The Little Circle was a
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
-based group of
Non-conformist Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
s, mostly members of the
Portico Library
The Portico Library, The Portico or Portico Library and Gallery on Mosley Street, Manchester, is an independent subscription library designed in the Greek Revival style by Thomas Harrison of Chester and built between 1802 and 1806. It is recor ...
, who held a common agenda with regards to political and social reform. The first group met from 1815 onwards to campaign for expanded political representation and gain social reform in the United Kingdom. The second group operated from 1830 onwards and was key in creating the popular movement that resulted in the
Reform Act 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament, Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major chan ...
.
Background
In 1819,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
was represented by two members of parliament (MPs). Voting was restricted to the adult male owners of
freehold land valued at 40
shillings
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...
or more – the equivalent of about
£80 as of 2008 – and votes could only be cast in the county town of
Lancaster, by a public spoken declaration at the hustings. Constituency boundaries were out of date, and the "
rotten boroughs" had a hugely disproportionate influence on the membership of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
compared to the size of their populations:
Old Sarum, with one voter, elected two MPs,
[Reid (1989), p. 28.] as did
Dunwich which had almost completely disappeared into the sea by the early 19th century. The major urban centres,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
,
Salford,
Bolton,
Blackburn,
Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
,
Ashton-under-Lyne,
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...
and
Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here.
Most of the town is within ...
, with a combined population of almost one million, were represented by either the two county MPs for Lancashire, or the two for
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
in the case of Stockport. By comparison, more than half of all MPs were elected by a total of just 154 voters.
These inequalities in political representation led to calls for reform.
First Little Circle
The first Little Circle was formed from 1815 onwards by cotton merchant John Potter. The group was influenced by the ideas of
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_February_1747.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.htm ...
and
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
, objecting to a political representation system that denied booming industrial cities such as
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
and Manchester proportionate representation in the
House of Commons.
Meetings were held at John Potter's home and its core membership were
Unitarians
Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to:
Christian and Christian-derived theologies
A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism:
* Unitarianism (1565–present) ...
.
Archibald Prentice (later editor of the ''
Manchester Times
The ''Manchester Times'' was a weekly newspaper published in Manchester, England, from 1828 to 1922. It was known for its free trade radicalism.
From 1828 to 1847, the newspaper was edited by Archibald Prentice, a political radical and advocate ...
'') called them the "Little Circle" and its members included John Potter and his sons
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the Ap ...
(later
first mayor of Manchester),
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...
(later
MP for Wigan) and William;
Joseph Brotherton
Joseph Brotherton (22 May 1783 – 7 January 1857) was a reforming British politician, Nonconformist minister and pioneering vegetarian. He has been described as the first vegetarian member of parliament.
Biography
He was born in Whittington ...
(Non-conformist minister and pioneering vegetarian);
John Edward Taylor
John Edward Taylor (11 September 1791 – 6 January 1844) was an English business tycoon, editor, publisher and member of The Portico Library, who was the founder of the ''Manchester Guardian'' newspaper in 1821, which was renamed in 1959 ...
(cotton merchant);
John Shuttleworth (industrialist and municipal reformer);
Absalom Watkin
Absalom Watkin (1787–1861), was an English social and political reformer, an anti corn law campaigner, and a member of Manchester's ''Little Circle'' that was key in passing the Reform Act 1832.
Early life
Absalom Watkin was born in London t ...
(parliamentary reformer and
anti corn law campaigner); and William Cowdroy Jnr (editor of the ''
Manchester Gazette
The ''Manchester Gazette'' was a conformist non-Tory newspaper based in Manchester, England.
Founded by William Cowdroy (previously editor of the ''Chester Chronicle'') in 1795, the newspaper was written and printed by him and his four sons. Alt ...
'').
After witnessing the
Peterloo massacre in 1819, and the closure of the liberal ''
Manchester Observer
The ''Manchester Observer'' was a short-lived non-conformist Liberal newspaper based in Manchester, England. Its radical agenda led to an invitation to Henry "Orator" Hunt to speak at a public meeting in Manchester, which subsequently led to th ...
'' in successive police prosecutions, the group decided that the time was right to advance its liberalist agenda.
In 1820 Brotherton, Shuttleworth and Thomas Potter founded the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. In the following year, the group supported John Edward Taylor in founding a liberal newspaper the ''
Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', to which they all contributed. Taylor continued to edit the newspaper which was published by law only once a week until his death.
Second Little Circle
From 1830 a second Little Circle, comprising 11 Manchester businessmen, met at the Cannon Street warehouse of Potter's trading company.
Seven were Unitarians, including five from the
Cross Street Chapel: Thomas and Richard Potter; Absalom Watkin;
Mark Philips, John Shuttleworth,
John Benjamin Smith
John Benjamin Smith (7 February 1794 – 15 September 1879) was an English Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1847 to 1874.
Life
Smith was the son of Benjamin Smith, a merchant of Manchester. He was himself a merchant ...
, and brothers, Edward and William Baxter (all cotton merchants); Fenton Atkinson (Manchester attorney); William Harvey; John Edward Taylor.
The group supported social reform issues closely but discreetly: Taylor survived a trial for libel; Shuttleworth organised the defence of plebeian reformers accused of administering an illegal oath.
[
The group initially proposed that the seats of ]rotten boroughs
A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electora ...
convicted of gross electoral corruption should be transferred to industrial towns, citing and targeting example boroughs including Penryn and East Retford. But when Parliament refused to take action, in 1831 Absalom Watkin drew up a petition asking the government to grant Manchester two members of parliament. Parliament passed the Reform Act in 1832, and the group gave Manchester its first post-reform MPs: Mark Philips and Charles Poulett Thomson
Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham, (13 September 1799 – 19 September 1841) was a British businessman, politician, diplomat and the first Governor General of the united Province of Canada. .[
]
Legacy
By the time the Reform Act 1832 had become law, Manchester had become a borough and many social reforms had come to fruition. Members of the group had established themselves in society, with[ Joseph Brotherton becoming MP for Salford, Richard Potter, MP for ]Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...
and John Benjamin Smith became MP for Stirling Burghs and later Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here.
Most of the town is within ...
. Thomas Potter became the first Mayor of Manchester on its incorporation. Ten out of the first 28 mayors of Manchester were associated with Cross Street Chapel.[
]
References
{{reflist
History of Manchester
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom