Stiff Upper Lip: A Terribly British History

stnylan: Indeed they do

Judas Maccabeus: Terribly British revolutionaries I'd say

RGB: *chokes*

French naval power

Click to expand...

Surely that is some kind of odd humour

Nabendu: Indeed, I chose ot mother Texas more for fun than actual strategic value (although the oil should come in handy eventually )

Scandals and Strains


9.

The River Plate crisis had been of little real importance, and ultimately did little but fill a page or two in the press. It wasn’t until July 1844, that the uneventful ministry of the Earl of Kerry was first rocked by controversy. On the 8th of the month, Lieutenant Arthur Harcourt of the Coldstream Guards, one of the most prestigious regiments in the British Army, was found dead in his billet having hung himself. A police investigation quickly unearthed something far more sinister than suicide. Born into a prestigious family of blacksmiths in Birmingham, Harcourt and his family had however struggled both emotionally and financially to get him into the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Readings of Harcourt’s correspondence with his brother soon revealed in detail his growing dislike for his career as an officer, sighting bullying and isolation. On examination of the body too, intense bruising was discovered and a check of Harcourt’s medical record showed a history of ‘accidents’. Finally in October several young officers were placed in custody on counts of assault, maltreatment and other charges. The Harcourt Affair had begun.

The suspects were all members of aristocratic families who had, as was normal, purchased their commissions. Radical MPs swiftly brought the issue to the House of Commons. Debate raged not over the officers themselves but the wider issue of the British Officer Corps as a whole. The tradition of purchasing an officer’s commission had stood since the time of Charles II, and even during the Napoleonic Wars, during which large numbers die and had to be quickly replaced, very few ‘lower ranks’ were promoted based on merit. The Harcourt Affair saw liberals, Tory and Whig alike, raise questions over the abolition of such a practice. The Prussian and Russian armies had never held such a system, while even nepotistic Austria had ended it in 1803. Kerry unsurprisingly held bias on the issue and remained relatively quiet. Peel too, despite being supportive of merit-based reform in the army, struggled with his own party to create a unified approach, due to the large number of Tory ‘squires from the shires’ sitting in the Commons and the Lords dominated as ever by a retiring Duke of Wellington. Overall the press received the combined response from Parliament muted and a poor showing of its supposedly objective take on events.



In January 1845, with the Harcourt Affair mostly forgotten, the issue locked away in a long-winded Royal Commission, the Earl of Kerry decided to announce a general election for May. Although his ministry had seen few greats events (with the spring seeing a Russian invasion of the Bukhara Khanate and native revolt in New Zealand hardly helping) Kerry felt extremely confident. The British economy was going from strength to strength, with hundreds of thousands streaming into the towns and cities in 1844 alone, looking for work in the new factories. In the Liverpool and Manchester region in particular, the textile and steel industries were literally begging for new workers.

Meanwhile in Ireland the beginnings of yet another potato blight had seen the rural population in the south-west region of Munster in particular rush for the towns, desperate for work. The population of Cork for example doubled in only several months, causing massive overcrowding and chaos as thousands attempted to get work, something which the booming steel mills and canneries were more than willing to oblige. While the building of wooden sail ships still held strong in the South-East of England, the steamship yards of Scotland and Merseyside were the cause celebre of British industry, supplying the lion’s share of all steam-powered vessels in the world at the time (not to mention making a tidy profit). In this atmosphere, the Whigs felt assured of strong support from the industrialists and entrepreneurs.



The Conservative Party on the other hand was once again struggling to prepare for the coming election. Peel’s popularity amongst party members was at an all time low thanks to continuing objection from the Right over ‘liberal’ policies, particularly his recent suggestions for meritocratic reforms and the ever hanging shadow of Catholic rights. Even the party itself, the first true modern political party, was criticised from within. While the Whig-Radical-Irish faction, little more than a loose association of MPs relying on the individual popularity within constituencies, continued to dominate Westminster, the Conservative Party for all its organisation, membership fees and united focus seemed impotent. As such more traditional factionalism had started to reel its head.

The Ultra Tories had finally organised somewhat around a group known as the ‘General Staff’ due to the large number of former military officers apart of it, all supporting the Duke of Wellington. They demanded a return to their ‘Country Party’ roots, supporting the landed interests, protectionism and a more aggressive foreign policy. Meanwhile a small minority of young MPs and Peers appeared in the form of Young England. Led by John Manners and Benjamin Disraeli, the group apposed both the elitism of the Ultras and laissez-faire of the Peelites; instead they sought an alliance of aristocrats and the working-class. Partly nostalgic, harking back to an idealised feudalism of strong monarchy, an Established Church of England and agriculture, it also incorporated ideas of universal suffrage, religious tolerance, worker’s rights and land reform.


A contemporary political cartoon comparing Disraeli to Gulliver

As the election approached in May the Whigs concentrated on the economy. Chancellor of the Exchequer Francis Baring stressed the industrialisation of Britain as a major success. The United Kingdom was out producing their European rivals in almost every field while brave and bold businessmen reaped the benefits of free enterprise. Even in agriculture, there had been strong growth, weakening a key Tory pillar of support. In foreign affairs however, there was far more open to debate. While Kerry harked towards the military successes of Egypt and China, not to mention Britain’s mediating in North America and Europe, the Conservatives pointed to the government’s soft stance on Russian expansionism in Central Asia and attacked Lord Palmerston’s role in Whig politics, calling him a “Machiavellian phantom”. They criticised his role in Texas (although the true financial depths wouldn’t be known publicly for many decades) and his influence over the supposedly pliable Earl of Kerry. These issues struck a strong chord with many voters but unfortunately the issue of free trade and Corn Law reform split the Party. A large minority of Conservative candidates put themselves forward as ‘Peelite’, while the majority retained their identity as protectionist Tory. In some constituencies pro and anti-free trade candidates even competed against each. Sir Robert Peel saw a split emerging from within his ranks and was powerless to stop it. However, no action was taken against him before the election, even the Ultras knew such a split would be electoral suicide.

Sorry the setting-up of an RPG has taken away uch of my time- update tomorrow!

This update is politically focused, and afraid is mostly filler. I hope to start to updating more briskly, but also covering more stuff per update. Anyway hope you enjoy.

El Pip: Gosh I dunno...

ComradeOm: Well I don't think even the AI could do any worse than OTL

English Patriot: Yeah, the Whigs really are teetering. But if there's one thing guaranteed in politics its that there's always someone ready to give you a push

RGB: *finger crossed*

stnylan: Oh god yes!

Jalex: Well I like to feel as if I've earned it

DerKaiser: Well I don't want to go to wierd on you guys! However I do want to create an Alt-Britain and some things will change quite a bit. Bare in mind this AAR is advancing at about 1 update per year! o

Party Games


Sir Robert Peel
10.

The result of the May 1845 General Election was the death knell of Sir Robert Peel’s political career. Over a decade as leader of the Conservative Party had seen him defeated at the ballot box no less than three times and come within only a whisker of upsetting the Whig dominion. For the Ultra Tories enough was enough, the liberal innovator had lost his novelty and they had lost their patience. The Duke of Wellington, the de facto head of the Ultra faction finally decided to act after years of quiet residence in the House of Lords. Having held his tongue for the sake of the Party, he suddenly began lambasting Peel in the weeks following the election, though naturally only through ‘private’ discussions at the Carlton Club. As word spread of Wellington’s views, Peel came under pressure from all sides to step down. Even amongst his strongest supporters, the Peelites, who had campaigned under his name only days before, there was dissent.

Peel was characterised in the London Press as a damp fuse. Despite winning a chunk of new seats in England, his Catholic policies had proven useless, as almost as many seats had been lost in Ireland, particularly in and around Dublin, to the Repealers. Finally on June 2nd, in private gathering of prominent Tories, Peel was given an ultimatum: either he resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party or he would see the entire Shadow Cabinet do so themselves. For the sake of the Party he had built almost single-handedly, Peel agreed to resign, crushed by the events he stepped down from his constituency seat as well, prompting a by-election. He would return to Parliament in 1849 as a peer – the Earl of Bury. He would die several months later in a horse riding accident.

In looking for a new leader, many Tories immediately turned to the Duke of Wellington. Beyond his long career in politics, including a brief stint as First Lord in the 1820’s, his celebrity status as the scourge of Bonaparte was an obvious boon to future election. However he turned down all offers. Wellington’s health was failing; indeed he had intended to resign immediately after the election, until the matter of Peel’s legitimacy had forced him to act. He also knew his reactionary position (although it is doubtful he saw it as such) was unpopular with the Party base.


Lord Stanley

A swing from the left to the right so suddenly could very well split the Conservatives and with the cowed Peelites now under Lord Aberdeen and William Gladstone preparing to battle the Ultras’ tooth and nail to halt Wellington’s ascension, he decided against it. Instead he tipped towards the moderate Lord Stanley, citing him as a perfect compromise candidate, before retiring into private life. The Ultras’ saw him as Wellington’s choice, as well as an aristocrat and protectionist to boot. The Peelites meanwhile knew they had little chance of mounting effective opposition, and were reassured he wished to see the growth of British finance and the middle-classes above all else. With both Wellington and Peel now gone, Stanley was accepted almost unanimously. Almost.

The disposing of Peel had been seen by the radicals of Young England, led by a young Disraeli as their chance to offer the Conservative Party a new way. The faction’s numbers were now 27 MPs thanks to a strong showing in the industrialised towns, were their ‘Social-Toryism’ had won over many small businessmen and skilled workers (the minority entitled to vote anyway) fed up with the seemingly distant nature of the Whigs. This boon had emboldened Disraeli despite Young England now numbered only a tenth of Tory MPs.

He had approached Wellington, whom he expected to return to the Conservative mantle, with a Manifesto. He dreamed of rising to power alongside the great Iron Duke on a programme of nationalism, religious tolerance and social reforms. However Wellington had little interest in backing a bunch of ‘Oxbridge Jacobins’ as he put it, regardless of his retirement plans. As Stanley rode to power on a wave of unity and compromise, Disreali’s radical views were ignored completely. He would find other avenues however.


Benjamin Disreali

The Whigs by comparison to the Tories had no great post-election drama. First Lord Kerry was merely relieved to have survived his first test of public support- if only barely. The Whigs now only controlled exactly half of the 658 seats in the House of Commons. There was no celebration, simply acknowledgement of a close-run thing. Many feared if the Whigs, merely a loose confederation anchored by Radicals and the landed gentry, could retain coherence in the face of such a paper-thin majority. Such worries were only increased by the altering make-up of the Irish Repealers, the force in the Commons guaranteeing Kerry’s ministry.

The 16 new Repeal MPs were all members of Young Ireland (no connection to Disreali’s faction), a new organisation that had broken with Daniel O’Connell’s more moderate Repeal Association. O’Connell’s long held alliance with the Whigs and the supposed muffling of Irish nationalism for the sake of political expediency had the Association’s support in Ireland shrink dramatically from 1840. Although the two groups officially allied as an Irish Bloc in Parliament, it was obvious that romantic patriots of Young Ireland, would soon eclipse the Association.

The sudden appearance of a potato blight across the United Kingdom and Europe stretched Kerry’s government as Ireland was hit hardest. Although in the last decade the quality of smallholder land in Ireland had greatly improved due to the exodus of poverty-stricken farmers to the towns, it was by no means ideal. Many still relied on potatoes as often their only source of nourishment, due to its ability to be grown in poor soil and in adequate numbers on extremely small plots. The complete ruin of the subsistence farmers of Western Ireland was hardly a reality by July, but as harvests failed, landless labourers fired from their lord’s estates and stocks running low, starvation was not far off.

However Westminster’s focus would be somewhere else in late 1845. War was brewing across the ocean…