On Maintaining Social Authority

Abstract

W E have described conditions of inequality and exploitation which changed in their nature and intensity. The discussion of class consciousness showed that such conditions were being increasingly questioned. In this situation the problem of maintaining order and social authority became acute. The means by which that authority was maintained changed during the industrial revolution. Main force, a militia and the occasional use of regular troops always had a place in keeping order in the eighteenth century. At the first shock ofJacobinism and rising radical and trades-union action, the ruling class intensified their use of main force. In 1794 the Volunteers were raised, partly to counter the threat of French invasion and partly to use for internal security. The Volunteers were mainly gentry, tenant farmers, shopkeepers, professional men and the ‘employers on horseback’ [Western, 1956]. After Peterloo the use of the Volunteers decreased as the authorities realised that the presence of the yeomanry exacerbated class feeling rather than restoring social peace. Regular troops were essential throughout the Chartist period and beyond. Indeed the most violent Chartist years of 1839 and 1840 were noted for the skill with which the authorities deployed their forces.