The ROMANTIC AGE - History
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Cambridge English First (FCE) Reading & Use of English part 3: word transformation

Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form A WORD that fits in the gap in the same line

This transformation generated violent class conflict between
A) and workers and the Combination Acts of 1799………………………..EMPLOY
and 1800, declaring the Combinations (unions) of workers B) , …………….LEGAL
made the situation even worse.

The Luddite Riots of 1811-12, deriving their name from Ned Ludd,
their leader, saw textile C) in the North of England attack ……………. WORK
the new mills and machinery which had D) put them out of work.…….ACTUAL

Moreover, British Radicalism on the French model focused on
the demand for 'radical' reforms of the E) system and for…………ELECTION
universal suffrage based on the representation of people rather
than F) property- , as the Tories claimed. ……………………………….OWN

A clash between government and reformers was G) …………INEVITABILITY
It came with the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 in which army troops
charged a crowd of 60,000 people who had H) in Manchester………..GATHER
for a I) on the need for electoral reform: 15 people were killed………….MEET
and many were J) .……………………………………………………………..WOUND
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OVERVIEW

late 18th century:
Combination ACTS: : associations of workers

 : rebellion of workers against factory-owners
1. Luddite Riots: -

2. British radicalism: demand for universal suffrage on representation
Tories: wanted to keep suffrage on representation

3. Peterloo massacre: -
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Cambridge First - Reading & Use of English part 1 - Part 1 - multiple choice cloze
Choose the best word to fill the spaces.

FIRST SEEDS OF TRADE UNIONS

Before the Industrial Revolution the A) working class did not exist in British society; instead, in the B) 18th century, as business became larger, the C) -employee relationship became more impersonal and D) .

Workers thus began to E) their interests by forming trade clubs or associations first and later larger 'combinations' of associations to F) improved working conditions and higher G) .

But the ruling classes associated 'combinations' with H) activity and forced Parliament to declare them I) in 1799-1800. They continued to exist, often in J) , and were finally legalised in 1824.


FACTORY TOWNS
By the 1820s and 1830s the situation for workers became even K) : the factory system was an established reality with the L) of the factory town in northern areas: several factory owners built houses for their workers near their working site - they were badly built with no water M) or sanitation.

Living conditions were in general very poor and working conditions in factories and mines very dangerous.
In addition, the N) of a lot of people looking for work helped keep down O) and led to low prices and higher profits.

As a result, life was extremely difficult for the P) poor, who mainly had insufficient wages.
Local parishes tried to help them but the increase Q) population made the situation worse.
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OVERVIEW

End of 18th century:
" larger companies: relationship between
"
" Workers formed: first
and then

" to ask for

" The ruling classes judged combinations and them in 1799-1800.

" They were finally in 1824.


FACTORY TOWNS
By 1820s -1830s situation with the factory system + factory towns
" in areas
" houses for workers near
" badly built with no

working hands kept wages low.
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Cambridge First - Reading & Use of English part 5 - text with 6 multiple choice questions
Read the text and answer multiple choice questions.

The demand for parliamentary reform was however partially met with the succession of William IV (1830-37) to his brother George IV, heirless. A Whig government came to power after a long period of Tory hegemony, thus supporting some important reforms:
" the First Reform Bill (1832) which led to a more equal and representative distribu-tion of Parliamentary seats. The rural areas (country boroughs) had lost a lot of workers moving to the towns but they still had representatives in Parliament, who were easily bought by nobility and the Crown: they were called "rotten-boroughs", that is corrupt (rotten=marcio). The Bill took away 150 seats from the rotten bo-roughs and extended the right to vote to the urban middle-class men, thus under-mining the great power of the landed aristocracy.
" The Factory Acts (1802 e 1819) by which the employment o children under nine was forbidden by law and the working day was limited to 12 hours for women and children.
" The abolition of slavery in the British colonies (1833)
" The introduction of a system of national education (1834)

The Whig government also passed the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.
Based on the Protestant and Puritan attitude of considering poverty a fault, a consequence of people's failings, vice and indolence, the Act provided help to the poor only against their employment in well-regulated workhouses.
Here, though, conditions were intolerable, inferior to those of the humblest workers outside and the inadequacy of this Act was demonstrated in the following years.


WOMEN The problems of the time also affected women, who experienced both the advantages and the disadvantages of the situation. On the one hand, working-class women were often forced to take jobs in factories where they were exploited with lower wages.
In the upper and middle classes, where they had no need to work, they devoted to French, music and dancing and spent their leisure time by reading, gossiping and looking for husbands. Some women took to writing domestic novels, while others devoted themselves to humanitarian activities.
Humanitarianism in fact became increasingly widespread, mostly due to the anti-slavery campaign of Sir William Wilberforce; the most conspicuous result of the latter was the abolition of slavery in 1833.

When William IV died in 1837, the Britain inherited by Queen Victoria was a country still torn by great internal conflicts and with many unsolved problems, but already ahead of any other European country in the industrial process and in the field of social reforms.

The succession of William IV:

The First Reform Bill of 1833:


With the Factory Acts of 1802 and 1819:

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834: