U.K.: THE PARLIAMENT PROJECT
From left to right: Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Palmerston;and Wil- liam Gladstone.
There are rich men – James
Morrison was the son of a Wiltshire publican who made his way in London, went into merchant banking and became probably one of the richest men of the nineteenth century. There are poor men – John Fitzgerald, who died a broken man as a result of his disastrous Lancashire coal mining enterprises. And there are, I regret to say, not
a few who became beggars and thieves.
Chronicles of corruption Complementing the biographies are the constituency histories. These provide a rich picture of
the interaction between politics at Westminster and politics in individual towns and counties all over the country. The 1820-32 volumes, again,
are a good example of what they can show. Cumulatively, the articles on the 383 British and Irish constituencies provide the fullest account of the deeply corrupt pre-reform electoral system ever assembled. In some “pocket boroughs” rich and aristocratic “borough patrons” could exercise almost complete control over elections (indeed, in a number
of cases these constituencies were in effect bought and sold for astronomical prices). In many others bribery, though
formally outlawed, was rife, with money changing hands in exchange for votes. It’s a system that has thankfully long gone, and at the time it was strongly challenged by committed reformers, such as John Cam Hobhouse, imprisoned by the House of Commons for breach of privilege after he wrote in a pamphlet that it was only the army that prevented the people from marching on the House, “pulling out the Members by the ears, locking up their doors and flinging the keys into the Thames”.
Leading the way back in time Putting all of these individual histories together, the History is creating an amazingly detailed picture of politics and society in the sometimes very distant past. The History now has around 20 professional historians working on five major projects: the House of Commons in the period 1422-1509, in 1640-60 and in 1832-68, and the House of Lords in 1690-1715 and 1604-1660.
The History is not quite unique.
The Spanish Parliament has been funding a similar project covering Members of the various Assemblies in Spain since 1812; the first of a series of biographical dictionaries of French MPs covering different periods and different localities was published in 1889, and there are other projects in other countries, whether relating to national or to subnational Legislatures. Impressive though many of them
are, however, none is quite as long- standing, or as comprehensive as our own. Once all of our current Commons
projects are completed, we will cover the period 1386 to 1868 – nearly 500 years, about two thirds of the time that Parliament has been in existence. We are, you will notice, still a long
way from the present day. That’s why we have recently begun to work with the British Library on an oral history project with living former MPs – a project which will be featured in an article in the next issue of this journal. The History of Parliament’s website, at www.
historyofparliamentonline.org, contains all of the biographical and constituency articles published by the History up to 2010, as well as images of many of the Members featured and “Explore” articles about events and issues connected to Parliament. The website also contains more
information about the History, details of all of its publications and links to its blogs and other material. If you would like more information on the History, please contact the Director, Paul Seaward, on pseaward@histparl.
ac.uk.
“Once all of our current Commons projects are completed, we will cover the period 1386 to 1868 – nearly 500 years, about two thirds of the time that Parliament has been in existence.”
The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One | 65
All images courtesy of Commons Wikimedia
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