1861, and caused the stoppage of the supply of raw cotton from the Southern States, thus causing the most fearful distress in Lancashire, as many of the cotton mills had to be closed. Later on came the Danish question which led to the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 (Ch. XLVIII, §§ 2-3). But, above all, the best energies of the nation were occupied in other directions. The later years of the period were years of wonderful and continuous progress in industries and manufactures, a progress which was illustrated by a great exhibition held in Hyde Park in 1851. In the domain of literature, Tennyson and Browning, Thackeray and Dickens, Carlyle and Ruskin were doing some of their best work. In the domain of science, Darwin was arriving at that theory of natural selection based on the facts of evolution which was to be published to an astonished and at first incredulous world in 1859.Moreover, both in England and Scotland, ecclesiastical controversies were acute. In England, in 1833, the High Church or Oxford movement was initiated at Oxford by Newman and Keble. Its object was not only to make people realize the continuity of the Church of England, and to revive some of the ceremonies and doctrines of the early and middle ages, but also to bring the church more in touch with the needs of the time. The opponents of the High Church party, the Broad Church and Low Church parties, maintained that the opinions of the more extreme, at all events, of the High Church party were contrary to the doctrines of the Church of England as settled at the Reformation, and approximated to those of the Church of Rome. Colour was lent to this charge by the fact that Newman seceded to Rome in I845 (He eventually became a Cardinal), and that his example was followed by many others. These ecclesiastical controversies occupied much public attention, especially between 1840 and 1865. They were of considerable benefit to the Church of England, as they provoked keenness and energy, and ever since the Oxford movement the activities of that Church have been manifold and productive. In Scotland, also, there was, during these years, a great religious movement. As has been explained in an earlier chapter (Ch. XXXV), Presbyterianism had, after the revolution of 1688, been established as the State religion of Scotland. But considerable dissensions had at various times arisen, more especially as to the system in Scotland whereby ministers were appointed by individual lay patrons. It was held by a great many that the appointment of ministers should rest, not with any individual, but with each separate congregation or their representatives, and at all events that the latter should possess a veto on any appointment. The matter came up before Parliament, but the Government would not recognize the right of veto. Consequently in 1843 came the famous disruption in the Scottish Church, and a large number of people, headed by Dr. Chalmers, founded a new organization called the Free Church of Scotland. Some sixty years later, in 1900, the great majority of the members of the Free Church amalgamated with the United Presbyterian Church, the other chief dissident from the State Church, and formed "the United Free Church", though a minority declined to unite and remained a separate organization. |
Chronology |
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