The National Political Union was an organisation set up in October 1831, after the rejection of the

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by the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

, to serve as a

pressure group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the develop ...

for parliamentary reform: “to support the King and his ministers against a small faction in accomplishing their great measure of Parliamentary Reform”. Modelled by

Francis Place Francis Place (3 November 1771 in London – 1 January 1854 in London) was an English social reformer. Early life He was an illegitimate son of Simon Place and Mary Gray. His father was originally a journeyman baker. He then became a Marshalse ...

on the influential

Birmingham Political Union The Birmingham Political Union (General Political Union) was a grass roots pressure group in Great Britain during the 1830s. It was founded by Thomas Attwood, a banker interested in monetary reform. Its platform called for extending and redistrib ...

, (but without its emphasis on currency reform) the N. P. U. was meant to serve both as a co-ordinating body for the country's political unions, and as a particular outlet for London radicals.

Controversies, effects, and demise

The N. P. U. was involved in controversy from its very outset, when the constituting meeting was invaded by a working-class protest against its middle-class membership: agreement on a moderate policy, but with half the Council seats reserved for manual workers, meant that the body would continue thereafter as a moderate centre of focus for both the middle and working classes of London. A month later, a government ban on umbrella organisations effectively put paid to the N. P. U.'s hopes of replacing the Birmingham Political Union as a nationwide co-ordinating body; and in the New Year it found itself divided again on the question of whether to urge the government onwards with reform, or simply express support for the Whig ministry, as its President, Sir Francis Burdett, preferred. It was only after the dismissal of the Whig ministers, when the so-called Days of May protests against the forming of a Tory administration began, that the N. P. U. came into its own, with a major influx of members, and of finance. A series of co-ordinated measures – a petition to the Commons for the withholding of the budget; public meetings against reaction; and an organised run on the Bank of England's gold – helped provide that “pressure from without” to which

Earl Grey Earl Grey is a title in the peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1806 for General Charles Grey, 1st Baron Grey. In 1801, he was given the title Baron Grey of Howick in the County of Northumberland, and in 1806 he was created Viscou ...

attributed much of the eventual success of the Whig Bill. Thereafter however, after a brief attempt by the N. P. U. to organise support for liberal candidates at the 1832 election, a collapse in both membership and finances took place, its very success leading to the undoing of the essentially single-issue body.Norman Gash, ''Aristocracy and People'' (1979) p. 191

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External links

Original papers
{{Authority control Political history of England Organizations established in 1831 1832 in politics

Historical radicalism Radicalism (from French , "radical") or classical radicalism was a historical political movement representing the leftward flank of liberalism during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and a precursor to social liberalism, social demo ...

History of social movements Reform in England 1831 establishments in England Electoral reform in the United Kingdom

Controversies, effects, and demise

See also

References

Further reading

External links