ABSTRACT
The fourth decade of the nineteenth century was a period of trial for the English nation and brought a series of bitter disappointments to its lower strata. To begin with, the political machinery of the Whig rule, which at its inauguration had inspired great hopes, soon fell into a state of stagnation and absolute incompetence. The secret, however, soon leaked out that the working class had been hoodwinked. Before long the Whig leaders began to speak of their old popular allies, “the Birmingham fellows”, with affected indifference and open hostility. The Whigs were stamped as a party for the dishonest, for the timid and for the unscrupulously ambitious, and their rule as the supremacy of the “hypocritical, conniving and liberty-undermining Whigs”. The notorious “Bedchamber Plot”, which brought down a tempest of ridicule on the heads of the chivalrous Whigs, gave them a chance for shelter “behind the women’s petticoats”, but only for a short time.
