Introduction

Abstract

In Britain, the early decades of the nineteenth century saw the qualified development of a two-party representative system different in key respects from earlier periods of party rivalry. Few observers in 1800 would have predicted the revival of the Foxite Whigs or the post-1832 political structure in which organized parties with popular support beyond Westminster alternated in office. Those changes fostered a broader political nation in which provincial opinion carried greater weight in national political discussion at Westminster. Together they laid the foundation for nineteenth century parliamentary liberalism and the Whig-Liberal ascendancy that lasted until William Gladstone split the party over Irish Home Rule in 1886. The political scene in which the Foxite Whigs reestablished themselves as an effective opposition between 1808 and 1830 thus provides valuable insights into the development of modern British politics.