Adullamites
Adullamites is a parliamentary nickname for the breakaway English liberals under Robert Lowe , who renounced the reform debates of 1866 , and whose defection John Bright called a disgruntled retreat into the political cave of Adullam ( David stayed for a longer period in the cave of Adullam ( 1 Sam 22.1 EU ) Time during Saul's persecution). The Adullamites, which completely disappeared as a faction in 1868, caused the failure of the Reform Bill and the overthrow of the Russel - Gladstone Ministry .
Timeline
Since 1832 the right to vote has been changed in small steps. The number of eligible voters was increased in several steps and the constituency sizes adjusted. In 1854 the law to prevent election corruption followed. In 1866 another law was to be introduced that would greatly expand the voting rights of rural and urban populations.
When Gladstone proposed this bill, there was a majority in Parliament for the Whigs. These had been chosen a year earlier to support Palmerston . The majority were aristocrats who were unwilling to give workers the right to vote.
Under the leadership of Robert Lowe, a group of Whigs split off and joined the Conservatives under Benjamin Disraeli . The group included Edward Horsman , Samuel Laing, and the Irish Landowners MPs. They voted against the law with them in the House of Commons.
Through some speeches, Lowe expressed that he had voted against the law because the working class was mentally and morally inferior to the bourgeoisie. This led to rallies by the unions together with the bourgeoisie in several industrial centers.
consequences
After the law failed, the Russell / Gladstone government resigned. The subsequent government under Disraeli reinstated the law amid the unrest in the cities. But this was even more far-reaching than that which the Adullamites under Lowe had brought down together with the Conservatives. The law gave every owner of an apartment in the cities the right to vote. The rural population as well as the miners were still excluded.
At that time, the liberals could not yet assert themselves in the British party system.
literature
- Emil Huebner, Ursula Münch: The political system of Great Britain; An introduction. Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-42051-6 , pp. 79ff.
Web links
- MC Curthoys: Cave of Adullam (act. 1866-1867). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles Seymour: Electoral reforms of England and Wales. The development and operation of parliamentary franchise. University of Yale, New Haven 1915, p. 533.
- ↑ George Macaulay Trevelyan: History of England. 2nd volume from 1603 to 1918. Munich 1949, pp. 745f.
- ↑ Michael Maurer: A Little History of England. Reclam, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-009616-2 , p. 390.