The Little Circle and Manchester Politics, 1812-46 A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2018 David J Knott School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPHS ................................................................................................ 3 ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 4 ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................... 5 DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT STATEMENT .................................................................. 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ 7 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 8 SOCIAL CLASS............................................................................................................................. 13 REFORM ...................................................................................................................................... 16 THE PUBLIC AND THE PEOPLE ..................................................................................................... 19 POPULAR POLITICS ...................................................................................................................... 24 PARTY POLITICS .......................................................................................................................... 30 SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................... 32 STRUCTURE ................................................................................................................................. 36 CHAPTER 1: WHO WERE THE MEMBERS OF THE LITTLE CIRCLE? ........................... 40 THE SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE ...................................................... 44 THE RELIGIOUS BACKGROUNDS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE ............................................... 50 CULTURAL INTERESTS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE LITTLE CIRCLE ................................................. 61 THE IMPACT OF PETERLOO ON THE MEMBERS OF THE LITTLE CIRCLE .......................................... 71 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 79 CHAPTER 2: THE KEY IDEAS OF THE LITTLE CIRCLE ................................................... 81 THE PEOPLE ................................................................................................................................ 87 THE PUBLIC ................................................................................................................................ 96 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM ........................................................................................................ 107 REFORM AND EDUCATION ......................................................................................................... 114 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 120 CHAPTER 3: DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES: THE SETTING FOR THE FORMATION OF MIDDLE-CLASS PUBLIC OPINION IN MANCHESTER BETWEEN 1812 TO 1832.......... 123 LOCAL POLITICS: A FORUM FOR LEGITIMATE POLITICAL EXPRESSION. ........................................ 128 DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES ...................................................................................................... 149 DEFINING ‘THE PUBLIC’: POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES. .................... 155 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 170 CHAPTER 4: THE LITTLE CIRCLE AND THE CHANGING NATURE OF EXTRA- PARLIAMENTARY AND LOCAL POLITICS IN MANCHESTER POST-1832 ................... 173 AFTER REFORM: THE GROWTH OF PARTISANSHIP IN MANCHESTER ............................................ 179 THE DECLINE OF TRADITIONAL POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN MANCHESTER ................................ 191 A PARTISAN DIVIDE: THE EMERGENCE OF NEW LIBERAL POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN MANCHESTER ................................................................................................................................................. 195 MANCHESTER’S FRACTURED POLITICAL SPHERES: LIBERALS AND POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS ..... 198 SINGLE-ISSUE MASS POPULAR POLITICS AND THE LITTLE CIRCLE .............................................. 206 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 221 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 223 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 231 Word Count: 75, 490 2 List of Tables and Graphs Figure 1.1 Table Showing Weekly and Annual Circulation of Local Newspapers in Manchester in 1836, p. 48. Source: Manchester Guardian, 11 June 1836. Figure 3.1 Chart Showing the Frequency of Public Meetings Convened by the Boroughreeve 1821 to 1831, p. 136. Source: Boroughreeve’s records relating to public meetings in Manchester, Manchester Archives+, M91/33/1 and M91/33/2. Figure 4.1 Table Indicating the Number of Votes Cast for Each Candidate in the 1832 Election, p. 186. Source: J. Wheeler, Manchester: Its Political, Social and Commercial History Ancient and Modern (Manchester, 1842), p. 137. Figure 4.2 Table Indicating the Number of Votes Cast for Each Candidate in the 1841 Election, p. 186. Source: B. Love, The Handbook of Manchester Containing Statistical and General Information on the Trade, Social Condition, and Institutions, of the Metropolis of Manchester 2nd Edition (Manchester, 1841), p. 271. Figure 4.3 Table Indicating the Number of Voting Plumps Shares and Splits in the 1832 Election, p. 188. Source: Manchester Courier, 22 December 1832. Figure 4.4. Table Indicating the Number of Voting Plump, Shares and Splits in the January 1835 Election, p. 189. Source: Manchester Courier, 7 January 1835. Figure 4.5 Chart Indicating the Frequency of Public Meetings Convened by the Boroughreeve 1832 to 1837, p. 193. Source: Data collected from Boroughreeve’s records relating to public meetings in Manchester, Manchester Archives+ M91/33/2. 3 Abbreviations American Historical Review AHR English Historical Review EHR Journal of British Studies JBS 4 Abstract This thesis argues that a group of eleven reformers who worked and lived in Manchester, known throughout this study as the Little Circle, presented a unique understanding of how middle-class public opinion should be formulated and how it should respond to various political issues between 1812 and 1846. Using a range of sources including newspapers, personal papers and administrative records, this thesis furthers our understanding of how a group of Nonconformists and self-described middle-class and liberal reformers attempted to effect political change in Manchester. Historians of extra-parliamentary politics during the early nineteenth century have predominantly focused on working-class radical enterprises that sought to influence political change through mass popular political participation. The way the members of the Circle reacted to the events of Peterloo (1819) informed the way they thought extra-parliamentary politics should be managed and conducted. Unlike the working-class radicals who relied on mass popular participation and the use of large outdoor meetings, this thesis shows that the members of the Little Circle utilised forums such as the press and indoor public meetings to express their political voice. Importantly, this thesis argues that the use of the press and indoor public meetings were forums through which the Circle believed a small and rational public, that was composed of middle- class men, could successfully represent the political interests of their fellow townsmen. Public opinion, from the Circle’s perspective, had to reflect the intelligent and rational segments of their community. As this thesis argues, the use of indoor public meetings in particular was a defining characteristic of how middle-class public opinion was generated in Manchester. While the use of small indoor public meetings worked effectively in Manchester in the period leading up to the passage of the 1832 Reform Act, these tactics were challenged in the late 1830s and 1840s. Additionally, this thesis argues that after 1832, when Manchester was enfranchised and granted two MPs, the locus for the formation of middle-class public opinion shifted to partisan forums or those necessitating more formalised and permanent organisational structures, as in the case of single-issue campaigns. In this sense, this study highlights that there was an important transition in the way middle-class reformers such as the Circle approached and thought about ways in which extra-parliamentary politics should now be directed. 5 Declaration and Copyright Statement No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this