Leadership, politics and government in the county of Hampshire during the lord lieutenancy of the First Duke of Wellington 1820-1825

Abstract

The thesis traces Hampshire's political and administrative history during the lord lieutenancy of the Duke of Wellington. Whilst the emphasis is necessarily on the county gentry, consideration of the population as a whole, particularly when the gentry's leadership provoked criticism, is also an important theme. After an introduction to Hampshire's economy and society, attention is turned to county government. This involves an examination of the magistrates' routine work in quarter sessions and attempts to gauge their efficiency as well as their reaction to, and the truth of the accusation that, because sessions was oligarchic, it was extravagant. Whilst little was done to democratise county government, an analysis of the county bench does however reveal a sustained bid by the Whig government to broaden its political and social composition, thus paralleling the government's better known initiatives on the borough magistracy during the 1830s. Part one then concludes by revising the traditional interpretation of the county governors' response to the swing riots of 1830, and investigates their more general involvement with the preservation of public order through surveys of the yeomanry cavalry and the new county constabulary introduced in 1840. Part two of the thesis charts the struggle between Whig and Tory gentry families - and the factors which either intensified or diluted their rivalry - for political ascendancy in Hampshire. This theme is set against the backcloth of an increasingly politically aware electorate. During the 1820s the Whig gentry were able to canalise the economic discontent which fuelled political protest and to place themselves at the head of the Reform Bill agitation. When renewed agricultural depression inevitably rebounded against the Whigs during the 1830s, Tory fortunes revived. Tory ascendancy was in turn threatened however in the years following the Repeal of the Corn Laws as members of the rural middle class became disillusioned with the political lead of both Whig and Tory gentry. Electoral passions only subsided during the 1850s when the economic climate improved. Clear patterns of continuity and change emerge from the study. An attempt is also made to show how political and administrative developments interrelate, and the thesis concludes by suggesting that although the gentry remained in control of the county's affairs, their leadership was not as unquestioned and therefore more skilful, than is often supposed. (D71742/87)

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