William Cobbett

During the 19th century England was experiencing a period of great change which would lead to one of the biggest revolutions in history- the industrial revolution. Agriculture began to decline leading to mass famine and new cities such as Birmingham and Manchester started to emerge as the industrial centres. During the revolution nearly all traces of agriculture and farming were destroyed. The army known as the “Red Coats” destroyed the land all across Britain so that farmers were unable to produce crops or use the land for grazing. Scotland was particularly hit by this as most of their trade came from wool and hunting; when this particular industry was destroyed they were left helpless and forced many Scottish farmers to migrate to either lower parts of the country such as Hampshire to farm or to Canada and The USA.

William Cobbett who was an English Journalist produced a series of articles relating to this change which were published in his 1830 book “Rural Rides”. This article documents Cobbett’s journey around the lower parts of England detailing how bad the situation for farmers had become from the point of view of the farmer. He witnessed tens of thousands of peasants who were struggling to survive and had no option but to migrate to the cities to find factory work.  All this change was due to Corn Laws. Corn Laws were laws brought in to help protect the price of corn, barley, wheat and oats in Britain against that of foreign imports. Through the influence of his papers, he helped to change the Corn Laws and abolish them. In 1844 a law was introduced whereby people were forced to find work in cities otherwise they would be placed in a workhouse where they would eventually starve and die.

Also at the time of Cobbett, we see the growth of socialist philosophies and other movements.
Dickens's voice was one of many helped bring about these changes. He did this through many of his stories on London and how people lived, for example, workhouses and children’s lives in Oliver Twist and the state of the roads and buildings and the idea that people had to sweep the pavements so women could cross them, in Bleak House.