WILLIAM IV. 1830 - 1837
The third son of George III. and Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-strelitz . He married (1818) Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, sister of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, by whom he had no surviving children, but by his connection with Mrs. Jordan the actress for twenty years, he had a large family bearing the name of Fitzclarence.
He served in the navy, rising successively to all the grades of naval command, till in 1801 he was made admiral of the fleet.
In 1789 he had received the title of Duke of Clarence, and in June 1830 he succeeded his brother George IV. to the throne. and reigned 7 years.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS
The great events, which render his reign
memorable are the passage Reform
Bill carried in the Commons, 1831 Reform Bill passed by the Lords, 1832. The reform of the Poor
Laws altered by Act of Parliament. The
abolition of slavery in the British
colonies, 1834. The Marriage and Registration Acts passed, 1835. The Tithe Commutation Act passed.
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1830 George IV. died, and was succeeded by his brother
William, under the title of William IV. the next surviving younger brother of George IV, commenced his seven-year
reign, while the country was stirred by the agitation for parliamentary reform. He was simply, warm-hearted genial
and breezy, as befitted an old tar, but sometimes a little queer in his conduct. He favoured moderate reforms.
In the same year the Duke of Wellington lost one of his colleagues by a sad accident. The accident is memorable because it serves to remind us of a very important event. In the month of September, 1830, the Duke of Wellington with a large party went down to Lancashire to witness the running of the first trains upon the new Railway which had just been made between Manchester and Liverpool. The famous engine built by George Stephenson , and named "The Rocket,' astonished all men by drawing its train at the rate of thirty miles an hour. It was a wonderful success. Unluckily, the day was marked by one misfortune - Mr. Huskisson, who had filled the office of Secretary for the, Colonies under the Duke of Wellington, was knocked down and killed. |
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| William IV., King of Great Britain and Ireland, the third son of George III., born Aug. 21st 1765, died June 1837. |
Reform of Parliamentary Rights
One was for a fairer rearrangement of the antiquated parliamentary constituencies the county areas and the boroughs (towns). These constituencies elected two members apiece, quite regardless of how many voters each contained. Indeed, all the evils and injustices described under the reign of George I still remained uncorrected and even intensified. Populous new factory towns such as Birmingham and Manchester returned no separate representatives. But the "pocket boroughs" and rotten boroughs," some of them with only one or two voters (Old Sarum, near Salisbury, was actually an un-peopled waste), still elected their pair of members. And the old flagrant bribery, the buying and selling of borough seats, and the widespread control of elections exercised by the gentry, went on merrily.
The other demand was for an extension of the franchise, or right to vote. At that time, in the English counties,
it was restricted to landowners, small as well as large. Tenant-farmers and farm labourers had no say. In the boroughs,
the varied qualifications were as senseless as if they had been invented by a lunatic; but in most places the voters
were relatively few. In Scotland and Ireland things were just as bad if not worse.
The Whig and Tory parties in Parliament both agreed that something must be done. But both were also reluctant to
surrender the power enjoyed by the governing class to which they belonged. Where they differed was on the question
of what concessions should now be made to pacify the people. The Tories were, by temperament, opposed to sweeping
changes. The Whigs were more open-minded. They felt that fundamental reforms were essential, partly is a matter
of justice, but also to prevent any further outcry. Only the small group of Radicals (that formed the extreme Whig
wing) stood, as a body, wholeheartedly for reform in principle, as a step towards democratic government.
Lord Grey now became Prime Minister, and under him were three very famous men - Lord John Russell, Lord Melbourne, and Lord Palmerston, each of whom in turn became Prime Minister of England. Lord Grey, having advised the Duke of Wellington to bring in a Reform Bill now of course felt bound to follow his own advice and to bring one himself.
The Reform Bill
This was the situation when a Whig government under Earl Grey introduced the great Reform Bill of 1831. The bill proposed to sweep away a host of pocket and rotten boroughs, to reduce the representation of other small towns and to give seats to the un-represented factory towns. At the same time the franchise (as later amended) was extended to the middle classes, the farmers in the country and the shopkeepers in the towns who owned or rented property of a certain minimum value.
In 1831 the Bill was brought in, but it only passed through the house of Commons by a majority of one. It was withdrawn, and Grey resigned. A fresh general election reestablished him with a handsome majority. The people had set their hearts on the bill This time Grey got his measure through the Commons and sent it up to the Lords. In the new Parliament there was a great majority in favour of the Bill. It was brought in by Lord John Russell, and passed by a majority of 136 but the House of Lords refused to pass it. The refusal caused Riots, and ill feeling against the House of Lords.
The fight was now on outside Parliament, Public
buildings were sacked and burned. The military were called out. Grey piloted a third bill through the Commons.
The Lords fell on it and proceeded to cut its heart out. After that the issue was stark and clear beyond all question.
Peers or People - which was it to be?
The fateful issue was never tried. It was in the King's power to cancel out the Tory majority in the Lords by creating
new peers. To avert the threatening storm he consented to exercise the power.
At the end of 1831 the Bill was brought in a third time, and in 1832 it came before the House of Lords again. The Duke of Wellington, who had hitherto opposed the Bill, now consented to its passage, for he felt that to refuse any longer would be dangerous to the country. From that moment the Lords were beaten. When the bill came before them a hundred peers absented themselves and, in June, 1832, the Reform Bill was passed .
Child Labour Abolished
The next year the Whig government in a re-formed Parliament quickly got down to tackling some crying social evils. There was the scandal of child - labour. Little children of seven were kept at work in the textile factories for twelve or more hours a day. The Factory Act of 1833 (one of a long series to come) prohibited the employment of children under nine and limited the hours of those under thirteen to forty-eight per week. Then, by way of a change, the latter group were sent to school for two hours daily. The government also made a money grant for educational purposes. These modest provisions were the first effective steps taken by the State towards the free, compulsory, universal education that children enjoy to-day.
In the same year was passed the factory act, by which it was made illegal to employ children under thirteen years of age for more than eight hours a day, or persons between thirteen and eighteen for more than twelve hours a day,
Slavery Abolished
In the same year, mainly as a result of the persistent endeavours of William Wilberforce and his fellow-workers, slavery was abolished ,the government of Lord Grey besides passing the great Reform Bill . In 1833 passed an Act, by which slavery was for ever put an end to within the British Dominions. The Slave Trade - that is to say, the trade of capturing free men in Africa, carrying them across the sea, and selling them as slaves in British colonies or in the United States - had been put an end to twenty-six years before, when Fox was Prime Minister. The Act now passed set free all the slaves belonging to British subjects in any part of the world.
Since 1833 many other Acts have been passed shortening the hours of work, but this one deserves to be remembered because it was the first.
In 1834 Lord Grey's Ministry came to an end, and Lord Melbourne became Prime Minister, but only for a very short
time, for in the same year Sir Robert Peel succeeded him. Peel dissolved Parliament, hoping to get a majority of
Conservatives to support him. After the Reform Bill the Conservative party had for a time almost vanished from
the House of Commons. What was then called the Liberal party numbered 486 members, while the Conservatives had
only 172 members. In the new Parliament of 1835 many more Conservatives were returned, but not enough to give Peel
a majority. He resigned in April, and Lord Melbourne again became Prime Minister.
In June, 1837, King William IV. died, and was succeeded by his niece the Princess Victoria, daughter of his younger brother Edward, Duke of Kent, who had died in 1820.
