Political passions: Local parties and national politics in Leeds, 1832--1867

This dissertation---which draws upon a wide variety of sources including newspapers, pamphlets, poll-books, manuscript collections, parliamentary debates, and census data---provides a detailed analysis of the manner in which parliamentary (as opposed to municipal) electoral politics were conducted in the borough of Leeds during the period between the Great Reform Act of 1832 and the Second Reform Act of 1867. Although a number of scholars have examined electoral politics in individual constituencies, this study breaks new ground in that it focuses upon the entire (often months-long) election process, rather than merely upon its climax. This approach yields a far clearer understanding than presently exists of the degree to which electoral politics represented a hard-fought, exciting, participatory process to which many people---not just the candidates and their "agents"---devoted tremendous amounts of time and energy. The approach adopted here yields, as well, a far clearer understanding of the extent to which electoral politics during this period were dominated by national political issues and nationally-oriented political parties. This finding contradicts the still-prevalent notion that parliamentary elections---and especially those held during the period 1847-1865---were dominated by "local" issues and concerns.;The electors of Leeds---far from being parochial in their outlook---were concerned primarily with national political issues such as those involving the Church, education, commercial policy, constitutional reform, and even, on occasion, foreign policy. Such issues played a crucial role not only in the election contests themselves, but also in the process whereby the Liberal and Conservative parties of Leeds selected the candidates who would stand in those election contests. This process of candidate selection has been almost universally overlooked by historians, but it constituted a crucial element of the electoral process at Leeds, and was itself very often the site of intense political conflict. On occasion, indeed, the struggle within the Leeds Liberal party over matters of political principal was more intensely fought than was the struggle between the parties. By establishing firmly the central role played by national political issues in the electoral politics of the period 1832-1867, this dissertation rescues yet another group---in this case, the reformed electorate of Great Britain---from the enormous condescension of posterity.