Reforming Acts

Page 3 of 6

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Extra-parliamentary forces
• 3. The Earl of Shaftesbury
• 4. Other individual reformers
• 5. Conclusion
• 6. Find out more
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The Earl of Shaftesbury

The individual most involved in a sequence of different social reforms was the evangelical Tory philanthropist Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885), who fought indomitably for the protection of children in factories and mines, and later chimney sweeps, for public health legislation and for the proper treatment of what were then called 'lunatics'.

Nonetheless, it is doubtful whether Ashley, as a private member of Parliament before he became an earl, would have been as successful as he was had he not been accepted as a Parliamentary leader by a popular movement in the North of England actively engaged until an Act acceptable to them was passed in 1847. Not all the movements had a working-class base, as Chartism did. The Health of Towns Association, for example, founded in 1839, had substantial middle-class support. The main obstacle to its success was apathy, but it also provoked opponents of 'centralisation'.

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Published: 2001-02-01