The Political Behavior of the English Catholics, 1850-1867

Abstract

In the current revision of Victorian history — shattering the stereotypes of parties and classes and emphasizing instead the unpatterned variations of individual and factional bargaining — political history tends to reduce itself to the social history of special groups. Among these groups are the religious sects and movements, whose effective political activity is a notable feature of the nineteenth century. One such group, however, the Roman Catholics of England (as distinct from those of Ireland), seems to be a special case: as an unpopular minority, alien both to the Establishment and to Nonconformity, they were slow to be assimilated into the mainstream of English life, and their political activity was relatively feeble. Nonetheless, a study of the political behavior of the English Catholics may illustrate the process whereby the members of this religious minority made their adjustment to the society in which they lived.In the 1850's, the English Catholics represented about three and one-half per cent of the religious population of England and Wales — over 600,000 persons. Their political strength, however, was less than this figure would indicate. One reason for this was that twothirds of the Roman Catholics in England were Irish, immigrants or the children of immigrants; very few of these possessed sufficient property to qualify for the suffrage. In a few places they might be sufficiently numerous and enfranchised to affect an election. This was the case in Preston, where, in 1852, they turned out an anti-Catholic member.