1818–1819: ‘Beyond the Present & Tangible Object’

Abstract

The England which Shelley left for good in 1818 underwent in that year a precarious and brief emergence from the revolutionary crisis of 1817. This short period of stability derived from several causes, chief of which was the bottoming-out of the post-war slump: the textile and iron-making factories of the North were again able to sell their goods. The government took credit to itself for the timely use of coercion, but, ‘It was only to be expected that a revolutionary movement, which had been called into being by the economic crisis, should not survive its cause’ (Halévy, p. 29). The hopes of reformers received a check; the campaign to widen the suffrage had yet to command widespread popular support. With the repealing of the suspension of habeas corpus in January 1818, the extremist tones of, say, Shelley’s sentence, ‘Our alternatives are a despotism, a revolution, or reform’, seemed less appropriate. Whilst the Whigs improved their number of seats in the general election of 1818, they did so by downgrading the issue of parliamentary reform and focusing on the government’s financial record.