Political, Social, & Economic Reforms Term Paper

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However, the act only applied to larger towns and the rural districts were still left under the administrative control of the Justices of the Peace until the establishment of elected county councils in 1888. Even though it was quite inadequate for the immediate needs of the common peoples of England, this act made it possible for main urban areas to form their own powerful authority, subject to popular control, and thus able to levy a local rate. From this simple beginning, a concentration of new functions arose and throughout the 20th century powers would continue to be added to municipal corporations. One of the best results of the Municipal Corporations Act was that it created new possibilities, such as the education of children, and supplied the public with trams, light, water and housing.

Before the years of the 19th century in England, those that worked in coal mines which furnished the power for the great machines that spurred the Industrial Revolution were very badly housed, underpaid and extremely over-worked and had no safety net against accidents which could result in a worker being disabled or even killed. The Industrial Revolution also greatly increased the mining population but without first improving their living and working conditions. This situation was soon addressed by the Mine Laws of 1842, but in effect these laws did not fully eliminate the hard conditions associated with working in England's mines which were getting "deeper and deeper, increasing the chances of an accident, due to the fact that surface coal was almost exhausted" (Mainwaring 215).

Up until 1832, the workings of local and state governments were still based on the styles handed down from the Tudor Period, and by the mid-1830's it became clear to all involved in English government policies that the system had to be modernized.

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Among the things that were accomplished during this time were the various Corn Laws, first begun in 1815, designed to prevent the entry of cheap grain into the food coffers of Great Britain. But after 1832, there erupted certain movements to abolish the Corn Laws, due to placing much burden on the farmers that grew and harvested corn for the people of England and for other countries around the world. The Anti-Corn Law League was soon established, partly because of the potato blight in Ireland in 1845-46 which in essence forced the suspension of the Corn Laws. This was a very important political event, for it "broke up the Conservative Party and put the Whigs in power and signaled a victory for the middle classes" (Pigou 321).

In conclusion, it is abundantly clear that reform in the British government between 1831 and 1850 greatly aided in the dynamic changes within England based on the economic, political and social agendas held the various political parties. According to Winston Churchill, one of the greatest political reformers in British history, the reforms created by the abolition of slavery, the Factory Act, the Poor Laws, the Municipal Corporation Acts, the Mine Acts and the suspension of the Corn Laws "were to make Britain the greatest industrial power of the 19th century world and help her to enter upon her supremacy" (62)......

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