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British Domestic and Political News and Developments
Topic Started: Jan 4 2010, 08:40 PM (651 Views)
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The strong movement supporting free trade has recently gained additional traction with growing agreement among the ranks of the Whig Party. There are some suggestions that the issue will come before Parliament in the coming year in some way, shape or form.

With the forthcoming opening of the London and Greenwich Railway bringing the innovation of rail to the heart of the capital, the ongoing vehment discussions regarding the comparative merits of rail gauge between the esteemable Mr. Brunel and his competitors is reaching new levels of intensity. A letter to the Times recently suggested that a Royal Commission be established to resolve the affair, which drew a mixture of support and polite derisory disagreement.

His Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to the United States of America, Mr. Henry Stephen Fox, will return to Britain on health grounds. The placement of a new ambassador will be announced forthwith.

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and his two sons are to call upon The Princess Victoria in May.

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Sir Richard Pakenham has been appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States of America, having recently been appointed Ambassador to Mexico, and will set out for the United States in April.

A new ambassador to Mexico will be announced forthwith.

In Parliament, the free trade debate is ongoing with no clear end in sight. There has been some suggestion that and decision on the issue will wait for a number of international and domestic circumstances to run out fully.
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Having attracted growing public support over the last six months, the proposal of a Royal Commission to examine the merits of different rail gauges will go before Parliament in August.

The free trade debate is entering a new phase of intensity, with increasing support from both parties. Any movement towards legislation lies well into the future, after the reports by the two Parliamentary Committees.

The meeting between Princess Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha in May had a favourable outcome and correspondence has been entered into by the Princess to King Leopold related to the issue.
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Following the very cold summer in Ireland, there are fears that there will be a failure of the potato crop and a subsequent famine. To alleviate any such suffering, the Prime Minister has ordered the purchase of substantial amounts of grain from Europe and the Americas to be used as either famine relief or to be stored in a new series of granaries to be established. All appropriate steps to prevent a reoccurence of such misfortune are being considered.
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Queen Victoria has moved her official residence from St James's Palace to Buckingham Palace.

The General Registery Office has begun the process of registering births, death and marriages in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

There has been increasing parliamentary and public support for reform of operations of the Post Office, with a recent proposal to envelop letters in a separate sheet of paper and affix a mark to establish that postage costs had been paid.



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A number of proposals have been made of late by several influential bankers and industrialists that the British East India Company would do well to consider diversification of its current interests in the light of the moves towards free trade in both the British and wider world economy; specifically, there have been suggestions of investment in shipping, insurance, banking, cotton and railways.

Given the unique status and operations of the Company, the question of whether these suggestions be followed in any way, shape or form is at this time doubtful. Nevertheless, the question has been posed.
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Earlier proposals for an expansion of the operations of the East India Company from its current primary concentration on the internal affairs of its Indian holdings have been echoed by a number of well known figures from the City of London, along with other shareholders, following further tariff reduction agreements and ongoing trade negotiations with several unspecified nations.
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A number of new ambassadors will be appointed in the new year to various Central American nations and to Egypt.

A rise in Chartist related violence has lead to calls for consideration of reform.
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The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has been granted royal status and will henceforth be referred to using the new appellation.

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The effects of the decision taken several years ago to standardize rail gauges on the broad gauge standard of the Great Western Railway are beginning to be felt, with a steady increase in the amount of passengers and freight being carried and the acquisition of wider tracts of land for the construction of bridges, tunnels and general railways.

There have been recent suggestions that a removal of stamp duty on newspapers would be advantageous to the education of the nation.
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The removal of stamp duty and paper duties has lead to an initial flurry and proliferation of newspapers and journals across the major urban centres of the United Kingdom, stimulating much discussion of political affairs and the state of the nation.
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A public library, the London Library, has been established in London, with free membership and no lending fees.

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew have been opened by Her Majesty Queen Victoria to the general public to widespread acclaim and approval.
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There has been great recent debate between the adherents of the Currency School and Banking School regarding the regulation of banks and the issuing of money supply.

Calls for the reform of education and the provision of public education have recently attracted added fervour and attention. Regius Professor Thomas Arnold of Oxford University, lately recovered from a severe illness, has been most strident in advocacy for reform of the quality of education.

Edited by Great Britain, Apr 2 2010, 12:51 PM.
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Given the recent cholera epidemic, studies are being made into optimum ways of treating the disease, with particular focus on removing the sources of miasma. Dr. John Snow, a physician, virulently disagrees with the miasma theory, but is currently in a distinct minority.
Edited by Great Britain, Apr 4 2010, 06:55 AM.
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The publication of a report by Mr. Edwin Chadwick on The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population has lead to increased calls for significant steps to be taken to improve the standard of public health, and in general to better the conditions of the working classes.
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The Vauxhall Gardens are to be remodelled along the lines of several public amusement gardens in Vienna and Copenhagen, before being reopened to public use in 1844.

The movement in favour of education reform has continued to gather public support.
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The success of the introduction of the London Library has lead to growing public calls for the establishment of similar public establishments across the nation, taking advantage of the removal of duties on paper and newspapers.

A Royal Mathematical Society has been established.
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September 1844

The Earl of Eglinton has announced that another great tournament will be held on his estates in the summer of 1845, following on from the success of 1839 and subsequent smaller events regularly held throughout the United Kingdom in the intervening years.

The defeat of the Education Bill in Parliament has not taken any of the fervour away from the supporters of reform of British education, with a number of recent letters to the Times and the publication of an anonymous polemic entitled "An Educated Nation".

The continuing issue of the Chartist movement has motivated a number of notable industrialists and gentry to call for consideration of some of the more moderate demands being made.
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The recent failure of the potato crops in Ireland and the Highlands has been met with substantial and swift political action to ensure that there will be no resultant famine. The reaction of civil society and the general British populace has been to offer funds for the relief of the suffering of their fellow Britons, with Prince Albert and Queen Victoria leading the way with a donation of over 125,000 pounds for the specific purposes of Irish relief
Edited by Great Britain, May 20 2010, 01:49 PM.
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June 1846

Failure of the potato crop for this year promises further hardship for Ireland and the Highlands with government measures aimed at famine relief having some effect. The major boon for Ireland has been the closure of the ports to the exports of Irish agricultural produce; the economic cost has been notable, but it has ensured that there is sufficient food to be purchased with government funds and issued.

Further public donations are being raised, and foreign grain procured from Egypt, India and the Americas. Care is being taken to ensure this grain is of a proper standard and viable as a food source.

The 1846 Eglington Tournament, postponed from 1845 because of weather, will be held on the 4th of August.
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December 1846

The Eglington Tournament was conducted in front of a vast crowd and was once again a resounding success. The Young England movement was well represented at the gathering, although the generally accepted leader of said movement, the Tory parliamentarian Mr. Benjamin Disraeli, was absent.

The failure of the potato crop due to blight in Ireland and the Highlands has hit particularly hard over the latter course of the year, causing some localized shortages of food in the west of Ireland due to the sheer lack of a comparable transport network to that of Great Britain. The situation has been slightly improved by the programme of public works carried out in Ireland over the last 10 years, with greatly expanded railways extending almost 1000 miles, improved roads and expanded port facilities on the West coast allowing for the docking of grain ships from Canada, Egypt, India and the Americas.
The problem is not a shortage of food, given the government aid programmes and the closure of Irish ports to export, but one of distribution.

There were some suggestions in the first half of the year to employ the services of the constabulary to do so, and these have been widely decried by both Benthamite Whigs and Conservatives Tories. Nevertheless, there has been use of all facilities and agencies to ensure that corn and foodstuffs has been transported relatively efficiently to those in need.

There has been widespread planting of beetroot, mangelwurzel and swedes as part of sponsored efforts to provide human food and feed for livestock; the latter is an initiative being pushed by Lord Ashley and the Prince Albert, whereby some donations are being used to acquire swine for distribution to tenant farmers in order to provide for a more secure diet.

The potato crop may well fail again in 1847, and even beyond. The future is uncertain. It is certainly an event with no parallel in Irish history in the 19th century; as of yet, there have not been reports of many deaths and suffering from starvation, but rather a tribulation and privation that is most difficult to bear, but not the catastrophe it may have been.

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March 1847

There has been considerable growing pressure for reform of the Poor Laws and workhouse system, following a number of lurid revelations as to mismanagement and conduct most foul. These have been balanced against the calls for the maintenance of the system as an effective deterrent to those who would seek to shirk work.
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April 1st 1847
THE TIMES
The increasingly fine weather conditions has encouraged Londoners and people across the south of England to venture outdoors to appreciate the various promenades and leisure gardens in the capital and surrounding towns. Several most curious developments have drawn their eyes skywards - in addition to the ambient weather, a most peculiar craze for the recreational use of the hot air balloon seems to have afflicted some of the more eccentric individuals dwelling around the area. Rising to heights of almost 500 feet, these dashing aeronauts enjoy the reportedly amazing views of the capital with their fashionable silk scarves flapping wildly in the wind. It is said that Sir George Cayley is not amused.
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November 1847

The Architectural Association School of Architecture has been established in London as an independent architectural organization.

A growing interest in arcaeology and the antiquities of the Middle East, as seen in the excavation of Nineveh by Austen Henry Layard, has lead to the establishment of a Royal Antiquarian Society, a group dedicated to the study of the intricacies of the classical past.

Mr Benjamin Disraeli has published a novel, 'Tancred, or the New Crusade' which encapsulates many aspects of the beliefs of the growing 'Young England' movement that is gaining considerable traction amongst Conservatives.

Growing crowds at Covent Gardens and other opera houses have lead some to comment that an expansion of facilities may well be in order.

Public libraries have been established in many major towns and cities, taking advantage of the cheap prices of paper and the removal of regulations upon publication.
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December 1847

This year has proved a most harsh one for the Irish potato crop, with continued failure in Ireland and the Highlands leading to heavy migration to the United States, Canada, Australia and South Africa, as well as to the growing industrial cities, in order to seek a new life not subject to the vagaries of agricultural fortune.

Shortages of food grew from an uncommon occurence to one that was distressingly frequent over the course of 1847, with delivery of grain hampered by infrastructure development and restricted port access, particularly in the West of Ireland. This was only slightly ameliorated by public works programmes, the network of granaries and the closure of ports to export.

In the Highlands, shortages of food have been less pronounced, but the situation is in no way optimal, with oat production at a low level.
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June 1848

Following the great Chartist rally in Kennington Park in April, there has been significant concern of further troubles similar to those experienced on the Continent. Significant numbers of special constables have been assembled in the major cities of Britain, and troops and the Royal Irish Constabulary have increased their level of activities and public presence in Ireland.

There has been widespread derision towards the petition presented by Fergus O'Connor due to the false signatures attached and paltry numbers compared to his initial expansive claims.

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July 1848

Reports are beginning to emerge regarding an outbreak of cholera in various cities of the United Kingdom, a dreadful threat considering the deaths of thousands just sixteen years ago. A number of eminent physicians and scholars have recommended various and different measures to avoid the disease, ranging from avoiding noxious miasmas to ensuring water supplies are clean.
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November 1848

The cholera epidemic has taken thousands of lives across the country, with most deaths occuring in the metropolis of London.

A scandal at the Huddersfield workhouse has lead to calls of swifter reform and enforcement of the new Poor Law system.
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