Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T02:20:56.169Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Westminster and the Victorian Constitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Roland Quinault
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The British constitution is unwritten, but not unbuilt. The character of Britain's government buildings reflects the nature of its political system. This is particularly true with respect to the Houses of Parliament. They were almost entirely rebuilt after a fire, in 1834, which seriously damaged the House of Commons and adjacent buildings. The new Houses of Parliament were the most magnificent and expensive public buildings erected in Queen Victoria's reign. Their architectural evolution has been meticulously chronicled by a former Honorary Secretary of the Royal Historical Society, Professor Michael Port. But constitutionalists and historians have shewn little or no interest in the political character of the Victorian Houses of Parliament. Walter Bagehot, in his famous study, The English Constitution, published in 1867, made no reference to the newly completed Houses of Parliament. Likewise most modern books on Victorian political and constitutional history make no mention of die rebuilding.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 2 , December 1992 , pp. 79 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Port, M. H., ‘The New Houses of Parliament’ in Crook, J. Mordaunt & Port, M. H., The History of the King's Works, vol. VI 1782–1851 (1973), 573–626Google Scholar; Port, M. H. (ed), The Houses of Parliament (1976)Google Scholar.

2 Rorabough, W.J., ‘Politics and the Architectural Competition for the Houses of Parliament 1834–37’ Victorian Studies, XVIII, (1973), 155–6Google Scholar.

3 Raylay, E. B. & Britton, J., The History of the Ancient Palace and late House of Parliament at Westminster (1836), xivGoogle Scholar.

4 Flora Tristan's London Journal, (English edition, London, 1980), 56–7Google Scholar; Morley, John, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (1908 edn.), 75Google Scholar.

5 Parliamentary Papers, 1833, XII, 467.

6 Illustrated London News, 24 Jan. 1846.

7 Parl Papers, 1836 (66) XXXVI.

8 Port, , The King's Works 578Google Scholar, 585.

9 Rev. Barry, Alfred, Sir Charles Barry (1867), 254Google Scholar.

10 Rev. Barry, Alfred, Sir Charles Barry (1867), 258Google Scholar.

11 Ibid., 248.

12 Parl. Debs., 1845, LXXXI, 206–8; LXXXII, 1033–4.

13 Illustrated London News, 17 April, 1847.

14 Arnstein, Walter L., ‘Queen Victoria opens Parliament: the Disinvention of Tradition’ Historical Research, 63, (1990), 182CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 The Times, 4 Feb. 1852.

16 From Sudeley, Lord in the Lords: Peal. Debates, 1844, lxxiv, 1242–5Google Scholar.

17 The Letters of Queen Victoria 1837–61, eds. Benson, A. C. & Esher, Viscount, (3 vols., 1907), II, 439Google Scholar: Queen to Lord J. Russell, 4 Feb. 1852.

18 The Greville Diary, ed. Wilson, P. W., (2 vols., 1927), II, 358Google Scholar: 26 Aug., 1843.

19 Letters of Queen Victoria, I, 39–40: Queen to Peel, 18 Feb. 1845.

20 Greville Diary, II, 362: 16 Dec. 1845.

21 Charlton, John in Works of Art in the House of Lords, ed. Bond, Maurice, (1980), 34Google Scholar.

22 Further Letters of Queen Victoria, ed. Bolitho, Hector, (1938), 33Google Scholar: Queen Victoria to the King of Prussia, 30 Nov. 1852.

23 Barry, , Barry, 291–2Google Scholar; Remarks on The Designs proposed for the New Government Offices More Particularly on those for the Block Plans and the approaches to the New Palace at Westminster, By a Practical Man (1857), 30.

24 Barry, , Barry, 67–77Google Scholar.

25 Parl. Papers, 1847, XXXIII, 282.

26 The Times, 18 Oct. 1834.

27 The Parliamentary Diaries of Sir John Trelawny 1858–1865, ed. Jenkins, T. A., (Camden Fourth Series, XXXX, 1990), 84, 300Google Scholar.

28 Parker, Charles S., Life & Letters of Sir James Graham, Second Baronet of Netherby 1792–1861 (1907), I, 211Google Scholar: Graham to E. G. Stanley, 21 Oct., 1834.

29 Parl. Debs. 1836, XXXI, 236–46.

30 The Westminster Review, XX (07 1836), 412, 418Google Scholar.

31 Part. Debs. 1838, XLIII, 695–700.

32 Parl. Debs., 1845, LXXXII, 1256; 1857, cxlvi, 160.

33 Miller, Hugh, ‘The Cromwell Controversy’ in Essays (Edinburgh, 1873), 30Google Scholar; Punch, LX, (1845), 151Google Scholar.

34 The Crokerpapers 1808–57, Pool, B. (ed.), (1967), 221Google Scholar.

35 Gardiner, A. G., The life of Sir William Harcourt (1923), II, 361Google Scholar.

36 James, R. Rhodes, Rosebery (1964), 381–2Google Scholar.; Gardiner, , Harcourt, II, 361Google Scholar.

37 The Times, 15 Nov. 1899.

38 Parl. Papers, 1833, XII, 547.

39 Parl. Debs., 1859, CLIV, 1346.

40 Trelawny Diaries, 278.

41 Parl. Debs., 1848, XCVI, 579; XCVII, 140.

42 Ibid., XCVI, 564.

43 Ibid., 1851, CXVI, 193–4.

44 Todd, Alpheus, On parliamentary Government in England: Its Origin, Development and Practical Operation (1887), II, 400–1Google Scholar.

45 Parl. Debs., 1869, CXCV, 259.

46 Parl. Papers, 1835 (262), XVIII.; Marsden, Philip, The Officers of the Commons 1363–1965 (1966), 146Google Scholar.

47 Trelawny Diaries, 318.

48 Wright, Arnold & Smith, Philip, Parliament Past and Present (1902), I, 57–9Google Scholar.

49 Lucy, H. W., Diary of Two Parliaments: The Gladstone Parliament 1880–3 (1886), 407Google Scholar.

50 Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative Party: The Journals and Memoirs of Edward Henry Lord Stanley 1949–69), ed. Vincent, J., (Hassocks, 1978), 201–2Google Scholar.

51 Rt. Hon. Denison, John Evelyn, Osington, Viscount, Notes From My Journal When Speaker of the House of Commons (1900), 201–2, 243, 256–7Google Scholar.

52 Russell, George W. E., One Look Back (1911), 5, 197Google Scholar.

53 SirAstley, J. C. Bt., Fifty Years Of My Life in the World of Sport at Home and Abroad, (n.d.), 262Google Scholar.

54 Erskine May's Private Journal 1857–82, ed. Holland, D. & Menhennet, D., (1972), 31, 37–40, 51Google Scholar.

55 May, Erskine, ‘The Machinery of Parliamentary Legislation’ Edinburgh Review, XCIX (1854), 252–3Google Scholar; Whitty, E. M., St Stephen's in the Fifties (1906), 199Google Scholar.

56 Port, , Houses of Parlt., IIIGoogle Scholar.

57 Parl. Debs., 1848, CI, 672–3.

58 May, , Edin. Review, XCIX, 250Google Scholar.

59 Metropolitan Board of Works: Memorandum by the Chief Engineer on Mr Goldsworthy Gumey's Report Upon the Sewers in the Neighbourhood of the New Houses of Parliament (1857), 7–8.

60 Trelawny Diaries, 51.

61 The Times, 3 & 15 July, 1858.

62 Lucy, H. W., A Diary of the Salisbury Parliament 1886–1892 (1892), 329Google Scholar.

63 Parl. Debs., 1850, CXIII, 727, 732–3.

64 Girouard, Mark, The Victorian Country House (Oxford, 1971), 24–5Google Scholar.

65 The Diaries of John Bright, ed. Walling, R. A. J., (1930), 296Google Scholar.

66 Illustrated London News, 13 August, 1853.

67 Parl. Debs., 1860, CLIX, 219Google Scholar.

68 Lord Melbourne's Papers, ed. Sanders, L. C., (1889), 214Google Scholar.

69 Parl. Debs., 1850, CXIII, 734–8Google Scholar.

70 Macaulay, Lord, Reviews, Essays and Poems (1890), 134Google Scholar.

71 The Times, 31 May, 1850, 22 Dec. 1859.

72 Parl. Debates, 1858, CL, 1203Google Scholar.

73 White, William, The Inner Life of the House of Commons (2 vols., 1904), II, 34–5Google Scholar.

74 The Letters of Anne Thackeray Ritchie, ed. Ritchie, Hester, (1924)Google Scholar.

75 Trelawny Diaries, 210.

76 Josephine Butler An Autobiographical Memoir, eds. , G. W. & Johnson, L. A., (1913), 177–9Google Scholar.

77 O'Shea, Catherine, Charles Stewart Parnell (1914), I, 177Google Scholar.

78 London Radicalism 1830–43: A selection from the papers of Francis Place, ed. Rowe, D. J., (1970), 190Google Scholar.

79 Parl. Debs., 1865, CLXXVII, 498–9 & 1866, CLXXXI, 1524Google Scholar. Lucy, H. W., A Diary of Two Parliaments: The Gladstone Parliament 1880–5 (1886), 481Google Scholar.

80 Morgan, K. O., Keir Hardie Radical and Socialist (1975), 54–5Google Scholar.

81 Jones, David, Chartism and the Chartists (1975), 86Google Scholar.

82 Broadhurst, Henry MP, The Story of his Life from a Stonemason's Bench to the Treasury Bench told by Himself (1900), 29, 100Google Scholar.

83 Thomas, J. A., The House of Commons 1832–1901 (Cardiff, 1939), 4–5Google Scholar.

84 Eastlake, Charles L., A History of The Gothic Revival (1872), 168Google Scholar.

85 The Westminster Review, (July, 1836), 409.

86 Martin, Theodore, Life of H.R.H. The Prime Consort (1876), II, 132–3Google Scholar: Albert to the Dean of Westminster, 19 Oct. 1845.

87 The Westminster Review, IL (07 1848), 468Google Scholar.

88 Disraeli, B., Sybil (1925 edn.), 235Google Scholar.

89 The British Metropolis in 1851: A Classified Guide to London (1851), 66.

90 A House of King's: The History of Westminster Abbey, ed. Carpenter, E., (1966), 288, 307Google Scholar.

91 The Times, 29 Dec. 1865.

92 Stanley, Arthur P., Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey (1868), 35–6Google Scholar.

93 See: The Times, 30 Dec. 1865.

94 The Illustrated London News, 4 June, 1898.

95 Westlake, H. F., St Margaret's Westminster: The Church of the House of Commons (1914), 95, III, 115–6Google Scholar.

96 The Diary of an Honourable Member: The Journal of Henry Broadley MP 1840–2, ed. Markham, John, (Hull, 1987), 4, 140Google Scholar.

97 Lang, Andrew, Life, Letters & Diaries of Sir Stafford Morthcote, First Earl of Iddesleigh (1891), 73Google Scholar.

98 Judd, Gerrit P., Members of Parliament 1734–1832 (New Haven, 1955), 37–8Google Scholar.

99 Parl. Papers, 1864, xxi, Clarendon Commission on Public Schools, 431Google Scholar; Zegger, Robert E., John Cam Hobhouse: A Political Life 1819–52 (Columbia, Missouri, 1973), 44Google Scholar.

100 Forshall, F. H., Westminster School (1884), viGoogle Scholar.

101 Walpole, Spencer, The Life of Lord John Russell (1889), I, 9Google Scholar. Russell, Lord John, An Essay on the History of the English Government and Constitution (1823, edn.), 255Google Scholar.

102 Parl. Papers, 1864, XXI, 409.

103 Cracroft, Bernard, ‘The Analysis of the House of Commons or Indirect Representation’ in: Essays on Reform (1867), 327–9Google Scholar; Parl. Papers 1864, XXI, 393.

104 cf: Clark, Jonathan, English Society 1688–1832: Ideology, Social Structure and Political Practice during the Ancien Regime (Cambridge, 1985), 409Google Scholar.

105 Macaulay, T. B., A History of England from the accession of James II, (n.d.), 27Google Scholar.

106 The Spectator, 23 Feb. 1861.

107 May, Erskine, Democracy in Europe, (2 vols., 1877), II, 480Google Scholar.

108 Morris, William, News From Nowhere (1912 edn.), 47Google Scholar.