The Whig Party, 1807 - 1812 by Michael Roberts

Author:Michael Roberts [Roberts, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9780429620584
Google: yACaDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-05-23T03:01:21+00:00

After this, there could be no permanent coöperation between the Burdettites and any who still clung to the name of Whig. Burdett and his followers showed, over and over again, that they distrusted the Whigs completely. However much, therefore, the Whigs might desire Reform; however far they might be prepared to go in support of Burdett’s schemes; they could not be expected to regard him and his party with any great favour. Despite their intestine quarrels, the Whigs believed in Whiggism; despite Whitbread’s disappointment he could not and would not cut himself off from the Whig party. Was he not heir to the true tradition of Fox? Although he had not been present at the meeting, he had entirely approved the Reforming sentiments that had been expressed there, and had even induced the Whig Club to declare for Parliamentary Reform on the principles of 1793.2 But, by the very mention of those principles, he put a barrier between himself and the Burdettites; for 1793 meant the Friends of the People, meant a continuation of the Whig tradition which Grey was allowing to lie dormant, but which Waithman declared had been a sham from the start. There could, in fact, have been no real return to 1793; the thread of continuity was of a gossamer lightness; the ideas behind the movement, though hardly yet formulated, were different from the ideas of 1793. But there is no doubt that Whitbread and Smith were aiming at making Reform a Whig policy. They were not content to see the movement in the hands of Burdett and Waithman: they were anxious to capture the leadership for themselves.

To that end, Whitbread did not scruple to associate with Burdettites, to speak at crowded tavern meetings, to court the City—in short, to play the demagogue. He felt it imperatively necessary to show that an undoubted Whig was not afraid to do these things, and could match Burdett on his own ground. Not unnaturally, his conduct was misconstrued and disapproved by his leaders, and, indeed, by the bulk of the party, who felt that by degrading himself to Burdett’s level Whitbread was forfeiting his claims to serious consideration as a statesman. They put it down to faction; or to pique; to anything, in short, but the real cause. Many of them—for instance, Curwen and Tierney—doubted whether the time was ripe for Parliamentary Reform;1 others, such as Temple, bluntly declared themselves hostile to it.2 Even from those who had favoured it, there were doubts and criticisms as to the wisdom of indiscriminate tavern oratory; and when Smith began a sentence “And now, Gentlemen”, the House roared with delight.3 It seemed likely that the question would resolve itself into that of the respectability or otherwise of the “Crown and Anchor”; particularly when Curwen observed that “It was not to the inflammatory proceedings of a drunken meeting in a tavern that he looked for the opinion of the people. He abhorred such meetings, and he lamented that men of character, talents and respectability should be found to countenance them.

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