tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60597077212626194852012-02-14T22:55:21.495ZMy blog looks at different aspects of history that interest me as well as commenting on political issues that are in the newsRichard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.comBlogger7151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-4961848350837089902012-02-11T11:01:00.001Z2012-02-11T11:01:06.421Z

In the early-nineteenth century ale, wine and spirits were cheap and consumed in large quantities. [1] With the dangers of disease from untreated water it was natural for town-dwellers to rely increasingly on alcohol and on water that had been boiled with tea and coffee. People did not believe that local water would ever be safe to drink, as Chadwick’s inspectors found out from London

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-6621649932908889602012-02-06T20:38:00.001Z2012-02-06T20:38:26.330Z

The emergence of ‘respectability’ as the defining characteristic of acceptable forms of behaviour was a major feature of the changed attitudes to traditional forms of social behaviour. This can be seen in the cases of cruelty to animals, temperance and the growing problem of drug addiction. These three examples of changing attitudes to popular culture illustrate the importance of pressure, either

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-83968482623721117402012-02-01T08:40:00.001Z2012-02-01T08:40:32.473Z

This is an extract from my forthcoming book: Sex, Work and Politics: Women in Britain, 1830-1918 The prolonged demise of Chartism during the 1850s sapped working-class calls for the franchise and the fragmented nature of party politics in the 1850s meant that the issue of parliamentary reform and calls for women’s suffrage, never a vocal force, died away. [1] A concerted campaign for women’s

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-69298539323305597892012-01-26T19:33:00.001Z2012-01-26T19:33:54.712Z

In less than fifty years Canada experienced six major rebellions: in Lower and Upper Canada in late 1837 and 1838, the Fenian rebellions of 1866 and 1870 and Louis Riel’s resistance at Red River in 1869-1870 and his rebellion fifteen years later. This book originated in my trilogy of studies on colonial rebellion and develops material from those books on rebellion in Canada. This allows me to

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-13431386300058037032012-01-25T15:27:00.001Z2012-01-25T15:27:58.938Z

The book focuses on the key areas necessary to explain the development of women’s role in nineteenth and early-twentieth century British society and develops themes explored in the Nineteenth Century British Society series. The first chapter considers the relationship between different approaches that have evolved to explain the role of women in history. This is followed by a chapter that looks

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-9116541828126961262012-01-22T16:48:00.001Z2012-01-22T16:48:55.258Z

In 1830, popular culture was public, robust and gregarious, largely masculine and involved spectacle and gambling with an undercurrent of disorder and physical violence. The distinction between high and popular culture, between opera and drama on the one hand and spectacle, circus and showmanship on the other had broken down: Shakespeare, melodrama and performing animals not merely co-existed but

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-36633440339797250552012-01-14T10:45:00.001Z2012-01-14T10:45:48.841Z

The late-eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century saw two major changes in the cultural experience of English society. [1] First, there was erosion of the older popular culture as a result of the withdrawal of patronage by the governing elite, the gradual dismantling of the agrarian social and economic frameworks that gave it justification by widespread industrialisation and the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-15057390657889705422012-01-05T14:25:00.001Z2012-01-05T14:25:58.680Z

Nineteenth Century British Society is a series of five e-books that seek to explain the major social developments that occurred during the nineteenth and early-twentieth century. It extends the ideas and chronological scope that I originally put forward in my studies of Britain’s social and economic development originally published in 1987, 1991 and 1992.[1] It also develops information contained

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-76143623491329149072012-01-05T09:11:00.001Z2012-01-05T09:11:39.269Z

The fifth and final volume of Nineteenth Century British Society has now been published on Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Religion-Government-Nineteenth-Century-ebook/dp/B006TI5OO4/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325717478&sr=1-2 This volume looks at the effects that economic changes had on people’s attitude to religion and how the character of government underwent a revolution

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-36069028416351752512011-12-30T10:20:00.001Z2011-12-30T10:20:17.591Z

The intellectual ferment of the second half of the nineteenth century differed from that of earlier periods in important aspects of tone and substance and in the extent to which it implicated the ordinary church-going population as well as the religious intelligentsia. It was the percolation downwards of theological uncertainty into the ranks of ordinary believers that marks the Victorian period

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-4128130144520599482011-12-24T11:02:00.001Z2011-12-24T11:02:00.330Z

Some aspects of Victorian religious culture cut across denominational lines and tended to escape denominational control altogether. Virtually all clergymen, Catholic as well as Protestant, regarded the threat of eternal punishment as essential to Christian faith and morals in 1850. However, by the 1870s, this increasingly seemed inconsistent with God’s love and was quietly pushed into the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-47465148008136056332011-12-17T08:52:00.001Z2011-12-17T08:52:14.836Z

The fourth volume in the Nineteenth Century British Society series has now been published on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nineteenth-Century-British-Society-ebook/dp/B006MY93GK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1324111713&sr=1-1 All societies are, to some degree, stratified or divided into different social groups. These groups may be in competition with each other for social control or

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-78016989186587846742011-12-15T09:56:00.001Z2011-12-15T09:56:03.340Z

The religious conflicts of the Victorian period were fought out not only in pulpits and pamphlets but also in the political arena. [1] The churches during much of the period did more to mobilise political feeling than the political parties themselves. The antagonism between Protestants and Catholics intensified in a period that saw heavy Irish immigration, the nationalist struggle in Ireland and

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-30814857902107259432011-12-08T23:34:00.001Z2011-12-08T23:34:23.804Z

The Victorian crisis of faith has dominated discussions of religion and the Victorians. One problem with the ‘crisis of faith’ narrative is that it has had the effect of excluding much of the religious life of the period and has, too often, become the main story. Many Victorians may have experienced doubt about religion but many more did not. The ‘crisis of faith’ was a by-product of Victorian

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-39235533733378268652011-12-02T00:03:00.001Z2011-12-02T00:03:55.666Z

Neither the Anglican Church nor its Protestant rivals changed as profoundly as Roman Catholicism. Its devotional life was transformed by the ultramontanism of the continent. From Ireland came the immigrants who increased the Catholic population from 750,000 in 1851 to over 2 million by 1914; the great majority of Catholics were now urban, Irish and working-class. From Anglicanism, finally, came a

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-13591063447915216422011-11-24T08:52:00.001Z2011-11-24T08:52:15.588Z

The Victorian period was one of the high points in Nonconformist history. The different groups matched their Anglican rivals in numbers and in the mid-1880s their combined membership, excluding adherents, was about 1.4 million, much the same as the number of Anglican Easter communicants, while their huge Sunday school enrolments easily surpassed those of the Anglicans. They were largely

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-5479839733401229142011-11-18T17:30:00.001Z2011-11-18T17:30:31.432Z

In these days when students often have a bad press, Famine, Fenians and Freedom, is dedicated to the sixth form students whom I taught and tutored in the two years before I retired. They were a witty, interested and interesting set of over fifty students who challenged both their own ideas and mine in lessons that combined the best of learning: achievement of the skills and understanding

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-68250784330492434852011-11-15T09:10:00.001Z2011-11-15T09:10:25.153Z

The Victorian age was self-consciously religious. [1] Britain’s greatness, Victorians believed that its prosperity, political liberties and Empire was rooted in Christian and Protestant faith. Yet if religion flourished, it did not bring harmony and the transition to pluralism brought conflict and controversy with Protestants ranged against each other and against Catholics, evangelical against

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-51009831839537953622011-11-09T20:45:00.001Z2011-11-09T20:45:11.827Z

In his report on the 1851 Religious Census, Horace Mann noted: ...a sadly formidable proportion of the English people are habitual neglecters of the public ordinances of religion. [1] There is significant disagreement among historians about the role and importance of religion in the lives of the working population. One reason for this confusion lies in the difficulty of interpreting the census

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-14251479014962689082011-11-02T08:59:00.001Z2011-11-02T08:59:56.611Z

The period between 1780 and 1850 has been characterised by John Bossy as representing the ‘birth of a denomination’ for Catholicism. [1]   As with Protestant Dissent, Catholicism went through a period of growth in membership, conflict between lay and clerical influences and organisational change.   Bossy has called into question two ideas about nineteenth century English Catholicism. First,  he

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-70858391811184815792011-10-27T14:52:00.001+01:002011-10-27T14:52:43.209+01:00

Between 1800 and 1830, Wesleyan Methodism faced threats from outside and from within as it sought to find ‘respectability’ and acceptance throughout British society. [1] Three problems dominated discussions: first, the problem of Methodist loyalty; secondly, how and where should Methodism grow; and finally, how should Methodism respond to popular radicalism. The problem was that Methodism seemed

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-6659388071918198252011-10-20T09:00:00.001+01:002011-10-20T09:00:05.185+01:00

Presbyterianism had slowly moved away from the doctrine of the Trinity and by 1830, a majority of its members were Unitarian in creed. [1] Unitarianism had developed from  the ‘rational theology’ of  the  eighteenth century  but  its association with free thought, radicalism  in politics  and its  defence of people such as Richard Carlile  made orthodox Dissent suspicious. Increasingly the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-41644837867858834962011-10-15T09:27:00.001+01:002011-10-15T09:27:27.944+01:00

The metamorphosis within the Established Church was bound to have significant effects on the Dissenting churches after 1830. [1] But Anglicanism was not the only form of organised religion undergoing fundamental changes in the first half of the nineteenth century.  There was a shift within Methodist, Congregational and Baptist communities away from the sect-type religious culture of the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-72398628248952532542011-10-10T19:49:00.001+01:002011-10-10T19:49:55.345+01:00

The third volume of the Nineteenth Century British Society series has now been published on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Education-Leisure-Nineteenth-Century-ebook/dp/B005UDIZXQ/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1 The book addresses the problems posed by education, crime and leisure to society and the ways in which the state sought to legislate in its search for public order. The two chapters on education

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-23381581659084702112011-10-07T08:34:00.001+01:002011-10-07T08:34:49.376+01:00

The Evangelical Revival in the eighteenth century was partly a consequence of the increasing frustration felt by individuals like the Wesleys with the intense conservatism of Anglican high churchmen. [1] Not all of those who supported Wesleyan Methodism left the Church of England in the 1790s.  From 1750, another group of Evangelical clergy and laity also began to attack the conservatism of the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-34381479397067612002011-10-03T10:36:00.001+01:002011-10-03T10:36:52.141+01:00

The following blog has just been brought to my attention: http://www.mastersinpublichealth.net/15-interesting-facts-about-the-history-of-vaccinations-and-immunizations/  It provides an excellent summary on how doctors have used vaccines and immunisation to battle diseases such as smallpox, measles, polio and rabies.  It is well worth a look.

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-57940911249183945142011-09-29T08:51:00.001+01:002011-09-29T08:51:17.448+01:00

The second volume in the Nineteenth Century British Society series has now been published on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poverty-Nineteenth-Century-British-ebook/dp/B005QAMP34/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_3 It looks at the effects that economic changes had on people’s lives. It explores the ways in which the nature of work was transformed, the character of urban growth, how the changing environment

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-5135121382641211762011-09-25T09:07:00.001+01:002011-09-25T09:07:28.034+01:00

The  High  Church ‘party’ had been in the  vanguard  of  the Church’s  reaction to change since the 1790s and may well  have inhibited  reformist  tendencies before  1830. They distrusted their more evangelical colleagues, whose pastoral concerns seemed to threaten the unreformed Establishment, and were horrified by the structural and administrative reforms of Blomfield and Peel. But it was the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-36247140374857938282011-09-20T09:57:00.001+01:002011-09-20T09:57:25.523+01:00

British Nineteenth Century Society is a series of e-books that seek to explain the major social developments that occurred during the nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Economy, Population and Transport provides the economic and demographic framework of Victorian society and the context for the other volumes in the series. It explores why Britain had become a heavily industrialised and

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-65924500044547660682011-09-19T13:20:00.001+01:002011-09-19T13:20:59.967+01:00

Over the past years I have written a series of blogs on Nineteenth century British Society and these will continue.  During that time I have been asked on several occasions whether the blogs would be published as a book.  This is always an appealing request for an author but the material is too substantial for an established publisher to expend its resources on the publication of the material as

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-64068846990799735282011-09-13T09:35:00.001+01:002011-09-13T09:35:20.938+01:00

By the early 1830s, despite the work of these individuals and groups, there was a feeling that the Church was faced with the alternatives of thorough reform or ‘complete destruction’. [1] This fear was sufficient to remove the obstacles to organisational change and pastoral renewal that had long prevented its adjustment to industrial and urban society. The ecclesiastical and political crises of

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-14766508330296586292011-09-06T11:08:00.001+01:002011-09-06T11:08:09.326+01:00

The Church could not resist the pressures for reform since it was not united in maintaining its authoritarian and conservative position. Critical opinion from evangelicals and from the laity led to concentration on the reform and reinvigoration of the parish. The Church of England and the Church of Ireland had been joined by the Act of Union. It became increasingly necessary to reform the gross

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-46133476388316152522011-08-31T09:30:00.001+01:002011-08-31T09:30:22.062+01:00

The Church of England found itself in an uncomfortable position at the turn of the nineteenth century and was especially slow to recognise the significance of the changes taking place in the population structure of the country. [1] It had been fully integrated into the social environment of the eighteenth century with village and parish normally coterminous.  Its great strength lay in southern

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-51210749489766132702011-08-28T09:13:00.001+01:002011-08-28T09:13:42.434+01:00

In the first half of the nineteenth century British society became increasingly polarised and an important part in that process was religious adherence: The Church of England system is ripe for dissolution.  The service provided by it is of a bad sort: inefficient with respect to the ends or objects professed to be aimed at by it:  efficient with respect to the divers effects which, being

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-6953637018392394162011-08-23T11:19:00.001+01:002011-08-23T11:19:01.145+01:00

The system of deference was apparent in the social backgrounds of the political rulers of the period. Reform in 1832 opened up the system a little, but elitist patterns of representation remained largely unaltered. Of the 13 Cabinets formed between 1830 and 1868, peers and commoners were each dominant in six and the two Houses balanced in one. [1] Those Cabinets in which the Lords had a majority

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-68511246634661733982011-08-20T17:05:00.001+01:002011-08-20T17:05:48.943+01:00

It was in politics that the new patterns of class alignment were to be found at their clearest. Between 1800 and 1850, the national political rulers were drawn exclusively from the landed classes and the City faction of the commercial class, with the manufacturers and provincial merchants pursuing their interests in the towns and cities.[1] From the middle of the century, this patrician approach

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-48626247436402127262011-08-16T11:23:00.001+01:002011-08-16T11:23:42.702+01:00

The involvement of landowners on boards of manufacturing and commercial companies was complemented by the continuing movement of industrial and commercial wealth into land and an increase in intermarriage between the classes. By 1830, London bankers and merchants such as Lloyd, Baring, Drummond and the Rothschilds, brewers such as Barclay, Hanbury and Whitbread had bought into land, as had

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-30552290878614496632011-08-12T09:05:00.001+01:002011-08-12T09:05:04.922+01:00

The move towards joint stock capital was linked to an increase in the levels of economic concentration. [1] In the 1880s, the hundred largest industrial firms accounted for less than 10% of the total market. However, a spate of company amalgamation led to greater concentrations in the 1890s as the increased merger activity outpaced the growth of the market. Companies were floated on the stock

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-9903864096671075722011-08-05T09:30:00.001+01:002011-08-05T09:30:23.166+01:00

In the eighteenth century, the distinction between a class of landlords and a class of capitalist farmer tenants had been sharpened by the continuing process of agricultural improvement.[1] By 1850, the enclosure movement was all but completed and a third rural class of agricultural wage labourers had been created. The three classes of landlord, tenant farmer and labourer characterised Victorian

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-23530673027563452312011-07-30T09:33:00.001+01:002011-07-30T09:33:18.479+01:00

Between 1800 and 1914, manufacturing industry grew steadily in importance to become dominant within the economy and this was reflected in the structure of class relations. The relationship between agriculture and industry changed tilting the economic balance of power in favour of the manufacturing class while Britain’s central position of in the international flow of commodities and capital

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-32957440553240973322011-07-23T11:30:00.002+01:002011-07-25T08:42:31.592+01:00

The development of a substantial and powerful professional group within the middle-classes gathered considerable pace in the later Victorian period.[1] The growth and maturation of the world’s first modern capitalist economy played an important role in this process and the expansion in GNP was impressively high between 1841 and 1901. It more than doubled in the period to 1871 and, in spite of

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-18768608501275727692011-07-18T15:30:00.001+01:002011-07-18T15:30:35.505+01:00

It is not hyperbole to suggest that there is a systemic crisis in the British state.  Over the past few years and especially weeks, we have seen the old certainties of the economic and political establishment dramatically unravel.   There was the collapse of the financial system in 2008 followed by the MPs’ expenses scandal and now we have the further tarnishing of the media in the wake of the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-15234022290895243852011-07-17T23:50:00.001+01:002011-07-17T23:50:19.747+01:00

During the economic transformation between 1780 and 1830, entrepreneurs were regarded as the main instruments of change because of their enterprise and innovation, organisational skill and their ability to exploit commercial opportunities.[1] Many industrial pioneers operated in a uniquely favourable economic environment. They faced an expanding domestic market buttressed, especially in cotton,

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-17640682951325464022011-07-13T08:52:00.001+01:002011-07-13T08:52:29.700+01:00

The Reform Act 1832, traditionally regarded as the beginnings of middle-class political power, does not provide an index of the rise to power of the industrial bourgeoisie.[1] The new franchise increased the representation of the urban middle-class but it was also designed to reduce the power of newly wealthy owners of corrupt boroughs and to restore and give fresh legitimacy to the traditional

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-85680527739260839692011-07-10T13:49:00.001+01:002011-07-10T13:49:01.455+01:00

The middle-class  search was for security, comfort and peace of mind and above all for that social acceptance and approval denoted by respectability.[1] These were, as J.F.C. Harrison says ....not perhaps very noble strivings, especially when pursued in a competitive and individualist spirit. Materialism in an undisguised form seldom appears very attractive.... (Yet) in retrospect the years

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-27830865272941471772011-07-06T09:40:00.001+01:002011-07-06T09:40:50.317+01:00

Who were the ‘middle-classes’? [1] George Kitson Clark rightly counselled caution when he pointed out that Of course, the general expression ‘middle-class’ remains useful, as a name for a large section of society .... (but) it is necessary to remember that a belief in the importance and significance of the middle-class in the nineteenth century derives from contemporary opinion .... They do

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-41625133946638850662011-06-29T12:26:00.001+01:002011-06-29T12:26:40.940+01:00

In 1870 George Potter, a prominent unionist and radical journalist wrote, The working man belonging to the upper-class of his order is a member of the aristocracy of the working-classes. He is a man of some culture, is well read in politics and social history....His self respect is also well developed. [1] His view of the ‘aristocracy of the working-classes’, distinguished from other workers

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-80811673277386215422011-06-23T16:13:00.001+01:002011-06-23T16:13:11.265+01:00

It is difficult to superimpose twenty-first century notions of unemployment on the mid-nineteenth century labour market. There are no statistics, national or otherwise. Patterns of work were very diverse, varying between different industries and trades but also within the same industry in different parts of the country.[1] The enormous variation in the nature of waged work is not the only

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-18674482763097229602011-06-19T10:17:00.001+01:002011-06-19T10:17:55.066+01:00

By the early 1830s, many rural areas were beginning to emerge from the worst rural distress of the agricultural depression and direct rural protest, such as the Captain Swing riots in 1830 in southern England, were not repeated, rural wages remained low and highly variable from one area to another.[1] James Caird surveyed wages in England in 1851 and identified variations from 13-14s per week in

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-9309165479650877952011-06-15T14:08:00.001+01:002011-06-15T14:08:05.150+01:00

Despite the persistence of skill differentials, the working-class became more homogeneous in late-Victorian England. The proportion of the occupied population engaged in farming fell from 15% in 1871 to 7.5% in 1901 as rural migrants entered the most rapidly expanding sections of the domestic economy (transport and mining) marking a major shift from worse to better paid jobs and from less to more

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-42438216636961896862011-06-11T09:21:00.001+01:002011-06-11T09:21:41.747+01:00

Culture and community in the factory became the concern of ‘scientific management’, a comprehensive strategy significantly in advance of the paternalism of the 1850s and 1860s. The working environment improved as employers implemented new factory legislation and extended the range of welfare programmes, but other initiatives were less benevolent. Pioneer forms of Taylorism provided new managerial

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-23622891226722505362011-06-06T16:56:00.001+01:002011-06-06T16:56:38.787+01:00

Improved standards of living during the mid-Victorian period owed more to greater stability in employment than a marked increase in wages.[1] The economy was characterised by high, relatively stable prices and high levels of consumption. This was, however, punctuated by years of inflation between 1853 and 1855 and 1870 and 1873. Food prices rose less than most others resulting in marked increases

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-46874157647616661352011-06-02T09:41:00.001+01:002011-06-02T09:41:51.830+01:00

Craft-like control persisted in amended form in the mid-Victorian factory, a privilege enjoyed by a new aristocracy of labour. John Foster argues that these new aristocrats derived their status from a change in employer strategy. Skilled workers were incorporated in a new authority structure designed to strengthen discipline and increase productivity. The introduction of the ‘piece master’ system

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-72972716759670081032011-05-27T16:50:00.001+01:002011-05-27T16:50:36.234+01:00

  Famine, Fenians and Freedom, 1840-1882 is the second volume of a trilogy on resistance and rebellion in the British Empire. It examines the Irish dimension in Britain’s Empire, evident in Three Rebellions: Canada 1837-1838, South Wales 1839 and Victoria, Australia 1854, through attempts especially by the Young Ireland and Fenian movements to achieve Ireland’s independence through rebellion

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-58852101313256008362011-05-27T09:18:00.001+01:002011-05-27T09:18:15.871+01:00

Discussion of living standards, especially the so-called ‘standard of living debate’ in the period before 1850, is bedevilled by a range of methodological problems. [1] What is the meaning of living standards? Is it a qualitative or quantitative concept? What evidence can be used? Statistics, one of the main fuels in the debate, obscure much of the diversity and harshness of working-class

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-45498466109711752352011-05-23T09:02:00.001+01:002011-05-23T09:02:31.612+01:00

The subject of the working-classes in the nineteenth century is an enormous one.[1] It is difficult to overestimate the importance of work in working-class life. Work helped determine two fundamental elements of working-class existence: the ways in which workers spent most of their waking hours; and the amounts of money they had to their disposal. It also determined most other aspects of

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-13916161140240373342011-05-19T10:47:00.001+01:002011-05-19T10:47:10.087+01:00

If it is legitimate to speak of a class only when a group is united in every conceivable way then the concept is rendered meaningless. Classes are not and never were monolithic blocks of identical individuals. The critical question is whether working people in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries consciously acted as members of a class as well as in other roles. Historians have

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-22110582736732556952011-05-16T09:44:00.001+01:002011-05-16T09:44:02.594+01:00

The majority of contemporary and modern analysts have adhered to the three-class model. Harold Perkin argued that, as the result of industrialisation, urbanisation and the midwifery of religion, a class society emerged between 1789 and 1833 or, more precisely between 1815 and 1820. Class was characterised ...by class feeling, that is, by the existence of vertical antagonism between a small

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-2899089810677265342011-05-14T08:55:00.001+01:002011-05-14T08:55:38.961+01:00

An alternative to the vertical relationships of a paternalistic hierarchical society lay in the horizontal solidarities of ‘class’.[1] Richard Dennis, in his study of nineteenth century industrial cities, sums up the problem of class in the following way: Evidently the road to class analysis crosses a minefield with a sniper behind every bush.... it may not be possible to please all the people

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-52931991246467463952011-05-09T09:12:00.001+01:002011-05-09T09:12:31.301+01:00

For a variety of reasons this paternalist view of society began to break down from the early-nineteenth century. An ‘abdication on the part of the governors’ had been recognised as early as the 1820s though it was Carlyle who popularised it in the 1840s.[1] This process had the following features. The changing focus of the economy away from land and towards manufacturing and service industries

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-16506429716839211012011-05-09T09:05:00.001+01:002011-05-09T09:05:45.798+01:00

In 1806, Le French Canadian was established by Pierre Bédard in Quebec with its motto: ‘Notre foi, notre langue, nos institutions’. These became the three pillars of survival for French Canadians and had increased resonance in the aftermath of Durham’s Report in defining the distinctiveness of French Canada. The focus was placed upon what Michel Brunet called ‘Messianism’, ‘agriculturalism’ and ‘

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-89319950891187751662011-05-06T11:38:00.001+01:002011-05-06T11:38:54.858+01:00

All societies are, to some degree, stratified or divided into different social groups. These groups may be in competition with each other for social control or wealth. They may be functional, defined by their contribution to society as a whole. They may share common ‘values’, have a common ‘national identity’ or they may form part of a pluralistic society in which different ‘values’ coexist with

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-58133374238146021302011-05-06T09:32:00.001+01:002011-05-06T09:32:09.988+01:00

A product of the unique geography and history of the land and its peoples, Canadian religion today exhibits its own characteristic features at the same time as it shows many of the typical patterns associated with the religious activities of contemporary post-industrial societies. While sharing much in common with the religious life of its nearest neighbour, Canada boasts significant national and

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-62497741730633219662011-05-02T09:13:00.001+01:002011-05-02T09:13:20.753+01:00

The second Patriote rebellion occurred in November 1838 with the attack in Lower Canada that was defeated at Odelltown and the assault on Prescott in Upper Canada. At the same time, rumours of the Russian government’s involvement began to circulate. The Morning Herald of New York published an article on 12 November suggesting that the Russians were favourably disposed to the revolutionaries who

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-22190371442499656232011-04-27T09:10:00.001+01:002011-04-27T09:10:29.950+01:00

Jean-Jacques Lartigue[1] became bishop of Montreal in 1836 having been its auxiliary suffragan bishop responsible to the archbishop of Quebec since 1821 and sent the flock in his diocese two injunctions and three pastoral letters[2] concerning the rebellions of 1837-1838. From 1829, however, relations between the Patriote party and the bishops deteriorated rapidly.[3] Taking issue with the aims

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-84574143682145787052011-04-24T14:55:00.001+01:002011-04-24T14:55:24.942+01:00

The strength and cost of the policing developed continuously throughout the nineteenth century. The extension of the function of the police to encompass broad areas of human activity and the growing surveillance of the working-classes in particular led to the pervasive presence of the ‘bobby’ across society and a growing belief that Britain had become a regulatory and policeman state. The police

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-86217607727383903502011-04-21T17:42:00.001+01:002011-04-21T17:42:20.899+01:00

By 1900, working as a police constable meant a steady job with low income but attractive benefits. Employment was independent of the business cycle and pay was not linked to individual performance. Such work was in demand and only one-in-five applicants were accepted. In the Metropolitan Police during the nineteenth century, only about 10% of the force was born in London. This reflected the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-90448121798523259342011-04-18T11:54:00.001+01:002011-04-18T11:54:04.327+01:00

Suspicions that the new Metropolitan Police was a covert military force persisted across the political and social spectrum and the question of rising policing costs irritated parish authorities. Widespread complaints of inferior services delivered for higher charges were eventually met in 1833 by central government agreeing to fund a quarter of policing costs. The continuing political sensitivity

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-71883790926363163992011-04-14T10:51:00.001+01:002011-04-14T10:51:33.797+01:00

Between 1812 and 1822 six House of Commons’ Select Committees affirmed broad, if qualified, satisfaction with the civic jigsaw of parish-based watch systems. However, resistance to the notion of a police force lessened in the 1810s and early 1820s largely because of growing moral panic among the ruling class about working-class insurrection. In addition, while rising crime and disorder were still

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-15878636181906527832011-04-11T17:56:00.001+01:002011-04-11T17:56:47.757+01:00

The English were suspicious of any notion of a powerful police that they equated with the Catholic absolutism of France. [1] Louis XIV had established a Royal Police in 1667 under with explicit aim of strengthening royal authority in all fields of life. Public Prosecutors were the King’s agents. By contrast, in England the landowning aristocracy had checked the growth of centralised royal power

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-50700393454580393872011-04-08T10:09:00.001+01:002011-04-08T10:09:25.376+01:00

The traditional view of the system of policing before 1829 was that it was inefficient and corrupt and that the ‘real’ history of policing for London and England begins in 1829. This was certainly the view of contemporary critics such as Patrick Colquhoun but Quarter Session and other local records suggest that to view policing simply from Westminster slanted the issue of law enforcement in the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-57122258166615265602011-04-08T09:59:00.000+01:002011-04-08T10:00:00.024+01:00

The medieval system of policing was based on community action where individuals were expected to aid neighbours and protect their villages from crime.[1] This pledge system was based around tithings, groups of ten families entrusted with policing minor problems such as disturbances, fire, wild animals and other threats. [2] The leader was called a tithingman and he was expected to raise the hue

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-11631105133192968502011-04-04T20:15:00.001+01:002011-04-04T20:15:41.577+01:00

Juvenile crime was a concern before the beginning of the nineteenth century but a number of historians have argued that the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century was pivotal in the changes that occurred in the treatment of juvenile criminals. Some historians argue that this represented an ‘invention’ of juvenile crime but there was not so much an ‘invention’ as a ‘reconceptualisation’ of

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-69622897736823704582011-04-03T09:47:00.001+01:002011-04-03T09:47:50.473+01:00

By the late 1880s, belief in punishment and deterrence as the main objects of imprisonment and confidence in the separate system as a desirable and effective means of dealing with prisoners came increasingly under question especially from a rabid campaign in the Daily Chronicle.[1] The result was the departmental committee chaired by Herbert Gladstone in 1894 and 1895 reflecting changes in

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-63834374920282540512011-04-01T10:13:00.001+01:002011-04-01T10:13:34.418+01:00

Toward the mid-nineteenth century, some authors became interested in the actual conditions of prisons.[1] Although such eighteenth-century authors as Daniel Defoe and John Gay had featured the image of the infamous Newgate Prison in their writings, Charles Dickens’s explorations of the criminal world took a somewhat darker tone. Novels including Oliver Twist (1838), Little Dorrit (1857) and

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-50917644947812152432011-03-28T09:18:00.001+01:002011-03-28T09:18:22.322+01:00

In 1835, a series of reports was made by a House of Lords’ Committee on the State of Gaols containing appendices setting out much detailed information including gaols controlled by municipal corporations. These reports informed the drafting of the Prisons Act 1835 ‘for effecting greater uniformity of practice in the government of the several prisons in England and Wales’. The Act empowered Lord

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-21210070157377336532011-03-25T17:13:00.001Z2011-03-25T17:13:33.947Z

The involvement of the Home Office in the administration of prisons evolved gradually during the nineteenth century until, by 1878, the Home Secretary became completely responsible for the administration of all prisons. The outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775 ended transportation to the American colonies and created a major logistical problem for central government. The solution

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-45941781351411143072011-03-22T10:09:00.001Z2011-03-22T10:09:55.247Z

Sir George Onesiphorus Paul was made High Sheriff of Gloucester in 1780 and reacted to the local prisons with much the same disgust as John Howard.[1] Howard’s report on Gloucester prison was damning. Paul realised that he could not alter this and that the only option was to build a new prison. The Gloucestershire Act 1785 gave him the power to do this. He worked with an architect, William

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-38059202830231773402011-03-19T14:23:00.001Z2011-03-19T14:23:54.417Z

At dawn on 17th November 1837, constable Mâlo and a detachment of 18 volunteers of the Royal Montreal Cavalry arrived at the village of Saint-Jean.[1] Their orders were to arrest the notary Pierre Paul Demaray and doctor Joseph Davignon, both accused of having taken part several weeks earlier in the assembly at Saint-Charles. Caught in bed, the two men were bound hand and foot and carried on the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-79298837777898550332011-03-19T14:18:00.001Z2011-03-19T14:18:08.545Z

Individual reformers had criticised the system of criminal punishment based on capital punishment and transportation since the 1770s. They had two motives. Prisons were cruel and unfair. Many of the reformers were Evangelicals who pointed out that convicts were God’s creatures too. People’s lives were being wasted, languishing in gaols when they could change their ways and become decent citizens.

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-5773907075473252792011-03-16T09:33:00.001Z2011-03-16T09:33:44.472Z

The debate between the Whigs and the Tories regarding law reform in the early-nineteenth century centered on the law’s broad application of capital punishment for both violent and property crimes.[1] The Whig reformers argued for graduated sentences tailored to the severity of offenses, so as to project the image of law that is applied fairly, impersonally, and impartially. The opponents of

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-13987395044801353362011-03-12T22:31:00.001Z2011-03-12T22:31:06.960Z

Reacting to rejection Papineau’s support remained strong, though it grew evident that he had little left to offer except noble messages. Like Mackenzie, Papineau was long on words but short on action. The Ninety-Two Resolutions had heightened divisions with many moderate French Canadians and Papineau’s anti-clerical position alienated reformers in the Catholic Church, and made Bishop Jean-Jacques

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-79725952572159828132011-03-12T22:18:00.001Z2011-03-12T22:18:30.103Z

Between 1830 and 1914, there were three major changes in the ways convicted offenders were treated. First, there was a shift from death or transportation as the major punishment for felonies to imprisonment in custom-built prisons.[1] Secondly, there was a shift, admittedly less marked, from the personnel of the courts making all key decisions about the offender to the experts in the new prison

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-8646487662618249382011-03-08T11:49:00.001Z2011-03-08T11:49:27.268Z

The Fils de la Liberté was formed in August 1837 and held its first assembly on 5 September when between 500 and 700 people attended. It based itself on the Sons of Liberty that had existed during the American Revolution but the more immediate inspiration was another organisation that already existed in Vankleek Hill, the centre of radical activity in the valley of the Outaouais. The core of the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-40063559514300251632011-03-08T11:42:00.001Z2011-03-08T11:42:07.814Z

From the early-nineteenth century, until absorbed by the new social purity movements of the 1880s, the Society for the Suppression of Vice (founded in 1802) remained the Victorian’s basic legal force against the obscene. [1] Its work demonstrated the often close relationship between private vigilance and public authorities. It was the persuasion of the Vice Society that led to the Obscene

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-66600888937651352011-03-04T08:59:00.001Z2011-03-04T08:59:38.492Z

The genesis of modern Quebec nationalism is intimately linked to the Patriote movement that from the outset was liberal, progressive and republican. Patriotes championed the principle of ministerial responsibility, attacked political corruption, defended freedom of the press and the principle of social justice, but the movement is not thought to have advocated national independence. This is

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-18188500598277768972011-03-04T08:50:00.001Z2011-03-04T08:50:13.981Z

The energies of law enforcement were focused on maintaining order and defending property. The late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century saw major changes in Britain.[1] This was bound to have an impact on crime. Highway robbery died out as roads became less isolated with more traffic, more patrols and more turnpike gates. For example, the last series of prosecutions for highway robbery were

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-20314060942282190632011-03-01T09:06:00.001Z2011-03-01T09:06:25.024Z

The Declaration of Independence by the American colonies in 1776 played an importance role in the political thinking of the rebels during the rebellions in the Canadas. During each political crisis of the 1820s and especially the 1830s, people in the two Canadas looked with some envy at their neighbours in the American republic.[1] The admission of Canada into the Union when it requested it was

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-37803601360145545092011-03-01T09:00:00.001Z2011-03-01T09:00:01.887Z

Although there were several high profile crimes and criminals in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, most criminal activity was small-scale, often involved a degree of violence and, despite the fears of the middle-classes largely involved members of the working-classes both as criminals and as victims.[1] There are major problems with the official crime statistics. How the police

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-42700861375780130162011-02-25T20:19:00.002Z2011-02-25T20:20:52.561Z

This paper considers the resolutions passed at the large Patriote assemblies held between May and October 1837. Often written in advance, these resolutions can appear repetitive.[1] Nevertheless, they do identify the fundamental political issues in the months leading up to the Rebellions and about the inspirations, rhetoric, political platform, and the measures taken by the Parti Patriote and its

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-15690872411544157762011-02-25T20:12:00.001Z2011-02-25T20:12:22.261Z

Today we are concerned about ‘organised crime’. In the nineteenth century, contemporaries debated the existence of professional criminals and the more ambiguous ‘criminal classes’, a notion given credence by the collection and publication of statistics. The Report of the Royal Commission on the Rural Constabulary 1839, largely drafted by Edwin Chadwick, attempted to explain crime across England

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-34314664237606642522011-02-22T10:13:00.001Z2011-02-22T10:13:29.455Z

The first assembly protesting about both Russell’s Resolution and the colonial authorities took place at Saint-Ours on 7 May 1837. Its importance lies in the resolutions that it passed and because it provided a model for subsequent Patriote assemblies. The assembly was a direct consequence of Russell’s Resolutions introduced into the House of Commons when the Whig government rejected the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-74910926242869329092011-02-22T10:07:00.001Z2011-02-22T10:09:08.514Z

There has been an unprecedented growth of academic research and publications in the history of crime.[1] Until recently, most books dealing with crime tended to be ‘popular’ rather than narrowly ‘academic’ in character and concentrated on particular, notorious events or personalities and many depended on largely anecdotal and literary sources. Since the 1970s, historians have increasingly turned

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-19551434999925265472011-02-19T14:16:00.003Z2011-02-19T22:52:58.632Z

The vast growth in and attempt to systematise secondary education was paralleled by a significant, though relatively small, growth and innovation in the university sector. Higher education was still only accessible to a tiny minority. There were changes in the composition of the university population, in the structure of university government and in the curriculum. The 1870s saw the arrival at

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-62493001051362592882011-02-19T13:51:00.001Z2011-02-19T13:51:18.113Z

Between the Endowed Schools Act 1869 and the appointment of the Bryce Commission in 1895, four main developments had taken place in secondary education. First, the endowments and management of the grammar schools had been widely reformed. Secondly, their curriculum had become subject to greater scrutiny and change. Thirdly, the middle-class character of the schools had been further reinforced

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-22840947610178221202011-02-19T09:18:00.001Z2011-02-19T09:18:37.787Z

  Famine, Fenians and Freedom, 1840-1882 is the second volume of a trilogy on resistance and rebellion in the British Empire. It examines the Irish dimension in Britain’s Empire, evident in Three Rebellions: Canada 1837-1838, South Wales 1839 and Victoria, Australia 1854, through attempts especially by the Young Ireland and Fenian movements to achieve Ireland’s independence through rebellion

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-52889667700773917772011-02-17T09:04:00.001Z2011-02-17T09:04:50.913Z

Religious squabbling continued in the elections for School Boards and in the attempts[1], particularly by Anglicans in county areas, to forestall the imposition of the School Boards.[2] Initially the advantage lay with the existing voluntary schools and even by 1880 only one sixth of children were in board schools but the potential for growth lay with School Boards and by 1900, 54% of the

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-3976644878993817622011-02-13T21:00:00.001Z2011-02-13T21:00:11.858Z

Since the tentative attempt in 1822 to impose a union between Upper and Lower Canada, there had been conflict between the Assembly, dominated by deputies elected by the French Canadian population and the Executive Council dominated by members of the ‘British party’. In 1828, the British Parliament appointed a ‘committee on Canada’ that made recommendations for concessions to the Canadians on a

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-15326839851603163192011-02-13T20:32:00.001Z2011-02-13T20:32:22.073Z

The effect of the 1870 Education Act was to widen the gap between the educations of different classes. It marked the increasing involvement of the state in the financing and control of elementary education.[1] The age of compulsory schooling was raised from ten, to eleven and then fourteen in 1800, 1893 and 1899 respectively. However, exceptions were made for part-time working under local byelaws

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6059707721262619485.post-58264479821982165462011-02-09T19:08:00.001Z2011-02-09T19:08:16.573Z

The education of women and girls had been an issue in England since the 1790s.[1] Certain social pressures gave the claims of writers like Mary Wollstonecraft[2], that equality of education with boys was a means of securing independence for women, an extra urgency by 1850. Women were still less educated than men. Female literacy rates in 1851 were still only 55% compared to nearly 70% for men.

Richard Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09525273939449738090noreply@blogger.com0