ABSTRACT
Politics after 1832 were increasingly organised through political parties, broad coalitions of all social classes, and these created their own identity by the language they used and how they interpreted the past. The government came to power in the midst of economic and social crises. Robert Peel's policy was to get an expansion of trade by freeing it from regulation. Trade rapidly expanded and quickly made up for any loss of revenue. In 1844, Peel abolished the duty on raw cotton and allowed an expansion of the cotton industry, thus dealing with the dangerous social disorder in Lancashire. The strength of Liberalism was its breadth, it embraced a movement and a wide variety of voluntary organisations, held together by the idea that political and social progress was possible. The Liberal Party was now seen as, to a large extent, the voice of the middle class while, at the same time, able to attract support from the organised working class.
