ABSTRACT
A consistent refrain of the political journals, in the months following the passage of the Reform Act, was the need for the Conservative Party to take the challenge facing them more seriously. This article in Blackwood’s illustrates this message clearly: ‘The battle of order against anarchy, of property against spoliation, of industry against rapine, must now be fought in every town and village in England’.
Blackwood’s was not merely concerned with defining the challenge in rhetorical terms. Its practical advice to Conservatives was to cultivate the trading and middling classes upon whose support the party’s future success would depend. It advised Conservatives in every part of the country to assemble together, sign declarations, and publish them in newspapers, to the effect that they would only support ‘a member of [Parliament of] Conservative principles’. This would also encourage ‘men of property and character’ to come forward as candidates.
The magazine also recommended establishing a financial subscription, in order to raise the necessary funds for a Conservative counter-reaction in the constituencies. It urged Conservatives to boycott traders who held contrary views: ‘It may be a painful thing to part with an old tradesman because he is of revolutionary principles; but it is much more painful to see the ruin of our country, and that is the other alternative’. Applying economic pressure for political ends was not unusual; the run on the banks in May 1832, which prevented Wellington from forming a government during the final stages of the Reform Bill, led Francis Place to proclaim, ‘To stop the Duke, go for gold’.
