Council politics

Abstract

The predominant endemic political rivalry in early Victorian cities was not the potentially explosive conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat but a struggle for supremacy within the urban middle class itself. The larger cities were characterized by a diverse and fragmented social structure which produced a rather amorphous class of superior craftsmen and tradesmen, retailers and providers of a variety of services who blurred the class lines between the owners and servants of capital. In a sense these groups together with the embryonic proletariat were spectators to a struggle for power among their social superiors and were invited to side with one or other of the contenders. The battle lines were drawn along three contours. Family was of crucial importance in English social organization and the urban struggle for power was often a rivalry between traditional long-established ruling families and newly-founded dynasties, commonly the product of go-ahead migrants to the town. This new-man/old-man conflict was exacerbated by religious divisions, for the traditional ruling families were almost exclusively Anglican and the rising newcomers predominantly, though not exclusively, Dissenters. Political affiliation confirmed the contest for power and the traditional Tory urban establishment found itself opposed by Whig-Liberal or radical challengers. Family, religion, and politics produced a battle between the insider and the outsider, the ins and the outs.

‘Every year there will be that delightful agitation which I love to see — an election of one common council man for every ward — just enough to remind the other two, if they don’t behave themselves that their turn is coming ... I tell you in all frankness that I think the Corporation Act the most democratic measure upon our statute book.’ Richard Cobden, 1838