Worcestershire in the Nineteenth Century / A Complete Digest of Facts Occuring in the County since the Commencement of the year 1800

by T. C. Turberville

Local Acts—For erecting a County Hall and Courts of Assize at Worcester; for better repairing the road from Bromsgrove to Birmingham.

1832.

The ministers, calling Parliament together again almost immediately, proposed another Reform Bill, differing from the former one in the apportionment of boroughs in the schedules, in preserving the rights of freemen by birth and servitude, and in giving freeholders in boroughs the right to vote in county elections. The second reading was carried, on the morning of Sunday, the 18th of December, 1851, by a majority of 324 to 162; the majority being thus much larger than before. The bill passed a second reading in the Lords by a majority of 9; seventeen peers who voted against the bill in 1831 voted for it in 1832, and others absented themselves. Immediately on going into committee, however, Lord Lyndhurst proposed to postpone the disenfranchising to the enfranchising clauses, and this was carried against ministers by a majority of 35. Earl Grey then applied to the King for powers to carry the bill as it stood; and, on the King’s refusing a carte blanche for the creation of peers, ministers resigned en masse. Lord Lyndhurst was sent for by the King; but the Commons pledged themselves, by an overwhelming majority, to support only the former ministers, and, in the face of such a resolution, no ministry could be formed. Then came the thunders of the Times, declaring that “the Queen had done it all,” the threatened run upon the Bank, and symptoms of disaffection among the soldiery. At last the King found himself obliged to put into Earl Grey’s hands all the powers he required, and he returned to office on the 15th of April. The opposition peers then, at the King’s request, absented themselves from the House, and the bill passed with little further discussion. It received the royal assent on the 7th of June. Parliament was soon afterwards dissolved; and the new constituencies, of course, returned a very large preponderance of Whig or Reform members. Three per Cents. averaged 83½; wheat averaged 58s. 8d.

January—Several attempts made to fire carpet manufactories in Kidderminster. The trade of the town in a deplorable condition; 779 heads of families receiving out-door relief weekly.

February 1—Colonel Davies moved, in the House of Commons, for a committee of inquiry on the glove trade. He stated that not one-third of the number of gloves were made in Worcester that there were formerly, when 120 masters each manufactured 100 dozen a week. He attributed this distress and loss of trade entirely to the free trade in French gloves. Mr. Poulett Thomson contended, on behalf of Government, that the general manufacture of gloves in this country had increased, for the kid skins imported in the last five years had been 3,679,000, to 2,600,000 in the five years prior to the duty being taken off gloves. The distress he believed to be owing to the late increase in the importation of skins, to the use of Berlin gloves instead of kid, and to overtrading. The numbers were—against the committee, 223; for it, 168: majority against the motion, 55.

February 28—A petition from the operative glovers of Worcester, having 2,206 signatures, and praying that the “system, falsely called free trade,” may be abandoned, forwarded to the Earl of Coventry for presentation.

April 2—The freedom of the city presented to the Earl of Plymouth and Lieutenant Colonel Elrington by the hand of the recorder, the Earl of Coventry. To the former, principally in approval of his raising the Yeomanry corps; and to the latter, for his public services in the east. Colonel Elrington presented the Corporation with arms and armour, taken by him from pirates in the Persian Gulf.

April 5—At a dinner given at the Guildhall, Dr. Malden in the chair, a very handsome service of plate was presented to the Mayor, Henry Clifton, Esq., in remembrance of the vigilance and energy he had shown in repressing the Worcester riots.

April 17—On the memorable second reading of the Reform Bill in the House of Lords, by a majority of nine, the Earl of Coventry, Lord Northwick (both of whom had voted against the former bill), Earl Somers, Lord Foley, Lord Lyttelton, and the Bishop of Worcester voted in its favour; and Earls Plymouth and Beauchamp and the Bishop of Rochester against it.

May 23—The Mayor of Worcester, Henry Clifton, Esq., was presented at levée by the Bishop of Worcester, and thanked by His Majesty for the “important services he had rendered on a late occasion.”