Abstract
Brougham had confidently predicted in 1814 that ‘the gag is gone which used to stop our mouths as often as any reform was mentioned — revolution first, and then invasion’, and he believed that with peace ‘the game is in the hands of the Opposition’.1 Although he correctly foresaw the discontent that the transition from war to peace would produce, Brougham misjudged his party’s ability to turn it to their advantage. Whigs who accepted public opinion as a useful tool against the government still distrusted what they saw as a fickle and turbulent populace. Parliamentary elections offered a better chance to restore Whig ties to the public by appealing to respectable freeholders in boroughs and shires. Opening constituency politics to national debates during the 1820s marked a key point in the growth of a broader political nation. Brougham saw that parliamentary elections could serve the same objectives as petition and debate tactics while shifting the party contest from the House of Commons to constituencies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Stuart Reid, Life and Letters of Lord Durham, 1792–1840, 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1906): I:68.
Hugh Owen, The Lowther Family: Eight Hundred Years of ‘A Family of Ancient Gentry and Worship.’ (Chichester: Philimore, 1990), 284–8, 381–6.
Mary Moorman and Alan G. Hill, eds, Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970) II:438.
Stuart Melvin Brown, The Growth of Middle Class Leadership in Kendal Society and its Influence on Politics, 1790–1850’ (MA diss., University of Lancaster, 1971), 8.
Carol Anne Dyhouse, ‘social Institutions in Kendal, 1790–1850’ (MA diss., University of Lancaster, 1971), 25–6, 28.
John Burgess, ‘A Religious History of Cumbria, 1780–1920’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Sheffield, 1984), 418,339, 323.
Francis Nicholson and Ernest Axon, The Older Nonconformity in Kendal (Kendal: Titus Wilson, 1915), 347.
Alice Palmer, ‘Local Government and Social Problems in Kendal and Westmorland, c. 1760–1860’ (MA diss., University of Lancaster, 1972), 6–7.
J.D. Marshall and Carol Anne Dyhouse, ‘social Transition in Kendal and Westmorland, c. 1760–1860’, Northern History 12(1976):129.
Cornelius Nicholson, The Annals of Kendal: Being an Historical and Descriptive Account of Kendal and the Neighbourhood, 2nd edn (London: Whitaker & Co., 1861), 240–2.
J.D. Marshall and John K. Walton, The Lake Counties from 1830 to the mid-Twentieth Century: A Study in Regional Change (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1981), 1, 15.
David Stoker, ‘Elections and Voting Behaviour: A Study of Elections in Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland and Westmorland, 1760–1832’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Manchester, 1980), 3.
John Bateman, Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland 4th edn (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1971 ), 60, 279.
J.R. McQuiston, The Lonsdale Connection and its Defender, William Viscount Lowther, 1818–1830’, Northern History, 11(1976):146–7; Kendal Chronicle, 31 January 1818.
O’Gorman, ‘Campaign Rituals and Ceremonies: The Social Meaning of Elections in England, 1780–1860’, Past and Present, 135(1992):79–115.
Thomas Harrison, An Impartial Narrative of the Riotous Proceedings Which Took Place in Kendal on Wednesday, 11 February 1818 (Kendal: Airey & Bellingham, 1818), passim..
F.S. Janzow, ‘DeQuincey Enters Journalism: His Contributions to the Westmorland Gazette 1818–19’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1968), 2–3.
Thomas DeQuincey, Close Comments on a Straggling Speech (Kendal: Airey & Bellingham, 1818). Reprinted in Wells, ‘Wordsworth and DeQuincey in Westmorland Politics’, 1100–10.
Iain Robertson Scott, ‘From Radicalism to Conservatism: The Politics of Wordsworth and Coleridge, 1797–1818’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Edinburgh, 1987), 231–2, 241, 161–2.
William Wordsworth, Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmorland (Kendal: Airey & Bellingham, 1818). Reprinted in The Prose Works of William Wordsworth, W.J.B. Owen and Jane Worthington Smyser, eds. 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974), III:155.
Brougham’s Speech, Parl. Deb., 1st ser. (27 May 1818):988–90.
Brougham’s speech, Parl. Deb., 1st ser. (31 May 1818):1053–4.
Lowther’s speech, Parl. Deb., 1st ser. (31 May 1818):1054.
G. Butt, Suggestions as to the Conduct and Management of a County Contested Election (London: James Duncan, 1826), 119–21.
Copyright information
© 2005 William Anthony Hay
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hay, W.A. (2005). 1818 and the Westmorland Election. In: The Whig Revival, 1808–1830. Studies in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230510623_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230510623_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-51360-4
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-51062-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)