Question 5

How successful were Sir Robert Peel’s attempts to solve social problems?

• Terrible conditions in mines, factories and industrial towns
• Not all manufacturers were bad – his own father had been humane employer
• He believed that such problems were best dealt with not by laws but by economic policies producing more work so workers could ‘consume more by having more to spend’
• If he took direct action he would alienate middle-class businessmen e.g. regulating working hours
• 1842 new crisis – unemployment peaked – troops sent to deal with Chartist violence
• Peel also under pressure from Shaftesbury and the Ten Hour Movement
• Mines Act 1842 and a factory Act 1844 improved conditions
• Most of credit for these acts goes to Shaftesbury rather than Peel
• Peel defeated Shaftesbury’s plan for 10 hour working day
• Both acts had weaknesses
• Under pressure from Edwin Chadwick the government appointed a Royal Commission to examine the ‘state of Large Towns and Populous Districts’
• 1844 revealed alarming problems
• Peel had problem of Corn Laws and took no further action
• 1848 first Public Health Act introduced by Russell’s government
• Social reform not Peel’s most successful field